The Beogram 4002 I've had for three weeks has had some speed issues since I tried to kill it.  On the occasional LP, especially 180 gram recent reissues, I had clearly audible wow, for perhaps half a revolution of the disc.  On one of the three 45s I own, the entire song seemed off pitch (too low).  I had a few hours alone this morning (the Fabric Selector and Offspring were out buying me a listening chair!) so I thought I'd take the BG4002 out of the system and try a 10 minute, 10 dollar fix.

After taking the cartridge off, I took the two main aluminum plates off, removed the top platter, removed the belt, and finally removed the subplatter.  I used a twisted, lint free cloth to clean out the bearing cylinder as best I could.  I then wiped down the bottom spindle.  I put two drops of "Z Black Bearing Oil" from LP Gear in the bearing cylinder, one drop on the bottom spindle, and reassembled everything.

Since then I've listened to a 45 a few times, a couple (former) problem LPs, plus the 10" Black Market Clash, and I've heard no wow/speed issues.  I've got a strobe disc coming this week for testing, and I'm ordering belts from Martin to be sure, but it seems cleaning and lubricating the platter was the key here.

I should've known better.  When I bought the deck from Jeff, he disassembled the whole of the platter and I should've cleaned and lubricated it when I reassembled it.

Can't wait until I finally get the new Soundsmith cartridge!

Rich, you should open the deck again, and clean of all old grease and hardened oil, lubricate everything with a silicone oil/grease, it does wonder. For Strobo disc I use this one

Which cartridge did you order ?

Søren Mexico:

Rich, you should open the deck again, and clean of all old grease and hardened oil, lubricate everything with a silicone oil/grease, it does wonder. For Strobo disc I use this one

Which cartridge did you order ?

1) May do more work when I get my belts and the cartridge.

2) Have tried that disc, but no light I had around the house worked with it.

3) SMMC20EN

If that disc didn't work, you are going to struggle with any other disk unless it comes with its own strobe!

Do you use standard incandescent bulbs or some form of electronic compact flourescent / halogen downlighters (driven from electronic transformers)?

One other thing you need to make sure the actual bearings have been lubed not just the thrust disk at the bottom. These are the bronze collar(s) one at the top and maybe near the bottom too. Use a very light oil so as to hopefully be partially absorbed (I guess there is no guarrentee unless it is boiled in but you try doing that!)... If these collars dry out and are still used they will become permenantly useless.

I guess I should have said I ordered a strobe that came with a disk.

So in the past few days, my strobe came in and the speeds seem fine at the "0" mark on the top of unit adjusters.  No need to adjust anything.  But then I was playing a 180 gram version of Nirvana's Nevermind - one of the LPs that seemed to have speed issues - and the speed was fine but now there is a clicking/popping/something in the right channel's tweeter.

Changed to CD - no distortion.  Changed to tuner - no distortion.  Played the LP again, there's the distortion again.  A clicking or popping in the right tweeter only.  That was Monday.  Scratched my head.  What would cause popping in the right channel only?  Patch cable problem?  Inside the turntable problem (yet another capacitor issue)?  Cartridge issue?  I can test the cartridge issue if and when Soundsmith ever sends me my new cartridge (16 days since order and counting).

That was Monday night.  Last night, I played Nevermind again to try to troubleshoot the right tweeter only clicking and popping distortion.  And it's gone.  No speed issues, no distortion in a tweeter.  Just wonderful sound.

I scratch my head again.  What was different last night than Monday night?  And the only thing I can think of - we were doing our laundry Monday night.  Dear god, could the poor/inadequate wiring of our 1970's era house be causing all this intermittent crap?!?!

Rich:

I can test the cartridge issue if and when Soundsmith ever sends me my new cartridge (16 days since order and counting).

Don't worry until it's four weeks or so. Calling/emailing/faxing/whatever them won't speed it up either. They probably just have a back log. You will get it eventually (ask Soren )

Rich:

What was different last night than Monday night?  And the only thing I can think of - we were doing our laundry Monday night.  Dear god, could the poor/inadequate wiring of our 1970's era house be causing all this intermittent crap?!?!

I wouldn't wonder. One week at the office, all these problems started to accumulate:

• an ethernet switch started to lose packets
• the remote control range of my office audio (Beocenter 8000) dropped to one meter or so
• some (but not all) security cam channels developed all kinds of interference
• a big professional Laserjet gave up with fuser heater errors (and I almost ordered the 300+ euro service kit)

...and all this because the switched mode power supply of a video switcher decided to become ripe, and managed to ruin the electricity of a complete phase in the room. Caught it because it was so hot it was about to melt.

Rich:

I scratch my head again.  What was different last night than Monday night?  And the only thing I can think of - we were doing our laundry Monday night.  Dear god, could the poor/inadequate wiring of our 1970's era house be causing all this intermittent crap?!?!

It seames like you have some difficault decisions to do:

1. Rewire the house

2. Get a new laundry machine

3. Leave laundry to mother in love

4. Dont play music on Mondays

5. Get a Mexican maid (the ones without green card are cheapest) and 2 new washing stones, find the nearest creek or river.

