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Old 23rd Sep 2009, 5:48 pm   #1
howard
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Default 1991 Marantz CD52 CD player CDM4 tray gear repair

Hello again,

I have a couple of these Marantz CD52 machines, one I bought for 99p and it works absolutely perfectly, and this one from a car boot sale recently for £5 which I was told worked and it does, but I soon discovered that the tray didn't open and close properly, needing a shove to close it properly. This is a very common problem with CD players which use the Philips CDM4 swing-arm CD transport and tray, and is caused by the collapse of the teeth on the motor driven gear wheel which engages with a rack on the CD tray. Other CD players with CDM4 transports which suffer from this problem include loads of Marantz, Philips, Grundig, Technics and Rotel models built between 1989-1993, the trays are the same but dismantling the case to gain access to the gear wheel may differ from this Marantz. These gear wheels and belts are no longer available from Philips/Marantz or any European spares specialists (although they were still available from Rotel for their RCD-965BX model a year ago) but you can still get them on ebay from US and far eastern specialists for around £12 inclusive of P&P. This repair is quite straightforward ...

- Unplug the power lead from the machine
- Take off the lid (remove two screws either side, one centre back)
- Remove three self tapping screws which secure the top of the front panel
- Remove the copper coloured threaded screw underneath, just below the headphone socket
- Pull off the headphone volume knob
- Pull the tray out a couple of inches and ease off the front panel, gently pulling the locating tabs on the ends outwards
- Pull the tray out gently until it engages with the CD clamp, lift the clamp which stays up, and then pull the tray right out
- Ease out the old gear wheel while gently pressing the plastic tab through which the end of the wheel passes away from the gear
- Fit the new gear with the belt wrapped around it
- Refit the tray onto its guides and push right in
- Hook the rubber belt onto the motor pulley
- Lower the CD clamp
- Refit the front, knob and lid

It took me around an hour to do this repair, and while I was in there I cleaned all the dust off the tray and gently cleaned the laser lens with a moist tissue. The case also got a clean with some upholstery cleaner applied with a toothbrush and wiped clean with a damp cloth.

The CDM4 was the last of Philips swing arm type CD mechanisms and it's usually reliable, it's only the tray gear wheel which tends to fail. This Marantz CD52 is a superb sounding 20 year old CD player and it was well worth spending £12 and an hours work on it to put it back into full working order. It would have been a shame if it had been binned.

Howard
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Old 23rd Sep 2009, 5:51 pm   #2
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Default Re: 1991 Marantz CD52 CD player CDM4 tray gear repair

And the old and new gears and belts ...
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Old 23rd Sep 2009, 6:26 pm   #3
Lloyd 1985
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Default Re: 1991 Marantz CD52 CD player CDM4 tray gear repair

Hi
I have one of these players! got it at the nvcf for £8, had exactly the same problem, except the previous owner had removed the gear wheel.. i managed to get a whole CDM4 mech off ebay for £7, and nicked the gear wheel out of it for mine, as it was slightly different, I had to adapt the wheel a bit as it has had a hole going all the way through the center of the wheel, instead of the pimple on the end. I agree with you, these are great players! its the only player I have which can play an extreemly scratched and scraped phill collins cd all the way through without a single skip jump or click!

regards,
Lloyd.
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Old 23rd Sep 2009, 6:53 pm   #4
Radioboy Angus
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Default Re: 1991 Marantz CD52 CD player CDM4 tray gear repair

Hi Howard, so another machine saved - well done!
I've never owned one of these marantz players, but did own a Philips cd 610 back in the day (purchased in 1990) I think this machine used the same transport
didn't it? I always found it to be very reliable, and it was running beautifully when I sold it in 1997 - I "upgraded" to a Marantz CD67 SE which used
a different type of transport which i found to be less reliable over all (it was more sensitive to scratched discs, and was slower at moving between tracks).
I now only have one of these Philips M4 transport machines - a rotel RCD 965 BX which will have to be moved on soon due to lack of space. Do you have
any idea why Philips moved away from this design of transport as it did seem far superior to what followed. I suspect it was something to do with the
actual space the transport took up, and probably more crucially the cost of manufacture?
This transport was also used to good effect in early Arcam CD players I think - a friend of mine had an Arcam Delta machine from 1992, and this probably
the best CD player I've ever heard.
*
Cheers
*
Angus.
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Old 23rd Sep 2009, 7:04 pm   #5
mickjjo
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Default Re: 1991 Marantz CD52 CD player CDM4 tray gear repair

Nice job Howard , I've had a CD52 from new, my first and best player, (Listening to it right now!), Mine came from Richer Sounds in 1992 for £160, the list price was £200. Never given any trouble and still sounds great, nice to know about these fixes if it should ever go wrong... .

