Question: Is the sound you mentioning perceived while you are playing a CD, or when you are moving from CD to CD? Is the sound perceived only when starting the CD, or also while the CD is playing? Is the sound a mechanical clicking coming from the drive, or do you hear it through the loudspeakers?

Hi Zuegers07: The clicking sound is mechanical. It doesn't come through the speakers. It's from the mechanism. The sound only happens when the CD is spinning up and reading the TOC. Once it starts playing there is no clicking sound. It is as if when the laser is being recalled to the center of the disc to read the TOC, the sled motor continues to run even though laser pickup has reached the start position and unable to run further. It's also intermittent. Once every few times and more often form a cold start.   Derek

So I finally fixed this problem. Inside the CD mech there is a reed switch that tells the CD controller when the laser reached the end of the sled. The contacts on the switch have oxidized and so the motor doesn't know when to stop spinning. The clicking sound comes from the worm gear spinning when the laser as reached the end position. The fix is a little deoxit and sliding a rough piece of paper between the contacts to remove the oxidation.   Derek