CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

[rogblake]

My SFT100 player for some time had been exhibiting a problem where the picture shudders and fluctuates between black & white and color. Tonight I finally got around to taking the turntable out to lube the bearings and replace the drive belt. I have parts and disassembly instructions from cedmagic.com. Had to drill out the original screws holding the popup spindle assembly together in order to remove the turntable, carefully so as not to ruin the threads. In any event, the turntable otherwise came out with no issues and I lubed it up really well. The problem I'm having is reinstalling it.

The turntable spins freely until the spindle assembly is reinstalled. After that is in place it scrapes on something underneath and the turntable binds up. (The motor will not even turn it.) This occurs both in the loading and playing positions. I've taken this thing apart and put it back together several times with the same result and don't see anything wrong, but obviously something is! (I did have the rounded tip fall off the end of the turntable shaft but was able to retrieve it and put it back in place.)

What might be causing this problem? (I also have a Zenith VP2000 with the same symptoms that I'd like to do the same surgery on, but don't want to take that one apart until the RCA is properly reassembled.)

[rogblake]

This morning I took the cover off the VP2000 to compare turntable operation. On the Zenith the turntable rotates freely, and the spring-loaded center spindle moves up and down without resistance or interference.

It looks like what is happening on the SFT100 is that the spindle legs are hitting the lift pad underneath the turntable, preventing free rotation. When you push the spindle down you can feel it pushing against the lift pad and the lift mechanism visibly moves.

I'm not sure what's going on here as I don't see any adjustments or any other way this can go back together. (Unfortunately it's impossible to see under the turntable when it's in place, and I'm not going to further dismantle the VP2000 until I figure out what's going on!)

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong here?

[rogblake]

Problem solved!

Looking more carefully at the lifting pad I could see that it is undercut so the "fingers" on the spindle assembly can go *under* it. I wasn't pushing the spindle down far enough during assembly, so the fingers were winding up on the wrong side of the lifting pad.

Now the unit works great, I get a strong, steady color picture! (Aside from the usual skipping, of course.)

In an age where everything is going to solid-state with few if any moving parts, it's refreshing to work on something that is so in-your-face mechanical!