When the nylon gear went on my Data Basic II, I simply unplugged the motor and made sure that the gear no longer made contact with the drawer mechanism. Then I glued a small black knob onto the front of the drawer to open and close it with. I've been using it this way for almost a year without any problems. The dang thing still sounds great and I just can't bring myself to part with it. Feel free to email me if you have any questions.
Upgrade for brittle CD transports?
Having recently endured the breaking for no apparent reason of the brittle plastic teeth used to drive the tray in my Philips equipped, $2,000 list CD transport, now I'm wondering. Do any CD player or transport manufacturers tout their upgrade of off-the-shelf CD mechanisms with quality parts, like nylon or delrin gears? Or, does anyone go so far as to make their own mechanisms, ala Nakamichi cassette decks in their heydey? It's got to get better than this.