KD-5033 Auto-In Lift and Return Lift Issues

[Alec Heggen]

Hello, I know its cheesy to make your first post in any forum one asking for help but I've got a 1974-76 Kenwood KD-5033 that needs a little help. I've already done quite a bit of cleaning underneath and oiling the internals as well. However, despite everything else working perfectly (cuing in, auto-return) the actual lifting mechanism and drop dampening on the KD-5033 is hopeless. I have to slowly lower the tonearm manually and I cannot set the auto-return at all or it will just scrape the stylus across the entire surface of the record on it's way back to the tone-arm's rest. And a majority of the time it just hits the support of the rest and stops rather than making it in because again, it doesn't lift the tone-arm before engaging auto-return. Because of this I've been using it manually but I'd really like to restore it to it's Factory Fully-Automatic function. If anyone has any tips or tricks, maybe they've even worked on this turntable before and they know exactly why I'd be so stoked! But I know this is a bit of an unusual and maybe even obscure TT in comparison to some of the other Kenwoods like the KD-500, 850 and so on. ANYTHING IS APPRECIATED!

 

[Alec Heggen]

Here's the turntable after I have touched up and polished the wood plinth, buffed out the tarnish on the tone-arm and counterweight. Attached aftermarket feet and cleaned up, oiled the internals of the machine.

 

[Alec Heggen]

 

[Hajidub]

vinylengine.com should have a service manual for this. There should be a height adjustment for the arm lift, to keep it from dragging upon return, or possibly it needs a fluid dampener refill (if it uses that).

 

[churchill127]

Hello @Alec Heggen,

I also bought a kd 5033AF within the last year. The platter spun but the autoreturn was not functioning and the pause mechanism was not working either. I figured out how to get the autoreturn working, replaced the flickering strobe, and also noticed that on mine, the pause mechanism did not work.

What you are referring to may be two separate issues: the pause mechanism, and the auto return El cam slant. Have you confirmed that all pieces of these two assemblies are present inside your turntable? I know that for mine, the elevation shaft sub rod for the pause mechanism was missing, which rendered it non-functional. I was able to find a replacement piece from a kd-3033 on https://organdonorparts.com/ (great website). Once I had this, it was a simple matter of dropping in the support assembly, then calibrating the mechanism. The pause mechanism is used by the El cam slant to raise the tone arm when returning, so it will need to be adjusted using the small screws on the side of the support assembly for both mechanisms to function correctly.

Then it was just the problem of getting the stylus overhang adjusted correctly, and a decent stylus, and I know have a well-functioning, beautiful deck. Hope yours works out, I really enjoy mine.