How to dismantle the VX:

 OK, here we are, a quite normal black VX5000. There is no difference to VX5500 or VX7000. The steel cabinet and all covers are quite the same.

This one here had an accident, it was dropped by the owner... you see later what happened 😜

 Put some thick newspaper or a towel on the desk and flip it over.

 These are the 7 bolts on the black steel bottom cover. Open them. Pull off the cover, watch for the noses on the front cover, they can break off. If some are broken off, then i know at once, that this unit was opened  😕

To remove the sidepanels, use only your hands, nothing else! Pull the corner a little bit outwards, around 5mm.

Push it backwards, around 10mm.....

and pull upwards and the sidepanel is disassembled without any scratch. Most of the VX decks were treated with a screwdriver... nasty [:'(] 

Remove 2 bolts on each side, these here...

and 2 on the rear side...

Then you can remove the top cover.

To remove the front cover remove 6 bolts, 3 on the top, 3 on the bottom. Pull on the left side here...

Now you can remove the the frontcover.

Watch for the ground cable... it must go under the display.

When you assemble the front cover, take care for this hook. Open the cassette flap when mounting the front cover. If you forget it, you can load a tape, but unloading is impossible. It will break the flap, the front cover or the gear wheel !!! The hook must be in a guide rail inside the flap.

Move all 4 potis to one side, also the sliders when mounting the front cover... or you will have no sound on the next recording because the connection slider-poti is lost. ;)

On the headphone jack is the next point, put a small screwdriver inside and move it a little bit around until it snaps into the front cover, the headphone jack can move in a slide.

The broken loading unit:

If you see something like this, then the loading unit is broken.

OK, the real reason is a defect capstan motor. The motor did not reverse and has broken the gearbox. Maybe a very rude owner can also cause this defect by pushing the tape inside fighting against the crazy VX...😭

How to repair the motor was in part 1. How to dismantle the VX was in part 2.

To repair the broken loading unit, you must dismantle the VX completly, also the front cover must be removed.

You need a spare part from B&O, it is still available, costs around 20 Euro, has the part number 2700082 Gear Wheel. VX5000,5500 and 7000 have the same part. But there seems to be a number change, the box says part number 2700011 Gearweel VX7000... but it fits perfectly.

Ok, here we are, this is the broken loading unit... the gear wheel is broken 😉  Quite normal after 20 years. B&O has noticed this defect on the VX5000/5500 series and has improved/changed the material of the plastic. The newer VX7000 has almost no problem with this part.

It is mounted with 2 bolts and is hooked to the frame in the front.

It cannot be fixed with glue or anything like that... at least not for a long time.

To open it, open these small plastic hooks veeeeery carefully, they break off easily. Then you can pull out the gear wheel.

Mount the cassette holder and assemble the unit again. Watch for the alignment of the gear wheels, it must look like that:

The 2 gearwheels and the frame of the gearbox must fit together like shown on this picture and must be aligned like this.

 If there is a problem to mount the axle and the gearbox, press the left button, inside the gear is a nose on the gearwheel....

 Insert the 2 bolts in the holes and mount it into the VX again. On the front there are only 2 hooks, in the back the 2 bolts. Check wether it's horizontal and then tighten the bolts.

The defect tuner unit:

The defect power supply:

Most of the VX5x00 have problems with the power supply. 20 years of use have left some wear and tear, some more, some less. Up to now i found on every VX at least one defect cap in this power supply, none of them was 100% intact.

The power supply is easy to remove. Just remove the black steel cover on the back, two bolts. Remove the 3 bolts on the upper mainboard and open it a bit and move it 2-3cm to the front.

Then pull the 4/5 plugs from the power supply, use a small flat plier for this. There are two 2-pin wires used, there is no risk to use the wrong one, they are electrically parallel. Then remove 3 bolts to the steel frame and lift it out of the VX frame.

OK, here is the power supply, the regulator unit is already removed (1 bolt), just unsolder the black wire.

This picture shows already the repaired unit, your unit looks a little bit different.

B&O used here a big 4700uf 35V and a smaller 4700 16V cap. These caps have direct contact to each other, there is no gap between... so there is no cooling air for them and the hot part above, the diodes. The unit becomes very hot and the parts become grilled. That's a very bad design.

Ok, i use here 2 x 4700uf 35V types, they are smaller than the original caps and there is a 5mm gap now between, you can see it on the picture. The left cap needs also an additional drilled hole for the ground pin, the distance between the pins is different to original. 

The hight of these caps should not be more than 35mm, otherwise they wont fit. This modification keeps the complete power supply almost 10 degrees cooler than original... that means twice the lifetime: 20-40 years 🙂

There are also 2 x 220uf caps on this board. Usually they have always dirty black feet, up to now only a small handfull survived, 95% are dead.

What you need is:

2x 4700uf 35V (or 1x35v and 1x25V), maximum 35mm hight

2x 220uf 16V

USE ONLY 105 DEGREE TYPES ! 

The next part should be a close look to the power supply.

