Outa-Space

[Jon A.]

Set was parted out long ago. I still have the CRT.

[Sandy G]

Toby Halicki ! Sure do wish he'd lived...NOBODY ever destroyed 200 cars quite so...Entertainingly...Eleanor's trip thru the Cadillac dealership was especially....Gratifying... And that poor secretary....Hehehehehe...

[Jon A.]

Oh yeah, that dude was boss. The remake, IMHO, is an insult to the title. The first two Cadillacs in that dealership lineup belonged to him, but that cop car pancaked four of them, haha. When he got to the roadblock just before going into the Cadillac dealership, he was supposed to do a trick turnaround, but instead hit the blue Ford first. Watch for its driver vaulting over the trunk and moving back quickly to avoid getting hit. That accident where he spins out and gets t-boned in the fender by a light pole, also unplanned.

[Sandy G]

Originally Posted by KV-1926R

Oh yeah, that dude was boss. The remake, IMHO, is an insult to the title. The first two Cadillacs in that dealership lineup belonged to him, but that cop car pancaked four of them, haha. When he got to the roadblock just before going into the Cadillac dealership, he was supposed to do a trick turnaround, but instead hit the blue Ford first. Watch for its driver vaulting over the trunk and moving back quickly to avoid getting hit. That accident where he spins out and gets t-boned in the fender by a light pole, also unplanned.

Yeah.... The remake is only vaguely rememberable for its use of the typical Hollywood twaddle-Insertion of a Gorgeous Girl as a plot device, & use of Big Stars thruout.... That's one of the things that "Worked" so well in the original-NO big stars, just real people, & the "Love" interest was really only between Toby & Eleanor..It was never very clear whether the "Pumpkin" character was Maindrian's wife/main squeeze/sister/employee/whatever..Hollywood took an iconic movie, & "Hollywooded" the remake, threw buckets of money at it, & subsequently RUINED it..

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

Yeah.... The remake is only vaguely rememberable for its use of the typical Hollywood twaddle-Insertion of a Gorgeous Girl as a plot device, & use of Big Stars thruout.... That's one of the things that "Worked" so well in the original-NO big stars, just real people, & the "Love" interest was really only between Toby & Eleanor..It was never very clear whether the "Pumpkin" character was Maindrian's wife/main squeeze/sister/employee/whatever..Hollywood took an iconic movie, & "Hollywooded" the remake, threw buckets of money at it, & subsequently RUINED it..

Yup, Eleanor got the only starring credit. That secretary didn't get nearly as much of a shock as the lady who saw Eleanor coming out of the car wash thinking it was her car. Pumpkin was Maindrian's main squeeze actually; the dialogue isn't heard very clearly, but at one point she does say something about their getting married someday.

Thanks for the info Tom, I won't be able to keep out of this particular set for long. I did lean over it, pull the cover out at the top and peek inside with a flashlight; looks like the HV caps are the originals. I saw two white ones and a rather short dark red one.

BTW, I got a Jerrold 400 analog converter box with the TV. Not much I know but I like them. The set was listed at 20 bucks, but it was in another part of the province and I had no way to get it myself. I wasn't even going to bother asking about it at first due to the majority of my online listing experiences, but the seller turned out to be a real stand-up guy and only tacked on 10 bucks for delivery. Perhaps he had other business down here.

One bit of fun I had with the set was experimenting with metallic noises to see if it would react. Keys did nothing, but my plastic container full of nails and paper clips triggers the power and volume steps.

[Username1]

Nice tv ! I believe on the tv's that cut the neck off the picture tube, that white 4 leg cap is out in sight just a little to the right, almost in line with the picture tube socket, on a vertical chassis....

So is this tv a full real wood cabinet, or had they began using press-board by that year....?

1974 right...? Seems like it should be all wood.... One of the first all solid state sets right....?

And is it CC or CCII ? Were they not CCII with the 25" tube, where the 23"er was CC...?

Anyway, I like Zeniths I got a 23" CC 1972 I believe, all wood, older style cabinet with little legs, hybrid mostly tube chassis... It has the best picture of my older tube sets.....

Great looking tv! Good luck with it ! Good choice for first viewing material !

You can probably get away with not re capping all of it.... Just me...

