I got a free broken player today, a Pioneer CLD-D503. It has loading issues.

Here are some facts:

Loads CDs without issue.

Loads 8" LDs without issue.

Get stuck trying to mount 12" LDs. When it goes to lift the disc it just whines for a while and then rejects the disc.

I took the upper spindle clamp apart and "exercised" it, nothing seemed stuck. (this trick fixed a Laseractive for me once).

With the case apart I managed to get a 12" LD to load if I "helped" it lift the disk up. You can also get it to load if while its trying you mount you give the player a light thump. Once its loaded you can open/close the tray a bunch of times and most of the time it will load. Its not reliable though.

The guy I got it from said it might need a power supply...not sure why this would be the case. I think that's what someone else told him. Truthfully if the motor that lifts the spindle motor was just a little bit more gutsy there would be no issue, so in a way I can see how he could be right. That is, if the PS flowed just a 100mA more it might do the trick. As far as I can tell though this is purely a mechanical problem.

What I need to know:

What should I be concentrating on lubricating/freeing up/replacing/adjusting to make this work?

This will make a great downstairs player if I can get it working. In fact, the A/B mechanism is so much slicker and quieter than the one in my main played (604) its depressing. Its also quieter. If this thing worked right and had AC-3 it might be my main player.

It sounds like it just needs a new rubber belt for the loading motor or to have that one cleaned well. The 12 inch LaserDisc's don't load because they are too heavy and the belt slips and can't lift the motor, disc and laser to the clamp position. The 8 inch and CD's are lighter and don't make it slip.

ive actually had my eye on getting this model