When you said fire escape I was imagining something much more rickety than that. Regardless that was quite a feat to have carried that big set down those steps all by yourself. Perfect example of how when mind over matter kicks in it can turn you into a super hero.

It's ricketier than it looks! At least that's how I remember it. But then again, there's a saying that goes something like...."the older I get, the more badass I was :D"

Was it that NOS 1970 Dumont 25" color set from Bryan to me to you to Ed that Ed would rather work on to get his "Emerson certificate"? This has to be pretty easy to finish now that you work on justa bout anything:thmbsp:

I went to fix an issue with a CTC-36 last year. Opened it up, took one look, and put the cover back on :yikes:

Oh HELL to the Naw naw naw naw naw! :D That Dumont was Ed's baby.

I'm moving more into color because I can fix 95% of black and white sets in my sleep. Gotta keep the challenge going, y'know? I got a '70 Zenith Color Commander going great with a VDR and half dozen caps, so for that I'll pat myself on the back.....but.....

Got it running, but have a *really* odd problem......

Set has been totally recapped and seems to be working fine and is stable. After about 10 minutes, the picture gets a bad case of side to side "jitters", and then the horizontal becomes wavy and it loses color lock. Shortly thereafter, it starts to develop horizontal shrink and begins to lose focus. Shut it down, start it up, and the exact same thing will happen.

Tried subbing the shunt regulator, no change. I have the HV currently dialed down to about 21 kV. Something in the HV cage let out a little smoke at about the second variac power up, but I can't see anything in there that might've caused it.

Flyback letting out some moisture? I have a packard bell chassis (CTC-12 clone) that did that first run after recap, fly got really hot and spewed some moisture and hot wax. Let it cool overnight, was fine next day running cool. Current was in spec when this happened, so I blame the moisture.

That's totally possible, because Ed sealed the fly in a sarcophagus of RTV :)

Very first powerup I smelled something that smelled like melting silicone, so before the second powerup I turned the HV down (was about 3/4 of the way up, powered it up at about 1/4 and registered about 21 kV.....thinking that was okay for the moment since I'd assumed it was running high).

If it's moisture that RTV has it sealed in there. Do you recommend that I peel it off? No obvious signs that it needs it.....

If that's the case it could have been re-covered due to HV breakdown of the original tire, they sometimes become conductive due to attracting dust and other things which then cause carbon tracking-so carefully cut the old boot away and replace it with silicone. If the new coating has any pinholes you can then get some stray voltage which leaks out, heating up anything it makes contact with. If you also smell ozone, it's a good clue you have leakage. Shango did a video showing fly tire leakage, you can probe around it with an insulated screwdriver looking/listening for HV then plug the holes with more silicone.

I have a spare fly that I peeled the tire off of because it was all nasty, just haven't coated it yet. Maybe I should run it sans tire a little first, or bake it in a low temp oven to drive the moisture out.

Think it might be a good idea to run it out a little once the old RTV is removed, or at least let the air get at it for a few days?

I'd think a few cycles of warming it up would drive out the moisture much better than just letting it sit. In fact letting it sit might not do anything. Back in the 60s Motorola had problems with brand new sets warehoused in New Orleans. Tube sets would heat up and eventually dry out. Transistor sets could draw much more excess current and would boil the moisture and explode the tire.

Edit: it may have been the primary winding that exploded.

I am amused at the prices 14 years ago. Today, $60 would be a total steal for this set! Nice to see it still receiving attention as it deserves.

Upon advice from a couple people, I decided to order up a horizontal centering control for the set first, apparently this issue was common to the 15 chassis. Actually found one NOS. Ed said the fly was sealed back over 10 years ago, so we'll try the control first. If no change, I'll unseal the fly.

A good plan of attack, I'd say!