Tiny little Blaupunkt switches part II (kinda long)

[Alex Kowalski (audial@aol.com) (Law Guest Account) <lawguest@wppost.depaul.edu>]

Thanks to everyone who mailed me with resources for the Blaupunkt
parts, service, etc.

I'm still waiting for the switches I ordered to arrive.  If they won't fit, I'll try
some of the alternatives.

I desoldered the switches from the front control PCB and took them apart.
They are very simple switches, with a little rubber diaphragm with a "hat"
molded into it to provide the tactile sense.  The rubber on _every_ switch
had hardended and the "hat" was torn at the "brim".  Can we say,
designed to fail?  

The other two switches went out after about 30 more presses each.  So
all six of my preset switches failed within about 50 presses of each
other. German engineering!  ;-).  There is one other switch with similar
construction on the PCB - the button that reverses the tape.  I'm gonna
replace that one, too.

BTW, getting the PCB moved out of the way so you can desolder the
switches is not as easy as it looks at first.  All of the wiring to the PCB is
_soldered_ onto the board rather than using push-on connectors and the
wires are short.  Also, the large PCB under the radio's bottom cover plate
is soldered to the case and the rear connector block in several places, so
removing that is a PITA which I decided not to attempt.

I was loath to desolder/dismantle the entire head unit just for these six
switches,  so I had to get creative in order to get them desoldered, using
a fine-tip soldering iron and some packing peanuts to wedge the board up
high enough to expose the leads.  No wonder it costs 100 bucks to get
this job done by a service center.  So, yes, it looks like you can do this job
yourself but you have to take your time.  

Worth it vs. getting a new stereo?  Well, my stock 10-speaker sound
system still works perfectly and with the exception of being a little
underwhelming on the bass response sounds pretty good.  Maybe next
year.  

Does anyone know if it's possible to hang a subwoofer on the stock (10
speaker) CS stereo?  Any BTDTs?  If I could do that I would probably just
leave it alone for the time being.

Best Wishes,
Alex