Restoration begins on Ed Reitan's CTC-7

[benman94]

Nick Williams has mentioned time and time again that these sets need to be run between 115 VAC and 117 VAc to avoid stressing components, and I wholeheartedly agree with him. If you dial back the line voltage, a CTC-7 will run forever and a day without popping a 5U4, or worse, a flyback or some other unobtainable part. I use a 500 VA Sola CVT for the job. I get a rock solid 117 VAC regardless of what Detroit Edison is doing.

It's a 10-15 minute job to properly adjust the horizontal drive control, linearity slug, and HV adjustment control, but few people take the time to actually do it. Recapping is not enough. A happy horizontal section is less likely to nuke a flyback...

[miniman82]

Originally Posted by benman94

Nick Williams has mentioned time and time again that these sets need to be run between 115 VAC and 117 VAc to avoid stressing components, and I wholeheartedly agree with him.

You'd be surprised how much horizontal cathode current changes with just a few volts difference AC input, it can mean the difference between a hot sweaty flyback and an ice cool happy one. Having said that, I also agree that going through the horizontal circuit setup procedure is essential to proper operation. Beware faulty parts though, the 7 I sold Ed in Buffalo always had cathode current slightly higher than I would have liked. He later told me he replaced the LIN coil and it dropped even father, which I can only attribute to either copper winding breakdown (the wire itself increasing in resistance), or the slug losing permeability over time.

I guess the lesson there is don't assume your flyback is toast because it's drawing more current than you'd like, failure of some other part is always an option.