New caretaker! Zenith 18CC30 color from 1972
 

Hello all!

I haven't been active here for its seems a few years... Yikes. I hadn't been able to take on any new projects due to a lack of space in our house. My wife's friend, her elderly aunt passed away and they are clearing out the house. I was asked if I wanted this 1972 Zenith TV chassis 18CC30 I said yes!! Tv's like this are not cheap and rare in Oregon and the fact I got this for free was amazing.

I initially thought this was going to be the infamous 4 tube hybrid and was blown away to see so many darn tubes! I used a flashlight to look inside and every tube is Zenith. I think this is a low hour TV set that was put in a back bedroom and not used much. TV works surprisingly well for having capacitors that are 44 years old. Grey scale is off, convergence is off a bit, but to be expected. I've already put 4 or 5 hours on it and it is literally an oven drawing 3 amps at the plug.

I paid 22 bucks to Sams for a digital copy of the schematic. The actual schematic portion is rubbish and washed out, I can't make any values out.

Is there anyone out there that can scan only the schematic portion from the photofact? Its set 1225 folder 3.

Thank you!
Matt Davala

I understand that if you mail Sams and complain about the quality they will rescan and send you a high quality copy.

My Sams don't go up that high, but someone here will no doubt have it. I agree you should contact Sams and demand a legible copy or your money back. There's absolutely no excuse for them providing a poor copy.

Worst case I can photograph the Zenith issued schematic and post it, or you can pay for a photo copy.... I might be able to scan it at work, but I won't promise something that I'm not sure I can do.

That is probably a very good set. I've got a 20CC50(or DC50 one is a parts chassis the other is in a 23"table model) that has a lot of tubes, SS IF, a few transistors and a.chassis socketed DIP chip for the chroma. I put a chromacolor black matrix CRT into it (original was necked) and it has picture quality easily rivaling any of the Zenith hybrids and modular SS sets I've owned... One of their best and most under appreciated offerings IMHO.

Thanks guys for the suggestion. I am now waiting a response from Sams.

-
Matt Davala

I wouldn't expect that to last long, but at least they're easily replaced. That aside, nice score! :thmbsp: I certainly appreciate such freebies, so it's a good way to get on my good side. As for the rest of them, I usually think "here's your stupid money, now GTFO".

I guess Sams is pretty notorious for providing poor-quality copies. If I recall correctly I had one replaced years ago for that reason and it was still pretty bad.

SAMS did that to me for my 1973 16" Zenith hybrid. They ended up sending me a photocopy which was legible - write to them and complain, they'll make good.

My 1973 Zenith has all original capacitors too. It works great, is our daily driver. Zenith used really good quality caps in those days. I have had to do some repairs, a new colour xtal, a new focus voltage divider, new tuner tubes, and a new colour oscillator tube among others. The CRT looks like new though, and geometry is good. I expect you'll get a sharp and beautiful picture.

I think, that's one of the models that Zenith didn't follow sequence in their chassis numbering scheme. It seemed like they were using chassis left over from the previous year. It probably has only 12 or so tubes and that includes the tuner. :scratch2:
Good set, but seemed a little more trouble prone.

The smaller caps were Mylars by that time. Of course, the lytics are running on borrowed time.
Then again, that wasn't always true. Look at the double cap problem. :thumbsdn:

I'm guessing that you're referring to the four-lead safety caps, what a disaster that was. My daily use set uses a green ERO film safety cap, 0.012uF if I'm not mistaken, I haven't looked at it for ages. I asked for an analysis on that one a while ago, apparently the "-4D" printed on it was the key to knowing it's good.

I know of three sets that initially worked fine with original lytics for the new owners temporarily; one mine, another a Zenith. I suppose the longer they're dormant the less time they have once revived.

If it works, leave it alone. They're only original once and I know there are many other guys who have had not had any problems running original capacitors on Zenith sets from this era.