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Username1

And is it CC or CCII ? Were they not CCII with the 25" tube, where the 23"er was CC...?

The CCs were hybrid sets and the CCII were 100% solid state...It had nothing to do with screen size as both were available in 23V and 25V CRT models. CC was IIRC originally Zenith's trade name for the Black Matrix CRT's they started using around the time they came up with the name.

And in case your wondering what black matrix is, it is the process of applying a grid of black non-transparent material to the face of the tube such that light can only be emitted from the individual phosphor dots but not the area in between. It improves contrast, sharpness, and to an extent convergence IIRC.

[Username1]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

The CCs were hybrid sets and the CCII were 100% solid state...It had nothing to do with screen size as both were available in 23V and 25V CRT models. CC was IIRC originally Zenith's trade name for the Black Matrix CRT's they started using around the time they came up with the name.

And in case your wondering what black matrix is, it is the process of applying a grid of black non-transparent material to the face of the tube such that light can only be emitted from the individual phosphor dots but not the area in between. It improves contrast, sharpness, and to an extent convergence IIRC.

Thanks for going over this..... I have I think it's a 23cc50, 1971-72, or 73 I forgot now for sure, it's a 23" mostly tube set, with a few what looks like 7 pin IC's round like a 2n2222 transistor. I don't have a sam's yet, so I'm not sure what's in it, it works, so not been into it electronically.... But anyway, the picture tube says in nice big colorful letters Chromacolor, and some references here to both CC and CCII have had me confused as to exactly what CC meant. I never thought it may have meant the picture tube design.... So thanks for this bit of information.... It's a great set anyway.... And for all the sets I have seen from this time period, these Zeniths have in my opinion the sharpest pictures....

PS I thought Black Matrix, and Black Stripe were references to the material between the color dots, and tri-color box groups, being a black non reflective, or light absorbing color, as opposed to being reflective to try and transmit more light out the front of the screen.....

I had a Toshiba hybrid set where the material between the dots looked silvery, it had a poor quality picture, and colors were not that great either.... Those were the years when tv ads had the tv at one end of a football field, and they were making a point of how bright they made the picture.....

[Jon A.]

I think that only the CCII's would cut the neck, this is a flat-chassis original Chromacolor. I can't yet tell what the cabinet is made of, but the finish looks a little too "imperfect" to be photo-finished particle board. I don't know of a Chromacolor with a 23" tube. Should be a '72 or '73 from the look of the remote in the listing photo.

[Username1]

They do that a lot.....

[zeno]

Holy smokes you really scored on this one ! Best damn sets
ever made IMHO. Congrats.....

When you get inside,
Motor not stopping. On the back of the tuner there is a wheel
with tabs you twist to skip or stop each channel. on the
side of it is a rocker that works switches. The rocker sticks
so clean out the old grease & relube.

Age. Model or chassis # gives you model year. Model will
start with SC, SD or SE. S means Space Comand 2nd letter
is model year. Chassis # starts 25C***, 25D*** or 25E***
same idea. Date of mfg use 4 number date codes from major
parts. Build date is a month or two after the latest date.

Remote. Other than swapping rods nothing simple.

HV caps. This set has 5 seperate caps instead of one. They
should be changed if they havent yet. I dont think this chassis
can even cut a neck because of design of the vert output.
On newer sets the process is:
4-lead cap opens & HV goes up to 40KV +
Things start failing.
If the vert fails the yoke gets DC on it & heats up cutting
through the neck. Most of the time the HOT would short
& kill the set before the CRT went. We were a big Zenith dealer
& only did 3 or 4 CRT jobs IIRC.

73 Zeno

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by zeno

Holy smokes you really scored on this one ! Best damn sets
ever made IMHO. Congrats.....

When you get inside,
Motor not stopping. On the back of the tuner there is a wheel
with tabs you twist to skip or stop each channel. on the
side of it is a rocker that works switches. The rocker sticks
so clean out the old grease & relube.

Age. Model or chassis # gives you model year. Model will
start with SC, SD or SE. S means Space Comand 2nd letter
is model year. Chassis # starts 25C***, 25D*** or 25E***
same idea. Date of mfg use 4 number date codes from major
parts. Build date is a month or two after the latest date.

Remote. Other than swapping rods nothing simple.

