Hi!  My Beogram 4002 does not lower the arm when it should start to play a record.

Hi, this is a common problem of this otherwise nice piece of quality mechanics.....(but hey: after 30-something years....)

It needs cleaning - there is a damper cylinder that has silicon fluid in it and which gums up. manually moving the arm up and down when released might get it working but it needs cleaning and refilling. The service manual is on site for both types of 4002.

Lupo,

I had the exact same problem with my 4002 and all it needs is a little cleaning and lubrication. If you really know what you are doing, these turntables are not that difficult to work on, but if you don't, find a qualified shop. The 4000 series are wonderful turntables and deserve our respect.

Jeff

 

I agree that if you are really not into electromechanical repairing, this is not the task for you.

Lubrication is the key but taking the things apart can be troublesome and ground-up adjustment is necessary in extreme cases so a certain amount of skills are needed.

These two points are known to seize up and should be fixed as a minimum, take apart, clean off any remains of the old lubrication, add a tiny amount of fresh acid-free oil and put back together :

Martin

just testing my new membership/avatar

Hi now dont laugh but I think these machines can be affected by the cold, yes I hear you laughing.

Well I have a 4002 which I restored and was working great, put it away in storage, and months later I realised the temp had dropped (winter) when I went to take the beogram out to compare with another beogram 4000, I plugged it in and only the 33rpm button worked, everything else was dead. I tried a few times and thought im not worrying about this as its maybe got a temper as it was dumped for another beogram.lol

Now I knew this was working great when I put it away so what I did was I left it in a nice cosy warm living room for an hour or so, came back pressed the start button and it was like it just woke up out of hybernation, Anyone else have this happen?

Kevin

anything (and i mean anything) that experiences thermal variance should always reach ambient before juicing... not just 4002's...

Peter:

It needs cleaning - there is a damper cylinder that has silicon fluid in it and which gums up. manually moving the arm up and down when released might get it working but it needs cleaning and refilling. The service manual is on site for both types of 4002.

I recently also got a 4004, and had the very common problem as others where the tone arm would not drop.  For me, just lubricating the pivot points shown in the photo below fixed my issue.

But in the process, I did look at the damper/cylinder thing, and it was completely dry inside, but seemed to work just fine.  I am wonder how important putting silicon or some other fluid in there is?  And it doesn't seem like it would have to be completely filled as in a shock, but seems to use air for its damping, and the silicon just acting as lubrication between the piston and the walls.

And if so, would any of these fluids be appropriate?

http://www.turntablebasics.com/silicone.html 

Just curious. 

 
Thanks,

Chris

 

hI Peter

 I have been repairing some turntables and I was given Silica grease for these kind of jobs from a friend on Beoworld to lubricate them.

I have only used the smallest amount a smear and spread it evenly, and its done the job, I took the pistons and parts out from a beogram 4000 which is the same as my 4002 and cleaned them all down. there was a lot of rancid oil and dirt which I cleaned off then put the grease on after. Hope this helps. The damper is an air pressure chamber and the piston comes out easily if you pull it too far and is easy to put back together, it has a small valve type hole at the end which air enters and escapes which must make it act like a Diaphragm. Its easy to clean and put back together.

Kevin

I agree with Kevin. 

I've had good success using a drop of sewing machine oil, smeared
around the inside of the cylinder using a little finger.
Clean off any old lubricants first of course.
Silica grease is probably fine too and may even last longer since
it evaporates slower but is neither easy for all to come by nor easy to clean off later.
There's an adjustment screw on top of the cylinder.
A setting to lower the needle within apprx 1½ sec seems to be fine.

Martin

Hi,

I have a Beogram 6000, bought new in 1976 and still in regular use. It was converted to stereo by our local B&O dealer some (many!) years ago effectively making it a 4002/4004, and until recently worked virtually faultlessly.

However, it now has a problem that has made it virtually unusable, again related to the lowering of the arm. In my case, the problem is that the arm doesn't "lower" as such, but just drops onto the record with no resistance. Not good!. Likewise, it doesn't jump up away from the record as it used to, but lifts very very very slowly, the record can actually be heard playing (acoustically) for a time after the circuitry has switched off, until the arm lifts from the surface.

Has anyone else experienced anything similar?

Stu.

 

Stu,

Welcome to Beoworld !

There can be different symptoms and versions of the lift/lower fault depending on which mechnical components have seized and whether or not there's also an electronic fault.

The Beogram will need servicing. Cleaning, lubrication etc.

Martin

Thanks Martin

I've got the various covers removed so I'll start by carefully cleaning and lubricating the mechanism. I'm suspiscious there's something not working correctly with the damper and unfortunately it's a spare part I don't have in my spares box (plenty of other items such a s spare tone arm!). Good clean first though!

 Stu.