Beogram 8000: Dust Cover and Lid Repairs

Continuing the current Beogram 8000 restoration project...This turntable arrived with the metal deck lid already removed and the dust cover detached. The dust cover hinge assembly was all apart and the attachment hook piece that the lowering mechanism connects to was loose from the dust cover.

I re-attached the hook assembly to the dust cover using epoxy (quick dry this time). Originally this piece was attached with double-sided tape. The hook assembly needs to be attached to the dust cover and not loose in order for the dust cover raising and lowering to work properly.

Here are the leaf spring and sliding assembly that controls the raising and lowering of the dust cover.

The 2mm allen wrench is used to adjust the tension of the leaf spring so the dust cover can be left in any open position or all the way closed.

That is just right. I also installed new rubber bump pads where the dust cover contacts the deck.

Just as I did with the old double-sided tape residue on the deck, I removed the residue from the metal lid hinge attachment plate. I aligned the metal lid where it needs to go and created a hinge at the front using some painter's tape. This allows me to tilt the lid towards the front when I apply new double-sided tape to the rear hinge plate.

I discovered the metal door had no damping.  When the lid is lowered you are supposed to be able to let go and the lid will gently lower by itself. This lid just dropped down without any damping. All of the damping grease was gone.  Fortunately I have some damping grease for this application.  I have to use it on the lids of the Beomaster 8000, Beomaster 6000 and the Beocord 8004/9000 units.

I applied enough grease where the lid damping was in effect again. Now it works like new again.

Here is the completed dust cover and metal lid repair.

The dust cover and deck lid were the final pieces of this Beogram 8000 restoration. Normally I would be packing this unit up to send back to its owner. Unfortunately I had a couple of intermittent instances during the record play testing. The fault I observed was the Beogram tonearm went into the Pause position while playing a record. However, I could not find anything wrong by inspection. The tracking weight was fine, the cartridge is good and I had played quite a few records without a problem.

I decided to change the phono cartridge anyway and started another round of record play testing. After fourteen record albums (all the way through, side 1 and side 2), the problem finally re-occurred. This is not the type of problem you want to encounter. Will I have to wait another fourteen record plays to try and catch the fault?

After consulting my usual repair sources for ideas I have decided to start with the easiest and work my way down to the more difficult (opening up the Beogram again). So tomorrow I will recheck the forward << and reverse >> voltages in the control keypad. I might also try swapping the keypad assembly with one of my spares.