CLD-3030 and its slightly nicer Japanese revision CLD-99S need to be handled with care.

I have seen these issues:
The black plastic holder of the threaded brass rod that is responsible for moving the pickup will break.

A black plastic knob that tilts the pickup will break.

The white plastic gears on the tray roller will break.


The worst of all is the holder for the threaded brass rod. So far my solution is to use some thicker-gauge wire to bind it to the metal piece that runs adjacent to it, but someone here might have a better idea.

Damn..... I should have kept my CLD-1030 spare parts machine from years ago.

I guess I'll never have my CLD-3030 travel for the rest of its life unless it's a car ride in its box.

Yeah. The above photos are from a CLD-99S that was wrecked in shipping. It should be fine now though once I reassemble it.

I have a CLD-3030 with same issue in the first photo. Wire binding solution seems to work, but the pickup isn't working (it was sold as "will not read disc"). I'm hoping that it is just bad yellow caps on the FTSB board though, since I see a faint glow of the infrared laser and voltages going to the board are ok.

glad i tore down and rebuilt my own 3030 when i did. clearly, the original grease congeals with age so badly that it binds up and shatters tray gearwork.

that LD PICKUP ASSY. rail paul indeed broke on my 3030's original ASSY. when i tried to dissemble it once. it is truly brittle.

as it went, it was all good anyway, as was suspecting the pickup of age anyway,
and i bought a 1030, transplanting it's identical LD PICKUP ASSY.
to my freshly-refitted 3030 chassis, resulting in the generally healthy, reliable player i enjoy to this day.

all told, the 99S/3030 family's highly modular internal design greatly simplifies and streamlines service,
a great benefit indeed, especially for a generally rank amateur such as myself...

The same wonky worm gear assembly is used in the LD-W1. I've snapped off more of those retaining clips than I care to admit. I've used the same trick to repair - a small piece of stripped single strand wire.

I like the look of the 99S over the 3030 (I prefer the blue display to the orange), but it doesn't take CD3. I used pieces from a broken 3030 to adapt my 99s to handle 3" CDs.

3D printed replacement gears available soon.

Synchro gears now available for purchase. Search VXA1163, DXB1108 on ebay and you'll find them.

Just one word: Plastics.