CD-ROM² mechanical issues, need help balancing assembly

[Adrinator]

Hello everyone, this is my first post!

A few months ago I purchased a 'junk' CDR-30 from japan. Turns out the plastic of one of the 3 feet holding the assembly in place broke off. One of the rubber spacers also turned out to be very brittle and got damaged.

After glueing the plastic back together, a complete recap and greasing the assembly, turns out the laser has problems reading the inner tracks of the disc. Later tracks play perfectly though, tracks in the middle of the disc play fine with some skipping. Checking the lasers eye pattern with an oscilloscope, looks like the laser isn't the problem. I adjusted VR103 and that seems to improve the skipping but inner tracks still skip and tapping the player lightly also still causes skipping.

Seems like the assembly not being perfectly balanced causes this, as installing washers also influenced this and tilting the player improved playback even further. I also replaced the rubber feet with those of another assembly using the same laser, but seems like they aren't strong enough to properly hold the assembly.

My question is: Is there a way to properly balance the assembly so it plays discs reliably? Does the assembly really need to be perfectly balanced to work properly? Are there any known replacements for the rubber spacers holding the assembly in place?

I tried fixing this issue for weeks but I can't seem to find a solution. Hope you guys can help me out so I can finally play some CD-ROM² games

[NightWolve]

This is a perfect question for @Keith Courage. Click his account to try reaching him on Facebook or YouTube where he's active.

I can occasionally invite him over but since our forum here is so slow/inactive he doesn't continue visits and I don't wanna be annoying.