1958 Zenith A1512J, Chassis 15A25
 

A few days ago I answered an ad on Craigslist for a tube tester. I bought the tester and the seller threw in an old Zenith A1512J "bugeye" TV for free.

I have no immediate plans to restore the TV, but I do have two questions.

The first concerns the CRT. I tested it on a B&K CRT tester and it shows up as good. The problem that concerns me is that there is some flaking on the outside of the tube. I did some research and learned about Aquadag, but is that the best product to recoat the patches that have flaked off? Is there an aerosol spray available?

My other question concerns the power to the chassis. I plugged in the TV and switched it on and absolutely nothing happened. No tubes lit up and there was no smell or smoke. I verified that the power cord plug had power. There were a couple of tubes missing. Might that be the problem? I looked for some hot spots in the chassis with a current tester but couldn't find any. Might it be a bad switch? Any suggestions of what the problem might be would be appreciated. Thanks.

Slip plate is a decent aerosol coating to replace dag...Make sure to mask off places that did not originally have dag.

I don't have the schematic (or time to dig it up). I have a bugeye portable but not sure if same model. Some of these were series string heaters and hot chassis...If you don't see a BIG power transformer don't expect it to work without ALL the tubes installed (and if any tube has an open heater they still won't light).

Once the tubes are all in if they still don't light check the power switch and any fusistors or resistors in series with the heaters...If that fails DMM ohms mode time for the line wiring from the cord thru the entire line string of the set.

Thanks for the information. I ordered the missing tubes and will get back to the set when they arrive. The person who gave it to me said that it worked, but looking inside I'm not so sure. I am please that the CRT still appears to have some life, even if just a little.

At minimum, this set should have all the electrolytic capacitors replaced.