Beogram 4004 Type 5526 - Restoration Project - Initial Assessment and Cleaning

2026 seems to be the year of the Beogram 4004 turntable...restorations that is.

This post begins another nice Beogram 4004 restoration project.  

Here is my assessment.

The Beogram is in nice shape and very clean.

The Beo4 remote control pictured next to it is because this Beogram 4004 will be getting a Remote Commander that is paired to the Beo4 controller.

The middle, top of the dust cover has a rather noticeable scratch.  I will try to buff it out so it isn't so prominent later.  This Beogram might end up getting a new dust cover from dksoundparts.

The keypad looks nice as well as the other turntable deck components.

The inside of this Beogram 4004 also looks to be in really great condition.
Of course there is the usual floating debris of disintegrating transport lock plastic material.

Everything else looks great though.

The tangential arm assembly looks good.

I removed all of the transport lock assemblies so I can take out the floating chassis components to work on them.

The main circuit board and the output/remote control board look good...ready for restoration.

Here is the cleaned up cabinet and the removed nuts and bolts.

...and here is the removed floating chassis assembly.  I will start the restoration work with that set of components first.

I did not include any pictures of the DC platter motor for this Beogram.  That is because this Beogram 4004 will be getting a Beolover Sync Drive platter motor.  

In the next post I will start disassembling, cleaning and lubricating the floating chassis components.

Beogram 4004 Type 5526 - California Project - Initial Assessment and Cleaning

Here is an initial assessment and cleanup of a nice Beogram 4004 Type 5526 turntable sent to me from California.

 

The platter was packed separately so it isn't in the photos.

The keypad and wood trim look great.

You can see that the tonearm has a problem.  Fortunately it doesn't appear serious.  It is just missing one of two M2 screws that attach the arm to the base.  I have spares for that.

The dust cover is in decent shape although the aluminum trim piece has a buckle.
The owner sent me a new dust cover to replace this original one however so this Beogram will have the new one installed when I am finished.

The inside looked good at first glance.

When I removed the circuit boards and floating chassis I discovered some sort of spillage had occurred in this Beogram's past.  Some sort of liquid was spilled?

Amazingly, this Beogram has original transport bushings that are not dried out and crumbling apart.
They are intact and still soft.  I will leave them in place and coat them with a rubber treatment to make sure they stay soft.

Also note in this photo that I installed the missing M2 screw on the tonearm.  It still needs adjusting of course but that will come later.  For now the arm isn't dangling around anymore.

As I removed components from the floating suspension frame I looked for more remains of whatever was spilled into the Beogram.

Besides a dry film on the Beogram part surfaces, there were a few places where there is corrosion.

The suspension wire assembly at the back (where the spillage must have occurred) has corrosion so I will replace that part in the restoration process.

Not surprising the pivot posts for the tonearm operation were gummed up from the liquid that spilled.
The lever that lower and raise the arm would barely move.

I didn't want to wait until later to start cleaning this residue up so I decided to clean as I went through the initial assessment.

The cleaning up wasn't too bad.  I only had to apply corrosion cleaner to a few places.  Most of the residue scrubbed clean.

The arm lowering and raising assembly is back working smoothly again.

The pulley belt for the tangential arm is all stiff, dried and broken. That isn't unusual but is kind of surprising seeing how the transport lock bushings remained soft over the years.

Really amazing is the condition of the phono DIN plug.  It is corrosion free.

The old tangential arm drive pulley is going to be replaced with a new, aluminum pulley so I removed it and cleaned up the tangential arm drive spindle.  I also cleaned the guide rails, spindle nut and cover.

This Beogram 4004 is now at a point where I can begin working on the restoration of the mechanical parts for the turntable.

Beomaster 5000 Type 2323: Assessing a new Beomaster restoration

After what seemed like a long period of Beogram restorations I have retooled my workbench to do some Beomaster restoration projects. I have some Beomaster 4400 receivers to tackle but before that I decided to restore a nice Beomaster 5000 Type 2323 for an original Beosystem 5000 system owner who previously sent me a CD50 to work on.

