Kenwood turntable belt slips off at 33

Oldscribe

Hello. New to the forum. My question involves a problem with belt, pulley, motor, or speed selector.
The day Charlie Watts died, I wanted to put on some vintage Stones albums as my own tribute. But before I could, I discovered the belt had fallen off. It appeared to be pretty loose, so I replaced it.
Now I can't seem to keep it on the pulley/capstan at 33 speed. It runs fine at 45, but when I shift it to 33, the belt guide goes up and the belt drops off. It seems to methat the pulley and motor should also shift to a higher position to accomodate the belt. Am I wrong?
I don't know how to troubleshoot this. Any takers? Thanks.

mhardy6647

Oldscribe wrote: »

Hello. New to the forum. My question involves a problem with belt, pulley, motor, or speed selector.
The day Charlie Watts died, I wanted to put on some vintage Stones albums as my own tribute. But before I could, I discovered the belt had fallen off. It appeared to be pretty loose, so I replaced it.
Now I can't seem to keep it on the pulley/capstan at 33 speed. It runs fine at 45, but when I shift it to 33, the belt guide goes up and the belt drops off. It seems to methat the pulley and motor should also shift to a higher position to accomodate the belt. Am I wrong?
I don't know how to troubleshoot this. Any takers? Thanks.

Depends on the model -- the "entry level" tts just used a little "fork" that moved the belt from one pulley to the other. Which model Kenwood do you have? Something basic like the KD-1033, e.g., probably (???) had a very simple speed change mechanism.



source: https://www.vinylengine.com/library/kenwood/kd-1033.shtml

My guess is that the (new) belt might be just a wee bit loose. The other thing to consider/investigate is the cleanliness of both the motor pulley (both sections) and the platter "pulley". One could consider cleaning the contact surfaces of the pulleys with, e.g., some denatured alcohol and allowing to dry thoroughly before reinstalling the belt.

mhardy6647

Perhaps you can see the belt lifter/"speed change" fork in the top right area of this (not very good) photo I took a long, long time ago to illustrate platter removal on a typical inexpensive Japanese belt drive tt of he mid/late 1970s (this one a Marantz 6100).




As an aside... Marantz 6100s go for way, way way more money than they are worth. I gave this one away, in perfect working and very good cosmetic condition (much closer to the true value, IMO).

mhardy6647

Here's another image of another low-end tt showing (perhaps) more clearly the low-tech speed change solution. This is a Philips GA-437, which, being of European extraction uses a thin belt and a suspended sub-chassis, but in essence the same speed-change "solution" as the Marantz above.

jdjohn

Oldscribe wrote: »

I discovered the belt had fallen off. It appeared to be pretty loose, so I replaced it.

When you say you "replaced it", do you mean that you purchased a new replacement belt, or merely re-positioned the old belt?

Oldscribe

Hi, thanks for responding so quickly. It is a new belt for a Kenwood KD2000.

Oldscribe

I have a Kenwood KD 2000. It's old, but always worked fine. New belt, definitely snug compared to the one that fell off.
I don't see a separate arm. What I do see is the guide that shifts up or down to match the speed selection. The pulley (there is only one) remains in the same position, so that the guide can't reach the pulley when it is the in higher position (33 rpm).

jdjohn

The owner's and service manuals are available on Vinyl Engine here: https://www.vinylengine.com/library/kenwood/kd-2000.shtml but you would have to register first.

But, here a snapshot from the owner's manual showing the pulley and belt guide:

The pulley and motor remain stationary when the speed is changed. The belt guide moves up or down - up for 33, down for 45. The height of the pulley probably needs to be adjusted so that the belt lands on the proper part of the pulley for 33. Put the belt on with speed setting at 45, then slowly turn the platter by hand (with the rubber mat still off), and peer through the window openings of the platter while changing the speed to 33. You should be able to see what's going on, and whether the pulley needs to be moved up or down in order to achieve the correct height.