[CharlieWednesday]

I do think those who are trying to sell Beogram 8500s for neat £2k are being a little optimistic – they have been up for sale for a while, certainly!

Maybe £400 is reasonable. It’s only that I paid much less for my Beogram 3000 only last year, and you see 3300s and 3500s come up for less than £400 with a cartridge quite often, but I don’t want either of those because they have the built in preamp.

The advantage of the one I saw for £400 is that’s it’s quite local, so I could collect it.

I’ll think about it, thanks. If anyone happens to have one for sale though, with or without cartridge, let me know.

[CharlieWednesday]

Well thank you again Dillen, I’m happy to say it worked. First I tried a piece of old credit card but that was too thick for me – it prevented the spindles from moving at all when playing a tape, so I shaved it down with a craft knife. I’m sure it will be different for each cassette deck with this issue, but on mine, the plastic needed was practically paper thin. I glued it on in the exact plac in your photo, and it worked a treat.

The clicking has gone, and the tapes play at the right constant speed on both sides.

Recording seems to be good too (which I hadn’t tested before the fix), and the sound quality is surprisingly good – I haven’t played tapes for a long time until recently and I seem to remember they sounded terrible in the 90s, but of course, I wasn’t playing tapes on a B&O back then.

Thanks again for your help. My Beocenter is now in like-new condition (glass panels also needed re-taping, and a little crack in the flap that covers the inputs needed gluing), so I’m really pleased with myself.

Now, I just need to try and find the matching Beogram 8500 for sale somewhere…

[CharlieWednesday]

Yes I had noticed that and wondered if gluing something on there might help – it’ll be delicate as it’s so tiny, but I might give that a try, thanks.

So the belt for the motor should not be tight? Perhaps the one I got from Beoparts is right then – I’ll put it back on.

Oh, and I should add – thank you for the very helpful photo, which shows me exactly what I need to do.

[CharlieWednesday]

Brilliant thank you – both of those checked, the rivets look okay but you were right about those rubber feet Dillen – I managed to pry the bits out and it’s now opening and closing fully, even with the Beogram on top of it.

It’s still a bit noisy so I think I’ll open it up and see if there are any other bits of hardened rubber still lingering.

[CharlieWednesday]

There’s any easy way to identify the cassette deck by looking at the screws; it’s the version 2 cassette deck of the 8000 thru 9500 range, but it may be that the 8000 specifically only ever had the version 2 cassette deck.

The CD and cassette doors seem to work fine but I see your point auric – the belts are cheap so I will order them and replace them while I’ve got the thing open.

Thanks everyone for you help – once those tape belts arrive I’m confident I can get the thing in full working order.

[CharlieWednesday]

Thanks everyone for your help, I have got it open! It turns out I was loosening some of the wrong screws at the back, so was not lifting up the whole top section.

I was able to loosen the tape deck assembly and can see that 2 of the 3 belts have stretched and degraded quite badly, which is what I expected. Now that I know this I’ll order the belt kit from beoparts and get on with it! I’ve replaced belts on two Beocords 2000s and 1 Beocord 5500 before now, so I think I’ll be able to manage this one too.

[CharlieWednesday]

Yes that’s what I thought, thanks for confirming. I do actually already have a NAD phono stage which I used to use with a different setup, but it does rather spoil the whole Beolink thing – I would not be able to control my Beogram 3000 with the 8500’s remote, if it were not directly connected.

Shame, but there it is. Thanks for the help.

[CharlieWednesday]

Thanks everyone for all the advice on this. I had considered the 3300 but it would not match my existing Beocord 2000, Beogram 3000 and Beogram CDX. The 3300 range got itself a bit more of a 1980s look which I’m not as keen on! The 2000 and 3000 range are much nicer to look at, and I’ve looked at the other items in the 3300 range on ebay (cassette, turntable, cd plaver); it would be expensive to get the matching set.

I think therefore I’ve just made the decision to keep what I’ve got. It looks great and it sounds great, and I can live without the remote! As for the speakers, I think I’ll by an external speaker selector so I can switch between speakers 1, 2, or both.

[CharlieWednesday]

It’s a little confusing; in the table of functions, under ‘What may be operated?’, it says ‘All Beomaster Terminal functions’, giving the impression that anything you can do on the Terminal 3000 remote can be done through the MCL30.

I’m still at a loss at how the damned thing actually connects to the Beomaster 3000, since the Beomaster 3000 seems to have no specific connection for it. I am guessing the added the MCL30 to the range of products after the Beomaster 3000 was released, as the Beomaster 3000 manual makes no mention of it’s existence.

Thanks for your help thoigh – I know more now that I knew earlier…

[CharlieWednesday]

That does give a lot of useful info thanks. What I can’t figure out is how it actually connects to the Beogram 3000 – how does the receiver get the instruction from the mCL30? There is no specific connection for it on the back of the Beomaster 3000, and there is no mention of the MCL30 in the Beomaster 3000 user manual.

Mind you, they can be bought quite inexpensively; I’ll probably just buy it anyway and try to figure it out.

[CharlieWednesday]

Update – belts arrived, fitted quite easily (using the YouTube video I mention in previous post), would you beleive the damned thing works perfectly. Needs some cleaning but honestly, sounds pretty decent. Thanks for your help Ninni.

[CharlieWednesday]

Thanks – that does explain the behaviour exactly. eBay seller gave me a partial refund and I have ordered replacement belt kit, so hopefully, will all soon be in order.

[CharlieWednesday]

Thanks for the tip – you were spot on (and the eBay seller was a liar – this clearly did not work when sold!). The two drive belts are in place (but a bit loose), but the smallest belt, which I believe is how it detects the presence of a cassette, was totally degraded – it was practically liquid when touched. That would explain why it behaves as if no cassette is in place even when one is. I can get a full set of the 3 belts for £15 so will buy and replace; thanks very much for your help.

Searched YouTube and found video “Bang & Olufsen Beocord 2000 Cassette Deck – Repair, Mods, Belts & Service”, and that proved invaluable.

The eBay seller agreed to refund half the cost, so that’s something.

[Author]

Posts