Beogram 4002 (5513): Stopover From Arizona on the Way to Portugal - A First Look

One of the services that we offer to our customers is to help purchasing restorable units from ebay and other sources, have them shipped to us, restore them and then send them on. The next best thing to getting into a time machine and traveling back to the 70s to purchase a new unit from a B&O store (what would I give for such a trip!..;-). This post is about unboxing a Beogram 4002 (5513) that was recently purchased from an ebay seller in Arizona for a customer in Portugal.

'Inspired' by a lot of ebay shipping mishaps in recent years I decided to send the seller a state-of-the-art Beolover double boxed shipping container with the instruction to watch our packaging video for the 4002. I am happy to report that the seller took the advice given in the video seriously, and the unit made it in good condition. Here are a couple of impressions of the packaging job:

All the prescribed steps were taken, transport locks locked, platter packaged separately, RPM trimmer panel taped down, arms secured and hood protected! One thing that caught my eye immediately were a few fragments of the cabinet guiding washers distributed throughout:

A lot of Beograms have plexiglass washers, and they often fracture like seen here. Luckily these can be replaced with 3D printed replicas from the Beolover Shapeways store.

So far so good! Unfortunately, when I closed the hood again it became apparent that the hinges were cracked:

I removed the hood carefully, to not damage the other side of the hinge and had a closer look.

I removed the aluminum trim from the screws that hold the other side of the hinge to the plexiglass glass and took the hinge off:

Unfortunately, this side is also cracked and it probably would have come off if the hood had been opened and closed a couple more times. These cracks are a common problem with the 4002 hoods., and shipping is often the moment when they finally go. Luckily this can be most likely fixed with laser cut plexiglass patches.

On the positive side the rest of this Beogram is in pretty nice condition:

The aluminum panels and the platter are near mint, but the keypad has the usual worn start button:

The damaged coating can be restored, i.e. this will look close to new again in a while.

Under the hood this Beogram seems unadulterated, which is always a great starting point for a restoration.

When I turned it on the arm advanced to the LP set-down position and the solenoid activated. That was a good sign promising a straight forward restoration process. The DC motor that drives the platter on the other hand emitted a loud squeal when it started up, an indication for dried out bearings.  This will be remedied when I take the motor apart to re-infuse its Oilite sleeve bearings.

All of the cabinet guidance washers seem to be gone:

Beogram 4002s that have deteriorated plastic washers often also have the orange transport lock bushings that are prone to disintegration:

So I will replace these too, while I am working on it. After all this Beogram will need to travel another 5000 miles and working transport locks are essential for its survival.

Another nice aspect of this 4002 is the plinth, which is also in a pretty nice condition. The corners up front (often a trouble spot) are in decent condition:

The right one has some white splotches on it:

But I think they will polish away with a bit of Mr. Magic eraser pad action. 

I also played the MMC20 EN cartridge that came with this Beogram. It traveled well in the MMC storage box that I provided along with the shipping container:

More often than not ebay sellers will leave the cartridge on the arm when shipping a Beogram. This often results in damage to the cantilever and then the cartridge is gone. Not so here. I played a side of Freddie Hubbard's First Light album with it on the Beogram 4000 that I am about to finish up and it sounded pretty good. Like all Beolover parts these boxes are available to other enthusiasts. Just send me an email or use the contact form on the right. A great way to keep your cartridge collection organized and safe.

So in summary, I think this is a pretty good starting point for a restoration!