Greetings all. My DVL-700 has been a champ for years, but like all of them, developed a worn grip ring. I purchased a replacement part off eBay and installed it without issue and followed all instructions. Once I put the machine back together to test, the following occurred:

-CDs will not read. They spin up, the lens moves into position, then tries to use the DVD lens, then goes back to the infrared lens and eventually spits the disc out.
-LDs will not read. They too spin up, lens moves into position but then skates slowly to the out edge of the disc until finally the player just lets the disc slow down on its own (or with my help) and spits the disc out. Same thing happens if forcing side B. Happens on both CLV and CAV. Have not yet tried an 8" disc, only full size.
-DVDs work 100% totally fine.

The good news is that the grip ring did fix the slipping discs upon startup, but now we can't play 2/3 of the things we want to.

My theories are:

-infrared somehow is out of alignment. I'm having a hard time finding the centering adjustment for side A to tinker with it. Albeit, if side B is also doing the same thing, not sure if centering is the issue.

-the grip isn't installed right. I got it on there as straight as humanly possible, with no apparent bumps but maybe I did it wrong.

-the replacement part is too thick. It is clearly thicker than the original I replaced.

-The machine is trying to tell me to sell off the collection and get out of the hobby or just to watch DVDs...they're better! I truly hope this isn't the case.

Any ideas on where to start looking? I have 3 remaining players and all 3 have issues of some sort. The 700 was the most functional but now, it's basically not functional at all.

Thanks in advance!

Someone posted a topic saying they are too thick for the 909 players and won't play DVD or CD, so I guess they are too thick for the 700 too.

Never tried the thicker replacement on a DVL-700 or DVL-90.

What would be interesting is if the lower clamp on the spindle motor from a DVL-909/919/91 which has the white painted surface that does not have the slipping issue could be swapped out for the DVL-700 lower clamp. They look the same but I've never tried it.

The thing that I don't get is if the new ring is too thick or on there wrong, why would DVDs work so well? Is it still not relying on that same grip ring? If CDs played and LDs didn't, that might make more sense but even CDs do not work.

Truly sad because otherwise, this player was performing so well.