I just got a Panasonic LX-600 I bought from another user here and even though it was very well packaged and all...something probably happened to it on it's way to me

There are two, hopefully minor, problems with it that I know of right now:

1) The tray gets stuck/jammed just as the last bit re-enters the unit. The very lightest of pushes will help it on it's way. (After which it will play LDs just fine).
2) I'm not sure side switching from side A -> B is happening right. There is a noise inside the player of motors, but nothing really seems to happen.

I unplugged it and took some pictures with the tray out:



The tray area:


The laser pickup area:


I also want to see what's happening inside the player when powered on, so I wonder, anything I should be extra careful about? Like, don't stare into the laser? I don't have much experience with the mechanical troubleshooting side of these things as my other one, A CLD-V2800, works fine still. But it seems people on youtube show off the mechanics of their players with the cover off just fine...

Any helpful advice would be greatly appreciated.

Clean the black rubber belt in the tray area. Then playing the unit with the top off is fine. Yes, don't look into the laser but these are not high powered lasers. No sanger playing with the top off.

Allright, did run it for a while with the cover off. I haven't attempted to clean the belt yet, I just wanted to observe what happens. It doesn't look worn or especially dirty or anything though.
For the tray, it gets stuck just as it re-enters the machine and is about to move downwards a fem centimeters. I can't see any obstructions and it has no problems ejecting.

As for the side change, it will only attempt to do that while an LD is inserted and playing so that covers up the view pretty badly but the pickup gets stuck before it's even attempting to do a U-turn. It's hard to see since the tray & disc is in the way but it almost looks like it's hitting the right rotating piece of plastic, which is almost like an arm btw. I believe that plastic "arm" is supposed to catch the pickup and help guide it round? Though, I'm not sure that's what happening as I can't get a good look.

I'll have to continue toy around with it I guess

Well, that was a player I sent, which was just fine when it left, but of course arrival is a different matter. You'd think since it was priority mail service it would have been handled better, which the post office here claims it was up to the point of customs over there. After that they claim no responsibility.

So I suspect it was a sudden jar or even maybe sat upside down while jostling around in a truck, no way to know.

The problem is evidently a mechanical issue, and perhaps something got jarred out of place. I was thinking maybe also the belt slipping since you stated that the load assembly attempts to drop down before playing and seems to get stuck at that point. Whatever it is, it has to be some minor item either out of step or alignment, or even a small piece dislodged?

Or just the tray slightly askew at an angle and not in perfect parallel position to the tracks. EG, both sides of the tray have gearteeth and maybe one geartooth is ahead by a spot or two compared to the other side.

In regards to the A to B side turn, maybe an obstruction of some sort since the assemply moves fine on the lower track and the track is a U track and not a flip-turn type.

Here's a trick to be able to watch the turn better, get a smaller LD, like the 8 inch size that was available for some music and karaoke releases. I don't know if there's a smaller than 8 inch LD, but at least this will give you more of an unobstructed view of the attempted turn.

I don't know if this will work, but maybe load a CD into the tray and just hit the side B button to close the tray and start play. Usually when you do that the laser goes right off to side B. In other words, trick the laser into going to side B. You might try that first with an LD in the tray and see what happens.

Of course, I just realized that the laser will not go to side B if the tray does not move into the proper position for side B play. I cannot recall specifically about this player, but some others I remember actually lift up the whole disc clamp section and set it into a position while the disc stops spinning and goes the other way, then the laser assembly moves the rest of the way up the track to the top side.

Seems like I remember this happening with that U=turn style of track on both Sony and Panasonic players. If so, then it's still a slipping belt or tray getting struck issue.

Thanks for the thoughts & advice, I maybe we'll get to play around a bit more with it this weekend or next week. It would be cool if the CD trick did work

It may work if you press side B while the tray is still open.

However, I just checked out another Panasonic player, and what happens is that the laser assembly moves to the back and stops while the clamp assembly is moved into proper position and the disc stops spinning to spin the other way. Then the laser assembly moves to the top side after this pause. So it still may be a tray issue.