Turbografx CD Rom2 Gear replacements?

[Dashopepper]

So I picked up a Turbografx CD unit the infamous "cheese" gear. Witch is a gear that commonly disintegrates. So my first stop is the forums and every where I read it says once the gear goes it might as well be a door stop. There is no replacement. So after watching some videos of oversized gears or gluing two gears together or balloon ends and rubber bands i'm pretty discouraged. So I pop on Ebay and to my surprise there's a guy selling them (http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xturbograf x+gear.TRS0&_nkw=turbografx+gear&_sacat=0). I also found them from another site (http://www.otakus-store.net/en/home/304-replacement-gear-pinion-for-nec-cd-rom-player-part.html). A lot of the postings and some videos were under a year old. So does anyone know about these? Has anyone used one?

[Dashopepper]

I went ahead and bought the gear replacement from eBay. Perfect match and my CD system works great.

Finding information on the web was really difficult so I'll write some stuff in here that may help others out searching the forums.

1. TG CDs are region free while the Hucards are not. So you can play Japanese CD games on a US system.

2. you will need a CD system card in order to run the CD add-on. The 2.0 is the standard. The 3.0 is the super CD card and is used on a majority of games including Castlevania: rondo of blood.

3. The US 3.0 cards are extremely expensive $175+. The Japanese cards are $20 but you will have to region mod your system to use them.

4. The CD system plugs into a base that the TurboGrafx system sits on. The base alone can act as a Turbo booster, with game saves and A/V out.

5. There is no battery for game saves. A capacitor holds charge and keeps your saves. You just need to plug in your base to keep it's charged ever so often.

6. Both lock switches need to be locked in place in order for the base to work. One for the TG16 and one for the CD (even if it's not attached).

7. The middle gear in most CD Rom2 that drive the laser will be bad. It's kind of like yellowing SNES that become brittle and chip. These can be replaced as can the laser. There are some well made videos of disassembling the unit.

8. The system will play CD-R's so if you don't feel like dropping major dough on some games there's options.

This is some personal info I looked into and nothing definitive. Please add anything else you'd like.

[Niku-Sama]

Nice info I'll have to remember this thread. Do you happen to remember who manufactured the drives for them?