Hey there,

I've owned a CLD-D504 for the past 5-6 years. I bought it in very good condition and have had no issues with it whatsoever during that time. Recently I'm having a problem with playback that I think could be the loading belt but I'm not 100% sure.

When I load a disc into the player and hit the play button, nothing happens. Typically I'd hear the disc start to whir for a few seconds and then play, but right now it's totally unresponsive. The tray will still load and eject discs but that's it.

I'm in the Los Angeles area and spoke to a few repair companies who said it's most likely that the loading belt needs to be replaced and that it's a pretty common fix given the age of the machines.

Just wondering if anyone has experienced similar problems or could recommend a repair shop in LA. I reached out to George Meyer, Kami Electronics, and ElectroTech in Glendale - all seemed reputable and said they could handle it.

Thanks for your help!

Have you tried to play a CD?

If it works, good chance it is a stretched loading belt but if not it’s probably still a bad belt. If a belt issue, the reason the player acts as it does is because the belt isn’t strong enough to clamp down the disc and thus the player knows this and prevents start up.

You can test this by opening up the player and see about using your fingers to assist the transport assembly during the time it is rising and attempting to clamp the disc. You can also try cleaning the belt with alcohol to see if that will temporarily improve grip. If that works, at least you know the belt is an issue and it needs replacing. The belt is located at the front of the player on the left side under the tray. You can access it with the tray retracted.

So interestingly, I just tried playing a CD and 1) it wouldn't play 2) the CD is now stuck inside the player.

The CD loaded fine and I could hear the player trying to spin it up. Nothing happened when I hit play though. Then I tried to eject it and the tray came out but was empty - so the CD must be lodged in there.

It’s probably sticking to the clamper. I have that same problem with my Denon LA3100’s which I think is related to an overly strong magnetic clamper; still need to work on alleviating this issue.

In any case, just open up the unit to remove the CD and for now try to clean the belt and then test an LD again. It may or may not work. In the meantime, order up a new belt. VEB-1184 is the part number.

Belt replacement on this model will require removing the tray to access it.

Thanks! In the event I take it to a repair shop, do you know how much these usually run?

Belt could run from $10 to $15 depending if it's needs to be shipped. Some shops might have belts on hand that might fit but hard to say. Labor could run from $40 - $100 so you might want to ask before you take it to just any shop.

You can do it yourself if you are comfortable w/ it; not really that hard. Just need to remove the tray, replace the belt including cleaning the gears, and then re-insert the tray. The re-insertion procedure can be tricky so you'll have to be patient. I jammed the tray at least twice before I got it back in cleanly.

Thanks for your help!

Might try a YT video…this one ,if nothing else will give you a good look inside



Belt is $10 on Ebay. VEB1184 ...I suggest using one of our own…thelaserparts

Looks to be easy access
https://manuals.lddb.com/LD_Players/Pioneer/CLD/CLD-D504/CLD-D504-EN-Service-Manual_Scan.pdf

So I ended up taking the player to a repair shop and they believe the issue isn't the loading belt, but the laser itself. It will load but not read the discs.

They're going to try and locate the part, but if anyone has any guidance about what this might require (and how much it typically costs) I'd love to find out in advance.

I think you need to ask your shop about the "motor holder" being busted on the laser pick-up.

This is a known issue of the stems holding the gears breaking due to the fragile nature of the part. Here is a link describing the issue.

Let's resurrect the VNL1779 / VNL1700


I would show this to your shop and have them take a closer look @ it for loose gears. If that is the case, you can order fireproof710's 3d printed replacement here....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/175047713710?h ... R_rPx5zpYQ

I'll look into this and send to them. Thanks so much!

So bad news - according to the repair shop, the player is in great shape mechanically. The issue is the laser itself. It simply won't read discs anymore. They're going to try to find a new laser but this is obviously the most difficult and expensive part to replace. The guy said IF they can locate one, it would probably be in the $300 range to fix including labor.

This player is a Pioneer CLD-D501 (earlier I said D504, sorry for the typo!).

In the meantime, I just happened to come across another player for sale nearby in working condition for $150. It's a Pioneer CLD-D604.

Given the potential cost of the repair and difficulty locating the part, I'm thinking the D604 would be a solid deal assuming it's in good shape.

What do you guys think? The repair guy has said multiple times that the issue is not mechanical, and it feels like $150 is reasonable for a replacement player.

Get another player and take the broken player home.

Go get the other player but keep the 501 around as well.

Maybe you'll be able to find a good used laser pick-up from a parts player one day to repair it. Also, I always take a repair shop's diagnosis w/ a grain of salt in that they could still be wrong (you'd be surprised what some shops will say to avoid repairing a device).

I did a quick check in the manual section…
The CLD D501 is the same as …part# Carriage Assy VWT1068 or Pickup VXX1553
D550
D701
D750
Ebay has 2-501s ,5-701s and 1-750…from $113 to 230….a couple are working ,most ,sadly have trouble reading discs ,,2 or 3 have stuck trays..
Encompass and Instrumental have them listed and say they can get it in 8 days?…Dont bet on it…I did a wide order a coupla years ago from both(took a flyer)…all but a grip ring was canceled..took nearly 2 months with Instrumental.. …Talked (email(to a guy at Encompass ..he said they had No Idea what was in stock without doing a search(physical)..seems Pioneer dumped 200k parts # on them and Instrumental…numbers…no parts!..so their system is a mess…and they know it…
If they had them ..you could buy two working players for the cost of a pickup..

The VXX1553 laser pick up assembly was used in a quite a number of other Pioneer players as well as clones made for other brands.

You can add these models to your search for a parts player for the 501 (US models only)....

Pioneer

CLD-2090
CLD-3090
CLD-D502
CLD-D701
CLD-D702
CLD-52 (Elite)
CLD-V820 (Karaoke)
CLD-V840 (Karaoke)
CLK-V920 (Karaoke w/ a sound system)


Mitsubishi

M-V6021
M-V6022
M-V7025


Denon

LA-2100
LA-3100


ProScan/RCA

PSLD41
PSLD43

LDR400
LDR600


Marantz

LV500U


Enlightened Audio Designs (if you find one for parts, you're better off trying to fix this one)

T-8000


This is not a complete list but it's a good jumping point since these are fairly common models (except for the EAD model).

Good luck