ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Hi guys,
I have been trying to get my Beogram 4000 fixed and finally had a chance to take it to a guy to look over.
He gave me a call this afternoon saying that the transformer needs to be replaced but thats only if i can find one? so my question is is there anywhere I can find one? or is there a replacement transformer that I can use instead?
He said that he doesn't think i should bother with it and has told me to buy a newer turntable, but I love my Beogram 4000 and I am determined to see it work again.
Any ideas would be much appreciated. Thanks
Martin Olsen is your friend, failing that they come up on ebay every so often.Do not let him persuade you to abandon this deck, they are worth far more than it would cost to replace a transformer any day!
Olly
Step1: Martin Olsen is your friend, failing that they come up on ebay every so often.Do not let him persuade you to abandon this deck, they are worth far more than it would cost to replace a transformer any day!
Listen to Olly, or buy a BG 4000 for parts, they are out there just a matter of patience, that is, if your technician is 100 % sure the transformer is bad, it could also be rectifiers gone bad, ask him which windings are bad on the transformer. Rewinding the transformer is also possible
Collecting Vintage B&O is not a hobby, its a lifestyle.
I thought about rewinding the transformer, I will be picking it up this weekend and taking it for a second opinion. Im not giving up on this deck, I love it and I desperate to see the day it starts playing records.
Thank you for the tips guys i will keep my eyes out. Also Martin Olsen is that the name of a member here?
Martin's member name on BEOWORLD is DILLEN.
RON
The person you took your BG4000 to is a personal friend of mine. He is the primary technician for one of our major radio stations in Australia and works on many things from small circuits to radio transmitters. He has done extensive repairs to my BG4002 (DC motor version) and BG6000 (AC motor version) which is not dissimilar in many ways to your BG4000 deck.
Believe me, when he tells you the transformer is blown, it is blown, apparently it is the primary winding, he believes it is due to the voltage selector being set to 110v when in Australia it should be set to 240v - this may have been done by the previous owner of the deck.
The recommendation to abandon the deck is based on a financial assessment of the situation, not an emotional assessment. In this situation, it appears you are somewhat emotionally attached to the unit (as I am to my two Beograms) and are keen to get it working again.
The cheapest solution will be to find a wrecked BG4000 or similar unit (BG6000 AC motor version) or BG4002 (AC motor version) and salvage the transformer, in Australia i've seen people pay up to $400 AUD for wrecked decks. There has been a distinct lack of these Beograms on ebay or classifieds over the last few months so I'm not sure how lucky you will be.
The other option is to investigate getting the transformer repaired by a specialist. You could ask your current technician to remove it and then drop it off yourself to somewhere like Sulzer Dowding and Mills in Laverton, get it rewound and then return it to your current technician to have it refitted.
He can then begin working through any other issues with the deck - believe me there will be some issues as most of these decks require at the minimum; new power supply caps, lubrication of the arm mechanism and associated dampener mechanism, clean of speed change relays and reid switches, new belts, lubrication of the carriage shaft and a general check of arm alignment and tracking weight and sometimes a few bulbs.
Best of luck
Drew
Drew, the transformers are not interchangeable he must go for a 4000 transformer, as this has extra secondaries for the 6V and Neon supplies.. Now, your tech friend should have more than one bench PSU that he can temporarily replace the transformer with, to test further functions of the deck - he should do this now before committing the OP to a large bill with a still non operational deck!Now, it just so happens I got a 4000 yesterday (a stunning example too!) also with a blown transformer. I am currently talking to a chap who rebuilds and scratch builds. Looking at the picture, he says a rebuild might be costly on the grounds that the example I have is potted in the lower part, so a scratch build might be cheaper. I am going to take some measurements, send him the transformer and when he gets back to me I will update this thread :-)
Hey Drew,
I believe you were the person that put me on to Mark? Thanks for that.
Mark has been super helpful, I understand that he is giving me his opinion based on a financial recommendation and I know it could turn out to be an expensive exercise. I have a feeling that the previous owner (who brought this over from the UK when he moved over) had tried setting it up without setting it to 240v. I was only interested to get a second opinion to see if someone could fix the transformer as that wasn't mentioned to me as an option when we discussed it, I actually had no idea it could be done until my girlfriends dad mentioned it to me.
I spoke with him and he has said he is happy to install one IF i can find one, so thats now my challenge. If that fails then I think I will have to get him to remove it and take it to one of those contacts you have just suggested to see if it can be fixed.
It has a few other problems that we could see off the bat, it needs adjustment of the arms and full lubricating and new belts. Im sure there will also be a few other things that pop up once we can power it.
Hopefully a wrecked 4000 comes up, am I right in saying that I can buy one from overseas as the transformer is adaptable to both 110 and 240?
Thanks again Drew.
That would be great, I look forward to hearing how you go with it. Good luck I hope it isnt too expensive!