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Kenwood KD-3077 turns, but no audio

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DrTeeth80

New Member
I'm having trouble with my Kenwood KD-3077 turntable. It turns on just fine and seems to hold its speed perfectly, but no audio is coming to my amplifier (a Pioneer SX-780). This exact setup was working fine about 2 years ago, but it sat unused for about 2 years and apparently it got upset and is now giving me the silent treatment.

I did find a few troubleshooting things online and I tried to go down a few roads. For example, I'm 98% positive the problem is the turntable and not the receiver as I can hear hum coming from both channels on the phono inputs when I just touch the inputs.

I've uploaded some photos of where the audio cables terminate inside the turntable. Since I'm not completely sure what to look for, I'm not sure if the images are helpful or not. Anyway, there are here: https://ibb.co/album/e01zva. I don't know if it helps, but when I touch the red sides of the wires _inside_ the TT, I get a hum in one ear. But the gray wire doesn't really produce a similarly-loud hum.

I've found the service manual online, but I can't decipher it enough to know what to troubleshoot. Is anyone able to help me out?
 
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The first pic is the signal defeat switch that shorts the signal, separate l and r channel when the unit is automaticing. Make sure the device that makes these pairs of contacts touch also lets them untouch. Clean the actual contacts with a proper cleaner, we love deoxit, some like the cheaper electronic contact cleaner many companies sell. Guitar Center has deoxit, hardware stores have contact cleaner. Isopropyl alcohol might work in a pinch.
 
How do you navigate ibb? I ain't reading their site, maybe you got the cliff's notes.
 
Welcome to AK. Post your location so locals can reach out if necessary.

Basically follow each of our conductors from the cartridge to the amp with a meter is the crude method, but it works to fit the problem. Do you have a meter, free harbor freight digital voltmeter (well free with any purchase and coupon)?
 
Thanks for the responses. I've ordered some Deoxit and it should be here tomorrow. Which scenario lets the audio through: when the signal defeat switch contacts touch or don't touch?

I do have a multimeter. Would I just be checking that there is some voltage across the conductors?
 
No you would be checking to see that there is continuity, ohmmeter close to zero ohms.

Headshell wires to the RCA plugs.
Red is right hot-tip
Green is right ground-ring
White is left hot
Blue is left ground.

Need to check with table in off and in play position as the movement of the arm to play may be what causes the switch to allow signal.

Have you looked at what the switch does during a cycle into the play position.
 
I was able to spray some deoxit on that shutoff piece and I'm now getting a signal on the right. I'm going to be doing more troubleshooting tonight on the left side.
 
OK, I found a video online that was very helpful in trying to track this down (
). Since I'm new at this, the visuals definitely helped me figure out what you were saying, Blue Shadow. I did some measuring at the headshell and everything seemed OK. Then I moved to the RCA plugs and the white one is definitely giving a 0 reading. Back inside, I measured close to where that shutoff piece was again and one looks OK (at least it is getting similar readings as at the headshell) but the other is reading close to 0. I'm uploading pictures just to make sure I'm doing this right.

Unfortunately for me, the video didn't go further than this. What should my next step be?

IMG_1938.jpeg IMG_1936.jpeg
 
Looks like you are testing l and r channel at the mute switch. One reading is close to zero meaning the switch is closed and the other might be reading the cartridge resistance with that switch open.

Check the pink wire from the red cartridge wire and it should be 0, followed to the right channel pin on the phono cable..

The green cartridge wire will be the wire around the pink wire.

The other side is white and that is the white cartridge wire with blue being the wire around the white. This 'around' wire is the ring on the end of the phono cable

If you got one channel maybe cleaning by sliding some deoxit wetted card stock, business card, will wipe the contacts clean.
 
Blue Shadow --

Thanks again for your response. I apologize for my delay as I was swamped with work for the past two weeks. Well now I'm back at it. I've done a number of measurements and here is what I've found. Hopefully these can lead to a solution.

A blank cell means it didn't give a reading.

Code: 
                     | Cartridge Wire Color  |
Phono Cable Location | Red | Grn | Wht | Blu |
---------------------|-----|-----|-----|-----|
           Red Tip   | 766 |   0 |     |     |
           Red Outer |   0 | 766 |     |     |
         White Tip   |     |     |   0 |   0 |
         White Outer |     |     |   0 |   0 |

                     |        Phono Cable as it enters case            |
Phono Cable Location | Red Sleeved | Red Bare | Wht Sleeved | Wht Bare |
---------------------|-------------|----------|-------------|----------|
           Red Tip   |           0 |      766 |             |          |
           Red Outer |         766 |        0 |             |          |
         White Tip   |             |          |           0 |        0 |
         White Outer |             |          |           0 |        0 |

Furthermore, I decided, in the effort to measure whatever I could, to measure the voltage between the ground and each spot where the phono cables enter the case. I would sometimes get measurements and sometimes get nothing. I don't know what was going on there, but in the interest of providing as much info as possible, here's what I found:

Code: 
          | Red Sleeved | Red Bare | Wht Sleeved | Wht Bare |
Reading 1 |       ~60mV |    ~60mV |      ~100mV |   ~100mV |
Reading 2 |         0mV |      0mV |       ~40mV |    ~40mV |
Reading 3 |         0mV |      0mV |         0mV |      0mV |

Does any of that help us get closer? I've deox'ed everything I could think of.
 
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Ok so you have checked resistance from the phono cable end to the cartridge tags. In the first chart you have what appears to be a silent channel but I'm not exactly sure what the circuit is that you are measuring.

With the table in play position, so the mute switch is bypassed, resistance check on red pin to outer on phono cable. From your chart that might be 766 ohms. This means you are measuring a complete circuit from pin through switch to cartridge and back to outer red connector. Good.

Repeat with white and I'm guessing you get OL or no reading because the signal is not getting through. This appears to be the case with the test of the switch above but you have a low resistance in that photo. That means the signal is not going where it needs to go. Measure white pin to white wire under table, repeat for the white outer to the bare wire by the switch (white side). Use 200 ohms scale and look for zero or 1,2 maybe 3. If you don't get that on both pin to white and outer to bare wire the phono cable is tired.
 
This is about a year old now, but in case anyone in the future needs this, I ended up replacing the phono cables that run from the turntable to the amplifier and things are working well.
 
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