Regards, Mick.
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Old 23rd Sep 2009, 7:25 pm   #6
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Default Re: 1991 Marantz CD52 CD player CDM4 tray gear repair

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lloyd 1985 View Post
Hi
I have one of these players! got it at the nvcf for £8, had exactly the same problem, except the previous owner had removed the gear wheel.. i managed to get a whole CDM4 mech off ebay for £7, and nicked the gear wheel out of it for mine, as it was slightly different, I had to adapt the wheel a bit as it has had a hole going all the way through the center of the wheel, instead of the pimple on the end. I agree with you, these are great players! its the only player I have which can play an extreemly scratched and scraped phill collins cd all the way through without a single skip jump or click!
regards,
Lloyd.
Hello Lloyd,

These early 1990s Marantz CD players are as cheap as chips at the moment, I daresay because of this very problem. It tracks very well, much better than my later Marantz CD63 II KI signature player which can't manage to play a scratched disc despite its original hefty price tag.

I just remembered that there was one more swing arm CD transport after the CDM4, the Philips CDM9 Pro which was only fitted to one Marantz player, the CD23. The gear wheel you describe sounds like the one from the CDM9 Pro, I have one here and it has a hole right through it ....

Howard
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Old 23rd Sep 2009, 7:54 pm   #7
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Default Re: 1991 Marantz CD52 CD player CDM4 tray gear repair

Quote:
Originally Posted by Radioboy Angus View Post
Hi Howard, so another machine saved - well done!
I've never owned one of these marantz players, but did own a Philips cd 610 back in the day (purchased in 1990) I think this machine used the same transport
didn't it? I always found it to be very reliable, and it was running beautifully when I sold it in 1997 - I "upgraded" to a Marantz CD67 SE which used
a different type of transport which i found to be less reliable over all (it was more sensitive to scratched discs, and was slower at moving between tracks).
I now only have one of these Philips M4 transport machines - a rotel RCD 965 BX which will have to be moved on soon due to lack of space. Do you have
any idea why Philips moved away from this design of transport as it did seem far superior to what followed. I suspect it was something to do with the
actual space the transport took up, and probably more crucially the cost of manufacture?
This transport was also used to good effect in early Arcam CD players I think - a friend of mine had an Arcam Delta machine from 1992, and this probably
the best CD player I've ever heard.
*
Cheers
*
Angus.
Hello Angus,

The Philips CD610 almost certainly had a CDM4 transport as did the Arcam 1990 Delta 70.2/170 and 1991 Delta 70.3/170 models (I have the service sheet for them here). I too have a Rotel RCD-965BX although that hasn't given any trouble .... yet .... but Ron Bryan and I replaced a CDM4 gear wheel in one for a client around a year ago. I too upgraded in 1996 to a later Marantz CD63 II KI Signature player with its 3 beam linear tracking CDM12.1 CD mechanism which is also fitted to your CD67. These are less reliable but are very cheap to replace, indeed I have a spare here ready to fit to the CD63 II !

I gather that the swing arm type CD mechanisms were only suitable for audio machines and so when Philips entered the PC market they decided to produce just the one 3 beam linear tracking type mechanisms which work OK with audio and can read data streams from disc much faster for PCs.

Howard
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Old 23rd Sep 2009, 8:09 pm   #8
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Default Re: 1991 Marantz CD52 CD player CDM4 tray gear repair

Quote:
Originally Posted by mickjjo View Post
Nice job Howard , I've had a CD52 from new, my first and best player, (Listening to it right now!), Mine came from Richer Sounds in 1992 for £160, the list price was £200. Never given any trouble and still sounds great, nice to know about these fixes if it should ever go wrong... .

Regards, Mick.
Hello Mick,

They are good machines and sound just as good as mid priced CD players made today and track better too.

I daresay many folk have these early 1990s Philips based machines sitting in their lofts because this gear wheel has failed, hopefully this article will encourage a few to repair them cos it's not expensive or difficult to do, instead of binning them.

