CDM-9 / Rotel RCD-975 broken tray gear

shimniok

Super Member
Apparently a common problem with the Phillips CDM-9 transport is that the white, belt-driven gear tray wheel breaks. Well, my trusty RCD-975 is based on this transport and after 10+ years the gear finally broke tonight.

It's not like I don't have enough broken pieces of equipment to work on. :rolleyes: But I guess it could be much worse.

At least the part is available and easily replaceable. Whew. I found one off of ebay for a reasonable price. There are probably other sources.
 
It´s an easy fix, I have made a small business out of buying the Cd players that use the CDM drives and fix them.
 
It's the one weak point of the CDM9. I had a PS Audio Lambda 2SE transport based around the CDM9 Pro transport, which had that problem. Since I didn't know it was such an easy fix, I sold it, which I regret it up untill this day.
Anyway, Philips has a bad reputation for those plastic wheels. I had their beautiful N5846 cassettedeck, which also had problems like that. A shame, since Philips has made some truly great gear.

philipsr.jpg
 
I saw this over on Audiogon. It is from 2 years ago but might still be valid:

(quote)
Rick,
If you go to Ebay and click on HOME AUDIO and then type in MARANTZ, scroll thru the pages as there is a person selling a replacement gear that is orange for various players with this transport. Your Theta data basic is mentioned that this gear will fit. This is what the site says;

Newly made in Japan and better material than the China made one.

This is a brand new Tray Gear wheel For Philips CDM9 , CDM9 PRO Tray.CDM9 usually used in CD-players like Meridian, Marantz, rotel, Philips, PS Audio(Lambda, Lambda II), Rotel, Arcam, Theta(data basic,data basic II) .........
Philips CD-930 CD-931 CD-950 CD-951 LHH100 LHH200, Marantz , Aura CD50 CD100
 
I forgot to mention for others looking for that wheel: it's also available here. Scroll down to 'Zahnrad 12'. It's not cheap, but good quality.
 
Apparently a common problem with the Phillips CDM-9 transport is that the white, belt-driven gear tray wheel breaks. Well, my trusty RCD-975 is based on this transport and after 10+ years the gear finally broke tonight.

It's not like I don't have enough broken pieces of equipment to work on. :rolleyes: But I guess it could be much worse.

At least the part is available and easily replaceable. Whew. I found one off of ebay for a reasonable price. There are probably other sources.

hi shimniok,

i had the exact same thing happen to my rcd 975 about 2 weeks ago and the tray wont open or close on its own.one good thing however is i can still open it manually and use it until i get it fixed.
 
I just got a beautifully made Rotel RCD-970 at Goodwill for $8. All works except for the stripped tray gear.

This is a very common problem with many good CD players using the Philips CDM9 transport. It is also easy to fix.

Here's a to do:
Go on ebay and search "CDM9 gear" you will find them starting around $7 shipped from China (I offered $6 and got one). It usually comes with a belt. I would suggest leaving original belt in, after cleaning it with rubbing alcohol. Place the new belt in a small plastic bag and secure it with masking tape inside the player. That way you will have a belt ready if you ever need to replace it. The old original belt was in such a perfect shape after many years that I decided to clean it and leave in place.

You need to open the bottom of the player to access the broken gear. You do not need to remove the CD transport.

Q: Why would the teeth on a tray pushing gear strip like that? Two possible reasons:
A1. Really bad plastic that deteriorated over time.
A2. Drive motor overshoots while opening or closing, or both.

Q: Why would the drive motor overshoot? Possible reason:
A: Bad contacts on the limit switches. Give them a shot of Deoxit to clean the contacts.

=============
It might help someone
 
My Rotel RCD-970 had another intermittent problem: once in a while the display would go dark, music stops, power LED stays ON, tray can be opened when I push the button. Then CD would play for a minute, stop by itself & display goes dark, etc. When it cooled off, it would play fine again for 1-3 hrs and die again with the display going off.

I don't know how common is the display and functionality failure, but I'm posting my fix just in case someone could use it.

I think a bad electrolytic capacitor on the display board was the culprit. I'm not 100% sure, perhaps 85%, because I replaced a bunch of other electrolytic capacitors. The problem is solved, that's all that counts.

The front display board has two caps on it: 2x 47uF, 25V. The original caps were branded TEAPO. I replaced both with low ESR Rubycon caps salvaged from a 8 year old plasma. (I'm afraid to use electrolytics from ebay because it is a fake galore, and I'm too cheap to buy good new caps from Mouser etc.)

The Rotel had three brands of factory installed electrolytic caps: Teapo, Jameco, and Rubycon Black Gate. The Teapo and Jameco should be replaced. The highest quality Black Gates should stay.

The sound:
That's always highly subjective. I love the crispy clean sound of the Rotel. Well recorded CDs sound delightful. You don't hear the annoying digital trash in high tones.
 
Had to replace a tray gear on a rotel rcd-970bx. This seemed to go well, but once I had it all back together the player now will not open. It just keeps trying to close.
I believe I have maligned some gearing. The motor only wants to go one way-closed.
Any pros remember what the procedure is for tricking the player back into the right timing ?
Thank you.
 
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