Damaged Gears

[Chuplayer]

My DVD/VCD/MP3CD player has been acting up, so I opened it up and poked around.I managed to disassemble part of the DVD drive and removed some of the gears. I noticed that the gear that's attached to the motor is cracked lengthwise between the teeth. I think that's allowing one of the teeth to extend outwards farther than it should and push into the middle of the gear it connects to. When that happens, it causes the gears to jam.

If I can fix this without getting a new motor (if that is even possible), it would kick ass. I was thinking of two work-arounds:

1. Gently grind down the offending gear tooth. That way the tooth would not be able to reach the middle of the next gear while still being long enough to catch between the other gear's teeth. It would be a quicker job, but there's a higher risk of seriously fucking up the whole thing if I make a mistake/sneeze/get caught in an earthquake.

2. Gently grind out between each and every tooth of the gear that the offending gear attaches to so that the offending gear will have more clearance and will not jam. It would be safer than the first option, but it would take FOREVER. It also might not work, and it might make the gear teeth super-brittle and break easily. However, I could probably get a new gear if that ever happened.

So, those are my ideas. I have no dremel. I have sandpaper for option 1 and a knife for option 2. There's got to be some way to fix this. I don't know about changing the gear on the motor itself. Is that possible? It seems like it's glued on. That's the major problem. I don't think I can simply replace the gear. I think I've got to do something else entirely.

Maybe you guys will know something I don't. Well, thanks in advance.

[phreak97]

it's more likely jamming because the crack is causing the teeth to misallign. so none of your ideas will work there.. finding a new gear would be your best bet.. look in some junked cd drives or something.. if you find one the same, replace it, it cant be too hard, if the cracked one is glued on, rip it off anyway.

if you cant do that, try to file between the teeth either side of the crack, make the clearence between them a tiny bit bigger, so they can allow for misallignment, its a dodgy as hell fix, but hey, i've done worse myself if youre content on it being cos the crack has increased the gears width at the place of the crack, you can file a tiny bit of the tips too, but dont go mad, the teeth still need to be there:P

[atom]

it's more likely jamming because the crack is causing the teeth to misallign.

Actually, I think thats what he was saying. If your gear methods don't work out go ahead and do the atom method. Buy a new DVD player, they're hella cheap.

[Chuplayer]

Well, I just gave grinding the gears down a shot, and it didn't work. Long story short, fission mailed.

Still, the gear did slide off of the motor's metal rod. I'm searching for a replacement gear now. Anybody know where to find them?

[phreak97]

if it slid off, are you sure the motor wasnt just slipping inside the gear? you could always try using hot glue or something so you can remove it again if it doesnt work

for new gears, i'd look in some random junk drives.. i've not heard of anywhere sellnig spare ones.

[Chuplayer]

if it slid off, are you sure the motor wasnt just slipping inside the gear?

I'm pretty sure it wasn't the motor slipping inside the gear because of the crack I saw and the fact that the gears locked up when the cracked portion was facing the other gear. Perhaps the motor was slipping inside of the gear after it jammed, but it was the jamming that was causing it.

[Chuplayer]

I give up. Time to get a new DVD player.

[atom]

I give up. Time to get a new DVD player.