This board has several caps with problems... look at the dirt on the board, it's an exploded caps which has lost the electrolyt all over the board... 😉 The caps are already removed.

http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/4595/p3040024ep7.jpg

This board has always very serious trouble with the 1000uf cap. Usually every VX5000 and most of the newer VX5500 have a problem. The 1000uf sometimes really explodes and you find pieces of this cap in the power supply, most of them make a puddle of acid on the board, the copper of board is black and corroded around the pins... and it stinks awfully, really nasty.

Clean it with water, remove the caps, then clean it with paint thinner under side. Take care not to destroy the copper when you remove the 1000uf cap, sometimes the copper is so damaged and corroded around the pins that it seperates from the board.

 ... and the same board cleaned and repaired 🙂

 http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/3541/p3040027mu2.jpg

 For this board you need for repair:

1x 1000uf 16V

3x 47uf 25V

2x 4,7uf 35V Miniature

USE ONLY 105 DEGREE TYPES !

 This here is the 12V regulator and HF modulator board. For disassembly remove the black plastic cover on the backside, 2 bolts and bend 2 hooks a little bit. Remove the wires with a flat plier carefully.

VX5000 and VX5500 use the same board, but modified components. So, if your board looks different, no problem.

The 12V regulator becomes hot, really hot, in normal operation already around 60 degrees. If the capstan motor is defect, it becomes so hot that the solder around the 12V 7812 chip melts and the chip seperates from the board... sometimes up to 180 degrees and more. If this has happened the board material turns from bright brown to dark black, sometimes so crispy that it breakes. The alumenum cooler material turns colours to yellow or even blue... unbeleavable. All caps on this board are then scrap and must be replaced. Surprisingly the two 47uf bipolar caps survive this torture every time and had never to be replaced... must be an extrordinary quality.

 Unsolder the cooler for better replacing the caps and for rework of the IC35 7812 contact pins. Bend the two hooks of the cooler to allign with the board, remove the small plastic clip.

Interesting is the black plastic clip. It can tell you the condition of your VX. If you can open it without any problem and use it again, the VX is in pretty good shape. If it breaks like glass, ok, then the VX was used for a long time and has probably lots of problems.

Almost every VX with the shutdown symptom has killed this part: it's the 7812 12V regulator. It becomes soooo hot, that the connectors and the tin/copper of the board corrode... either it will shut down or the 12V are open to 18-22Volts and grills the chips....

Surprisingly this chip survives this torture, it's a special version with insulated case, not easy to get. If it is necessary to replace, use a insulation foil to the cooler.

Clean the pins and the pads for the chip, scratch the green paint off the copper and make them bigger.

http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/2161/p3050003atj0.jpg

 Cleaned and ready for the new IC35

 http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/6301/p3050001bfm1.jpg

For the 12V regulator you need:

1x 1,0uf 35V Miniature (or 1uf MKS, better)

1x 3,3uf 35V Miniature (watch out for polarity, the print on the board for C3523 is wrong !!! )

1x 4,7uf 35V Miniature

2x 10uf 16V Miniature

6x 47uf 16V

2x 100uf 16V

(2x 47uf 16V bipolar... usually intact )

The broken sound and speed:

to be continued....

Broken time and adjustments:

A defect lithium cell is sometimes very difficult to see. Sometimes the VX works quite normal, the picture is good, but if you disconnect mains, then the logon (tv set and VX are talking when connected by scart, the tv makes a download of channel data to the VX) is very slow.

Sometimes the VX disappears from the AV-menu. Also the operation is very slow, commands of the Beolink are not executed, the keyboard does not work.... a lot of very strange errors.

Usually its lifespan is around 15-20 years in a VX, pretty long... but not long enough. This VX here has a defect lithium cell.

The lithium cell is located here:

The lithium cell has 3.6Volt. If it is less than 3.3V it should be replaced. I dont know what this part cost in a B&O shop... and i dont want to know. Probably around 30-40 Euro...

This battery can be bought in any good shop, costs around 3-10 Euro.

Here it is:

 Cut the foil, and replace it carefully. Take care not to shortcut anything, this battery has a lot of power and can explode.

DO NOT SOLDER DIRECT ON THE BATTERY! THEY DONT LIKE HEAT!

The defect tension arm:

Sometimes a small spring gets lost, it's the one on the right side. Without this spring the "tension arm" will be in the wrong position, the tape is kept loaded on the tension arm and will be destroyed when ejected... or some other parts.

I have simulated this defect here, you see the two guides for the tape around the cylinder are still retracted, but the tension arm is in the forward position.

Check the spring. The tension arm is controlled by the small gear motor on the right. Check the joints and move them, they should also move the tension arm. 

The broken sound and wrong speed:

Sometimes a small part in the deck gets lost, it is a very small steel bolt. The white plastic part and the bolt are one part, it is still available at B&O, the part number is 3016023 Guide pol control, costs around 5 Euro.

The plastic part breaks around the bolt, there is almost every time a split in the material... and the steel bolt gets lost... hopefully not in the electric parts.

Without this part there is no sound and the tapespeed is out of control, the tape is usually to fast. The tape has no contact to the audio head (used for standard stereo...)