Texas Beomaster 8000: Final asembly

The happy day is finally here. The Beomaster 8000 from Texas is reassembled and into the playing test phase. I have said before that this is the best part.

To finish up I needed to put the push nuts onto the control panel in place of the temporary holding tape.

I also brushed on some rust eliminator on the other push nuts that hold the two control wheel assemblies.

I stole the flat metal spring that was under the center mounting post of the button panel for use with the press bar that opens the tone control panel lid. I used black hot glue under the two Beolover cables and on the blue wires for the optical sensors. The glue is removable but holds well. The purpose here is to prove strain relief on solder joints where the wires attach to the button panel.

To reinstall the filter & tone control panel lid I had to replace the broken lever for the lid damper assembly.

At last the final reassembly steps. I put the Beomaster cables back in place the way they were originally routed...well, close anyways. I have photos from all of my Beomaster 8000 projects as they first arrived and some of the cable routing was different. Some of that is probably from other people previously working on the units.

Here is the filter & tone control panel side.

Here is the microcomputer and display side.

...and here is everything back together and the Beomaster 8000 plugged in. I polished up the metal panels and this Beomaster 8000 is stunning again.

It will spend the next few days in one of my listening rooms just to make sure it is ready to return to its owner.  It is connected to a Beogram 8002, a Beocord 9000 and a couple of Beovox M100.2 speakers. This should be fun.

Beomaster 8000 & Beocord 9000: Re-Installing the Lid Dampers

In the last post on the Beomaster 8000 lid damper restoration I left off with the first damper cleaned out and fitted with new damping grease. I had to experiment with the re-assembly of the dampers to get them sealed and working properly. Out of the six damper assemblies I had available I have restored four so far. Here is a lid damper completely disassembled.

Here is another picture of the damper with new damping grease ready for joining the two main pieces.

Next is the joining of the damper and Beolover replacement arm to the deck lid. It should be done with all of the components removed from the Beomaster. Snap the new arm to the deck lid first. After that the other end of the arm attaches to the damper by sliding over the keyed mounting post on the lever. 

Now it is ready for re-installation in the Beomaster 8000.

The Beomaster 8000 deck lid now opens slowly and smoothly as controlled by the damper device. This is the result I was looking for.

Also part of this lid damper restoration is the damper for the Beocord 9000 that goes with this Beomaster. Again, installation of the reworked damper is done with the lid removed from the unit.

The Beocord still has its arm intact. Note that while the damper unit is identical to the Beomaster, the arm for the lid is not the same. The Beocord arm is shorter in length.

Here is the reworked damper installed back on the Beocord deck lid. Note the position of the damper lever and arm. As was the Beomaster, attaching the arm to the damper is done by sliding the arm on from the side. To install this on the Beocord deck lid the result will be the arm on the lower side of the damper. After the arm is attached to the damper you must rotate the damper 360° so the arm is on top (as shown in the picture below). Otherwise the damper won't be able to do its job.

Now the deck lid assembly is back in place and this Beocord 9000 has a properly working deck lid again.

This concludes the lid damper rework for these two units. The new damping grease should not liquify and leak like the old grease did. At least not for another thirty plus years.