Zenith 17" Space Command color set from 1982

[radiotvnut]

A couple of years ago, I walked in the flea market and found this Zenith for $10; but, they ended up giving it to me. It's a 17" Space Command from '82 and uses the 9-181/9-186 combination of modules.

Over the years, I've had my hands on a lot of Zenith sets; but, I've never had a 17" with these modules. I've had one or two 17" sets with the 9-160 module and a few CC2 (both delta and inline tubes); but, nothing with the 181/186 boards.

This set works; but, I think the CRT is getting tired (tri-focus tube). When first turned on, the screen is almost dark and it takes 15-20 minutes to fully come to life. At which time, it has a nice picture.

One day, I'll open it up and go over it; but, I'm very cautious about rejuvenating the CRT. It's been my experience that even with a good CRT tester, these Zenith tri-focus tubes usually don't rejuvenate very well and they'll often look worse after than they did before.

As far as the tri-focus tubes, I think that they produced a brighter, sharper picture than the tubes that came later.

[JohnCT]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

A couple of years ago, I walked in the flea market and found this Zenith for $10; but, they ended up giving it to me. It's a 17" Space Command from '82 and uses the 9-181/9-186 combination of modules.

.

I sold those new, and was not a fan of them. I didn't like the picture and they were troublesome.

If you're going to run it, replace the two section electrolytic on the 181 board. If one section opens, it will usually destroy the start circuit (burn) on the sub board near the 186 board (like a 2"X2" mounted to the metal frame). Also, there are a couple of small electros on that same board - change them as well.

John

[zeno]

17" Zenths started with E-line CC2. One that had white trim gave the best
pix of all CC2 sets. I dont know why. In H-line the CC2 was modified to
use the EFL tube & came out on high end 17 & 19" sets. The 17"
never sold a lot, only a little more $$ to get the 19".
You may want to look at the spring CRT contacts. Never seen it on a
Zenith but Maggys & Admirals using the RCA in line jug burned at
the filaments. Pretty common. Had to pull the plastic key, clean the pins &
also replace the CRT socket.

73 Zeno
LFOD !

[NowhereMan 1966]

I have one of those 9-181;186 models too, I still have to put in that new cap, but before I do, I'd like to have a duplicate 181 board that works, I just don't like to work without a net so to speak. They are good sets, mine is a 25 incher.

[radiotvnut]

Today, after all this time, I dove into this set. When I turned it on, it started it's slow warm-up of the picture. After a couple of minutes, the 315V boost capacitor literally exploded and that caught me off-guard. I replaced the capacitor, touched up some questionable connections on the 181 board, examined the CRT socket and CRT pins, and re-soldered some questionable connections on the CRT socket board. It still takes a bit to warm up, but it seems like the more I ran it, the quicker it was warming up. I know the jug is a bit tired and it's probably not worth replacing the jug, even if I could find one.

Anyway, I put it back together, was letting it run, and then it shut off after a few minutes, with nothing but the LED channel indicator remaining lit (because it gets it's juice from the stand-by power supply). When I turned the set off, there was a weird "squak" sound that came from the HV board. When I turned it back on, I heard the same sound, followed by audio from the speaker for a couple of seconds, and then nothing else. Sometimes when I turn it on, I get nothing. Other times, it tries to start and then shuts off.

I don't have the Photofact and the model tag is faded, but I'll go back in it one day and do some poking around. If it's something that's going to require much time or money, I'll probably scrap it. If the jug was in a bit better shape, I might be willing to go further on it.

[zenith2134]

These were an extremely common set around here. The 17" did indeed have an absolutely blinding picture with sharp focus that rivals anything. However, the 19" was the more common model, and they started showing up dead on the curbs well before the DTV switchover. Instead of just jockeying-in Mexico rebuilt boards, I often kept these running by changing out the main filter, sparkgaps if applicable, plenty of soldering around the 181 and 186 edge connectors' and flybacks when you could still dig through your junkpile for a free one that matched.
The thin film flat resistor assembly on the crt neckboard always needed attention or you would have a solid runner with the intermittent bright red screen with retrace (or green...) mimicking a shorted tube.