This Beomaster 5000 receiver is in nice shape but stopped working this year.  It is actually quite impressive that it was still functioning up to this decade considering the Beomaster was produced thirty-five years ago.

I love the way Bang & Olufsen designed these series of cabinets.  Simply moving two screws upward at the back of the cabinet releases the catches that secure the cover.  When the screws are fastened in the up position the cover can slide off.

Here it is with the cover removed.

There is a little bit of dust but the Beomaster inside is surprisingly clean after thirty-five years.
You can tell it was always in a good environment for electronic equipment.

Flipping the unit over I removed the bottom panel.

Now a flip back to the top side where the components can be removed for examination and restoration.

Another nice feature of this receiver cabinet is how modular it is and how easy it is to get to components.  The top PCB (PCB 1 - AM/FM board) unbolts and flips up to a service position and reveals the preamplifier board (PCB 3) underneath.

At the very front of the Beomaster 5000, behind the display panel, are boards 7 (Display-right), 8 (Display-left) and 9 (Remote control).

With the front panel pulled out of the way the Microcomputer board (PCB 5) can be accessed and removed.  It is held in place by two plastic holder pieces that pull out from the top.

After the plastic board holders are removed the PCB 4 connectors can be disconnected and the Microcomputer board removed.

There are four electrolytic capacitors and a 3 volt lithium battery that will be replaced on this board.

The next component assembly to remove is the fan assembly.  Yes, with the compact size of the cabinet and the fact that the Beosystem 5000 components are expected to be stacked on top of each other, B&O installed a temperature sensor and a cooling fan.

The next assembly to remove is the plastic housing for cooling air to flow to the output amplifier board.

That assembly can be a little tricky to get opened up as the two large power supply filter capacitors have to be rotated to uncoil the three wires they are connected to.  When the wires are uncoiled there is enough room to move the plastic housing out of the way (and to remove the two filter capacitors for replacement).

All of the boards that have electrolytic capacitors I will remove are accessible now.

The Preamplifier board is easy to get to.

So is the power supply/output amplifier board.

You can see in the photo that the large relay on the power supply board looks a little charred inside.
That is typical on these amplifiers. After years of arcing during power switching of the Beomaster the relay contacts get pretty charred. I will replace this relay with a brand new one.  There is a matching speaker muting relay on the Preamplifier board that I will replace as well.

Here is the power supply/output amplifer board removed and ready to be worked on.

Now I have to make sure I have all the necessary replacement parts (there are about 71 capacitors to replace)...then I can start on the restoration tasks.

Beogram 4002 Type 5513: Third Beogram From Houston

Last year I restored a couple of Beogram 4002 Type 5513 turntables for an owner in Houston, Texas.
The owner is a serious vinyl user and has a third Beogram 4002 Type 5513 to restore as a backup deck.  I am impressed with this level of Beogram 4002 fandom so let's get this project started.

Here is the initial assessment of this latest Beogram 4002 Type 5513.
This Beogram model and type was produced and sold in the USA in 1976. It is actually the first type of Beogram 400x turntable I owned. It's great to see these with owners that are still using them.

The overall cosmetic condition is good. There is some scraped of black paint on the hinge of the dust cover (in the back) that makes it stand out but the dust cover is actually in good shape.

The usual wear on the control panel buttons is present.
The inside of this Beogram is nice and clean. There are rust spots showing on the floating suspension springs. I see that quite a bit and will clean that up.
The plastic washers for the wood trim are all broken off. I will get some 3D printed replacements from Beolover.

The suspension lockdown washers are still intact so those should be good. I will apply some plastic conditioner on them.

This Beogram still does partially function. The motors work as do the control panel buttons.
However, the platter motor makes noise as you would hear from dried out bearings.  Beolover's motor rebuild service will take care of that problem.

The tonearm is in great shape but I can see that the tangential arm assembly carriage position sensor has a burned out sensor LED (the sensor's light source).

The main board (PCB1) looks good and will be restored to like new functionality when I replace the old electrolytic capacitors and speed trimmers.

Once this is restored it will make a great backup Beogram for its owner.  It would even be a great primary turntable :-)