# Alpine 7909 transport info



## jeffp (Jan 18, 2015)

I bought these two units from ebay, and needless to say they were a total mess. I was first thinking I could build one unit from the two, but my drive and wanting to make them work got the best of me. So I went about to bring both units up and running.
The first deck was not to hard to make work again, but it had problems loading the cd.
The first problem was that the cd would not load by itself without some help, well that is fine if the cover is off the unit LOL but not to good installed.
I worked on that for a number of days. I tried working on the clutch, the roller and nothing would make it load correctly. Then I removed and sanded the black plastic top guide pieces with 1500 grit and buffed it out. That was somewhat effective. So I went back to the clutch and tightened the spring pressure some. That did not work, but what started happening was the roller would do a burnout on the cd and screw it up, or scratch it up anyway. The cd would still not load correctly. So back to the clutch. I finally removed the felt and replaced it with a fiber cloth (the blue shop towels were perfect consistency). I used gaskacynch to glue the material to the clutch, that worked out perfectly. The gasket glue is very similar to contact cement, but it lays down a much thinner layer, so it was ideal to keep the new fiber flat. Then I made adjustments to the spring again. The clutch, is a trouble area for these decks I have come to learn. The clutch must grab well enough to draw the cd in, but slip enough so that the transition of the cd being drawn into the mech, and the second operation to lower the cd to the motor drive, there has to be slip in that transition or again you leave burnouts on the cd, and kill the cd. So I got the clutch operation correct finally, (after days of screwing with it) and again the cd would not draw all the way into the mech. I noticed if I pushed down on the cd slightly, it would draw all the way into the mech. So after checking all of the mech for operation, chassis not bent and everything I could think of to check I still had an inconsistent operation. So the last ditch effort I did was to shim the top plastic piece I first sanded to push it closer to the roller with some rubber shim stock I have. That worked perfect! now the clutch slips enough not to do a burnout on the cd, the shimmed plastic pieces provides enough clamping on the cd to draw it into the mech, and then drop it on to the motor drive spindle consistently without doing a burnout on the cd. 

FINALLY solved the problem, and good thing to, as the clutch is NLA. 
Two things left to do on this unit. Repair, and replace the wires on the cage. I don't know WHY people ALWAYS have to cut the wires short, hack off the connectors, bullet connectors and screw up the design of the harness. The one consolation is that the line in and out cables are always intact. So an order from Allied electronics for the wire is in order, including the correct wire color and size. A new harness!
The second thing to do is to take the case cover, and I am going to powder coat it texture black, in stead of black paint. That will look so sharp, and the powder coat is so tough, it will not scratch off like the paint installing and removing the deck from the cage.
These two units are going to be a total refurb, and upgrade. Not like what most people call a refurb, but complete.

1) laser replacement
2)total recap of the main board, front display board, Audio board, and the cd transport PCB's
3) upgrade of the audio coupler caps in the audio board, the main board.
4) full adjustment and tweak for optimization of the output, including
adjustment of the laser gain for proper RF output of the laser.
5) rebuild of the DC to DC converter, all the caps, replaced with rubycon capacitor components rated at 130 degrees C.
The dc filter caps are High quality, low ESR Panasonic components rated at 105 degrees C.
The audio coupler caps are the Elna Silmic II components. These parts test better then Black Gate capacitors, and since Black Gate has been out of business since 2007, just about any one of those caps are questionable.
6) both back up memory batteries replaced

Just for your information, here is a link to the comparison of the high end capacitor manufacturers bench test one guy did, very interesting results. 

(http://tech.juaneda.com/en/articles/electrolyticcapacitors.html)

I think it is safe to say, these two decks will be about the best you can get, even better the new from the factory.


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## vinman (Feb 5, 2013)

Thank you Jeff , as usual very informative and usefull for future reference


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## jeffp (Jan 18, 2015)

You are welcome Vinman, I like to help where I can, and if I can save someone some time money and effort I am all for that.

So the transport was working very well, and I buttoned up the unit. The next day I checked it again and it left a mark on the new cd I burned for testing the insertion and eject of the cd, all I could think was BI##H. 
I decided at that point hell with it, so I disassembled the entire transport and started cleaning and lubing the unit. I was hoping not to have to go that far with it but, but White lithium grease after 30 years just is not the same grease it was when it was first applied.
Funny thing is I knew it needed to be done. I just did not want to take the whole assembly apart to clean and re-lube it. The mech is a pain in the butt to disassemble. The thing that pushed me to do it was I did not like the how the gearing was feeling when I manually operated the mech.

I took about three hours to take the unit apart, clean all the old grease off and re-lube it and reassemble the mech. 
I am glad I did it now. The action is smooth, the cd insertion is positive, and the ejection is perfect. The mech holds the cd in place with a positive clamp on the cd. You can hear the roller snap back into its resting position when you pull the cd out. 
NO marks on the cd in any form, and that is important for longevity of the cd. I have cd's that I have taken care of for 25 years, and still look like the day I bought them.
So the morel of the story is, Jeff stop being lazy, and do what you know you should have done in the first place, that's if you want the deck to last another 20 years without any problems LOL.


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## Robb (Dec 5, 2008)

good info !


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