Repair of a Marantz 74CD67 CD Player

My mother bought this Marantz 74CD67 CD player in 1996. Twenty years later, it was unable to read reliably.

This comprehensive list of CD player mechanisms at http://www.dutchaudioclassics.nl/philips_cdm_cd_mechanism_list/ (local copy) showed I needed a Philips CDM12.1 mechanism. This was easy to find on ebay as a “VAM1201 VAM1202 CDM12.1 CDM12.2 laser transport mechanism for Philips NEW”. Total cost with free shipping from Hong Kong was $13.

I also found this detailed guide to replacing the laser mechanism https://www.hifigear.co.uk/blog/marantz-cd63se-laser-transport-mechanism-replacement/ and the Marantz-CD-67-SE-Service-Manual (which wasn’t that helpful for this particular repair).

Here is the player opened up.

Undo the three connectors and unscrew the CD assembly.

There is another connector for the daughter board.

The CD mechanism in its plastic sled.

The new and old look very similar.

In fact, at this point I was very pleased I took the previous photo so I could double check I didn’t mix up the old and new mechanisms :-)

Put it back together and it works! Hopefully good for another 20 years.