Beogram 1200 repair

97 replies
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Hi,

I don't have a specific question, although any tips along the way would be most welcome!

I'm new to the site, I found it through google after my wife for Christmas bought me a Beogram 1200 as a project (she knew it wasn't working and she also knows I like to fix things!).

I work in advertising but have a background in telecommunications engineering and have always been tinkering with home appliances. I have a record player back home in Australia but haven't found a way / been bothered to ship it over here to the UK. I live quite centrally in London therefore don't really have a great setup for working on this type of thing - it's mostly a coffee table and plastic cups for holding screws!

I'm back today from holidays and have spent a couple of hours today already working on the 1200. Here's a record of what I've done in case this helps someone in the future or in case anyone has experienced anything similar and wants to guide me on the right path! I apologise in advance if I don't know the correct names for things. I'll try to match parts up with a manual I've downloaded here (created a new free account .. seems ok, haven't been spammed yet!).

First thing I tried was plug the thing into the mains and see what was happening. The user who sold it reported that nothing happened but he could feel something warming up on the underside of the deck. Sure enough, he was right - nothing happens. I didn't check the warming thing as I don't want to damage anything further than it may have been damaged already.

Next step, I've taken the bottom cover off. I can see that the drive belt isn't sitting in its guide track properly. It's also stuck on the between the drive wheel and idler wheel. Popped the base back on, approached from the top to free the belt. Back into the base again and drive belt is now sitting correctly. Back into the mains - no luck.

Ok, to check the electrical basics. Yes, I have power coming in to the unit. Yes, there's continuity on the connection block, into the voltage switch and out the other side. Hmm.

Right ... I guess I'm going to see about getting into the motor itself (still hoping it's a loose electrical connection or something simple!). Removed the motor cover from the bottom (3 nuts and had to bend out two metal prongs to release the cover). Nothing obvious here. Cover back on. Free the motor chassis by removing the suspension assemblies to look at the top. Nothing obvious here either. Poke around, drive roller off and back on again. Nope, nothing obvious here unfortunately. Before putting the motor cover back on again, plugged into mains. Aha! Some wobbly movement!

A small break. Whilst on break, read this article - could be relevant? This one is about the same model but I haven't got to checking the arm yet!

Deep into the motor now. Drive roller off, motor chassis still off. Bottom bearing of motor prised off with some effort. Rotor removed from stator, again with a fair bit of effort. All parts cleaned with a cloth sprayed with WD40. Everything back together again. Much more free movement of the motor now! Still rotating much slower than I'd expect - about 1 rev per second? Everything back together, into the mains and ... platter spinning but really really slowly. Move speed selector to "0" and scratch my head for a moment. Sounds like the motor is starting to spin quicker? Pop selector back to "33" but still only slow spinning of the platter .. and now it's stopped.

Right! That's all I have time for today, will have another look tomorrow.

I have some photos but can't work out how to upload these for use here .. will also check that out for tomorrow.

 

 

Good news, I figured out how to upload photos.

Here is my work area:

Here is the chassis:

And the motor assembly. You can see I've popped the voltage selector out to get a better look at where everything goes:

Working on the coffee table today, as opposed to floor! No movement still after quick first check. Remove base cover and motor cover:

No movement again, even when given a little nudge with an insulated screwdriver. Hand spins fine (no power). Close up of the motor with cover removed.

Lift motor chassis to check if there's anything obvious. Remove drive roller in case that's obstructing things somehow. Remove the whole rotor from the stator again and clean with alcohol wipe.

Everything back together (mostly), power on .. no movement. Hmm. Plan B - I noticed yesterday that there's a little switch which I suspect cuts the motor out when the record finishes. I can't tell what this part is called from my manual. Anyway, I rotated the main cam until the switch changed. Success! Back to the very slow rotation experienced yesterday.

Video link (forum software seems to be cutting embedded Youtube videos out, and isn't allowing me to upload videos to the files area).

Not really sure now. For a laugh, I'm going to change the voltage selector to 110V. Oh wow, the motor's really spinning now! Very noisy though - still, this looks more like what I expected.

Some quick photos before putting everything back together. Here's (1) drive roller off and (2) drive roller on:

Player up the right way now. Tried again at 240V, slow spinning. Down to 110V on the selector and spinning what looks like much more like the correct speed. A bit of noise coming off that motor though.

Not entirely convinced about the speed, tried it with a record on it to see what it looked like ... maybe ... big test will be to plug into an amp and see what it sounds like. Unfortunately I only just ordered that cable so might have to wait a day or two to find out.

link's the slow spinning.

And 's the "correct" speed??:

Ok, done for the day again! Until next time!

 

Good job until now. But do not use WD40 in your turntables, use a good sewing machine oil or liquid bearings, I recommend to take the mechanical drive apart, clean it and lubricate it, to check the speed, download a strobe disc, print it, cut it to size and check the speed.

Nice pics and welcome to the forum

Location: Mexico city

Retired
Printing machine technician
Restored various 1960-70 items
Rock and Roll music
Collecting Vinyl
Restored Jukebox Wurlitzer 1050

Thanks for the tip! I picked up some sewing machine oil yesterday and have started to really strip the motor back to bearings so I can clean and oil. Photos to follow.

