I have a CLD-D703 that plays great except for the fact that it's a bit noisy (audible noise, not video noise). The noise is as it is in the attached recording with all but a few of my CLV discs that get especially loud. I've tried cleaning the label parts of the discs and switching out the upper clamp, but neither really did much. Anybody know what might be the problem?

Either the chassis needs to be torqued (twisted to get back straight) or the spindle motor is starting to wear out and the shaft has started dropping. If you can easily get rid of that by bending or twisting the chassis and the stays fixed then try that. Otherwise I can replace the motor if needed.

Thanks for the response and sorry for the dumb question, but what part exactly is the chassis?
Also, I have a bunch of other players (including a second CLD-D703) that I wouldn't mind taking the spindle motor from. Is replacing a spindle motor something easy enough for an amateur to do himself?

EDIT: Oh, I just thought of something. If you remember the last time I had trouble with a LD player, I think it was figured out that the problem with that CLD-D703 was the broken tray and laser assembly. Would it be easier to switch the good laser assembly and tray from this new player with the bad ones from that old player?

The chassis is the outside of the unit, mainly the bottom of it. Put a hand on each side and and twist one clockwise and the other counter-clockwise.

As for swapping parts you don't want to swap the pickups as you would have to re-align the pickup with the electronics. You can swap the spindle motor from one to the other but you have to flip out the top board, remove the top LD clamp assy, dis-connect a few connection and pull out the metal mechanical assy from the plastic mechanical base. Swap the motors and then re-install and then re-center the spindle motor to the pickup. So unless you like taking things apart and re-assembling them I would not suggest doing it.

Kurtis

Okay, so I tried moving around metal bits at the bottom hoping pushing something would quiet the noise and eventually I did find something. If I push strongly on the outside metal toward the front of the left side of the player, the player quiets down dramatically on most discs.

Unfortunately I've somehow created another problem. When I tried one of my few "CLV discs that get especially loud," that same trick I used earlier did next to nothing and so I put the back of my screwdriver on various pieces of the player to see where I felt the most rumbling (as I did above). I put it on the upper clamp (I wasn't pushing on it yet, just trying to see if the rumble got worse there as opposed to somewhere else) and all of a sudden the whole assembly dropped as if I told it to "STOP." The "PLAY," "STOP," "DIRECT CD," "SIDE B" and "SIDE A" buttons wouldn't respond. So I opened the player (the "OPEN" button still works and the "PLAY" button works when I'm using it to close the tray) and tried the same disc I had used in the picture I took above (THX WOW! (1990) [THX-WOW]). The same thing happened. So I tried Video Essentials and the same thing happened. I've tried turning it off and on and it didn't do much. Then I turned it off, unplugged it and left it off for a while. That seems to have gotten it back to working like before.

Also, Simply lifting the front left corner of the player quiets it down just like that screwdriver thing above does. Only things on the outer front left corner seem to help. If I try similar things at any other corner it doesn't help at all. In fact, If I do the same thing at the right corner (or even the opposite), it gets louder.

Hate to say it but this is sounding like a spindle motor. Try looking at the spindle motor and underneath the clamp you'll see the timing ring and the sensor that reads the spaces. I'm guessing the motor shaft has dropped enough the the ring is touching the bottom of the sensor slot or the upper clamp has dropped down and rubbing.

I can fix this for you if you want.

How do I tell if the problem is with the upper clamp or the lower clamp? Also, does that mean the spindle motor is directly beneath the clamp? Do I still have to take the player apart? Since I can get at the lower clamp by just leaving the tray open.

Something weird happened. I put in the THX WOW disc again and it played pretty quietly without me having to touch anything at all. So I thought it was a fluke and tried Video Essentials, that worked too. I tried lifting the front-left of the player again, but then the noise came back until I reloaded the disc. I tested that CLV disc (I'd tell you the name, but it's some odd Taiwanese thing so I can't really read it) I mentioned before to see if something would mess up again. It was still just as loud as it was before, but when I reloaded one of my other discs again, they played fine.

And I would like to send it away for repairs, but when I got the player I was planning on sending it away for the AC-3 mod when my wallet isn't as thin. So I'd rather not send it away for repairs now, just to send it away for mods later and I'm too broke to do both right now.

When you decide to repair it I can help with the repair and installation of the AC-3 mod.

really? that would make things a lot simpler. If you don't mind, I'll PM you, probably a while from now.

OK, PM me or write to kbahr@comcast.net