Well, I've decided to take the lazy way out, at least for now. I ordered the 2008.1 8-CD set from NavTech, and in addition to not having to work on my Nav anymore for a while (which will make my wife happy ...), I'll also have the latest greatest set of map data. I spend 99% of my driving time in Los Angeles anyway, so I will almost never need to swap CDs.

I suspect at some point in the future I might try my hand at repairing the unit, and dropping in a new mech definitely sounds like the way to go.

But now that I've discovered that it actually *is* possible to adapt the stereo for iPod/mp3 -- which the dealer told me was impossible -- I'm eager to move onto that project. So I'm off to read up on those threads now.

Once again many thanks to everyone who posted on this forum & helped me through this process.

Best Regards,

- Chris