I was checking some Laserdiscs tonight to verify their playable conditions.
I ran into a problem on a few discs.
For example; I'm watching a movie scene, then suddenly the player rewinds itself back three seconds, then start all over again. Plays the scene before it rewinds. The only way to go on is to skip to the next chapter or fast forward some seconds.
It is almost like a dirty groove in a vinyl record, playing the same music again, again and again.

What seems to be the problem here? Dirty lens?, how to clean it eventually?
The discs are shiny and not dirty.
The player is otherwise in good condition.


Also, please take a look at the picture, am I missing one screw to secure the board?
Where can I get these chassis screws if so?

My guess would be either something in the track that the small movements are having trouble getting over where the scan has more torque or you need to re-grease the metal guide rod. See if there is any excess grease where the pickup goes onto the turn mechanism and spread that on the metal guide rod. Don't worry about the missing screw.

First time it happened was a couple of days ago when I played an 8" laserdisc and it skipped backwards a couple of seconds before playing the same frames over again.
I have been looking inside the player to see if I could find obstacles in the tracks but nothing so far. The turn mechanism is working fine, so is the guide rods. By the time of writing everything is back to normal, but I find it odd. Will do some more investigating if the problems come back, and eventually disassemble the player for a full re-grease.

Thje screw isn't missing, there never was one insatlled there. Is the problem on side A or the first few minutes of side B?

Thanks for info about the screw.
Can't say for sure when it happens, but the problem occurs on both sides. Used the same 8" laserdisc yesterday to check if it played through without problem, and it did.
The laser runs fine when switching sides.

Just a thought, could it be laser rot? I played Lethal Weapon on my 95 last week, and on side B, it started skipping and going back to the same part. Then, the player had trouble focusing and had stopped playback. I had to eject the disc and fast forward to get past the rot.

If this happened on both sides then the problem would point to issues gears on the pickup or I've seen bad pickup movement motors doing this. As long as no-one cleaned the guide rods to take the grease off them.

I don't think it in my case can be caused by laserrot. The discs I have been using while the problem appeared were clean and almost 100 % rot free, if no rot at all.
An easy fast forward makes me bypass the problem.
I will certainly keep an eye on this and use it more frequently. I'm not sure where to start either if I have to dissasemble it, so I have to go slow doing some maintenance.

When I bought the player it had a dvd stuck in it. Seller forgot to remove it before shipment so I had to fiddle it out with a tweezer.
Maybe when this dvd got stuck, it made some damages which results in problems now? Some particles lying in the gears, etc...
Can't say for sure before I can do a complete removal of the necessary parts to get to the point of failure(s).

I have seen this on three DVL players already. Two of them simply needed the gear tracks brushed clean and relube of rail, etc, and they ran fine after that.

The other one had some sort of problem in the laser assembly gearing that cause some rough spots on that gearing that I had to deburr, and also had a defective metal "brace" that was pushing on the worm gear too hard. That's a metal U-shaped type of pressure spring that rests against the tip of the worm gear and is screwed into the assembly body with small screw. It is easily visible if you look at the assembly from above when it is on the lower track. I had to remove that, and the problem cleared up just fine. It worked without it, but I still got another one to replace it.

Update;

Looks like it is the B-side that has problems. After visually inspecting it while playing a disc makes me certain. For now I don't know if it is lack of lubrication or if there is some particles/dirt or broken tooth gears in the guiding rail.

Is it possible to remove the upper metal chassis (the one that covers the laser, flipping mechanism, etc.) without doing a problem to another problem? I was thinking about greasing the rail for the tooth gears and it is not possible to get to it as it is now.
What type of grease should I use?

If it's doing this at the first 2 to 3 minutes of side B there's a lever that needs to be VERY carefully reshaped. It acts as a brake against the optics. That screw should be tight. It sets the centering for B side play....
Also, was the DVD that came out broken in any way? I had one that had a DVD stuck and the DVD was cracked. It dropped plastic bits onto the optical rail and blocked optica travle at various points. Cleaning the rail fixed the problem.

You mean the white screw I have pointed out in the picture or the black one? The white one is loose no matter how I try to fasten it.
Dvd is not cracked and the surface is covered with some amounts of white grease.

I want to clean this rail, but I'm know sure what kind of grease I should buy. Do you have some advice, Ldservice?

Loosen the black screw and then the white screw can adjust the side B centering, then tighten the black screw to hold the setting in place. The grease is a white silicon grease made for electronics.

I get my grease directly from Pioneer. Part number is GEM1002. It comes in a little plastic jar and retails for $25.75!!!!! Thing is I've had my little container for over 6 years and there's still plenty of grease in it. It doesn't take much. The grease is very "thin" and doesn't harden over time. REALLY good stuff

Thanks, Ldservice and Krbahr. If I can't get the grease from Pioneer I will use some silicone grease instead.
A tooth pick could be useful to apply it, I guess. Hopefully it will be back in service in a couple of months. Busy with other things at the moment.

i would also use a small paint brush, you don't need much and the brush won't fall apart like a qtip would leave fibers.




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Paint brush will be taken into consideration. I will stay away from Q-tip.

I just spread it using my finger. Then wash it to not get the grease elsewhere

I also apply with my finger as not much is required and it makes for a better "smooth" application.