Howard
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Old 23rd Sep 2009, 9:48 pm   #9
Radioboy Angus
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Default Re: 1991 Marantz CD52 CD player CDM4 tray gear repair

Hi Howard, Thanks for your informative response! that all makes sense now... That's interesting that you found the same with your CD 63 KI as i did with
my 67 SE, I ended up selling this one about 2 years ago, having "upgraded" in 2004 to a more modern Arcam CD 73. I kept the 67, but didn't use it much,
due to the fact it seemed to have terible problems reading some discs written on computer CD R drives. Like most machines of this vintage, my Arcam is
based around a sony transport, which have their own reliability problems - I'm currently experiencing this and I fear it will end up with the unit being
sent back to the manufacturer for repair. I'm seriously considering going for one of those Arcam Delta models, - I think they were their flagship models
at the time? if I can find a good example, but then I suppose this may be fraught with difficulties due to the age of the transports etc. having said that
though, like you my Rotel 965 BX has never given me any bother in the time I've had it.
so of your CD players, which is your favourite? I presume it will be one of your early philips or Marantz machines?
*
Cheers
*
Angus.
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Old 23rd Sep 2009, 9:55 pm   #10
Lloyd 1985
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Default Re: 1991 Marantz CD52 CD player CDM4 tray gear repair

Hi again
it might have been a cdm9 I bought (if I find it during the clear out tomorrow I'll take a pic of it!). I have a Matsui cd player which uses the swing arm type mech, I wonder what that uses? if i remember correctly, its a cds100 (or something like that) it was the first cd player I ever saw! my parents bought it brand new in around 91/92 (i was only 6 or 7 at the time!) last time I had the thing out it worked very well.
My cd52 lives in the workshop, along with a goodmans amp and technics sl-5 turntable. is there any differences between the cd52 II special edition and the cd52 (mines the special edition one..)?

regards,
Lloyd
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Old 23rd Sep 2009, 10:44 pm   #11
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Default Re: 1991 Marantz CD52 CD player CDM4 tray gear repair

Quote:
Originally Posted by Radioboy Angus View Post
Hi Howard, Thanks for your informative response! that all makes sense now... That's interesting that you found the same with your CD 63 KI as i did with
my 67 SE, I ended up selling this one about 2 years ago, having "upgraded" in 2004 to a more modern Arcam CD 73. I kept the 67, but didn't use it much,
due to the fact it seemed to have terible problems reading some discs written on computer CD R drives. Like most machines of this vintage, my Arcam is
based around a sony transport, which have their own reliability problems - I'm currently experiencing this and I fear it will end up with the unit being
sent back to the manufacturer for repair. I'm seriously considering going for one of those Arcam Delta models, - I think they were their flagship models
at the time? if I can find a good example, but then I suppose this may be fraught with difficulties due to the age of the transports etc. having said that
though, like you my Rotel 965 BX has never given me any bother in the time I've had it. so of your CD players, which is your favourite? I presume it will be one of your early philips or Marantz machines?
*
Cheers
*
Angus.
Hello Angus,

From my experiences with around a dozen CD players here is that these early Philips swing arm CD transports have no problems reading CD-Rs recorded on PCs, nor scratched CDs, and even my 1982 Philips CD100 plays them all seamlessly. The first disc I played on this CD52 was one sent to me by Edward (Igranic) and is the Philip Glass BBC Proms concert broadcast on the 12th August which had been recorded on a CD-R on his PC and it played perfectly, good music too. The Marantz CD63II KI also plays it perfectly but it will skip if a disc is scratched, I recently played a Technics test disc on it which has a 14 tracks of increasingly large surface imperfections and it gave up at track 5, whereas the CD100 continued seamlessly to the end. I will have to test all my players sometime, should be interesting .....

The CD52 isn't my favorite sounding CD player, nor any of the early players (although I do prefer their build quality), the best one is the CD63II KI Signature.

Howard
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Old 23rd Sep 2009, 10:59 pm   #12
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Default Re: 1991 Marantz CD52 CD player CDM4 tray gear repair

Hi Howard, how feasible do you think it would be to fabricate a new gear using a plastic or nylon disk and a Dremel? The idea would be to strip off the old teeth completely, then glue a new toothed wheel on the end of the original part. The gear is only driving the tray so shouldn't be subject to too much stress. In fact it's odd that the old teeth are so prone to stripping - presumably there is some sort of age related fatigue in the plastic.

Paul
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Old 23rd Sep 2009, 11:11 pm   #13
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Default Re: 1991 Marantz CD52 CD player CDM4 tray gear repair

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Originally Posted by Lloyd 1985 View Post
Hi again
.............. My cd52 lives in the workshop, along with a goodmans amp and technics sl-5 turntable. is there any differences between the cd52 II special edition and the cd52 (mines the special edition one..)?

regards,
Lloyd
Hello Lloyd,

All the CD52 and CD52 II models whatever their spec have the CDM4 transport and the same chipset. I suspect that the Special Edition models may have upgraded power supplies ie: better quality transformers and capacitors.

