Help Me Fix The CD Tray On a Vintage Cambridge CD2

[Ninjastar]

I bought a Cambridge Audio CD2 from the 80s.

Cambridge Audio CD2 - 4x Philips TDA1541 - DutchAudioClassics.nl

DutchAudioClassics.nl - Cambridge Audio CD2 4x Philips TDA1541 review

dutchaudioclassics.nl

It plays CD's fine, except the tray needs manual assistance to eject.

And I don't think it's a belt issue.

Whenever I press eject, the face plate of the tray momentarily gets caught on the right side of the opening on the chassis. To get it out, I have to gently push the face plate to the left a little so it can pass through the opening unobstructed. And it doesn't appear to be a tray where the face plate can be separated from the rest of the tray.

I'm using a photo from the website above to illustrate it.

It appears the tray became misaligned somehow where it leans a little too far to the right. Not a lot, but just enough to get stuck.

I opened the cover and the CD mechanism has a sticker that says CDM-2/29.

Does anyone have any advice for how I can fix this?

Mine looks the same as this, but it says CDM-2/29 instead of CDM-2/10

 

[RickS]

Did you catch this thread?

CD tray sticks because the plasticizers are leaking out

Good morning, Who can help me, I recently bought a vintage CD player (Onkyo Integra DX 7911) but it did not play well. It skipped on some CDs. That is why I took it to a repair shop. The Laser is good and the skipping can also be solved by replacing a belt. But there is a new problem that I...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Ninjastar]

I did actually. But the problem described there doesn't seem to match my issue.

 

[bothu]

I bought a Cambridge Audio CD2 from the 80s.

Cambridge Audio CD2 - 4x Philips TDA1541 - DutchAudioClassics.nl

DutchAudioClassics.nl - Cambridge Audio CD2 4x Philips TDA1541 review

dutchaudioclassics.nl

It plays CD's fine, except the tray needs manual assistance to eject.

And I don't think it's a belt issue.

Whenever I press eject, the face plate of the tray momentarily gets caught on the right side of the opening on the chassis. To get it out, I have to gently push the face plate to the left a little so it can pass through the opening unobstructed. And it doesn't appear to be a tray where the face plate can be separated from the rest of the tray.

I'm using a photo from the website above to illustrate it.

View attachment 488030

It appears the tray became misaligned somehow where it leans a little too far to the right. Not a lot, but just enough to get stuck.

I opened the cover and the CD mechanism has a sticker that says CDM-2/29.

Does anyone have any advice for how I can fix this?

View attachment 488031
Mine looks the same as this, but it says CDM-2/29 instead of CDM-2/10
View attachment 488032
View attachment 488033

If you loosen the screws sitting near the front panel holding the white plastic frame and then pushing the tray to the left just 2 mm. That can help.

 

[RickS]

Have mainly had this issue with computer CD players and the problem usually is some seal that has deteriorated (as in the other thread). In that case, mild cleaning and some lubricant usually helps. Physical misalignment can happen when parts wear or loosen. If there is an adjustment, the correction may be helped by shimming with thin plastic as may be difficult to get a minor adjust as shifting can happen as screws are tightened.

 

[Ninjastar]

If you loosen the screws sitting near the front panel holding the white plastic frame and then pushing the tray to the left just 2 mm. That can help.

This seemed promising, but unfortunately did not work.

I loosened the screws, but the mechanism doesn't really move regardless. The screws are either loose or tight, but the mechanism can only be in one spot with no ability to be shifted.

And even if it could be shifted over 2mm, I don't know if that would fix it. The part that is slightly offset causing the problem is "floating" and not directly connected to that part of the mechanism.

The problem specifically is the railing on the left of the tray (closest to the front of this photo) is pointing ever so slightly diagonally towards the middle so the face plate catches the right side of the opening when ejected.

 

[Ninjastar]

Have mainly had this issue with computer CD players and the problem usually is some seal that has deteriorated (as in the other thread). In that case, mild cleaning and some lubricant usually helps. Physical misalignment can happen when parts wear or loosen. If there is an adjustment, the correction may be helped by shimming with thin plastic as may be difficult to get a minor adjust as shifting can happen as screws are tightened.

This makes sense and is worth a shot, but I am so ignorant about these things that I have no idea what parts need cleaning.

When I opened mine up, I was surprised to see that everything (the boards, caps, drive mechanism) all looked really clean for being almost 40 years old. Really I could find no obvious signs of age or wear and tear.

I also do not even know what "shimming with thin plastic" means

I bought some white lithium grease to use as a lubricant, but I have no idea where to apply this either.

Do you have advice?