Where to get Pioneer CD player little rubber spacers

Patrologia

Patrologia

Active Member
I'd like to take a stab at repairing a Pioneer PDM551 that can't seem to find the cd anymore. PDM551, 6 disc changer. Honestly, I might not even bother except for the fact that it was my first CD player, I bought it right after my freshman year of college, and it has been spinning away ever since.

I'm pretty sure the little rubber spacers that float the laser assembly are shot, and are the culprit. It seems like that is a common failure on Pioneers, and when I lifted that assembly up two little washers fell. I believe that the tech who finally got it repaired (probably the fall of '94) did so by inserting those washers under two of the spacers. I'd like to replace the spacers with new ones, but I can't seem to find them reasonably. SM indicates parts PEB1132 and PEB1014. I found someone on ebay, in Italy, selling them, but then shipping costs start to make it questionably worth it, especially since I don't *know* that this is the only problem with the player.

Does anybody have a cheap source for these? How precise, and how soft, do they need to be (that is, can I just walk into lowes or Home Depot and buy a substitute)? What is the standard approach (other than saying that it is neither truly vintage, nor truly high end, and so upgrading from it!)?
 
I started to look last night but thought about you looking in the ACE hardware "Hillman" bulk hardware section for those grooved rubber grommets. I know they have them. Now, they might not be exact but for a few cents, it's worth checking.
Maybe they can be modified to work?
This is the second time I referenced the "Hillman" section at ACE in a few days. I love it, wished I had it here in the shop.
 
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Thanks for the search. That thread is actually where I found the Service Manual, and also where I found the part number for the little grommet/cushions. If I had any surrounds lying around, I might try Longworth's trick, it looks reasonable. Since I don't, I'll probably try thin little washers like the ones the tech used back in the '90s, or with grommets you suggested from Ace. I've also found them listed more reasonably by a spanish company, but my Spanish is awful so I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking at. Hopefully a local solution will be "good enough".
 
It would suck to go for the grommet/washers and then find out they didn't fix the issue. Try to mach up the transport with some makeshift washers and see if you can get it to fire up.
I'm with you on spending the time on something that is not worth it.
 
I had the same problem on a Pioneer PD-M407 about a year ago, l am attached to mine also as it was my grandfathers. I couldn't find the little rubber grommets either so l just did what the previous tech did in your case and just installed some fibre washers underneath them, it works fine now.
 
dr*audio said:
Buy a cheap used CD boombox and steal the grommets from it.
Click to expand...

faber12 said:
Those grommets are less than $1 each, not much invested if it does not work.
Click to expand...

Are the grommets pretty much interchangeable? The fact that Pioneer actually spec'd two different spacers for the four positions made me think it mattered. If I could find them for $1 each, I'd certainly do it, but anything I've found that was specific to the application was being shipped from Europe, making them a lot more.
 
I'm starting to think it is the spindle motor. I shimmed all four posts, still nothing it just starts to spin but fails to recognize. I opened up another PDM player (not as nice a unit, but at least working) just to see if parts were interchangeable. They *look* the same, but the numbers are different. Main thing I saw was that the grommets in it had also sagged significantly, and yet it still plays.

Am I wrong to assume it is likely the motor? And am I wrong to assume I don't want to try to pry out the oldmotor and install a new one? Seems hard to do without destroying the frame.
 
I have a PD-M427 here that does the same thing which l am sure the laser is gone on. The spindle motor will not start up or just spin once or twice very slowly if the laser has failed. Can you see the laser red glow if you fire it up with a disc and the cover off? Don't look at the laser directly, always look from the side from a slight distance.
 
With the laser pointing down, how do you get into a position to see the laser with a disc in?
I've been basing my assumptions on this page http://lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/TRANSPORT/laser/Laserology.html and that's why I figured that the motor was bad. Mine will start spinning, but just a couple of times and then give up and try the next disc.

If this were anything other than "my first cd player" I would definitely just chuck it. I can pick up another CDP that works better for $7 at the thrift, but the only other component I have that I've had as long is a receiver that I can no longer adjust volume or radio station because the BPC buttons have broken off! I'd kinda like to keep one of my very first components running.
 
Yeah you may have trouble, l thought you might be able to see it reflecting off the disc surface after disc is first loaded but there may be too many components in the line of sight. Those symptons are exactly the same as the 427 here.
 
When the rubber bellows collapse, the only thing it causes is the cd scrapes on something. If the spindle motor was bad it wouldn't spin at all or you'd have to give it a push. Since it starts to spin and then stops It achieved focus lock. Does it read the table of contents? If so you probably have a weak laser. If not, could still be the laser, or the sled isn't moving across the cd.
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/troubleshooting-cd-players.440522/
 
Also the flex cable on the laser mechanism could be bad. I had a lot of bad lasers on Pioneer players when I used to service them. Sometimes the lens falls out.
 
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