Technics SL-QD33 turntable - some repair tips
- Thread starter zaibatsu
- Start date
I've had this one since the early 90's. Have taken it out of mothballs recently. It still works perfectly fine, but, It puts out a loud amount of feedback noise (loud hum) once power is turned on. If I touch the player it senses my touch. Any ideas on what could be the problem inside. Thanks
Thank you so much for taking the time to help others with your Technics SL-QD33 post. I could use some advice...tonearm is dropping too fast and needs new damping fluid. Is it possible to remove the shaft from the top-side of the tonearm rest without opening the chassis (by carefully unscrewing the height adjustment screw and reapply fluid). I’ve studied the schematic but not sure if this would work. Or, is the only way to disassemble tone arm assembly from the bottom. Also, what weight fluid would you recommend (seen 200k, 300k, 500k recommended by others.). Thank you for your help and advice.
fendray26
New Member
Last night after reading through this thread I decided to run down the street to purchase all the caps for mine. I went through and knocked them out one at a time. Pretty smooth swap compared to many others I have done.
Now the turntable won't do anything at all. No signs of power or life of any kind. Any ideas? This one is making me feel like an idiot because I cannot figure it out.
Now the turntable won't do anything at all. No signs of power or life of any kind. Any ideas? This one is making me feel like an idiot because I cannot figure it out.
mrteasdale
New Member
A HUGE shout out and thank you to zaibatsu for his insights to recovering my ageing and rather sorry SL-DQ33 turntable. Purchased 33 years ago, it's been consigned to storage for many years having been displaced by CD's, iTunes and streaming. My son, climbing on board with the Vinyl Revival, asked if he could realise part of his inheritance early and claim the turntable as his own. Let's make sure it works first.... nothing. Aside from an annoying flashing Start/Stop LED, the unit was completely dead! So after much Google'ing I stumble across this post and set about finding all the replacement Caps along with the Service Manual. Replaced all of the electrolytic radials and one power axial, recalibrated and reset per the manual, and BOOM!! A perfect turntable once again! Thank you so much. We're thrilled!!
Mine had a problem with the tone arm rest, it would not go down so i removed the bottom cover and applied a couple of drops of light oil to the tone arm rest and worked the rod/shaft up and down about 20X and that did the trick i also replaced ALL the caps while i was in there and cleaned the old grease and applied new lithium grease.
The only issue i have not been able to resolve is that when i press play there is a rumble Prrrrt sound coming from the tone arm base but as soon as the tone arm lifts the sound stops and it plays the record without any problems and all functions work.
I anyone has had this issue before let me know what i should check.
The only issue i have not been able to resolve is that when i press play there is a rumble Prrrrt sound coming from the tone arm base but as soon as the tone arm lifts the sound stops and it plays the record without any problems and all functions work.
I anyone has had this issue before let me know what i should check.
80sGuy
New Member
I think I might have the same sound too. Sort of like a groaning sound when playing in automatic mode, especially when lifting and setting of the tonearm. Nothing significant but I just thought it gets old with age. I read somewhere that the dampening grease on the lift either got old or drying out. I do have dampening grease which I use for cassette deck ‘soft ejects’. The same kind you’d use for dampening camera lens zooming. Now I haven’t got that far yet to disassembling the tonearm for such task.
mrteasdale
New Member
Your "Prrrrt" sound is more than likely the worm drive and gears objecting or maybe a bit worn. I'd download the service manual and set about dismantling, lubricating and resetting to the correct start positions detailed in the manual. Probably not related to your "Prrrrt" but it's worth following all the recalibration measures also outlined if not done so already. Good luck!
Yes exactly, only at start and when the arm is lifting and moving to the record but once on the record there is no problems it's just anoying
sounds like gears not meshing properly..For now i am going to use it as is, i don't want to create more problems by removing the tone arm assembly. Are you going to do that?
On mine the lift arm was stuck in the up position so i used light oil to get it to move and that worked. I did not see that it has any grease in there.
@mrteasdale,
I opened the bottom of the TT and i checked the worm gear and the big gear and the gear that meshes with the worm gear and they all look in good condition, I worked the worm gear by hand so that the big gear would go from one end to the other and nothing looked amiss.
I removed the old grease and cleaned the areas that had the old grease and applied new lithium grease.
The Turntable works fine it starts, cue works now as it should and at the end of the record the tone arm returns to it's rest so not sure what might be causing that noise, i am afraid to remove the tone arm assembly due to those tiny wires and breaking them.
Originally the problem was the tone arm rest being stuck in the up position but i fixed that problem. I also replaced all the capacitors.
I noticed that the tone arm drops kinda hard on the record so i am going to adjust that little screw on top of the tone arm rest and see if that makes a difference.
I will also look into the adjustments that the manual mentions.
