Clicking Atari Jaguar CD repair

[Bratwurst]

If your Atari Jag CD makes a loud grinding/clicking noise on bootup before it begins spinning the disc, or at any time it's trying to access streaming audio/video data, this may fix the issue. The drive's limit switch is either not connected (poor wire connection), the contacts corroded and thus need to be cleaned/tinned, or in this particular case, physically not reaching the leaf switch. I have designed a plastic harness that can be clipped into place, glued or both which extends the laser sled's reach by 2mm:

 

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4037935

 

Note that in order to freely move the laser back and forth you'll need to unclip and dislocate the motor with its wormgear:

 

 

As seen below, the limit switch is not getting hit at all by the laser sled being pushed all the way to the spindle.

 

 

With the clip in place, you want to verify that nothing is going to catch or drag on the gears or underside of the drive.

 

 

Just enough augmentation to properly actuate the leaf switch:

 

 

It's also a good idea while you're in here to inspect all the wire connections because the ones in this drive were very frail and poorly done. Touch up with new solder, secure with dots of hot glue even. Cleaning off the old white lithium grease and replacing it with silicone or similar quality lithium should also be done.

 

 

Edited December 10, 2019 by Bratwurst

[Rick Dangerous]

"Don't try this at home kids; unless you are a trained professional" 

[Flojomojo]

6 minutes ago, Rick Dangerous said:

"Don't try this at home kids; unless you are a trained professional" 

Fer shure. Those tiny plastic gear teeth are calling out for me to strip and ruin them forever. (Don't let me near anything mechanical)

[Bratwurst]

Well, somebody's got to benefit from this further on down the road.

[LinkoVitch]

Rather than remove the sled motor I'd suggest an alternative is to remove the whole laser transport from the rubber vibration mounts, this gives you easy access to the edge of the leaf contacts (if you just need to reconnect the wire).

My (now) rather ancient guide

[Bratwurst]

It's honestly trivial to unscrew the limiter leaf switch out for total access and I'd rather avoid ripping 20+ year old rubber at this point.

[doctor_shred]

This is an interesting read.  I bought my JagCD in about '97 off Matt McGee at the Console Centre in the UK (anyone remember him?) and it made a clicking noise from day 1.  It was a used system but in good condition and, as I had no point of reference, I assumed all JagCDs did it.

 

I've had 100s of hours use from it and amazingly it still works so I'm not tempted to take it apart and start fiddling with it.  It's good to know there's an explanation for the noise though.

 

Thanks for sharing.

[LinkoVitch]

They may make a single click at the start on occasion.  If the sensors wire breaks it will be unusable and just make a horrible grinding noise and eventually wear out the gears/motor.