So I bought a Pioneer CLD-D515 but when I got it it wouldn't eject the tray. I opened it up and noticed that the little motor on the laser had broken off. How would one go about replacing this? I've never repaired a Laserdisc player before so I don't know where to start. I guess I need to begin by buying a new motor with a ribbon but where do I find one?

Would greatly appreciate the help!

If the motor was broken completely off, there are probably two little plastic pins and two white gears somewhere inside.

The gray plastic piece is called a M-Holder and it is no longer available, but you might can find one second hand. VNL1637, VNL1700, VNL1779 (in order from worst to best).

The ribbon cable does not have a part number and is part of the optical pickup assembly, so you would have to replace the entire assembly.

Wow, that's pretty crazy looking, never saw anything like that before with any motorised device, toys or electronics.

While I've successfully repaired the grey M-Holders (Crazy Glue works great, but you have to have all the pieces), I've never successfully put the motor back onto the assembly, affixing the solder points on the motor to the correct pins on the flex cable. Finding a replacement assembly is infinitely less stressful.

I have not been able to after multiple attempts and it is the most frustrating thing in the world. I'm just not good at that type of thing. I don't touch models with VNL1637 or VNL1700. I even went to pickup a DVL-909 and the M-Holder was broken on it, so I left without it.

I have taken a blade to scratch the top surface of the ribbon away to expose the copper trace on the piece still on the motor and the part still on the laser. Then I would take a small piece of wire and solder it across bridging the gap. I've done this successfully about 90% of the time as sometime the ribbon breaks worse and it cannot be saved.

This is what I thought as well. I was just waiting for someone with more experience to chime in.



Never had to glue an m-holder together before, luckily. Ive have glued my fair share of small plastic things back together though. I find the trick is to let the glue dry to the point where its about to set but still malleable. Then stick the pieces together, they should hold no problem.

First of all; thank you very much for the quick and detailed response I've received here. I great appreciate it!




My first thought was that I was gonna glue it back on, cause I found the break point and it looked like an easy job, but then the flex cable broke... Do you have any tips on how I could acquire a replacement assembly? I'm assuming I need to find another D515 so I get the same type of laser?



I did find one white gear rattling around, but I can't figure out where it went before.
The M-holder can probably just be glued into place. I found how it should fit and where it broke off, the flex cable is the main problem. Someone else talked about how it could be possible to solder it back together.

Yeah this is how to fix it.

Don't know how to explain it any better, scrap away and solder pieces of wire to make jumpers.

Good luck with the repair.

It is not exclusive to the CLD-D515, but you would more than likely run into alignment issues after swapping it so it would be better to attempt the repair Kurtis (krbahr) suggested.



Are the pins still attached?

Any CLD pickup from a 2 sided player from 1996 on should work. Look specifically for players with the same turn mechanics. The LD pickup from any DVL player will also work. I think single-sided LD pickups from 1996 on will work too, but you'll have to replace the plastics to allow for inverted playback.