Well, I acquired another broken TGCD drive with dock from a friend. The middle gear was questionable but worked. I recapped the drive and ended up having a bad laser as well. I installed a new laser I had received from Keith Courage awhile back. I dialed in the pots and played the crap out of it. After sitting for about a week I went to test it again and found the drive wouldn't work. Took it apart and found the middle gear was the culprit but it would work again if I bumped it free. I decided to replace the gear being very careful not to lose the holding clip. While re-installing the clip with the new gear in place I dropped it into the assembly somewhere. The bitch is I've torn the thing completely apart and cannot find the clip anywhere and I've spent the last 2 hours or so trying to find it.
I am mucho pissed at myself right now. So, how screwed am I? Am I going to be forced to start buying up cheap CD mechanisms to find a suitable replacement or does somebody know of a source for one?