Sluggish CD eject on iMac G3 (slot loaded)

[VicNor]

The inject and eject is sluggish and low power. It just barely moves the disk in and out.

I've heard that it's common that a belt age and that prevents normal ejection. Is this belt easy to replace?

 

[wottle]

Not sure if the mechanism is similar to that on the slot loaded powerbooks, but I believe on mine, it was a problem that the rubber sleeve on the roller for ejecting the CD was slipping on the metal rod it was installed on. I believe you can fix it by removing it and boiling it to shrink it back to its original size, giving a tighter hold on the bar. I simply put a dab of super glue on the bar and slide the rubber over it to get it to hold. Haven't had any problems.

Again, not sure if the problem is similar on the G3, as I've not serviced any of my slot loaders.

 

[VicNor]

Not sure if the mechanism is similar to that on the slot loaded powerbooks, but I believe on mine, it was a problem that the rubber sleeve on the roller for ejecting the CD was slipping on the metal rod it was installed on. I believe you can fix it by removing it and boiling it to shrink it back to its original size, giving a tighter hold on the bar. I simply put a dab of super glue on the bar and slide the rubber over it to get it to hold. Haven't had any problems.

Again, not sure if the problem is similar on the G3, as I've not serviced any of my slot loaders.

I'll get my IDE to CF-adaptor next week, so I'll take out the CD drive and look at it closer while I'm in there. Thanks for the idea that the belt might be boiled back into shape. I have to admit it sounds a bit radical, but it might very well work. Hopefully the belt is easy to remove - I mean, we've all seen Techmoan's belt replacement adventures.

 

[wottle]

I'll get my IDE to CF-adaptor next week, so I'll take out the CD drive and look at it closer while I'm in there. Thanks for the idea that the belt might be boiled back into shape. I have to admit it sounds a bit radical, but it might very well work. Hopefully the belt is easy to remove - I mean, we've all seen Techmoan's belt replacement adventures.

I've heard boiling the belt can help with the belt. But to be clear, my belt appeared fine and was not slipping, so I left it alone. For me, it was the rubber roller on the rod slipping even when I could see the wheel attached to the belt was spinning appropriately. And boiling may work on that roller sleeve as well, but superglue was the fix I did as it didn't require full disassembly.

 

[lobust]

The slot loader on my cube had similar problems, I tried the boiling the belt, gluing the roller type fixes, it turned out that the primary gear was slipping on the shaft of the motor.

I used a tiny amount of loctite to fix it on the shaft and the drive works perfectly now.

 

[neverendingsigh]

The slot loader on my cube had similar problems, I tried the boiling the belt, gluing the roller type fixes, it turned out that the primary gear was slipping on the shaft of the motor.

I used a tiny amount of loctite to fix it on the shaft and the drive works perfectly now.

Which Loctite product did you use? They have an overwhelming number of products now, most of which are permanent adhesives. I'm reasonably sure you mean the blue threadlocker linked here but better I ask a dumb question than ruin my drive.

 

[lobust]

Which Loctite product did you use? They have an overwhelming number of products now, most of which are permanent adhesives. I'm reasonably sure you mean the blue threadlocker linked here but better I ask a dumb question than ruin my drive.

That would probably work fine. I used one of the permanent red ones simply because that's what I had to hand. Probably any kind of suitable glue would work just as well, but I specifically decided not to use superglue because I was concerned that it might set before I got the gear pushed on the correct distance.

Just be careful to apply it to the inside of the gear and not the motor shaft, so that any excess is pushed out the other end rather than running into the motor bearing...

 

[neverendingsigh]

That would probably work fine. I used one of the permanent red ones simply because that's what I had to hand. Probably any kind of suitable glue would work just as well, but I specifically decided not to use superglue because I was concerned that it might set before I got the gear pushed on the correct distance.

Just be careful to apply it to the inside of the gear and not the motor shaft, so that any excess is pushed out the other end rather than running into the motor bearing...

Thanks for the tips!

I have two drives, both struggling, and with the first one I've taken apart it looks like my failure mode is the same as on wottle's PB drive: the gearbox is in good order and the belt still has quite a bit of life, but the rubbers on the roller shaft are slipping. I have a can of 3M 77 spray adhesive on the way, to try something less permanent than super glue; but I might also try boiling them.

There's a lot of varied and disconnected discussions on this issue. I may end up taking some time to catalogue the various failure modes and solutions at some point.

 

[VicNor]

### UPDATE ###

So I boiled the belt for 2-3 minutes (flipped it over every 20-30 seconds with a fork so it wouldn't stick to the bottom of the pan). First I washed the belt with some dish soap. Then boiled the belt in tap water. I let the belt rest for maybe 10-15 minutes on a paper towel before I tried to mount the belt again. I also cleaned the little wheels that the rubber belt was resting on with eye glass graded IPA on a cotton swab.

After boiling the belt I noticed that it got a lot more circular shape, a tad more rigid.

I think that I moved something in the mechanism while cleaning the little wheels, because the first CD needed some force/determination to be accepted by the drive. (I checked in the System info to see that I had really connect the CD drive, before giving the CD a bit more force) The drive said KLONK and then accepted the CD. The motor is a bit noicy but it happily accepts CD's and ejects them without hesitation. So I would say that the boil was a success!

Next step would be to give the CD drive a proper lubrication. But that's another project. It was such a pain in the butt the get drive cage back in the machine and to connect the ATAPI/IDE-cable to the drives.

 

[Paolo B]

Here’s another way: thermal sleeve sheath for ensuring proper grip of the rollers.