BeoCord 5500 – Shutting off

[Grgur Pauker]

Hello everyone, I recently acquired a nice BeoCord 5500 in a really good shape. It has only few minor scratches, but I have a issue which I simply can’t resolve no matter what I think of. When I first tried it playing on my Beosystem 2300 + BeoLab 2, tapes were playing in “slow-mo”. I tried playing few of my tapes, which weren’t really kept in some nice enviorment (in the attic full of dust and heat, for the past 15 years), and the problem was persisting.

First thing that came to my mind was the belt issue, since this particular one is from 1987, type 4931. So I ordered belt for the cassette drive. Since I was already replacing that belt, I thought I’ll go ahead and replace the O-Ring used for opening the deck, since it has been 38 years.

Replacing both of these was kind of easy, without any big problems, although there were few screws that got stuck after all those years. Transistors, cables, capacitors, electronics… everything seemed nice to me. There was nothing burnt-like, or some cables that were ripped, or bulging capacitors. After I put it back together I also cleaned pinch rollers and the head. I played some of my tapes and they were playing back perfectly. Although the sound isn’t the greatest because those tapes have seen some better days, they weren’t playing in “slow-mo” anymore. In meantime I also got some well preserved tapes from my friends that were still using them to play music in 2000s, since my father was only buying CDs ever since 1989. Those newer tapes had fuller sound, clear, with noted highs, and with good blasting bass.

The first problem that happened is that sometimes when I use Fast Forward or Fast Rewind function, right pinch roller travels to the capstan, capstan spins itself in place (but does spin not the pinch roller), for a brief period of time of 1-2 seconds, and then BeoCord shuts off and the deck closes, together with BeoSystem and BeoLab which also shut down. When I turn it back on, if I proceed to use the right pinch roller, exact same thing will happened. But when I press “Turn” button and use left pinch roller instead of right, it will work totally normal. This was happening occasionally at the first time, but it got more often, sometimes even after pressing FFW just 3-4 times.

Second issue that showed up after using BeoCord few times, right pinch roller will play tapes like a “DJ”. When I say that I mean that when I use right pinch roller, as the supply reel spins, e.g. 3/4 of its circle it will sound normal (no “slow-mo”, clear audio) and then the rest 1/4 will slow down and sound like slowed version, and so in cycle. When I switch to using the left pinch roller, problem disappears. I’m not sure could it be the supply reel causing this problem, or the pinch rollers themselves, or cassette drive problem, or even some electrical problem.

New pinch rollers for replacement have arrived, but I’m not sure will they resolve the problem. Since Beocord is located in another country where my occasion house is, I won’t be able to take it into my hands until February of 2026. Since I’m collecting tapes and I buy used ones which corespond to the ones I had in the past (but lost or threw them away), this piece of equipment is really of value to me. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Dillen]

In FF and FR the capstans are not supposed to drive the tape but, depending on the situation and operation,
the tapehead bridge will load (partially) allowing for track sensing.

Sounds like the overload circuit is kicking in.
I see this all the time with Ebay belts, particularly from Portugal.
Are the belts correct for this model? Where did you buy?

Martin

[Author]

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