I have at least 5 or six of this cabinet style in my climate controlled garage. Have around 25 sets on breakers which I fire up once or twice a year to keep the caps alive somewhat.

It's funny, the GE 17" AB/AC also had the nicest picture of their series' screen size. I reckon that this size was a sweetspot in terms of inline crt deflection angle and EHT regulation.

The series that succeeded these, with the 9-470, was not a favorite. It had Hitachi IC color demodulation which was rock solid, but the writing was on the wall for Zenith by the late eighties.

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by zenith2134

These were an extremely common set around here. The 17" did indeed have an absolutely blinding picture with sharp focus that rivals anything. However, the 19" was the more common model, and they started showing up dead on the curbs well before the DTV switchover. Instead of just jockeying-in Mexico rebuilt boards, I often kept these running by changing out the main filter, sparkgaps if applicable, plenty of soldering around the 181 and 186 edge connectors' and flybacks when you could still dig through your junkpile for a free one that matched.
The thin film flat resistor assembly on the crt neckboard always needed attention or you would have a solid runner with the intermittent bright red screen with retrace (or green...) mimicking a shorted tube.

I have at least 5 or six of this cabinet style in my climate controlled garage. Have around 25 sets on breakers which I fire up once or twice a year to keep the caps alive somewhat.

It's funny, the GE 17" AB/AC also had the nicest picture of their series' screen size. I reckon that this size was a sweetspot in terms of inline crt deflection angle and EHT regulation.

The series that succeeded these, with the 9-470, was not a favorite. It had Hitachi IC color demodulation which was rock solid, but the writing was on the wall for Zenith by the late eighties.

I don't remember the module numbers, but there was a 19" chassis that was made after the 9-181/9-186 sets had their run. This one had a main board on the bottom, a stand-up HV board on the right, and a stand-up regulator board on the left. After this chassis, came the 9-470 sets (I think those were made from roughly '86-'92). The chassis seemed to be OK and they had a good picture, as long as the jug was good, but not as good of a picture as the older ones. I've seen a good many weak jugs in those, and jugs that would go blurry on a bright scene (turning down the picture and/or G2 control would sometimes help that condition). The newest 470 set that I've had was a hospital set from the early '90s, and it had a weak tube. Cosmetically, it looked just like the older hospital sets from the early '80s that used the 9-160 module. I also had a late '80s "custom series" 19" set with rotary tuning and a 470 module. That one also had a weak jug.

I don't think I've ever changed a flyback on a 9-186 board, but I've changed several on the 9-160 module (they would usually arc and burn up stuff). I don't think the flyback was available as a stand-alone replacement part (Zenith wanted you to change the module) and I always managed to rob one from a junk set.

I also remember what I called the "cube" 13" and 19" Zenith sets from the late '80s-early '90s. I don't remember the module number, but those always had bad caps in the vertical circuit and dried out caps in the power supply that would fry the STR53041 switching regulator. With a strong tube, those had a nice picture.

I think the best System 3 chassis was the first one with the 9-153 horizontal sweep/HV module and I don't recall running into a bad flyback on one of those, but those didn't get all of the operating voltages for the set from the flyback and that likely put less stress on the flyback.

[zeno]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

I think the best System 3 chassis was the first one with the 9-153 horizontal sweep/HV module and I don't recall running into a bad flyback on one of those, but those didn't get all of the operating voltages for the set from the flyback and that likely put less stress on the flyback.

Agree. Probably the most reliable Zenith built. And the BEST greens of any set.
Cold joints at Hoz drive transformer were 90% of the fails. After that
just a scattering of odds & ends.
A little more on CC2 XXX chassis ( S-3 style) & System 3
A few late J line high end 25" sets were built with the new XXX chassis.
They were NOT marked System 3.
K line System 3 came out on all but the leader models. System 3
was just a feature list. If it had the full list it was called a S-3.
J & K line were first gen XXX chassii , still had PWR transformer
and a normal H drive & output design.
L-line starts gen 2 XXX chassis. Transformer gone, replaced by a
complex H drive & out. They could also shoe horn it into a 13".

