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
Today I acquired a phenomenal Beogram 3404 in a vintage shop for $40. It functioned perfectly but was in need of a thorough wipe down. In my haste and excitement to get it gleaming I not only destroyed the stylus on the cartridge, I also may have ruined the dust covers ability to ever work properly again. I noticed a large buildup of dust and grime in the dust cover groove where the hinge assembly is and foolishly removed the mounting screws only to have a booby trap explode. 2 out of 3 of the black plastic bits which hold the screws, lid, and tension bar in place for the hinge/lid assembly have snapped in half. Is it possible to re-assemble this thing, assuming I can even find the small parts needed, or should I just keep my eye open for a spare dust cover fully assembled at auction from a parts unit?
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Turns out Krazy Glue and C-clamps will do the trick! The lid is reassembled and works nicely again (see photo links above), and the Beogram looks about as clean as new. Now I just need to replace the cartridge I ruined. If anyone has an extra cartridge they would like to sell which will fit this unit please message me!
Hi Orry,
Glad to hear you were able to fix that stunning 3404
As for cartridges, look HERE
Beo4 'til I die!
Good job, and try Axel for the cartridge, he will be able to repair the old one. Your deck looks very good, use some boiled linseed oil for the wood.
Collecting Vintage B&O is not a hobby, its a lifestyle.
Thank-you I will definitely pick up some oil for the wood,
Søren is that your MMC 20E in the link? Are you still looking to sell it?
Yes it is still there, but considering the age of it, I dont like selling it, the suspension may have gone bad, then there is the trouble of shipping it, I have to find someone going either to the US or Europe, and then ship from there, the Mexican postal service do not allow any metal in shipments for abroad and courier is very expensive. Your best pick is Axel, I can highly recommend him.
I will keep the MMC20E as a collectors item, and keep it in the packing forever
Congrats on the 3404, I have two myself. I like them so much, I bought one for another member once!
I have purchased a new cartridge from SoundSmith and have had one retipped by them. Both approaches highly recommended.
New is not cheap. I used the $150 retip on a MMC3000 and sometimes I like it more than the new SMMC20EN.
New.
Repair.
I have the same issue with my Beogram 3404 cover. I can fix the one small mounting hardware that broke no problem using some super strong epoxy that I have. My issue is exactly how to put it back together and get the tension bar properly "loaded." Can you please provide me any instructions? Clearly you are a lot smarter than I am!
THANKS a ton, David
I did the exact same thing with my lid. I bought this new in 1980 and it still works perfect. Can you tell me the procedure for putting the lid hinge back together properly? Thank you in advance, Jerry
Martin (Dillen) posted some excellent repair instructions in the past. Of course, now I can't find the post, but I did copy the text to save for replacing my own dust cover. I didn't have any luck repairing the spring holders so I cast some in resin and I am using those now.
I took several photos of the procedure, but that many are far too large to upload.
Martin's instructions:
"Lay the large black hinge bracket flat on the table.
Place the three small shiny friction plates in place in the hinge bracket.
Place the dustcover in place and fit the spring to the hinge bracket at the center with a black plastic holder (with square nut), a screw and a washer.
Don't mind the springs ends at this point - just let them flap around as they please.
The spring has small curves at the ends, that needs to run in the grooves at the ends of the dustcover, so make sure the spring is the right way up, or it will run with the sharp pointed ends in the grooves and damage the grooves.
Then grab one end of the spring with pliers, twist it to upright position and set down the springs length inthe groove in the hinge plate (some hinge brackets have small tags it needs to go around and between) and the groove in the dustcover.
Often the spring will be able to sit by itself like this.
Put a black plastic holder with square nut in place, hold it with a finger or two while you lift up the whole assy and mount the screw and washer from the other side.
Same job at the other end.
Takes a little practice but it's a 2-minute job when you know how."
Thanks.
Placement of the friction brackets here:
Martin
Thank you so much for the help.
Hi evereddie,
Thanks so much for the directions... I have read through them a couple times, and printed them so I can follow them step by step. I am still a little unclear, but hopefully.
Are the "friction plates" you refer to the parts that mount the black part of the dustcover to the turntable? If so... are the parts supposed to be mounted to the turntable first, or last once the cover, black back and tension spring are in place? If not attached to turntable at the beginning then not sure why they need to be in place as a first step?
