...so with a mind to get the T1 sorted out I thought I'd make some sort of effort to remove the disc that was stuck in it before it went any where, ( you know to save any unnecessary embaressment) and so I started dismantling .... and got carried away...
But, I've found the problem! The symptoms had been random skipping of a track while it was playing, followed soon after by the inability of the thing to read a disc or even open it's drawer.
Dismantling the case, made all the more awkward by the addition of dynamat damping material; the glue from which seemed to have "crept" and glued the top cover to the rest of the carcass, I eventually managed to remove the transport mechanism complete with the offending cd still in it. The problem was to get it out. I couldn't manually manipulate the drawer mechanism no matter what I did.
The last part of the drawer mech operation is to engage the VRDS clamp. That description sounds much more grand that what actually happens, what it effectively does is move the cd up to using it's central spindle, to press against a plastic flywheel; the centre spindle moving up is operated by an arm driven by the main cog for the drawer mechanism. No matter what I did I couldn't get this spindle to come down and therefore couldn't get the tray to start to move. So I had to set about dismantling it (there's a theme developing here!!) ( BTW a bloke who services Wadia's told how to remove the cd tray but I still couldn't find how to do it and still can't mange it aven though I think I've identified the limit clips for drawer operation!!).
Anyway, one of the machines symptoms was it couldn't unload the cd drawer so I don't know why I was expecting it to be easy, neither could I Eventually I took the upper clamp assembly off, (this contains the motor that acutually spins the disc by the way) and the problem came to light. The spindle couldn't drop because the laser assembly was jammed under it. Not sure where it's supposed to park, but I can't be there other wise the disc would never come out.
So, I turned my attention to the laser sled. I couldn't move it for love nor money, I tried turning the only exposed cog (the only one at that point anyay!!) and it wasn't having any of it. Not surprised it wouldn't read the disc that was in there any more either then.
Anyway to cut a long story to ribbons, I dismantled the drive rack assembly thing; these being 2 pieces of nylon plastic and two springs that attach the laser on it's sled to the drve cog that I could get at. The one of the springs seems to be there to allow the sled a sort of sprung endstop BTW. The second spring is there sinply to hold the 2nd parrel bit of plastic in the rack assembly to incease the driven area against the cog, which to my mind it doesn't need anyway.... but I digress....
This was a joy, it was about 2 hours later I found the second of the 2 springs and the second plastic bit that disappeared as the thing unclipped (and I had taken precautions and used a floor with minimal clutter on it you have been warned!!!).
This allowed to me to remove the only exposed sled drive cog I'd mentioned earlier - to reveal the one underneath. This lower one isn't hard plastic but softer and deformable ..... and in my example broken into 3 pieces......
So, having done a web search for spares, I've ordered 4 cogs (hopefully one of which will be the right one) at about 3-4 pounds each and I'll see what happens when they turn up 7-14 days apparently!!
This cog breaking up explains the random skipping. Holding the broken pieces together jerky movement could be achieved of the sled. It doesn't explain to my satisfaction why the thing got stuck under the raised VRDS spindle though. Having reassembled most of it now (mechanially anyway), the drawer + spindle work perfectly driven by hand. Perhaps the limit microswitch has packed up which tells the unit the sled is at the end of the travel and that was how it got stuffed under there (there's two, one at each end of the travel).
Whatever happens I'll report back....
Cheers