80sGuy
New Member
I thought the sound was always there, but just didn't notice it until lately. Also had the tonearm stuck up when I press play. I had to manually lift the arm to play and manually put it back when the record is finished playing. It would not go back to its resting position. If I press anything it'll get stuck right back up stiff. I corrected the problems by replacing all the caps, since then it's been working like how it should. I'll just leave that slight groaning sound alone for now.
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Cool that you had the problem resolved! did you also replaced the grease? and did you lubricate the tone arm rest shaft/rod?
it would be a good idea to do that also.
When i replaced the caps i still had the tone arm rest problem it would not come down but once i lubricated it and worked the shaft it started coming down like it is supposed to.
Cheers
80sGuy
New Member
No, I only replaced 13 capacitors including the big axial one.
Well as long as it is working properly that is all that counts.
Cheers
Hi everyone. Thanks for this great thread! I own a sl-qd33 and am having a problem with the tone arm dropping too fast/too hard on the record. I cannot find anything on how to repair this problem. Does anyone know if this is an electrical or mechanical problem and how to fix this? I thought maybe the damping fluid needed refreshing, but after studying the schematics, don’t see anyway to do this short of a complete tone arm disassembly. I think the way it works is that the lifter sits on shelf, worm drive operates the tone arm mechanism and the shelf rotates away and the tone arm drops slowed based on the damping fluid. Any repair help/advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
JamVal
Addicted Member
I had an SL-QD33 a few years ago with similar issue, but not bad enough to tear the deck apart.
At the time I found this thread: https://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/viewtopic.php?t=75263
The fix is outlined in the 5th reply:
"Hi, i serviced a SL-QD33 late last year that had the same problem. If your mechanically inclined then you should have no problem replacing the silicon damping fluid. The first thing your going to want to do is pick up some 500,000wt silicon damping fluid. Check your local hobby shops that specializes in RC cars. The people who run them use the damping fluid in the suspension of this things. Next your going to have to remove the bottom of the TT and then remove the metal plate that covers up the tone arm mechanism. Use a digital camera to take pictures of how the mechanism is assembled from the factory. This way when you go to reassemble it you will have a reference as to how it goes together. You will have to remove all the tone arm mechanism to get to the cuing rod that the damping fluid goes on. Once you get the rod out smear some damping fluid on it. Then unfortunately on this model you will have to reassemble the entire mechanism to check if you have put on just the right amount or to much or to little of the damping fluid. As long as you are in there and have the mechanism apart clean all the parts with rubbing or denatured alcohol. Then lubricate it light with some lithium grease. I really can't tell you how much of the silicon to apply, every brand has a different viscosity even though they are 500,000wt. If you can't find 500,000wt then pick up 300,000wt. You will just have to add a little more of it to get the arm to drop slowly. i hope this helps."
Sorry I can't testify to whether it works as I didn't try it.
At the time I found this thread: https://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/viewtopic.php?t=75263
The fix is outlined in the 5th reply:
"Hi, i serviced a SL-QD33 late last year that had the same problem. If your mechanically inclined then you should have no problem replacing the silicon damping fluid. The first thing your going to want to do is pick up some 500,000wt silicon damping fluid. Check your local hobby shops that specializes in RC cars. The people who run them use the damping fluid in the suspension of this things. Next your going to have to remove the bottom of the TT and then remove the metal plate that covers up the tone arm mechanism. Use a digital camera to take pictures of how the mechanism is assembled from the factory. This way when you go to reassemble it you will have a reference as to how it goes together. You will have to remove all the tone arm mechanism to get to the cuing rod that the damping fluid goes on. Once you get the rod out smear some damping fluid on it. Then unfortunately on this model you will have to reassemble the entire mechanism to check if you have put on just the right amount or to much or to little of the damping fluid. As long as you are in there and have the mechanism apart clean all the parts with rubbing or denatured alcohol. Then lubricate it light with some lithium grease. I really can't tell you how much of the silicon to apply, every brand has a different viscosity even though they are 500,000wt. If you can't find 500,000wt then pick up 300,000wt. You will just have to add a little more of it to get the arm to drop slowly. i hope this helps."
Sorry I can't testify to whether it works as I didn't try it.
StayonTarget
New Member
I know I'm bumping an old thread here but I've got one of these decks that worked for ONE record, the stop button wouldn't stop it, and now all it does is power on. Nothing else. I know there are specific tests n whatnot that can be done but I can't get any life out of it besides the buttons lighting up. No moving form the tone arm, platter doesn't spin, nothin'. Does it seem likely that multiple caps were on their last legs and I should just replace all of the TK ones? Not sure how to proceed.
Lynward WW
New Member
Shout out to this thread. Replacing the caps on my sl-qd22 worked perfectly!