Why no FBT's supplied ? For us a 9-160 module net exchange
was $66. Buying a similar FBT, H out & a hand full of small parts would
approach that. But swapping the board takes maybe 4 mns & a
complete repair 15 mns. So a lower labor rate & total cost is
about the same.

Last the spark gap. It belongs in the hall of Zenith fame. We saw
many sets in for a different reason with blasted gaps. Normally
on a modern set seeing that throws up a stop sign. You will
often have a totaled set on your hands.

enuf fer now
73 Zeno
LFOD !

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by zeno

Agree. Probably the most reliable Zenith built. And the BEST greens of any set.
Cold joints at Hoz drive transformer were 90% of the fails. After that
just a scattering of odds & ends.
A little more on CC2 XXX chassis ( S-3 style) & System 3
A few late J line high end 25" sets were built with the new XXX chassis.
They were NOT marked System 3.
K line System 3 came out on all but the leader models. System 3
was just a feature list. If it had the full list it was called a S-3.
J & K line were first gen XXX chassii , still had PWR transformer
and a normal H drive & output design.
L-line starts gen 2 XXX chassis. Transformer gone, replaced by a
complex H drive & out. They could also shoe horn it into a 13".

Why no FBT's supplied ? For us a 9-160 module net exchange
was $66. Buying a similar FBT, H out & a hand full of small parts would
approach that. But swapping the board takes maybe 4 mns & a
complete repair 15 mns. So a lower labor rate & total cost is
about the same.

Last the spark gap. It belongs in the hall of Zenith fame. We saw
many sets in for a different reason with blasted gaps. Normally
on a modern set seeing that throws up a stop sign. You will
often have a totaled set on your hands.

enuf fer now
73 Zeno
LFOD !

I think I remember seeing one of those late "J-line" consoles with the "System 3" chassis, but the set was still labeled as "solid state = chromacolor II."

I have "K" 19" motel set with AM/FM radio and it uses the modular CC2 chassis, paired with an inline EFL tube.

I also have one of the last 19" delta-gun CC2 sets from '78 and it is obviously a "loss leader" set. No AFC button, no Chromatic button, just a power button and the two channel knobs.

[vortalexfan]

My dad had one of these sets from 1985 (Green LED Channel Readout) and it worked really well for many years until it finally died (the TV Shorted out when I was trying to tweak some of the picture settings on the back.)

The original remote on my dad's TV took the old J-Battery, which was no longer available after the early 2000s, so then we just used the VCR remote with it, which was one of the first Goldstar made Zenith VCRs made in 1990 after Zenith stopped having JVC make their VCRs.

[liammc00]

I just recently bought a brand new J battery made by Duracell for my 88 Zenith VCR Remote from Amazon. So you can still get thim if you know we're to look.

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by liammc00

I just recently bought a brand new J battery made by Duracell for my 88 Zenith VCR Remote from Amazon. So you can still get thim if you know we're to look.

What I meant was that they weren't available at any of the local stores anymore.

[zeno]

J batteries were camera batteries. Just had to look in the right places.
Very good at short high current intermittent use. They lasted years in a remote.
Before changing one try cleaning the old one & the remote.
They would sometimes grow little crystals & go int.

73 Zeno
LFOD !

[damen]

Customers used to complain about intermittent operation with the Zenith and RCA remotes that used those J batteries. The problem was always a Radio Shack brand battery. We would install an Eveready or Duracell one and problem solved.

[dishdude]

Originally Posted by damen

Customers used to complain about intermittent operation with the Zenith and RCA remotes that used those J batteries. The problem was always a Radio Shack brand battery. We would install an Eveready or Duracell one and problem solved.

RCA used J batteries?