Here is what I finally found out, and did. I bought a 600i SCSI 4x drive for $15 on eBay. The TAM drive is model CR-504-D. The 600i drive is CR-504-C. Very close. I took it apart and the mechanism and circuit board are almost identical to the TAM. The circuit board has a different soldered-on IC, and a couple small switches soldered on tat can be ignored (for sensing the open/close and controlling the eject motor tray). Rather than desolder the IC chips for a swap, I tried only swapping the mechanical optical drive assembly. Yippee, my TAM now plays CDs.
If swapping just the optical drive assembly doesn't make your CD play, then try using the CR-504-C circuit board. There are a couple wires to transfer from the old board, easily soldered into place. Jumpers on the pins need to be removed (SCSI ID and termination). The one unknown is the IC chip. They have different labels between the two CD devices. I have not yet tested it to see if the TAM will operated with the 600i IC chip.
So... a Mac 600i CD drive is very compatible with the TAM. Make sure it's the CR-504-C as there are others that may not be compatible.