I don't want to hijack the other post so figured I would document and share my information here.
I got this for bid of $10.77 on Yahoo with a typical vague description of the issues. First thing I had to do was change the belt as the tray was stuck causing the unit to power itself off, as stated in the other post this is pain (front panel has to come off to get the gear which you spin to pop the tray), though this is a bit of a pain it is easier than reaching under the tray on some Pioneer's as once you get access to the gears they pop the tray quickly and easily (gears much larger than typical Pioneer).
Once the belt was swapped (this is larger than 3.6, I am guessing 3.8 or 4.0) the loading process was completing and it was able to accept a disc but would not spin. I was able to get it into test mode following the instructions from the other post (this one responds to my standard Panasonic LD remote) and verify that the disc could spin (thus spindle motor is ok).
Next step was to swap the pickup (I purchased a NOS pickup from Germany), to do this you have to remove (2) screws on the pickup and pull it straight up and out then transfer the rollers from the right side of the old pickup to the new pickup and reinstall (actually probably a little easier than a typical Pioneer). Once I swapped the pickup I was in business and discs started to read.
The next (and most difficult) problem to overcome was alignment of the new laser pickup, discs would play for a few minutes and then stop completely and chapter / time searches did not work reliably. Again as stated in the other post there is a special harness required to even access the scope test points (which no one has and if I did I don't have the Muse test disc anyway) so I had to wing it through trial and error / listening to the laser work and testing different adjustments until laser sounded healthy, loaded quickly and easily, CAV and CLV discs played clean start to finish, and chapter / time searching worked 100% (this took me probably 5-6 hours total, probably could be done in 30 min with proper jig and test disc). I concur with information from other post, Muse alignment is first then NTSC follows. I am not recommending anyone do a full and complete alignment like this without a scope but in this case there really is no other option, its either sit there and stare at a non working player or dig in and wing it.
One note for pickup replacement - if ribbon cable is not properly routed it will rub on the disc and block the laser from flipping to side b (I am quite lucky my mistake here didn't cost me the ribbon cable).
I can now report she is working 100% perfectly with both Muse and NTSC, if you want to hear me ramble in audio form check out this video - https://youtu.be/dUuMuzPEnnM
Sources -
Service Manual - http://manuals.lddb.com/LD_Players/Sony/HIL/HIL-C3/ (in English from the never released HIL-C3)
NOS Laser - http://www.lasertrader.de/ (they report one left in stock)
Excellent info from publius - Sony HIL-C2EX / Panasonic LX-HD20
Random blog with good info - http://www1.synapse.ne.jp/takata/av/pan ... index.html
Initial impressions of player -
Good build quality, laser runs on a belt similar to Panasonic's, no small plastic gears / MHolders to break.
Muse playback with my Sony decoder is miles above X9 + Sony decoder (we are attributing this to better matching of player / decoder combo).
NTSC playback is impressive, a bit noisy but very good if I use my C2 to tame the noise just a bit.
