The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease (and a New Drive Belt...)

When I bought my Marantz CD63 CD player in 1995, the decision was based largely on reviews like this one, which described it as "ludicrously good for the money".  And so it proved, having given faultless service almost ever since.

Unfortunately, over the last year or so the CD tray started to stick occasionally when opening or closing - particularly during cold weather - and had to be given a helping hand.  With other things on my mind I put up with this inconvenience until the fateful day recently when the tray simply refused to open.  I can live without a lot of things, but music is not one of them.  

A local hifi supplier was quoting a minimum of £40 to diagnose and fix even the most basic faults; what was worse was that the drive would need to be sent to their workshop and would probably be away for a couple of weeks.  Time to turn to Google.

A quick search turned up a discussion board in which this problem and its resolution were discussed.  Time to break out the tools.  Cover off, CD tray gently eased out by hand, CD removed, retention clip eased out of the way with a screwdriver blade, and the tray came out:

to reveal the rest of the drive and the tray belt:

Conventional wisdom is that a sticking CD tray is very often due to the original lubricant having turned to sludge over the years; this seemed consistent with my perception that sticking problems were always worse when the study was really cold (and the lubricant at its most viscous).  Time to break out a bag of industrial cotton buds and start cleaning the runners and all visible wheels and cogs:

After two or three thorough cycles of cleaning I gave all the moving parts a good coating of WD 40 White Lithium Grease, reassembled the drive and tested it.  An improvement, but the tray still stuck during the last 25mm of  movement in both directions, and a helping hand was still needed.

Further conventional wisdom is that if the problem of a CD tray sticking is not resolved by changing the lubricant, it's likely that the drive belt has worn and stretched, and needs replacing.  More research with Google and a replacement belt ordered off ebay (from Portugal).

When it arrived three days later and I compared it to the original, the diagnosis of stretch seemed to be confirmed:

New belt fitted - the moment of truth:

I'm a happy bunny (and listener) once more.