CTC-7 is coming MY way!

[mpatoray]

Great first SIGNS!!!

Should be a really nice set when it is all done!

Looking forward to seeing the progress!

[Phil Nelson]

Encouraging signs. I would be very cautious about powering it up any more until the electrolytic capacitors have been replaced (or at least checked).

This article has some CTC-7 restoration notes and the RCA service manual:

http://antiqueradio.org/RCACTC-7ColorTelevision.htm

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

[holmesuser01]

Originally Posted by Phil Nelson

Encouraging signs. I would be very cautious about powering it up any more until the electrolytic capacitors have been replaced (or at least checked).

This article has some CTC-7 restoration notes and the RCA service manual:

http://antiqueradio.org/RCACTC-7ColorTelevision.htm

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

THANK YOU, PHIL! This is better than the photofact!!

During the time that the set was running, none of the can electrolytics got warm in any way. I have no intentions of running this set very much. The whole time it was on, I had it running thru a 1.5 amp fuse and the variac, and ammeter.

From what I got from the previous owner, it belonged to her father, a TV repairman, and was running about 2 years ago, until it suddenly went black while they were watching it. A few weeks after this, the father had a stroke, and they moved this set into a storage building. Now, it's mine.

I'll look closely at the Hz Osc. board and the tube socket. Sure dont want to kill a 6DQ5! I'll be real careful around the flyback, too, as there is old wax leakage in the cage.

I checked the HV: 19KV. The HV regulator looks to be working properly.

Red screen is due to the red drive control being turned all the way up.

Tonight, I think I will go ahead and pull the chassis and bring it inside and work on it instead of running it anymore.

[miniman82]

My chassis was full of old wax caps, and so is yours. Make sure you remember to pull that metal plate covering the color circuits under the chassis, there's a slew of them under there as well. Once you do the wax and lytic caps, it'll play like a million bucks.

[Phil Nelson]

Yes, RCA and Philco factory manuals are excellent. I wish it were easier to find them.

Your flyback may be OK despite some dripped wax. I have seen a few old ones that looked ugly but still worked fine. Check the cathode current on the horizontal output tube, of course, but I get the idea you already know about that.

Have fun!

Phil Nelson

[IsthmusTV]

Congrats on the great find! I wouldn't worry too much about the fly. Mine had also dripped lots of wax but it seems to be just fine. Here's the thread about mine. It's the later chassis without the 5U4s.
http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=252097
I've replaced just about all the "maroon drops" as well as all the electrolytics and few few resistors and it's playing very nicely.

Miniman said: "Make sure you remember to pull that metal plate covering the color circuits under the chassis, there's a slew of them under there as well."

Mine was missing this. Is it possible it was omitted in later versions?

Good luck and enjoy!

-Clark

[miniman82]

Yours is the same early chassis as mine, it should be on there. Lemme see if I can find a shot of the chassis with that panel...

[miniman82]

Only shot I still have online, but the panel in question is removed. You can see where it's supposed to go though, center right below the delay line. 5 screws hold it in, the 4 you can see and a fifth that's on the panel towards the bottom right.

[IsthmusTV]

Thanks, Nick. It looks like it would easy to fabricate one. I'll put it on my list of things I still need to do with this set. I'm curious to know if the shield is in place on holmesuser01's set.

-Clark

[holmesuser01]

With all the rain and hot conditions around here, I havent remove the chassis from the cabinet yet.

When I do, I need to lube up the tuner gears, etc. I'll check for the cover, too.

I cant remember if my CTC-10 has a cover over this area or not. It's been over 25 years since I've been into that one. It runs decently.

[holmesuser01]

Today, Sunday morning, I went through and tested all of the tubes that have not been already checked. All are good with these exceptions:

12BY7 video output. less than 10% emissions, and very leaky. Found a NOS RCA in my stash. Now, I can see things on the CRT face when I move the tuner!

2-6BZ6's 1st and 2nd IF Both check very good, but are very leaky. I have lots of these from pulls.

6BC8 On the tuner. RF amp. I will probably have to buy this one (!) It's not on any of my lists. Like the others, it tests 96% with leakage.

Ran the chassis for about 5 minutes with the little fuse in the circuit. Running at almost 2 amps at 110v. Started the list of capacitors from my Photofact. Will check against what is actually IN the set, and in the service manual before I order.

So happy NOT to find any 6GH8's in this set. I like the 6U8's.

It's missing the 3 clips that hold the back in place, and several tube shields. Time to hunt thru boxes of pulled tubes, now.

It's also missing 2 of the bolts that hold the chassis to the cabinet. This is a pet peeve of mine. I've always replaced all of the bolts when reassembling things.

I'm finding that some lazy shop worked on this at some point. Several screws missing here and there. The single wood screw through the wire grommet is gone, causing the convergence wires to lay down on the 5U4GB and cook.

I'll be working on pulling the chassis, at least enough to get a look at the shield mentioned above.

It's noon, now, and too hot out there to work, even with a fan blowing air across where I'm working. At least, the fan kept the mosquitos at bay for a time...

PROGRESS!!!

Bruce

[Sandy G]

Doncha jes LOVE Summertime in the Mountains ?!? Hot, sticky, steamy weather, Skeeters the size of 737s, ALWAYS a Wasp or Hornet Nest somewhere around to deal with, Rattle-Headed Copper Moccasins, "No-See-Ums" that make big itchy welts on yr legs, & of course, MY favorite, Mr Tick...(grin)

[holmesuser01]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

Doncha jes LOVE Summertime in the Mountains ?!? Hot, sticky, steamy weather, Skeeters the size of 737s, ALWAYS a Wasp or Hornet Nest somewhere around to deal with, Rattle-Headed Copper Moccasins, "No-See-Ums" that make big itchy welts on yr legs, & of course, MY favorite, Mr Tick...(grin)

You Tennessee guys got nuttin' on us... We got skeeters that have fuzzy bodies that make you itch like they's no tomorrow. Thems the ones that are a-chewin' on me right now.

I have checked allover my property for places that skeeters can live, and checked the gutter systems. No watery places. I think they come up from the creek about 150 yards down the hill from me.

[earlyfilm]

Originally Posted by Phil Nelson

Yes, RCA and Philco factory manuals are excellent. I wish it were easier to find them.

Well, for the seven, they are not hard to find, as the ETF has one on-line.

http://www.earlytelevision.org/tv_sc..._diagrams.html

Originally Posted by holmesuser01

Looks so far to have all the original tubes. They are orange label RCA's with a white label RCA 6AQ5 audio output. Even the damper and Hz output are originals.

You gotta remember back when this set was new, most TV was still in B&W, and everyone that I knew back then, who was rich enough to have a color set, only used it when they wanted to watch a color show. Most kept their old B&W TVs to watch B&W programs on since it was brighter and just looked better, and hey, the B&W set was cheaper to fix!

James

[DaveWM]

funny, I do that as well, only use color tv for color shows, BW tvs for BW programing. There is a LOT of good BW no matter how good my sets are setup, BW looks better on BW sets due to convergence.

My kids really don't like BW, they pretty much refuse to watch it. Maybe its a generational thing. I grew up with it so its normal to me, but they say its hard to recognize faces and keep the characters straight. Its like the color info is needed to process the image.