I'm also really getting nothing out of the motor any more (tried before I dissembled) so I'm going to read up on how they work so I can maybe devise some kind of test to make sure the electromagnet/s are working as they should. It's been a while and AC isn't my specialty, but I read somewhere that it's a basic 2 pole induction motor so I'm going to start by googling that.

Hi again,

Some disappointing news, I've pulled the motor apart completely, cleaned and oiled everything but unfortunately it didn't make any difference. The only way the motor spins anywhere near like the speed it should spin at is by selecting 110V - and latest news is now I'm getting absolutely nothing. I've been doing some reading about how dual voltage motors work and chances are I've burnt out the windings by using the 110V setting.

One thing I noticed is that one side of the stator is taped up, I suspect that the windings have been replaced on one of the electromagnets in the past.

It seems that my options are to buy another 1200 advertised as spares/repairs and either use the (presumably) good cartridge from this player in the other unit, or use the (presumably) good motor in this unit. Or, find out which electromagnet isn't working and re-wind it. Ah! The difference between 110V and 220V settings must be that one has the electromagnets connected in series, the other in parallel.

Still having fun though!

Here's my latest photos from stripping everything back:

 

Here we have the bottom bearing assembly and rotor -

Here's the stator separated from the chassis -

A close up of the chassis with the stator removed (interestingly, this is a bit different from what it looks like in the manual) -

Chassis again, the top bearing cover removed (but bearing assembly still in place) -

Here's the dissembled top bearing assembly -

And finally the chassis with all of the motor components removed for cleaning and oiling -

 

Hi, me again!

It's been a while since I've had a play with the 1200, mostly due to life stuff (moved onto a new job, yawn). One thing that did happen though was that I picked up a "for spares" 1203 from ebay for about £30 with the hope that the motor assembly would be the same. It arrived, and it IS the same (at first inspection anyway).

So today I had a proper look. The motor on the 1203 spins, nice speed, nice and quiet, looks like it's in good order. I took the assembly off and apart from there being a bit of dust and superficial corrosion it looks fine. I've decided to bring everything across into the 1200 including the power cable, so chopped off the cables to whatever the relay is in the 1203. I had to hardwire the switch closed (normally controlled by brown and black cables from relay) for testing - it works fine as a standalone assembly so fingers crossed there. Next job for that assembly is clean it up ready to be transplanted into the 1200.

Meanwhile, in the 1200, I have to remove the non-functioning motor assembly. Again, I'm removing everything including power cable to make life a bit easier. It looks like the 1200 has the option of being battery powered (although can't really work out what size batteries it would take and how that would fit in, so I had to cut those thin grey cables. I also had to remove the switch temporarily in order to pull everything out. The plan is to keep the 1203's motor hardwired on until it's in place and tested, then I'll have to do some soldering to reconnect the switch.

So, a good day's work. Here's my photos.

This is the 1203 before I'd done anything to it:

A close up of the 1203 motor assembly in situ:

The 1203's motor assembly removed from the body and flipped over. Note minor corrosion:

The electrical connections before removal from the 1203. I had to cut 1 x black, 1 x brown and 1 x blue cables:

The electrical connections on the 1200 pre-motor removal. The right hand side just goes to a voltage selector where all the wires are annoyingly soldered. The 1203 doesn't have a voltage selector, for reference:

The thin grey wires (assumed DC battery) on the 1200. The other end of these appears to terminate on one of the motor's inductors:

Lastly, everything just before removal from the 1200. This is mostly a reference shot of the switch so I can put it back correctly once the 1203's motor is transplanted in.

 

Final note, the 1203 isn't in great shape, missing some key pieces (including stylus) but apart from the motor parts I don't need anything else, so if anyone needs other parts from it I'm happy to post anything anywhere for the cost of the postage. Best probably to PM me if you're interested.

Ok, until next time!

Before you mount the motor and drive in the 1200, take them apart for cleaning and lubricating, specially the drive swing shaft and motor bearings.

Location: Mexico city

Retired
Printing machine technician
Restored various 1960-70 items
Rock and Roll music
Collecting Vinyl
Restored Jukebox Wurlitzer 1050

Thanks for the tips Søren! I indeed took everything apart, it was all a bit grubby, cleaned it up with white spirit and lubricated with sewing machine oil.

No pictures in this post, but I popped the motor in last night and looks to be running nicely.

I didn't check anything sound-wise but had a crack at plugging it in to my amp as it was - no sound. I could hear the stylus producing sound from the record I was playing, but the amplification wasn't working. Could be my amp being a bit too modern and clever, so I'm just going to use a basic test rig (old computer speakers) that I know will work. Hopefully it's something basic ... but if not I have a whole lot of spare parts in the 1203!

Depending on your amp, you may need a preamp

Location: Mexico city

Retired
Printing machine technician
Restored various 1960-70 items
Rock and Roll music
Collecting Vinyl
Restored Jukebox Wurlitzer 1050
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