Rom Zito - part of the sticking can be old bad grease. The other part is that the center hole on the middle gear actually swells overtime and gets too tight on its spindle. Simply drill out the center hole to remove the old grease which removes a small amount of the plastic as well and put back together again.
I have now done this.
After I removed the little washer that holds the middle gear in place, the gear came off very easily. I don't know if that means that it was not swollen or just that it was loose because i had just used it.
I started with a #53 bit and spun them through the hole by hand, stopping with the #49 bit because that one clearly removed plastic. Greased the worm gear, middle shaft, and three gear assembly and then re-assembled.
I tested it with Fatal Fury Special and it did seem to load faster. I'm going to put it into storage for 2-3 months and then get it back out and see if it still spins free.
Let me ask again: I have a new to me PCE CD and Super CD unit. Is it recommended that I perform any maintenance on them now since they will be in storage. I also have three black Duos but I never had any trouble with those CD-Drives.
This exercise is making me think I need to get into my Sega CDs and 3DOs and grease them too.