Sorry for being so dense... but it is not clear to me how the tension spring interacts with the clear dust cover? A picture sure would help if you can direct me to one. I've been searching on the web, but can't see anything in enough detail.
I guess I can figure it out... I just hat to make unsuccessful attempts in the learning process as that increases the likelihood of breaking something.
But THANKS AGAIN for all your help!!
David
First, thanks for your response... here is where I'm at...
My cover does not seem to have any "friction plates" as mentioned. But I created these three images to show what parts I have, and to show how I believe 1) everything is supposed to be set up; 2) when the tension spring is torqued (top closed), and un-torqued (top open), and 3) which way the curve end on the spring should be pointing (so that the curve is in the groove on the dust cover, and the end is facing away from the dust cover (into the the black hinge bracket when closed). Could you please verify and correct my assumptions as needed. As far as parts, the spring holders go in to hold the spring in place, and the hinge brackets go in to hold the black hinge bracket to the turntable (attached once the dust cover is attached to the hinge bracket with the spring torqued and in place).
By the way, for other readers, the three torsion brackets are what was broken for me, they split right below the screw hole (i.e., the weakest part of the bracket). I used the two-part J.B. Weld epoxy that has over 5,000 psi of strength and a C-clamp to glue them back together (shown after fix in parts image - may be hard to tell, but they are epoxied, look for thin grey line). J.B. weld is pretty tough stuff, you can even use it on engine blocks and drill and tap threads for screws into it, so I hope it will work here just as well _/\_
Thanks tons for all your help!!!
I think you have a pretty good grasp of how the spring functions.
The spring needs to fit into a couple of spots that might be overlooked. There is a small "dot" that the spring needs to fit around on both sides and there is a "hook" that the spring needs to fit under.
I have attached a couple of photos that I hope will show those points.
The little L-shaped pieces fit between the plate and hinge providing the interface. Martin attached a great photo that shows them in position.
Hi again evereddie,
Unfortunately something must have happened to the photos as I cannot see any?
Not sure of the "dots," but know of the "hook." On my backplate there is one halfway between the center and right edge; if there was one on the left side, it must have been broken and lost. I don't think they are critical though. If so, I can always glue a "retainer" as act as the hook to the back plate to help hold the spring. I am not sure of the L-shaped pieces though, maybe they are missing as well?
I tried yesterday to put things together, and unfortunately was not successful, breaking a piece off the dust cover on the right side near the end, and in the process breaking the hold-down as well. This time I am going to glue the square nuts into the hold downs with epoxy. I see no reason for them to be separate, and by epoxying them in, the pieces will be much stronger. Since the piece of the hinge that broke on the cover does not really see any stresses, just part of the hinge to hold the top on the backplate, gluing that should not be too difficult (finger crossed).
One thing for sure, to me anyway, is that this is a two-person job. To difficult to hold everything together, load up the spring and screw in the hold-downs at the same time. I will get help next time around after I've repaired the broken pieces.
Thanks again for your support my friend... I can be pretty persistent, so I expect to get there eventually ;-)
I added the photos to my file under my user name link. Take a look and see if any of them help.
The right side hinge is the weakest of all three. This is the one that breaks if the screws have been overtightened. These are not for adjustment of the dust cover. I know from unfortunate experience.
Since I was lucky enough to find a replacement, the broken dust cover became my training assistant. I practiced the replacement several times until it was as easy as Martin stated.
Good luck with your repairs. Let me know if you think I have any information you need.
Thanks evereddie!
As they say a picture is worth a thousand words... so thanks for pointing me to them.
I glued everything up yesterday, and later today, with assistance, I will make my second attempt at putting things together.
I saw the picture of the friction parts, and I do not have those. If needed I could always add something to accomplish the same thing. They look like just a piece of piece of angled aluminum that adds a little "tightness" to the hinge. Maybe could do with one side (hook or loop) of a stick-on velcro strip as well using the length of the strip to adjusting drag? But I have some angle as well.
I will let you know how my second attempt works out... fingers crossed...
Again, thanks for all your help!!!
Hello, hoping someone can troubleshoot what I'm doing wrong...I've got this back together following Martin's instructions as pasted above, but the cover is stuck in the open position. I took it apart and repeated the process...still stuck in open position. Please help, friends??