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, all,
I finally became a Beogram owner over Christmas (5500 and 4002) I have done come cleaning and alignment, etc. and the 4002 is running quite nicely (but see below). Eventually I will have the 4002 fully restored but right now, I am looking for a temporary quick fix, if possible.
I am seeing a strange behaviour with my 4002 (Build 5513). 33 rpm plays fine but 45 rpm fluctuates and would not hold steady. I have seen other posts with similar issues and tried to fix mine based on what I've read in this forum. I cleaned the motor and switched out pot R14 but that din't help. Interestingly, what did work is if I manually change the play speed to 33 and then switch it back to 45, after the tone arm/platter mechanism has been activated. More specifically, I am doing the following ritual to get normal 45 rpm to play: press PLAY, tone arm travels across the platter-->the 45 RPM indicator lights up-->speed change-->arm drops-->cue up-->press 33 RPM-->press 45 RPM-->cue down. The 7" will now play with steady speed. I can do the same with 12" single so the disc size doesn't matter. It almost acts like the speed change circuit needs to be manually locked in.
I have not seen this scenario described before in the forum (maybe others haven't tried the 33 to 45 switch trick?). Any Beogram experts can offer a solution or an explanation?
Thanks in advance,
Ken
I am embarrassed to say that the issue was not as "mythical" as I had thought. It turns out to be a simple mechanical problem. For some reason, the left side of the carriage mechanism (the part with the circuit board) was rubbing against the subplatter as the record was played. This slight rubbing was just enough to slow the play speed periodically. Once I adjusted the subplatter height, this problem went away. Of course, now I am not able to get the magical "23mm" distance between the platter and the arms. So I am still confused but at least my vinyls sound better now.
Mod: feel free to delete this entire thread since it doesn't really contribute to anything.