Hi Doug, thanks for your help. Unfortunately, upon lowering the platter
to the height required to reliablely mount the CDs then they would mess
up on the outer tracks. Therefore, I bit the bullet and removed the
lens actuation cover and flipped the suspension springs upside down.
Now the unit works like new... Thanks again!

Doug wrote:
A few wild guesses...

Clamping magnet is so strong that the load/eject drive can't
overcome
it's grip. This was a problem in some Onkyos, the remedy was an
adhesive spacer sheet to separate the chucking pieces. With a disc
present, the magnet and its companion are separated by the CD itself.

I've seen some units focus only when sideways or upside down. Trouble
was in pickup which had "sagging optics" requiring more voltage to
lift
into focus. Maybe you could fudge it a little by lowering the disc
table height.

Good Luck,

Doug