Martin,

I am planning to tackle the switch question tomorrow. Right now the Beogram 4000 is all back together and from memory it seems to me that there are 4 or more wires going to this switch. (I may well be mistaken.) However, if there are more than 2 wires, which one do I solder off?

I am asking now so that I might have an answer before I start this project tomorrow.

Thanks,

Jeff

Martin,

In the photo you sent, in the green circle, on the left side, there is a bundle of wires incased in a yellow tube. Of the wires that come out there is a blue green, red, and grey wire all of which are soldered to something just beside the switch. There is a 5^th wire in the yellow tube that has a brown sheathing which isn’t soldered to anything…. looks like it broke off.

So where should this brown wire be solder to and could this be the cause of the fuse blowing? I would like your answer BEFORE I start soldering off the switch connection.

Thank you.

Jeff?

Hi Jeff,

I don't have a BG4000 at hand so I cannot check this, maybe another Beoworld'er can ?

Martin

I have looked at one of my BG 4000.and I can try to help here.

The brown wire is soldered to the pin at the egde of the small board just next to the pin with the blu wire abd green with. The pin also is connected to another brown wire.

left edge of the board / edge of this note.

     ¤  pin              Pin with the blue wire and green wire (very thin wires.

     ¤ pin              For the brown wires

I hope this help you?

/Frede 

No i dont know that, I actually found my tonearm module taken out of the BG 4000 I dis assembled for spare parts, so it is not possible to follow the wiring.

/Frede

Does anyone know to what these two brown wires connect to? And would one of them being disconnected cause the fuse to blow?

Jeff

I just re-solder the disconnected brown wire as per Frede’s direction and the Beogram 4000 played the record for a few seconds, maybe 5, then blew the fuse. Normally the stylus doesn’t make it to the record.

I am out of the $5.50 each fuses and will have to wait until Tuesday for another shipment to arrive. I will then try cutting one of the leads to the switch as per Martin’s instruction.

Martin: Do you have a preference for which wire to cut as there are several?

Jeff

Jeff:

I've never seen a 4000 before. On the 4002 deck, there are molex like connectors between the tone arm and the control board.

This allows you to disconnect the tone arm from the control board.

If you do this will the fuse continue to blow? Can you get the turntable to run in some state before it blows a fuse? Ie will it turn and switch speeds if you do not press play?

Derek

$5,50/each fuses ?

Boy, that sounds costly  

I am sure you will be able to buy some at f.e. Ebay, maybe even a little selection of values at a much more attractive cost.

The 5x20mm size is standard in Europe.

It doesn't matter which wire you lift, just as long as the switch is no longer in circuit.

Even better would be the voltage reading across the switch as described earlier.

Martin

Hi Martin,

Yes, $5.50 is a ridiculous price, but this is Vancouver Island where everything cost at least twice what it does in nearby Seattle, Washington. There are fuses for much less on eBay but I was anxious to get my 4000 repaired and I found the fuses here in stock.

I won’t even begin to tell you what I had to pay for that Fluke Multimeter.

I will solder off one of the wires to the switch on Friday and see what happens…. I sure hope this works!

After the brown wire that had become disconnected was soldered in place the Beogram 4000 actually played a record for about 5 seconds…. normally the tone arm doesn’t make it to the record, not in nine consecutive tests. (Briefly, I really thought I had it repaired…)

Now if I can get my Beogram 8000 to stop smoking, I’d be in business.

Jeff

Jeff:

Mouser or Digikey for components :) Fast, efficient, cheap.

Derek
 

Martin,

I disconnected one of the leads to the switch, pressed “Play” the tonearm moved into position, but did not attempt to drop, no “click” sound from the solenoid, the platter turned a revolution or two and the fuse blew.

Now what? Am I doomed?

Jeff

So Martin,

Have I run out of options and hope? [:'(]

I absolutely LOVE this Beogram 4000 and am so upset seeing it sit there useless and idle.

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

Well, as said before, this is one of the cases I would love to have on the bench but I'm afraid that is not going to happen.

Surely, there must be someone geographically nearer to you ?  Anyone ?

