I've finally got around to cleaning out the main bearing of my old Kenwood KD-770D, as it was a bit sticky and there was a 'sense' of speed instability, even though the rotational speed was measurably correct. The bearing is quite a stout, flat ended affair, with a plain greased sleeve. The end of the bearing sits on a small teflon thrust pad. I've lubricated it using some synthetic gear oil, which makes it run a bit more freely.

The main point of this post is to show how well designed and engineered the Kenwood motor unit is. Unlike the Technics SL-1200, whose bearing is not particularly firmly attached, the Kenwood's is bolted very firmly to a large corian type block, which in turn is bolted to the turntable chassis, spreading the load very widely. The big nut underneath the motor unit that you can see in the first picture below secures the bearing assembly very firmly to that block.







This weekend should see the old Kenwood reassembled, and ready to go head-to-head with the Technics (again). I just need to knock up an armboard to fit the Jelco 750D arm to the Kenwood.