TurboDuo spindle clearance

[Hatta]

I acquired a TurboDuo in "as is" condition.  I'm having some mechanical issues with the CD drive.  When I first tested it, it did not spin at all.  Searching through the forums, I found this post, which lead me to remove the plastic cover over the spindle.  That was definitely part of the problem, as the disc will now spin up.  It seems like the spindle has sunk a bit, and there was no clearance over the plastic cover.

However, this did not quite fix my problem.  Since the spindle is a little lower than it should be, it doesn't quite connect with the disk in the lid that sandwiches the CD and secures it while spinning.  If I put some weight on the lid with my finger, I can actually get it to read a CD and start a game.  It has to be just the right amount of pressure, or horrible scary grinding noises result. 

So the disk isn't quite securely sandwiched how it should be.  Is there some way I can return the spindle to its appropriate height?

Alternatively, it might be the lid.  When I close the lid, the front left corner is nice and secure, but the right corner has quite a bit of play.  That corner pop up and down when I press on it.  If I could get that corner to latch securely, it would probably hold the CD snug.

Any thoughts? Advice? This is a pretty silly way they came up with to secure the CD as it spins.  Hopefully someone has encountered this issue and dealt with it before.  At least my laser is fine!   Thanks.

[Hatta]

Hm, with a little fiddling it seems to be working ok with no pressure on the lid.  It still sounds like it's encountering some resistance though.  Giving off a constant swish-swish-swish-swish sound.  I'm not sure how a good turbo duo is supposed to sound.  Is this normal, or am I likely to damage my discs?

[esteban]

I would not put a disc (video game or music) worth more than a few dollars in there... friction is no friend to discs

[Hatta]

I'm not sure it's scraping on anything.  When I put a disc in it while it's open, and spin it with my finger it spins freely. The swishing that I'm hearing might even be the disc slipping inbetween the spindle and lid, if I'm correct about it not being sandwiched properly.   I don't see any scratching on the discs I've tried either.

Maybe if I can get some really tiny rubber bands I can put them on the posts where the laser assembly sits and control how far down the posts it goes.  That should get me a little more height.

I was playing with the spindle, and it seems move a bit vertically.  I can lift it maybe 1/4". (Edit: looks like it's actually less than 1/8")  Is that normal, or has my spindle settled somehow?  It would explain my problem, but I can't see how something like that would happen without breaking the spindle entirely.

[Game-Tech.US]

I have fixed a similar problem with a Duo before, all I did was pry it back up, its just pressed onto the shaft and people who dont know any better prolly pushed the disc onto the spindle with excessive force thinking it needed to be mounted on and simply pressed the spindle down onto the shaft too far. I may have had it apart when i pried it up but its been so long ago I can't remember.

[D-Lite]

You can lift the spindle by prying it up as akav said.  Use a screwdriver or similar and wedge it under and carefully lift it.  The seat should be about 1/16" above the plastic cover that's on the CD carriage.

[kattare]

Belated response, sorry.

I've come across a few Duo's with this problem.  You'll want to apply pressure evenly around the spindle as you pry it up or you risk bending the shaft or the platform.  If you bend either, the disk will not spin level and will get read errors as it gets to the outer edge.  The way I've found to exert the pressure needed in a semi-level fashion is by popping the cover off and using two fingers from each hand to pop it up.  Sometimes it takes a lot of pressure.  It will almost certainly pop up more than you want it to, but then you can push it back down as well in small increments.  Best of luck!