Beogram 4002 – Tonearm won’t move (another)

[Gertjan_89]

Dear specialists and enthusiasts,

Two weeks ago I was gifted a Beogram 4002 from my aunt. Unfortunately she had to go to a nursing home. The Beogram was in the attic and had not been used for quite some time. I suspect that the Beogram had stopped working when she brought it upstairs.

When I tried it, everything seemed to be working fine. But unfortunately there is no movement in the tone arm. I know I’m not the first with this problem. I watched the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxIxHb8sZdg&t=123s) and cleaned the elements. But this did not solve the problem.

By the way, it is a Beogram 4002, type 5521.

The problem seems to be in the tone arm itself. Or am I wrong? I made attached video. The arm hardly moves under the pressure of the plunger in the damper.

Is there any of you who can help?

Many thanks in advance for your help. I would love to get this working – as a future souvenir of my aunt.

 

All the best,

Gertjan

[spassmaker]

Hi Gertjan

For me it looks like the linkagearm or the damper is stucked. Did you clean these too?

The damper has a screw to regulate the incomming air (shown in the video at about 8:00)

Maybe you open this “valve” one turn to the left to see if the damper is moving.

Keep us informed if you got any progress.

Kind regards

Christian

[Gertjan_89]

Hi Christian,

Thanks for your message. I don’t think it’s the damper. I cleaned and relubricated the damper.

I think you are right about the linkage arm. The piece that is pushed away bij the plunger in the damper does not move back in its ‘natural’ position afterwards. It is stuck somehow.

I will take our the linkage arm and clean it, using this Beolover blog: https://beolover.blogspot.com/2015/12/beogram-4002-5513-rebuilding-arm-linkages-damper-adjustments-broken-SO-switch.html.

I will let you know if it worked. Thanks again!

Best wishes,
Gertjan

[Mark-sf]

This is a common problem. You need to disassemble and clean the pivot point that the spring /arm is attached to as well as the up/down pivot that the solenoid plunger moves. Both of these get gummed up through non-use.

[Gertjan_89]

Hi Mark, Christian and others,

I successfully cleaned everything and re-greased the pivots. The mechanism works smoothly again.

Yet there is still a problem. The tone arm still comes down too slowly. If I lower the tone arm at the beginning of the record, it lowers too slowly and it moves over the record. It starts playing at song 2 / 3. The strange thing is that when I lower the tone arm in the middle of the record, it falls immediately on that spot (as it should).

I have re-greased the plunger in the damper twice. Is this another problem? Or do I need to replace the plunger? Anyone have any advice?

I made a video of the problem (link below this post).

Many thanks again in advance!

Best wishes,

Gertjan de Boer

[Dillen]

Nice video.
Wrongly adjusted tracking opto (diaphragm).
Could also be that the tonearm alignment is way off, but that’ll usually be visible, and yours doesn’t look that wrong.

Martin

[Gertjan_89]

Hi Martin,

Thanks for your message. Do you have an advice on how to fix this? And how sure are you? The strange thing is that it starts lowering at the right moment, but just comes down too slowly in the beginning of the record.

Gertjan

[Dillen]

The problem is that the carriage is moving while the tonearm is lowering.
The diaphragm adjustment method can be found in the service manual.

And something in the damper linkage still doesn’t move exactly as it should, causing the tonearm
to drop fast if lowered soon after being raised.

Martin

[Gertjan_89]

It works! Thank you so much. I don’t know why it works, though. I used the manual to adjust it and then tried again. I was surprised that suddenly the problem was solved.

Maybe something was stuck or covered with some dust. I have no idea. But now it starts as it should.

I hope this problem won’t return. I might work some more on it in the future. Because, yes, the tonearm does drop too fast.

Thanks for your help! Great that you are willing to share your knowledge, Martin, Mark and Christian.

[Author]

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