Just what I always wanted, an '85 Zenith console
 

Not a roundie, not a 4 tube hybrid, not a CCII, not even an early system 3, but a stinking lower end Zenith 25" console from '85. It actually belonged to someone who knows my neighbor who watched it from '85 until 2008 without a single service call. I'd say he was lucky, since this set uses the dreaded 9-181 main module and 9-186 sweep module. If there are any '80's/'90's TV repairmen reading this; you know exactly the chassis I'm talking about.

The owner claimed that the set got to the point where it took a long time to fire up. Maybe 2 minutes, maybe 2 hours, then it finally died completely. When I turned it on, it came up instantly with a lousy picture and lines at the top of the screen. I replaced a 100 uf cap in the vertical circuit and rejuvenated the CRT. I also resoldered the two big stand up power resistors on the 9-181 module. It now has a decent picture; but, who knows for how long? IMHO, the best picture Zenith's were the chromacolors, the early system 3's (9-160 and 9-153 based sets), and the very early 9-181/186 sets with the tri-focus tube.

Let me know if you want to see a picture of this TV. It's nothing special. Just a remote set with a green LED channel display and a lot of empty space inside it's particleboard and plastic cabinet.

Oh, I saved the best for last. The guy got 23 years out of this set without trouble. The 40something inch Magnavox LCD that he paid over a grand for only lasted 10 months before it started showing it's true colors. He still had to pay labor charges to get it fixed as the labor portion of the warranty expired after 90 days. Isn't that some crap? He told me that he bought a Magnavox because it was such an old company and he thought he'd get good service out of the set. I explained to him that names didn't mean anything anymore and the original Magnavox company has not been around in decades.

post a pic of the tv. My grandparent's who live in preston which is only 40 miles from where you are in meridian have an old zenith system 3 tv. Its starting to go bad because the people on the tv have heads that are larger than their bodies.

OK, I'll take care of that tomorrow. Sounds like their set has bad caps in the vertical circuit. It's worth repairing if the picture is otherwise still good and especially if it's a pre '83 model.

I would like to see pictures of the TV! Man. I can just picture 20 or 30 years from now if TV broadcast still exists, TV's will be wafer thin and guaranteed to only last a couple of months before you have to go buy a new one.

I think my granddad got the Tv in like 1982 or 1985 or something, I don't know when. I'll ask my mom since she is down in mississippi taking care of my grandparents stuff because they both passed away.

OK, here they are!

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...nith850001.jpg

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...nith850002.jpg

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...nith850003.jpg

All that extra cabinet room for such a small singleboard chassis! Gotta love the 9-181 :D Could add a push-pull stereo tube amp and a digital tuner in there, and still have room left over! Of course, why would that be worth the trouble.

The cabinet is in great shape at least and the picture looks good! Nice job getting it fixed up.

In agree that the 9-160 set I have absolutely kills the 9-181 I used to use. And the 9-181 set kills every CRT standard def. set I;ve seen, 1998-2009 :D

That tv looks pretty nice considering its age.

good picture.

Wow! I really like that cab and wow that TV is gutless! Should be pretty easy to work on with all that space.

And the last Zenith consoles from a few years ago had even less of a chassis.

I have a chassis, tuner, and CRT from one of these in the shed. The cabinet had been out in the rain and elements for 6 years, and was falling to pieces.

Looks like my 1982 Zenith, I use the 9-181/186 IIRC as well. Been in use since early 1983.

Well, there shouldn't be any issues of things getting too hot, with all that empty airspace in that cabinet. RCA back then also had small circuit boards like that inside big console cabinets.

And they could have had functional drawers in that cabinet, Lord knows there was room enough.

Lot of space for sure. I don't think that the 9-181's were necessarily bad chassis designs, but a lot of times the sets have had so much use, and the CRT's just tend to last a heck of a long time. Almost as if the tubes outlast the chassis in some of the Chromacolor and early System 3 sets. Definitely not the case with most early color sets!

Well, as luck would have it, I picked up a similar set last night at the curb. Yeah, what the hell, I felt sorry for it..I admit it. It was in such mint shape that I couldn't resist.

Of course, some scrapper cut the damn cord off :mad: but that was easy enough. Here's a lousy cell phone pic :)

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f9...1012120800.jpg

It's a Zenith model Z2510PN3, date of manufacture was December 1983. Strange set, for a few reasons. First, I thought all '84 Zenith models switched over to green LEDs, I remembered '83 being the last year for the red display. Second, it's not "cable ready", and of course is not a remote set.

It's got those identical guts, and the vertical linearity is somewhat off, and the picture is a little too wide on the sides. I couldn't find any adjustment at all for either. Picture, however, is beautiful.....