Howard
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Old 23rd Sep 2009, 11:35 pm   #14
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Default Re: 1991 Marantz CD52 CD player CDM4 tray gear repair

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Originally Posted by paulsherwin View Post
Hi Howard, how feasible do you think it would be to fabricate a new gear using a plastic or nylon disk and a Dremel? The idea would be to strip off the old teeth completely, then glue a new toothed wheel on the end of the original part. The gear is only driving the tray so shouldn't be subject to too much stress. In fact it's odd that the old teeth are so prone to stripping - presumably there is some sort of age related fatigue in the plastic. Paul
Hello Paul,

The plastic that Philips used in these tray gear wheels wasn't up to the job, the locating pin on the end has broken off and the teeth have become brittle and then been chewed off by the teeth in the rack. The tray is light plastic and it runs on nylon wheels so there isn't much load on the gear wheel. There's no grease on the gear wheel nor the rack, I don't know though that if a little had been used whether it would have done any good.

I guess a new 10 toothed gear could be fashionned and glued to the original wheel and then a metal pin passed through it.

Howard
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Old 24th Sep 2009, 9:23 am   #15
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Default Re: 1991 Marantz CD52 CD player CDM4 tray gear repair

Would it be possible to use a metal gear instead of plastic? I foresee that in the future when these parts are no longer available, I might be called into operation!

10 teeth is not too much of a problem, even if you were doing it by hand.
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Old 24th Sep 2009, 12:20 pm   #16
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Default Re: 1991 Marantz CD52 CD player CDM4 tray gear repair

I was thinking of doing something with a miniature vice and a cutting wheel, as the engineering tolerances will be pretty large, but if you have the proper gear and skills you should be able to knock them out pretty easily, either in nylon or brass. This could be a useful earner if you can charge in excess of £10 for each part. You could even offer a 'wheel refurbishment' service, which would involve cutting off the old gear wheel and aralditing on the new one.

I have some personal interest in this as I've been offered a CD42 in this thread. Presumably the tray mechanism in this will give up sooner or later.

Paul
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Old 24th Sep 2009, 12:56 pm   #17
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Default Re: 1991 Marantz CD52 CD player CDM4 tray gear repair

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........ This could be a useful earner if you can charge in excess of £10 for each part. You could even offer a 'wheel refurbishment' service, which would involve cutting off the old gear wheel and aralditing on the new one....... Paul
Definitely, there are several Far Eastern sources now for these, selling at $20 apiece with the belt. I just found one Dutch Philips specialist selling them for a staggering €49 each plus another €10 for the belt !

I reckon one could make the complete component in plastic once a mould had been made using an original wheel as a pattern. Some very nice CD players use the CDM4 mechanism and tray including models from Meridian and Naim so there will be a demand for these wheels for some time to come.

Howard
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Old 24th Sep 2009, 1:21 pm   #18
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Default Re: 1991 Marantz CD52 CD player CDM4 tray gear repair

I wonder if it's worth trying to strengthen the gear wheel if the original hasn't been stripped yet. Presumably even a coat of fibre glass resin would help.

Paul
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Old 25th Sep 2009, 8:43 pm   #19
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Default Re: 1991 Marantz CD52 CD player CDM4 tray gear repair

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I wonder if it's worth trying to strengthen the gear wheel if the original hasn't been stripped yet. Presumably even a coat of fibre glass resin would help.
Paul
Hello Paul,

I wouldn't bother, that could make it worse. If when you acquire your Marantz CD42 you find that its gear wheel is looking a bit worn and fragile, then I would treat it to a new one, they're only £11.50 - £12.50 apiece at the moment, and then you won't have to worry about it again for the next 20 years.

Howard
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Old 6th May 2016, 11:18 am   #20
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Default Re: 1991 Marantz CD52 CD player CDM4 tray gear repair

I finally got around to doing this job on my Marantz CD42, which is closely related to the CD52. Howard's instructions were broadly correct for this player too, except that the front cover is held on by plastic clips underneath rather than a screw and the front of the tray unclips to allow removal. Thanks to a combination of Howard's instructions and previous experience with CD players I finished the job in about 20 minutes.

The plastic of the old gear wheel had gone extremely brittle - a gentle squeeze between two fingers caused the pulley to disintegrate. No possibility of repair there!
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