[CharlieWednesday]

I recently got some help here on how to open up my Beocenter 8000, and I have done so succesfully – thanks to those who helped.

I knew the tape belts needed replacing so I ordered a set from Beoparts and replaced them. It seemed a successful task – the wheels spun very smoothy and quietly when thumbed around before I out it all back together, and I have successfully replaced belts on other B&O tape decks before, so I felt pretty confident.

I did find that the belt supplied by Beoparts for looping to the motor was a bit loose, but fortunately I had some other belts of a similar type and found one a little tighter.

Nor entirely successful however – when playing on side 1, it sometimes can be heard to slow down a little – not a lot, but noticeable. This seems to get worse the further into playing the tape you get (I might be imagining that, but….).

When playing side 2 there is an additional problem – a constant clicking noise. I identified the cause of that and this may be the cause of both problems (the sluggish speed, and the clicking), but I can’t figure out how to fix it. I’ll describe it as best I can:

With the plastic cover removed from the front of the tape unit, above and behind the cassette there are two white plastic levers operated on a simple spring. One has a kind of ‘tooth’ that engages with teeth on the left tape spindle, and one on the right tape spindle (I hope ‘spindle’ is the right word!). When you push the heads up with your thumb into the play position, these levers cause those teeth to disengage from both spindles, allowing them to spin freely – or they should.

The one on the left tape spindle isn’t fully disengaging, so, when playing side B, and this spindle is doing the work, that tooth on the lever clicks against the teeth on the spindle wheel, hence the noise only when playing side B.

Those two levers are connected by three tiny cog teeth that you can only just see, so that moving one lever moves the other – the teeth seems to be engaging okay, so I can’t understand why one of them doesn’t seem to be quite moving as far as it should – less than a millimetre needed. If you push it directly with your thumb it moves far enough to disengage the teeth, but not when pushed by the movement of the tape heads.

I know this is difficult to understand from a written description but there are so many experts here, maybe one of you has come across this problem before? Might as well ask just in case eh!?

Oh, and I believe these Beocenters (8000 thru 9500) have either type 1 or type 2 tape deck mechanisms – mine is type 2.

 

[Dillen]

It’s a known problem with this drive type.
Glue in a small piece of carton or plastic card (apprx 0,5 mm thickness) here:

You can give the exposed motor bearing a tiny drop of sinter oil.
The belt for the motor must NOT be tight!

Martin

[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]

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…

[Author]

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