CLD-D704: Disc Spin-up and Audio Issues

My CLD-D704 has been sitting for a while. I tried to fire it up the other night, and was disappointed to find that it now has problems. Non-clamp problems.

Issue 1: When loading a disc, it is hesitant to spin it up in the "traditional" sense. Meaning, if you close the tray by pressing the eject or play buttons, the tray retracts, the laser assembly makes a little whirring noise for a few seconds, then the tray ejects. It works fine, however, if you hit the B-side button or if you power down with the tray extended, let it retract and park, then turn it back on and press play. I've got the cover pulled now; if I nudge the laser assembly towards the rear of the player before putting in the disc, it works okay. But I let it play both sides out and re-park the assembly, and the problem came back.

Issue 2: No right channel audio, either from the rear panel or the headphone jack. I don't have anything with an optical input, so I can't tell if it's both the analog and digital stages, but I fear that the player may have gotten dropped hard during my last move, and something broke loose.

Kurtis, you are a treasure to the community. I've noticed that nearly every single Google search for troubleshooting these old tanks has your responses in it.

So, it looks like it was clamp after all. It just seemed odd that spinning the disc one way wouldn't work, but the other worked fine.

It does seem, though, that the audio is the bigger issue. Digital audio, I'm only getting left channel with occasional static and hiss on the right, LDs and CDs. Analog, both channels work fine.

I figure that there's probably somewhere in Los Angeles that can service these things, but is it worth it? What's the going rate for LD player repair these days?