Beogram 4000: Return to the Bench for an Upgraded Power Supply and New Carriage Motor, and some TLC

A Beogram 4000 that I restored in December 2022 returned for the installation of a Beolover Efficient 24V Power Supply and Main Capacitors for Beogram 4000 board and a new Beolover Carriage Motor for Beogram 4000, 4002, and 4004. It also needed the tracking feedback re-calibrated.

The unit arrived safely in its Beolover shipping container. Unfortunately, the keypad was only taped down with a single strip of blue tape and so the center pad came loose on one end:

Luckily, this is an easy fix if one takes out the keypad from the enclosure so the keys can be accessed from the side. Then, after removal of the ON/OFF key the spring of the main key can be re inserted from the side using a suitable screwdriver. After the main key was back in I re-installed the ON/OFF key using the same method:

I set out to install the new Beolover Efficient 24V Power Supply and Main Capacitors for Beogram 4000 board. Here you can see my original setup using a 3D printed plastic part to hold new regular capacitors in place. On the left is the new replacement:

This board does not only replace the big capacitors, but also replaces the inefficient 24V power supply with a modern buck converter that has a much smaller loss. Consequently, the deck will run much cooler and use less energy once the board is in place.

The first step was to remove the old setup and also the platter motor:

Then the new board could be soldered in. Simply follow the color labels on the new board for soldering in the leads if you try this at home. I usually start with the ones in front, connecting the 24V rail as well as the solenoid power (thin blue wire) and platter motor power (brown):

Then I usually do the 6V system in the back (yellow/blue and two black GND connections):

The final step is re-connecting the motor. I usually do the phases (purple/green) first since the wires are longer, i.e. the motor can still be removed while soldering them in:

The final connections are the GND connections of the motor phases which go to the large black/green/GND labeled field. For this the motor needs to be bolted in since the leads are usually pretty short:

This shows everything back in place:

Nice and clean! After a brief function check I focused on the carriage and tracking. The first step was coating the carriage rods with Tactikel NST, a high-tech coating based on nano-particles for making the rods more slippery. I started doing this since the owner of this Beogram 4000 reported excellent results when he used this product on his other 4000. And I have to agree, it seems to help the smoothness of the carriage transport resulting in less choppy carriage motor action. I removed the rods the carriage travels on

and rubbed the coating on. It needs to cure for ~ 2hrs according to manufacturer instructions:

After the 2 hrs were over, I wiped the rods with a soft cloth and re-installed them.

On to replacing the carriage motor with a new Beolover Carriage Motor for Beogram 4000, 4002, and 4004. This shows the original motor:

I unsoldered the leads and opened up the enclosure:

I installed the new motor:

The new motor is a bit shorter, i.e. the leads can be fed through the opening in the bottom of the enclosure. This makes for a clean installation:

Note that I had to reverse the leads to get proper directionality of the new motor. The original motor was one of the small subset of motors with an opposite polarity. I powered the deck up and tried the new motor. So much quieter than the original one! Beolovely!

On to calibrating the tracking feedback! It turned out that the tracking sensor aperture attached to the tonearm base had moved a little bit. Probably during a transport event. I adjusted everything to get 2-3 rotations before the carriage starts moving after setdown. And then it was time to give this deck a test spin! 

I selected "One on One" by Bob James and Earl Klugh (CBS 83931), currently one of my favorite records. A perfect companion for this lovely Beogram 4000! Of course this vintage record was cleaned on a CleanerVinyl ProXL setup to restore its original sound!

I will play this Beogram a bit more and if nothing else comes up it will be time to return it to its owner!