JaguarCD Player Transport Mechanism Lubrication for Increased Stability

[ovalbugmann]

I have Sega Dreamcast units that are all very loud/noisy, as is normal and that can't be good, so I decided to lubricate the GD-ROM Laser Transport inside one of them, now the one I did is very quiet nearly silent pretty much - a truely drastic change really. I understand its been a decade and a half since they were manufactured and because high quality greases for plastic gears/rubbers are quite expensive and so they were applied very lightly by Sega to the DC's moving disc mech. parts during assembly and are all dried up nowadays(was practically no grease in there) making them loud and maybe causing early failures in many DC's so I watched a youtube video and proceeded greasing it up! It works soo quiet now! (really its silent) and prolly is wearing down my laser mech at a much lesser speedy rate - especially with all the burned discs I have of homebrews, utilities, demos, protos, betas, etc. because of less than optimal data arrangement on CD burned stuff.

 

Therefore, I decided to do it to a Jaguar CD laser transport mechanism and with both the DC and JaguarCD I have put the maximum amount of grease in there without going totally overboard and becoming a mess. I greased the main steel shaft of course, the 'long' straight toothed gear underneath it, the biggest plastic gear and the one underneath it, and the 3 or 4 plastic gears that connect to the secondary motor that moves the whole CD Mech. on the steel shaft - everything. I had to take everything apart to get to the underside of the the cd mech., removing it from its plastic frame, undoing the delicate ribbon cable and taking it completely out of the unit. The DC was far easier nothing has to be taken out of it the whole gd-rom mech. just 'flips' over -I moved the DC laser eye all the way to one side so I could easily flip it 180 degrees to one side balance it all just right so nothing is being pulled and grease it for good video game sexplay, lol(you know I had to make some lube joke, right?)- with both jobs i worked the grease into the gears with a finger moving the gears till they were all covered, not really necessary to work it in but I did - it was a bit messy, but just on a finger or two.

 

The greasing of the Jaguar CD Player laser mech. makes it completely silent(wasn't really noisy b4 tho-just a touch of light sounds occasionally), but the real benefit I've seen in playing discs is less read errors, so I've concluded its improved CD laser tracking on discs and given the whole mechanism increased stability and reliability and possibly longevity.

 

Just thought I would tell you guys this as it has helped I feel.

 

The selection of the right grease to use I researched because of the plastic parts -petroleum based greases will eat away plastics and rubbers over time, so the best grease it a dialectic silicone type I think you could use(like for spark plugs), and an even better type is this which is the grease that I used on my DC and JagCD -bought at Amazon for $10 duckets for a three ounce tube:

 

Super Lube 92003 Silicone Lubricating Grease Compound with Syncolon-PTFE, 3 oz Tube, Translucent White

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0081JE0OO?keywords=super%20lube%20silicone&qid=1444310501&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

 

Alternatively, you could use this below synthetic grease which is just as good and half the price of the other but not silicone based, and I don't think it would damage plastics over time but from all i read about each type this one seemed more automotive/general mechanical oriented and I wanted to ensure my Jag's plastic gears don't get ate/dissolved up! lol. Not that this one below would do that but I wanted to be safe. Both are 5 stars rated on Amazon.

 

Super Lube 21030 Synthetic Grease w/Syncolon-PTFE (NLGI 2), 3 oz Tube

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000XBH9HI?keywords=super%20lube%20silicone&qid=1444310501&ref_=sr_1_2&sr=8-2

 

Sorry there's no pics but, Thanks for reading my thread!

Edited October 8, 2015 by ovalbugmann

[Isgoed]

Excellent post!

 

[kill_bill]

Thank you! Did you take any pictures of the process? If so would you want to share?

[ovalbugmann]

Mechanism pics are for the Jaguar CD Player. Under the ribbon cable is the 'long' straight gear I mentioned as well as the single steel bar slider track(you may want to put some grease on the opposite sliding side of the bar - plastic -but its not necessary really), also there is a small gear under the big white gear and a few leading to that rectangular motor.

Edited October 9, 2015 by ovalbugmann

[Gunstar]

As careful as I am about taking care of my systems I am suprised I never thought to do this to them. I am going to have to get some of that grease. I'll do all my working systems including the DC, JagCD, 3DO and 360. Thanks for the tip!