Xbox 360 Elite Disc Drive Shenanigans + Attempted Cleaning

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Booted my Xbox 360 after a couple of years, thought "why not, not playing anything else urgent currently and I fancy pulling up some old indies".
Boot the console, go through the rigamarole of a latest update (odd) and trying to keep my 360 connected to the new Wifi, but afterwards when trying to open the disc tray, nothing happens. Short whine, no movement.
So, go online to try and disassemble and undo whatever jam i assumed it was; open it up, carefully clean the slide of the disc tray on both sides, as well as take the belt out and give it an isopropyl wipedown, as well as the capstan and motor wheel it was stretched around. (I also took the liberty of buying some new ones because it was turning stiff from age; they'll take a few days to get to me.)
Plug everything back in, think I did it just fine...go to open tray, remains stuck. Not only does it still require a sharp tap to open up, but the flashing power light on the 360's power LEDs....doesn't stop flashing. It's as if it can't tell where the limit is anymore, and it didn't do that before.
And then, weird part; if I add a disc and send it closed again via the button...it just refuses to do anything with the disc, and spits it back out without the flashing icon in the centre of the power button.
I have no idea why it opens up just fine with the disc present, but it does, and it doesn't really accept being closed again after it's opened, because it immediately tries to spit the tray back out again, disc or no.
Even when trying to make it turn off, the console keeps trying to mess with its' disc drive, taking a lot longer to turn off because of this, while blinking the occasional power light. Absolutely baffling behaviour, no idea what it could mean, I'm stumped.
So that leaves me wondering what the hell to attempt next, because....disc drives Don't Do This, and especially in this seemingly wrong order and scrambled cause-and-effect. Help, please!

submitted by /u/MattTheSpratt
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