Or turn for more than 2 seconds for that matter. It already had a record on it when I pulled it out of storage (oops...) and I plugged it in to see if it would play. It started turning at a nice low speed, put the needle down, and then ripped it off the leading edge and stopped the table. I removed the needle (to protect it), pulled off the table, then pulled off the thin plastic cover to look at the mechanism inside. Everything seems to be working fine when I press Play/Stop, but it cycles once, and then stops (starts turntable, brings arm into place, sets down needle, and then would've ripped it across the surface of the record had one been in place).

There also appears to be a small wire arm that doesn't appear to be attached to anything on the right plastic gear. I assume this probably got pulled off, is there a way to reattach it without disassembling the entire unit?

I should mention it also was in for service several years ago to have the arm rewired after it met me as a 3 year old.

I guess you are talking about this 1800 as you mention a 'Play'-button (there was also a second Beogram 1800, but that one was manual).

This one has a record detection mechanism, so it will turn only once if no record is detected (but it also shouldn't move the arm as far as I remember...). If you want to test it with the platter off, you need to hold down the black pop-up thingy in the center.

Chsmadden:

There also appears to be a small wire arm that doesn't appear to be attached to anything on the right plastic gear. I assume this probably got pulled off, is there a way to reattach it without disassembling the entire unit?

Could you take a picture of that wire arm? I'm not really sure what you are talking about (has been some time since I last saw a 1800).

Anyway, I guess you will have to disassemble the unit one way or another...

The wire arm seems to have something to do with the auto-return when the record finishes. I tore it down, found out where the wire attached, put it all back together, and suddenly it works flawlessly. Go figure. I don't think the wire had anything to do with it. It just needed to be worked a few times to free everything up I suppose.

And yes, now if there's no record on it, the platter only spins, the arm does not move. Something must've been stuck. I'm just elated that it works now.

I guess you're right, sometimes the mechanism simply gets stuck if the Beogram is moved without fixating the platter. Didn't even think about that.

Anyway, I'm glad you got it working again. Now you can enjoy using it