There is a line of products made for cleaning and protecting furniture, antiques especially, called Kotton Klenser. The originator made a product called Lemonite for cleaning pinball playfields. It cleaned even the dirtiest. They sell at antique shows but also have a website.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I'm thinking the muting on that box is in a set of switches on a relay on the turntable or by the tone arm.

The mechanism could be gummed up. The brushes on the motors could be worn, dirty. I've seen the rectifier, the big heat sink looking thing in the power supply with wires soldered to it, go bad. In fact someone asked me to work on one once that would run fine in one direction and slow in the other be...

The mechanism needs oiling. The clutch is not sliding down when the record reaches the turntable so the mechanism keeps moving causing it to reject. After it warms up, the clutch stops sticking and drops allowing the record to be played. Do not use WD40 as it thickens and sticks causing problems suc...

When you say nothing, what do you mean? Does it place the CD on the player, does it spin as if it plays the entire song, does it spin stop spin stop? Have you checked the power supply?