I recently bought a Beolab 8000 at auction, thus fulfilling a  long-held dream to actually own one.  Then I discovered this site and have spent many hours absorbing as much wisdom as I could about the quirks of these components, and I have concluded that my system is in pretty good shape overall.  The MS 150 speakers required new foam rings for the woofers and subs and now give excellent sound.  The Beocord 9000 works well, but I can't say the same for the Beogram 8002:  it just doesn't work at all.  So, this is my first post to the forum and I am hoping that you can point me in the right direction to get this unit working again.

Here are the symptoms.  When the power cord is plugged in, nothing much happens.  The turntable starts to turn very slowly, one red light illuminates on the arm, and the speed display shows 33.3 intermittently.  The arm does not move, but there is a vibrating noise from the arm motor.  Pushing the switches sometimes causes the turntable to rotate backwards!  After a minute or so everything stops.

I have taken the machine apart using service data from another site and have released the circuit boards.  A fairly close inspection doesn't reveal any bad solder joints and unplugging and replugging the connectors did not result in any change to the way it responds.  Does this sound to the group like a classic change-the-capacitors scenario?  If so, would Dillen be kind enough to contact me with information on his cap kit?

Any suggestions on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Alistair

Greetings from sunny Victoria!

Yep, you need a cap kit. I had the same issues with my Beogram 8000; however Dillen’s excellent cap kit did not solve my problems. These are complicated beasts.

Since Dillen has a great track record with his kits, and assuming you are really good with electronics you might want to try it to see if the kit corrects your issues.

Failing that, you are in for a horrendous shipping cost to ship your 8002 to Dillen in Denmark. I paid $380 one way for my Beogram 4000.

If you have a capable B&O shop, you should take your 8002 to them. If not, Dillen is the way to go as his work is superb and more than fair in pricing.

Dillen repaired my Beogram 4000 and 8000, plus a Beocord 9000, all with excellent results.

Jeff

I feel it's safe to say that your board WILL have cracked solder
joints and probably many but you may have to use a microscope
to spot it and even that is not always enough.
A capacitor kit exists for the Beogram 6006/8000/8002 series and
replacing the lot is highly recommended. Some caps WILL be bad by now,
it has been many years since the last time I saw a board with
a full set of good original caps.
Cracked solder joints and bad capacitors count for more than 90% of
the faults in these wonderful decks and it sounds like your deck
is in great need.
Both things require good skills with a soldering iron and some
basic electronic knowledge.
Alternatively, ship the main board with processor casing and
front panel to me. I have built a test gig allowing me to
service and test discrete boards.

Martin

Hi Alistair,

I strongly recommend that you follow Martin’s advice and ship him your Main board with processor casing…. I neglected to do the latter and had to make further repairs myself as a result.

Martin’s work is exceptional. Sending just the board will greatly reduce shipping costs and avert any possible damage in shipment to your deck.

Jeff

Dillen, thank you for your reply.  I am not surprised by anything you have said.  I now have to make a decision about whether to replace the caps myself, using your kit, or have you do the whole job.  The soldering doesn't bother me particularly as I have been messing around with electronics for a long time and I am used to restoring tube/valve type radios.  Would you please be good enough to pm me with cost and shipping details for both scenarios?

Many thanks,

Alistair

Thanks for you responses, Jeff.  I suspect you are right about shipping the boards to Dillen, but that does take some of the challenge out of doing it yourself.  Do you remember what it cost you to ship the processor to Dillen, and whether or not there was a Customs/Excise fee to contend with?

Regards,

Alistair

Hi Alistair,

I honestly do not remember, but it was not significant, nothing like shipping the whole deck at $380. (One way) Customs fees did not apply as I shipped it under their value radar.

FORGET the challenge of doing it yourself. Trust me on this, I did the entire cap kit and still nothing worked. Martin found hundreds, yes hundreds of solder points that were bad, and all looked perfectly fine to me.

True, this was on an older Beogram 8000, but still you are likely to be in much the same point.

If you are into soldering, well fine, but remember you have to be oh so carful not to put too much or too little and you have to be careful not to damage the caps and transistors.

I did a LOT of work on my shattered (in transit) Beogram 4000 and that was a challenge, But I didn’t do any of the caps.

It is your call, but if it were me, I’d ship the board to Martin.

Jeff

Alistair, you have a PM.

Martin

Thanks to Piaf's persuasiveness (and a certain amount of fear on my part) I sent the circuit boards to Dillen for repair.  They were returned in a couple of weeks, but due to other committments I was not able to spare the time to put them back in the turntable -- until today.  I am delighted to report that the turntable is now back together and performing as it should:  rock-steady speed, arms both working correctly (including the indicator lights, all of the buttons on the panel working properly.  In other words, a total success!  Thanks Martin for a job very well done!

However, (isn't there always a however with B&O)? there is one problem I need to address.  I have a hum in both channels, not loud but noticeable, when using the phono.  The turntable is connected with a 7-pin cable but I am not sure if the unit needs a specially-shielded one for the turntable compared to the tape unit.  Any suggestions on how to proceed with eliminating the hum would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Alistair

You cannot use just any 7-pin cable for a Beogram.
Original B&O cables are often marked either "TP" or "PH" and/or
labeled with the part number.
Aftermarket cables are usually not.
The difference is indeed the shielding. A Beogram needs to have
both the signal ground and the chassis (protective) ground carried
through (separately) or a humming will often be the result.
It's not as important with tapedecks.

Another difference is that phono-cables are one-way only (no record
signals) so a phono-cable won't work with a tapedeck, or at least only
one way so the best thing is to use the proper cables.

Great to hear that you are happy with the board repair.

Martin

Problem solved!  I substituted the cable on the recorder for the one on the turntable and got a reduced hum level.  Then I reversed the power plug (which is not polarised) feeding the turntable and the hum went away completely.  Sometimes it is the small things...

I couldn't find any part numbers or other markings on the cables incidentally.

Thanks again for your help.

Alistair