HV caps. This set has 5 seperate caps instead of one. They
should be changed if they havent yet. I dont think this chassis
can even cut a neck because of design of the vert output.
On newer sets the process is:
4-lead cap opens & HV goes up to 40KV +
Things start failing.
If the vert fails the yoke gets DC on it & heats up cutting
through the neck. Most of the time the HOT would short
& kill the set before the CRT went. We were a big Zenith dealer
& only did 3 or 4 CRT jobs IIRC.

73 Zeno

After much struggling I got the set turned around and the back panel off. I just found a very faded sticker on the back with the model and chassis numbers. The sticker itself is discolored so badly it almost perfectly matches the rear panel. There's another one with a run number.

So Tom (zeno), what do the stickers tell you? I'm still a bit confused. I'm not sure what year the Chromacolor came out; I think '72 was the first year for the flat chassis Super Chromacolor. BTW, where's the volume stepper in this thing? I've got to find out where to shoot the DeOxit once I get some.

EDIT: Well, finding the problem with the tuner drive didn't take long. I was trying to find the rocker you spoke of when I noticed that the tab wheel was missing its screws. I don't have many around here, but I managed to borrow one from my 600X remote. That was enough for testing before it went out of alignment. The 600X remote works everything just fine, I just have to think of the button layout of a 500 when I use it. The orange button does nothing on this set, check. I guess it's off to the hardware store to get proper screws and lock washers.

[zeno]

Originally Posted by KV-1926R

After much struggling I got the set turned around and the back panel off. I just found a very faded sticker on the back with the model and chassis numbers. The sticker itself is discolored so badly it almost perfectly matches the rear panel. There's another one with a run number.

So Tom (zeno), what do the stickers tell you? I'm still a bit confused. I'm not sure what year the Chromacolor came out; I think '72 was the first year for the flat chassis Super Chromacolor. BTW, where's the volume stepper in this thing? I've got to find out where to shoot the DeOxit once I get some.

EDIT: Well, finding the problem with the tuner drive didn't take long. I was trying to find the rocker you spoke of when I noticed that the tab wheel was missing its screws. I don't have many around here, but I managed to borrow one from my 600X remote. That was enough for testing before it went out of alignment. The 600X remote works everything just fine, I just have to think of the button layout of a 500 when I use it. The orange button does nothing on this set, check. I guess it's off to the hardware store to get proper screws and lock washers.

OK there are the usual "IIRC's" here but...........
Chromacolor came out in 1969. Flat chassis sets were referred to as
Super Chromacolors but I dont remember if the sets were marked that
way. Supers were also an improved Chromacolor CRT but I think its
only the HV went from 25KV to 30KV & maybe better phosphers.

Flat chassis probably started in 1971 B line but probably only
used as a test & show set, not known to be sold.
C line 1972 (25CC55) first year.
D line 1973 (25DC56) saw change in power supply.
E line 1974 ( ? 25DC56 again ?) last year, was replaced by upright
chassis (25EC45) part way through the year.
Stickers give the important details but I dont know the run #
scheme. Maybe a minor change in suppliers etc. to pinpoint
problems. I do know the 4 lead caps were only on sets
run 401 & higher E line uprights. before that they used seperate
caps like yours.

Volume stepper is only exposed relay in box on L side of set.
I dont remember them getting dirty so a little light tapping
around should pinpoint it. BTW The rocker is under the cardboard.

Caps: 2 on FBT & 3 underneath IIRC. Marked 22-5001. White bad,
orange good. Bad ones are hard on the HOT, tripler, focus divider &
CRT socket. If enuf go you get a spectacular arc show !

73 Zeno

[truetone36]

I have a set identical to that one. The cabinets are made of plastic and particle board. By the time this set was made most consoles were built that way. It's good to see a nice picture on your set. Mine has problems with the horizontal hold not wanting to stay locked.

[zeno]

Originally Posted by truetone36

I have a set identical to that one. The cabinets are made of plastic and particle board. By the time this set was made most consoles were built that way. It's good to see a nice picture on your set. Mine has problems with the horizontal hold not wanting to stay locked.

Check the 330 ohm on the 9-57 module. Use a 1 watt.
If thats it I am surprized it lasted this long. VERY common
& later upright chassis had the same on the 9-90 hoz module.

73 Zeno