CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

[Rixrex]

I just got an SKT 400 that had been pretty well pounded up in shipping.

Most of the damage is cosmetic, fortunately which can be fixed up well enough, and of course the turntable had dropped down lower on the spindle. I have yet to get a J/K player shipped where that hasn't happened.

But the biggest trouble of all was a snapped off transfer rod pivot, the little plastic device that holds the transfer rod to the gearing that controls the dropping or lifting of the disc. Now I've seen this before and didn't have an answer except to pull the part from somewhere else.

But with no spare around and in eagerness to get the player working, I decided to try a fix. I located the broken rod holder part, the U shaped rounded section that had fallen in the player, and pushed the pin end out of the hole where it remained. The pin is a bit longer than the hole and juts out a bit on one side.

I then drilled a 1/4 inch hole in the rod holder where the pin had snapped off, 1/4 inch is the exact size of the pin. I fully intended to find a piece of hard wire or a nail that would be the same size of the pin, but realized the snapped off pin would fit perfectly in the hole, and just be a small fraction shorter than it was, and should still work rather than cutting a piece of wire to use.

So I placed one end of it in the drilled hole, with a couple drops of super glue to hold it in place, making sure none dribbled out to cause a bump or rough spot. After plenty of time to dry, I eased the pivot with the newly fixed pin back into the hole on the gearing while holding the transfer rod up and out of the way, and then let the rod settle into place gently.

It works like a charm now and, except for having to do some cosmetic fixup, it's a pretty sweet player. Since the case has cracks and broken places, I'm going to fix those up and then paint the whole thing black to match my LD player and so the fixes aren't visible.