Remark to 5. Dont ever let the maid near, or even tell her you've got one, a vacuum (Hoover) I'm into my 7th or 8th in 10 years (same maid)

But dont cry about your problem, sometimes, when the power here goes below 100 V, my stop, pause dont work on my BG 2404 (cap??) and once in a while we get some micro blackouts and my BM 2400 goes from station 1 to 5, my house is also some 35 years old, but remodelling I changed a lot of wiring, pulled ground wires to nearly all outlets and installed more outlets and a new fuse central.

Soundsmith makes good carts, and it is worth waiting for, dont send him mails, each mail will cost a delay of 1 week , normal delivery time is 3 weeks +-.

Let me be crystal clear about one thing.  I was not complaining about Soundsmith.

If I had been complaining about Soundsmith, I would have mentioned how they billed my debit card the same day I ordered the cartridge, whereas most companies I deal with regularly (The Elusive Disc, Amazon, NewEgg) do not bill my debit card until the product is shipped.

No, I was NOT complaining. 

Last night was the first evening home from a business trip so listened to some music.  Started with a CD and all was well in the world.  Went through my mail.  Hey, belts from Martin arrived!  Yay - will have to replace the BG4002 belts this weekend then.

I thought to myself, what else should I do while I have the deck open?

Went through the rest of my mail.  Still no new cartridge.  Bummer.

Then I put an LP on.  Great.  There's the slow speed problem again.  Please, please, please let's hope it's just the belt(s).

Replaced the belts last night.  Dig the difference in size between the belt on the BG4002 as purchased from Jeff, and the belt just received from Martin (the shorter of the two).

 

Alas, the belt changes made no difference in the speed of the turntable.  At both speeds, the BG4002 is running slow.  Confirmed by strobe and disc, sense of hearing, and counting revolutions and looking at my watch with second hand.  At the "33 1/3 rpm" setting, the BG4002 is actually running at about 27 or 28 rpm.

This morning I checked the speed again.  Just to mess with me, the BG4002 spun a few revolutions very near the right speed, then fell back to the 27 or 28 rpm of last night.

I opened her up and took a look at the main board.  I didn't see anything visually wrong, like a bunch of obviously failed capacitors like my BM4000.  I put her back together, stuck her in a box, and banished her to the garage.

Then I went into the bedroom and played a record on the RX2 I bought new back in the 80s that still plays like a champ and hasn't had a thing ever go wrong with it.

Rich,

I looked back through this thread... Have you had a play with the fine tune potentiometers? Are they set at zero, or?

Rich

Take it out of the box again, and then adjust the speeds according to the manual, its easy and a simple task. That why you bought your strobo

Hi,

Those trimmers don't look too good! I'd replace them straight away, as one last attempt before the garage or the attic...

burantek:

Have you had a play with the fine tune potentiometers? Are they set at zero, or?

If everyone is talking about these "slots" that are visible with the deck open and a record playing, no, I haven't touched them.  And I agree with Jacques, on the other side, they look pretty shot.

But I'm reluctant to go down this path anyway.  Four weeks ago the deck worked.  Then it started having intermittent problems.  Now it seems to be consistently playing 20% slow.  Wouldn't everyone agree something is failing and needs to be replaced?  I wouldn't think adjusting fine tune potentiometers is a long term solution.  Perhaps the deck would work for awhile, but wouldn't whatever is failing continue to get worse?

 

You can go ahead and 'play' with those R14 and R15 (not the ones you're showing then, but those above the relay) : the risk is zero (yes, really) and you might be surprised!

Where are the plastic rotary pots on top (the little black wheels by the dials) positioned? I would start there by zeroing them before getting to the board.

As I owe you a package, would you like me to pull another board complete and send it to you for testing/swap?

chartz:

You can go ahead and 'play' with those R14 and R15 (not the ones you're showing then, but those above the relay) : the risk is zero (yes, really) and you might be surprised!

I'm guessing it would be the ones under this wire bundle then.  Can they be accessed with the deck open but the platter in place and a record playing?

burantek:

Where are the plastic rotary pots on top (the little black wheels by the dials) positioned? I would start there by zeroing them before getting to the board.

As I owe you a package, would you like me to pull another board complete and send it to you for testing/swap?

Oh, I tried those pots above the control panel left, right, up, down, back, forth, sideways, etc.  There were times they helped, and times they didn't.

Regarding another board:  I'm willing to try anything that won't potentially brick the turntable.

Man how did I miss this thread! Hope you get your system all put back together soon.

 

Rich:

The Fabric Selector and Offspring were out buying me a listening chair!

Slowly your dinette evolves... Maybe sometime in the future you will have your very own listening room!!

Evan, check Richs profile, he has a lot of good threads on the forum.

Rich:

I'm guessing it would be the ones under this wire bundle then.  Can they be accessed with the deck open but the platter in place and a record playing?

Yes they can be adjusted with the platter in place. Hence their position at the edge of the PCB!

Rich:

Wouldn't everyone agree something is failing and needs to be replaced?

Yes. The trimpots!

Zero the user speed controls on panel, turn these trimpots back & forth about 26 times, put them back in the middle and check where you are then. Either the trimpots give away completely (in which case you definitely need to replace them) or the speed is back in the right ballpark, you can take out your strobo disk, adjust them properly and be happy until they lose contact again.

Thanks Mika... That sums it up.

If that doesn't bring the speed into range, I have two boards I can send. Keep us posted.

Lawn is mowed.

Wimbledon final watched.

Kiddie pool setup and filled with water.

All right...time to get the BG4002 back out......................