Martin

Hi Martin,

Well this is depressing news.

My much loved Beogram 4000 appears un-repairable, at least under current conditions, my Beogram 8000 is unusable, and my Beogram 4002 has developed a new issue. (If you are interested, see the thread under “Third New Issue with Beogram 4002.”

Thus out of four Beograms I have only one working turntable, my Beogram 4004.

I am unaware of anyone that can service a B&O product here on Vancouver Island and the McIntosh shop on the mainland that I entrusted my Beogram 8000 to, a turntable I have owned since new was damaged so badly that they gave me a complete refund, but none the less it was rendered beyond repair. (NOT an option to use them again.)

I kept my pristine shell and dustcover, and installed gift mechanicals from a working but “ugly” 8000 sent to me by a good friend. This is the one with the cap problems that you are addressing.

So unless you have some other suggestions for the Beogram 4000 or potentially more hopefully for my Beogram 4002, I really am out of luck.

I hasten to mention that I know that you have done your best to help me remotely…. which can not be easy, and for which I sincerely thank you.

Jeff

I don't know how good my answer will be as I'm biased living in Denmark though in the western part about 10 km from the B&O factory in the city Holstebro.

If it was not for Dillen my BG8002 and BG6006(being fixed at the moment) would most likely never be running again. I got one bill from the nearby B&O dealer from when he fixed the BG8002. Dillen could not find the reason for the bill or the work done.

In shorth not a place to get it fixed. About the only trouble is the distance from you to Dillen. Yes I think the best solution would be to pack it up and send it to him. If you got no other options for repair then decide what's too loose by sending it. Can you get another if something happends? If there is any damage when it get's to Copenhagen then its in the best hands it can be when it comes to being fixed and parts.

My opinion is that when getting B&O this age you need at least qualified service. As it is remotely by Beoworld is not doing it alone.

Well it probably will come down to that, shipping the Beogram 4000 to Martin.

I have total confidence in Martin and I am sure that I do not have just one problem, but a collection. This Beogram has not had an easy life and the NYC repairs prior to my ownership are highly questionable.

The biggest problem is the shipping costs. I sent my McIntosh amp and pre-amp back to the factory and the shipping was an eye popping $380. (DK 1,813.47)

I know how to package this 4000 and it will require double boxing, which the McIntosh gear did not require.

The big issue other than shipping cost is customs and they do truly terrible things to these turntables. All the metal and weigh sets off red flags and they open the box and then fail to replace all the packing material.

We’ll see.

Jeff

There is in my experience with shipping only 2 major concerns and that is the terms insured and Candian postal system.

Let's take Candian first. I have had several items from US going from a very heavy Marshall guitar amplifier to more simpel stuff like a Soundsmith MMC2 and alot of other that all have come to Denmark in one piece.

That was all US for the most part. Now I needed some snare lugs for a shell I got of Ebay.com. That one arrived with no problems. The snare is late '80s so original lugs is hard to find for that kind off drum. Via the Tama drum forum I found a guy in Canada who was willing to go with a trade so I could get the original kind of lugs for this shell. I send him 10 NOS lugs of the kind he wanted(I found a shop that had them) and I was supposed to get 10 back.

I don't know what happend but I was missing 3 lugs and the guy in Canada was missing the mounting screws which I did include when I shippped it from Denmark. In the end the guy found 3 lugs for me and he bought the screws locally. The shell is now a complete drum.

So that is my Canadian experience. If it was US it would not have happend I'm sure of that.

Now the insured experience.

Let's take my Soundsmith experience. My BG8002 needed a MMC2 so I went to Soundsmith to order one. In order for them to know the item will arrive safely they insure their goods like many others do.

My Soundsmith pickup got send 3 times total back and fourth between Denmark and US because of it and custom errors. The 3rd time I told Soundsmith to send it with out a value on it. This is a risk but if it's packed right you don't have to worry at all. They did and it arrived without a hitch.

