JVC HM-DH40000U D-Theater VCR follow-up: Digital and Pre-Amp boards recapped, now less drop-outs

Took the time to carefully recap the digital and preamp boards on this unit as a means to help with performance--took no less than 6-8 hours on my first go-through! Seems to have had a positive effect, as now drop-outs are not as frequent and, in fact, a couple of problem tapes were handled better than even on my 30000U. The overall dropout frequency on this is still a bit more than my 30000U, and what's really annoying is that sometimes on DTS tracks during dropouts, it causes a loud popping sound that's really startling (doesn't happen on DD or PCM tracks). Not sure if that's just specific to my Denon or if it is indeed a format issue (don't have another sound set-up to try it in).
As far as the tape chewing, no clear answers, sadly. The capstan did seize up while servicing it this time around, and became unstuck when I removed the capstan out of the mechanism to inspect it. Belt was good, so it seemed to be the capstan itself that was causing the chewing.
Ultimately, I would like to find an identical mechanism in better shape and swap it out to see if the drop-outs are improved and to have a reliable capstan.