Beogram 4002 (5513): A New Arrival from Virginia - Initial Assessment

I recently received a Beogram 4002 (Type 5513) from a customer in Virginia for restoration. It arrived safely packaged in a Beolover double box and so there was no shipping damage. I extracted the unit from the box and put it on my bench:

It has the usual scratches on the dust cover. Unfortunately, there is also some damage on the inside, probably from transporting the unit without proper packaging in the past. Luckily, there are reproduction hoods available from DKsoundparts in Denmark. The Beolover also offers them via the DKaudiolover store. They are exact reproductions made via die casting, like the original ones. There are no seams at the side panels etc...Beolovely! I removed the hood and had a look at the aluminum surfaces:

They are pretty good. There is a scratch in the platter, but not too bad:

There is some damage to the plinth on the left side corner:

The right side is pristine:

Sadly there is no way to fix plinth damages, but there are beautiful new CNC precision machined replacement frames available. They are made from solid wood (the original ones are veneer on composite board). See here for more info on these frames.

The keypad has the usual smudges from using it. They have a coating that rubs through over time:

Luckily, we are now able to restore them to 'like new' appearance, and we us a modern coating that is more resilient than the original material. See here for more information on our keypad restoration process.

After this inspection of the cosmetics, I removed platter and aluminum panels and had a look below deck:

As is the case for most Beogram 4002 and 4004, the transport lock bushings have completely disintegrated. This is evident from the many orangish fragments strewn around the enclosure:

Luckily, this can easily be fixed with a set of Beolover Transport Lock Bushing Set for Beogram 4000, 4002, and 4004. The Beolover bushings are easy to install and feature thinner walls than the originals, which gives a bit more room for adjusting the floating chassis to a perfect position.

This Beogram was equipped with plexiglass plinth guidance washers. They usually are also degraded. This shows the remnant of one of them:

They can be replaced with sturdy nylon reproductions available at the Beolover store.

I also noted that the plastic carriage pulley has the usual stress crack at the setscrew:

I will install a nice new precision machined Beolover Aluminum Carriage Pulley for Beogram 4002 and 4004. During this visual inspection I also found a MMC4000 cartridge floating around in the enclosure:

Of course this ordeal cost it its cantilever:

On the positive, this cartridge might still be restorable if the suspension is ok.

I plugged the unit in and pressed START. The carriage started moving and found the LP setdown point. The platter motor also came to life with a bit of rattling. This indicated it will need its shaft bearings restored with an oil infusion under vacuum. All good signs for a restoration project. In summary, I think this unit can be restored to like-new performance and close to new looks. Stay tuned!