I recently received a Beogram 4002 (Type 5513 with DC platter motor) for a full restoration from a customer in Louisiana. The unit arrived safely in a Beolover shipping container without shipping damage.
I extracted the unit from the packaging and put it on the bench:
As in most cases it had a pretty badly scratched hood! But this is no problem anymore since there are now very nice reproduction hoods available from DKsoundparts.
I removed the dust cover and had a look at the aluminum surfaces and the keypad:
The keypad has the usual smudges from using it:
Luckily, we are now able to restore them to like-new looks!
The platter is in pretty good condition. It only has one small scratch:
The original rosewood plinth is also in nice condition. The corners are still pretty sharp:
There is a little chip on the left side corner, but not too bad:
The RPM panel plexiglass window is a bit scratched, but one has to find the 'perfect viewing angle' to really notice it:
I removed the aluminum panels and the platter and had a look below deck:
It has the usual degraded transport lock bushings:
This can be fixed with a set of Beolover Transport Lock Bushing Set for Beogram 4000, 4002, and 4004.
I plugged the unit in for a quick function test. However when I pressed start nothing happened! Completely dead. I opened the fuse compartment:
Both fuses were burned out. So something 'dramatic' happened previously. I noticed some grey slime coating the wiring to the transformer.
This made me think the short circuit might be in the transformer and I hooked the Beogram up to one of my bench power supplies. This is easy to do. Just apply ~25-30V to the main reservoir capacitor terminals (make sure the polarity is correct):
This brought the Beogram back to life. After pressing START the carriage started moving sluggishly towards the LP setdown point and the platter motor rattled away (which indicates its shaft bearings are dry).
So it seems the problem is most likely inside the transformer. I will probably replace it with a modern universal power supply like I did recently in a Beogram that needed to be able to run at 240V in the UK.
In summary, this unit is a near perfect starting point for a restoration. Stay tuned for my restoration report once this Beogram is back to like-new performance!