Insured values gives a red flag for customs and they go through it. This means a notice and an extra bill. I recently got new KT88 tubes for the above mentioned amp from a US seller. Insured and yes a custom notice.It's outside EU for me so it's law but if the value was not on it I could have gotten the tubes safe anyway as it was packed ok and saved some money on it too. Ok this is not an atempt to cheat the customs but just to underline that US-Denmark shipping route is way more safe and secure than the Canadian post service/customs will ever be.

However no value is the thing. With the US - Denmark route goods arrive with very few problems and they are very good at what they do when it comes to shipping. I have yet to experience them. I have done at least 50 deals so I don't worry about it.

Ok there is another thing that ad to an expensive prize for shipping when I think about it.

How fast do you want it to be? 3-4 days? Air and so forth? There is a big deference in the prize if you take 7 days instead.

The BG4000 is most welcome here but I simply can't believe that a repairer in the states can't be found.

What about Atlantic Systems ?

Martin

Hi Martin,

I thank you for the open welcome mat for my Beogram 4000. My problems with shipping are greatly amplified by Customs Canada, so shipping to the US as opposed to Denmark makes for little difference.

Customs Canada thought my Beogram 4002 was a “bomb” and literally tore the box to pieces. They only halfheartedly replaced some of the packing material and the 4002 suffered accordingly. (I know this because the remains of the box had “X-ray for bomb” on it.)

Speaking of the 4002, I keep asking, but no has picked up on this question. My 4002 had a tonearm horizontal side to side motion that required a simple adjustment. With the side to side motion corrected, the tonearm began an undesired catching up to the sensor arm, yet another small adjustment, and it appeared that all was well.

However several days later the tonearm drops too far into the record and using the fast forward or reverse the cluing (up and down) function does not work, it only makes the tonearm go FAST in one direction or the other.

Any thoughts on this one Martin? Thank you.

Jeff

Surely there must be some repairers in Canada ?

Regarding your Beogram 4002; There are not a lot of capacitors in these machines, actually mostly tantals, but I can spot a tendency
in them becoming faulty, causing the strangest faults.
Capacitor kits are in the making.
In your case, I would first check the lamp and then the sensor output before going further into the electronics.
Make sure the readout is stable everytime. Check for cracked solders
at the edge connectors on the main board. Tap the board gently and
watch the readout for any fluctuations.
Check also that the connectors are properly connected. Some will easily mount one or two pins off.

The tracking sensor is adjusted by means of an excentric screw below the tonearm.
There's a fixating screw at the left side to lock the setting.
Adjusting using only the clamp around the cylindrical pivot point
is too coarse.
Setting the tracking adjustment correct here would need all the luck in the world.

Set the tracking correct and seal it with f.e. a bit of nail polish
(don't ask your wife for some - you'll never hear the end of it).

Finally, check (or simply replace) the trimmers. The types used
in most machines are bad after 30+ years.
Many will suffer from oxidation, some even fall apart physically.

Martin

Hi Martin,

I am sure there must be some repairers in Canada, but I have not found them.

Unlike my funky Beogram 8000 problems, the 4002 issue resulted from the last adjustment of the sensor light, moving it slightly (VERY slightly to the left correcting the "catch-up" issue with the tonearm. The 4002 performed well for some time before this latest issue. The first problem was the back and forth movement which was an adjustment at the diaphram.... which in turn caused the need for the adjustment of the sensor light.

Your cap kit arrived today and I am looking forward to installing it on my Beogram 8000 to see if that cures all that ails it. Thank you.

Jeff

Hi Martin,

This is a duplicate message in case you missed the other one on the less read thread.

The problem of the tonearm being dragged across the record has been located, if not permanently fixed.

The issue is at the senor which “thought” the tonearm was too far to the right, hence the leftward drift. Once adjusted the up/down function is back and the 4002 is again playing records.

Unfortunately, after a single play the tonearm appears to be pushing to hard (or too fast) to the left and first bends the stylus to the right until the stylus is dragged over several grooves. This tonearm adjust certainly gets out of adjustment FAST!

At least we know it is not a serious problem, but I don’t know that I want to try another adjustment today.

Thanks for all your help!

Jeff

Jeff:

Check your inbox. I sent you  a Canadian  resource weeks ago.

Derek