[old_tv_nut]

I went back to look at the RCA manual. As I said, I can't see the convergence pole pieces in the tube, but I noticed the diagram showed the convergence coils spaced back from the yoke shroud, whereas I had them pushed forward quite a bit. The manual also says the purity ring should be 1/4 inch from the convergence coils, and the illustration seemed to show the convergence coils, purity ring and blue lateral equispaced from each other. Since I can see the blue lateral pole piece, I started there, and spaced all the parts about 1/4 inch apart.

Voila! Convergence can now be obtained.

I also went through the retract edge magnets and degaussing routine, and then purity adjustment. I discovered that with the neck components this close, they all interact - making large purity adjustments can screw up the convergence.

The photos show the result. Overall white purity is now not so good (even with edge magnets optimized), but I compared the RCA procedures (which say red spot in the middle to start) and SAMS procedures (which say put the red spot off center towards 8 o'clock). I will try following the SAM's procedure tomorrow, and see if it makes it any better.