Beogram 4004 Type 5526: Lubrication

I have run into several Beogram 400x turntable restorations where part of the restoration task was cleaning up excess oil inside the Beogram cabinet and on a good number of the Beogram parts. Fortunately that was not the case on this Beogram 4004 unit from Texas. As mentioned before, this is a really well maintained machine.

The service manual for the turntable states that the need for relubrication is negligible. Really only necessary in the case of overhauls and replacement of the mechanical parts involved. I believe that working on the restoration of a forty year old Beogram 4004 calls for a run through of the lubrication procedures.

The lubricants spelled out in the forty year old service manual are not things that are readily available these days. Most of the time I use modern lubricants like silicone grease and synthetic oils. I am fond of the Tri-Flow brand product line but there are a number of options available. The key thing is to no over lubricate. A little bit goes a long way.

Earlier this year on one of my Beogram 400x restorations I decided that I wanted to attempt relubrication of the turntable with the lubricants called out in the service manual. It took some searching but I found most of them.

The service manual for the Beogram 4002 Type 5513 - Beogram 4004 Type 5526 list these lubricants.

Here are the referenced lubrication points from the service manual.

The lubrication list from the Beogram 4004 service manual doesn't list the arm lowering damper cylinder (ref 242, not in the diagram above) or the magnet-coil spring (ref 194).

Earlier Beogram 400x service manuals specify Dow Corning 200 fluid for the damper cylinder and Valvata oil 79 for the magnet-coil spring.

Here are the lubricants I was able to find from the list.

Note that I found Rocol MTS 2000 rather than Rocol MTS 1000. For the listed Everyman oil I will continue using some Tri-Flow synthetic oil.

Here are pictures of the actual lubrication points...save for the turntable bearing which I will do later when I am ready to put the platter back on.

I didn't find any reference in the service manual to the pivot post for the tonearm lowering lever assembly. As Beolover and my own Beogram 400x projects have shown it is quite common for that lever to become dirty and stuck. On this Beogram 4004 turntable it is clean and moves easily. All I will apply is  little synthetic oil to the pivot point.

I did not take apart and lubricate the damper cylinder on this Beogram as it is working perfectly.
Here is the floating chassis mechanical assembly all re-lubricated and ready for the next step in the restoration.