PIONEER PD M423 Multi-Play Disc Player skips and gets hung up in certain spots when playing CD's

PIONEER PD M423 Multi-Play Disc Player skips and gets hung up in certain spots when playing CD's. I first thought it was the laser assembly getting hung up on the guide rail, so I cleaned and lubed the rail. However that still did fix the problem. After further inspection I found that the gear that controls the laser assemblies motion would stop moving at times. So I removed the gear for inspection. I found that some of the teeth on the gear were worn out. After replacing the gear, the unit works like new.

                                          PIONEER PD M423 Multi-Play Disc Player

              Remove a total of six screws to remove the case, two on each side and two in the rear.

 Remove the three screws circled in the photo, then remove the two brackets. The gear can be easily removed by lifting it out of the slot. An arrow is pointing to the gear in the photo.

                Here is the gear after removal, the top portion of the shaft is where the teeth are worn.