I’ve just finished servicing this lovely old Kenwood KP-2022 belt-drive turntable. The owner asked me if it was worth servicing the old girl. You can imagine my reply!
They just don’t make them like this anymore. The Kenwood KP-2022 is a particularly cool deck, though all need considerable maintenance at this age. This KP-2022 needed a full service, new belt, main bearing lubrication and motor lube as well.
Lack of Maintenance
Old belt drive decks like the Kenwood often used really heavy-duty motors, designed to last many years with regular oiling. The problem is most owners never oiled their motors and that appears to be the case here. There are dedicated top and bottom oiling points and these were all bone-dry.
The result of this lack of lubrication is that the rotor support bearings at the top and bottom of the motor dry out. This then leads to motor noise, which can be heard as mechanically coupled noise when playing records.
Service
In this case, I very patiently loaded the capillary oil feeds, top and bottom, with fresh light synthetic machine oil, as well as oiling the bearing felts that retain oil and then ran the deck for many hours to draw the lubricant through and into the top and bottom bearings of the motor.
The rest of the service involved cleaning, removing dust, treating wood, carefully setting stylus pressure and cartridge alignment and reconnecting the chassis earth inside the mains plug. It still amazes me just how often I find earths disconnected, and the inevitable resultant hum. Decks with a metal chassis are also potentially dangerous, should a live to chassis fault develop.
Owners often mistakenly rewire their mains plugs, thinking that removing a ground will remove a ground loop, and sometimes it will. The problem is that it creates a potentially dangerous situation and a noisy deck, should the setup ever change!
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Hi Mike, I have just discovered you blog, whilst searching for belt-drive turntable service/repairs in the hope of being able to get a Kenwood turntable very similar to the one in this article (it’s a KP-2022A). I had purchased it second hand for my daughter but the rotation speed is slow. The platter spins very freely when the belt isn’t on but I don’t think the motor Bearings have been oiled in quite a while, so I will attend to that. The belt seems ok, but I can’t be sure if it is right for this model. I’m curious as to the centre spindle removal for oiling the bearing. Does the spindle just pull straight up and out? Cheers and thanks for any advice you can give!
…in the hope of being able to get it working properly…sorry for the poor grammar! 🙂
Hi, please don’t apologise for your grammar, it is excellent! From memory, the spindle is locked in place from underneath the deck. The screw screws sideways into the bearing housing, which interlocks with a slot in the spindle – a common method of retention with decks of this period. You need to unscrew that screw before you can remove the spindle.
Thanks so much for your advice Mike, you have a great blog here, I’ve bookmarked it! I regret being on the other side of the country to you, I have a couple of pieces of equipment I could entrust to your care! 🙂
Hi Mike. Fantastic blog you have here and very informative. I have been given this exact same turntable but its in a very poor state. Hoping to get it cleaned up and going again. Just wondering if you know where I can get the service manual? The lever that lifts the tonearm up and down doesn’t seem to be doing anything so wondering how I fix this. Also whats the best way to clean the metal parts and tonearm?
Hi Singh, thank you for those very kind words. I suggest you have a look at the Vinyl Engine to see if they have a service manual. If not, let me know, I may be able to email this to you. In terms of cleaning these decks, I like the Ambersil foaming cleanser, used sparingly. This works very well, but you must take great care not to damage any fragile parts. Cheers, Mike.
Thanks for your prompt reply Mike. I have been to Vinyl Engine but can only find the operational manual and not the service manual. The most obvious problem I can see is that the pause lever doesn’t lift the tonearm up and down so I’m not sure if there is a problem with the lever or if the arm elevation is broken. How would I take it apart so I can get to these parts? Looks like a really nice turntable and considering I got it for free it would be a shame to not have a go at fixing it.
Thanks
Hi Singh, sounds like its going to need to be a case of careful disassembly yourself, without the guidance of a service manual. Often times, service manuals don’t provide the details of how to take these subsections apart, so I think you should have a go and see how far you get. Don’t proceed though if you are not confident using tools and generally pulling things apart or you might end up in trouble! I can’t really guide you without the deck in front of me to look at unfortunately.
Thanks Mike. I think its definitely worth a go. If you were closer I would have asked you to have a look 🙂 Just a couple of more questions; do you know how to remove the metal turntable chasis from the wooden plinth? Also I’ve noticed some rust marks on the metal chasis, the platter and tonearm, do you know the best way to clean rust and oxidation (can Ambersil be used for this)? Thanks
Hi Singh I work on so many turntables that it is difficult to remember, but it will either be removable from the top or by removing the chassis bottom. You need to explore here to find out how to take the deck apart. Ambersil is a general cleaner, not designed to remove rust. Start with that but then progress to stronger cleaners if the rust is more stubborn. There are rust removing chemicals, rust converters and mechanical means, such as steel wool and wet and dry paper. You need to evaluate the deck and decide what’s most appropriate here but always start gentle and work upwards!
Hi Mike. Thanks for your help and advice. I will give it a go and see what happens. Got nothing to lose really considering I got it for free 🙂 Thanks again for all your help and keep up the good work. You’re doing a really good service with this blog and with keeping vintage gear going strong!
Thanks for those very kind words Singh, much appreciated and best of luck – let me know how you get along!
I have one of these with an intermittent hum emanating from the headshell..The arm appears to have the usual 4 wires for the cartridge, plus 3 black earth wires..I have continuity between the arm and the earth terminal at the back going to the amplifier but I’m curious about where the wires are situated within the arm?..It would have been nice to have a service manual to consult and make alignment easier of the arm mechanism, but I can’t find one anywhere!
Hi Will, check the Vinyl Engine, should be one available. Hum problems can be very difficult to track down and resolve. Best to start with no earth connections from TT and start by connecting them one at a time, to preamp initially.
Hey Mike, I recently got one of these lovely systems second hand, and I think I’m experiencing the motor noise issue you talked about. Whenever the stylus is touching a record and the platter is spinning, a low drone/hum is quite audible, but only when the stylus is touching…
How would I go about changing the oil and fixing this hum?
I haven’t much experience with the insides of turntables, so any advice would be grand. Thanks.
Hi Henry, the idea with something like this is that you have a go yourself, based on my articles, but the best option would be to get her in for service. These decks need proper care and attention, plus having her properly set up would be very beneficial. Are you able to get her to me? Cheers, Mike.
Hi, I have had one of these turntables for the last 10years, Dad bought it in 1970 and i rescued it from his garage. It takes a while to get to speed, but eventually is ok, belt recently changed, but this didn’t help. Just on the point of oil, is Singer sewing machine oil ok, and how is it applied, with a syringe?
Thanks for any help, Gary
Hi Gary, no I don’t use or recommend sewing machine oil, I use one of several special synthetic lubricants for this, applied via a needle oil dispensing bottle. A syringe is clumsy, doesn’t allow precise oil placement and will deliver too much. Motors on these machines need service along with spindle bearings. More detailed advice is available via our advisory service, should you need it.
Thanks for the response Mike, how do i access the advisory service?
Gary
My pleasure Gary, our advisory service is accessible via the contact and store pages as noted in the discussion header and elsewhere. Note that we are closed until January 10 though, so best to hold all enquiries until then when I will be back on deck to answer them all!