Beogram 8002 (5633): A New Arrival From Massachusetts

I recently received a Beogram 8002 from an old customer in Massachusetts. I guess one cannot have too many Beograms!...;-). It came safely packaged in a Beolover box, and so no shipping damage occurred. This shows the unit on my bench:

It has the usual scratches on the dust cover:

Luckily, this can be fixed with a new reproduction hood and transfer of the original 8002 trim. The small aluminum panel is a bit at an angle:

This is usually an indicator of broken-off tabs on the plastic back that provides the hinge for both the dust cover and the small aluminum panel. And indeed the back is loose due to at least one broken off plastic tab:

On the positive, this Beogram still has a pretty decent platter. No one tried to clean it with Windex, yet!...;-). Only use warm water with a splash of mild hand dishwashing detergent and a soft cloth for cleaning these fragile beauties!

The surrounding aluminum panel is loose, but also without major flaws. The veneer corners up front are also in good condition:

Many Beogram 8000 and 8002 that I see have damaged corners.

I removed the small black metal plate under the arms, and as usual, the attached metal plate had come off.

One of the leaf springs that float the chassis had been modified, and a non-spec screw now holds it in place:

Strangely, the slot for the screw had been widened a bit at some point:

I extracted the functional parts and set them up on my Lazy Susan work platform:

Being able to rotate the setup for working on it is very useful!

Sadly, the transformer block is cracked. I guess someone dropped it on a hard floor at some point:

I also noticed the carriage was not properly installed, with the back rod missing one of the sliding bearings on the carriage:

Also, the tonearm sits at an upward-pointing angle:

This is caused by a small missing metal plate that was glued to the bottom of the counterweight with decayed double-sided tape.

After this visual inspection, I plugged in another transformer block that is in good condition. Coincidentally, I had it left over from a recent project, where I sent a restored 8002 to a customer in the UK. This required replacing the US 120V transformer with a 240V type that a co-Beolover in the UK had available.

When I pressed START, the carriage came alive and started moving. Also, the platter turned in the right direction. All good signs!

In summary, I think this unit is a good starting point for a successful restoration project! Stay tuned!