Attempting first project - Some questions if I may

[zeno]

Fear not the 13" !! I would rather do them all day than anything else.
SO easy & its on the bench instead of getting up & down. As far as the
B&W console goes a better set was NEVER built. They are almost immortal.
The only weak spot on them was the audio could be buzzy & hard to tame.
That was common to most Zenith tube sets.

73 Zeno
LFOD !

[albanks]

Originally Posted by zeno

Fear not the 13" !! I would rather do them all day than anything else.
SO easy & its on the bench instead of getting up & down. As far as the
B&W console goes a better set was NEVER built. They are almost immortal.
The only weak spot on them was the audio could be buzzy & hard to tame.
That was common to most Zenith tube sets.

73 Zeno
LFOD !

There was literally no room to even get tools toward the bottom of the electrolytic to clip the wires but if you guys say it is possible to work on them I will take another look.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by albanks

There was literally no room to even get tools toward the bottom of the electrolytic to clip the wires but if you guys say it is possible to work on them I will take another look.

I've never seen it hard to do in a Zenith TV. I've seen a lot of Zeniths, but I've not seen everything. Usually, they make it easy in portables assuming you've sufficiently separated cabinet and chassis. Worst cases I've seen in other American sets is you have to remove a thing or two on the chassis to get at a can. If it is stumping you then, by all means, post some pics of the area, and one of us will probably remember a trick or figure it out from looking...We are here to help.

[zeno]

Assuming its a 13GC10 or later HC, JC, KC, LC..........
Remove two 1/4" screws in top corners of chassis. There may also
be also one or two along the sides. Now the chassis will tilt down.
The can is behind on the sub-chassis. MOST were mounted on
a small steel plate held by a 1/4" to the steel sub-chassis. Remove the
bolt & it flips out and its easy to change. If you need more room pull the
four 1/4" under the set & the chassis will come out. Take your time
so you dont damage the CRT board or pull any wires. At that point
everything unplugs if needed. Zenith always put serviceability on top.
The only mistakes I remember were the dial lamps & cans in the
hybrid sets. They actually took a few minutes to change !

73 Zeno
LFOD !

[albanks]

Pictures of my two 13" Zenith's coming soon. One of them is purple and appears to have been made overseas. I am guessing this is indicative of the set being made after Zenith's glory days. I would say both sets are mid to late 70's.

Before I get to the 13" sets, as I have been continuing my education here and around the 'net I have begun to second guess my work on the 19".

Questions 1 & 2

1) Since rebuilding the cans turned out to be too laborious and annoying (and I don't give a damn what it looks like inside) I simply clipped the wires and soldered the new electrolytics in below. Now here is the thing. For the negative grounding - I simply soldered that lead to wherever was an available metal space on the chassis. Given that this is a (I think) a hot chassis design - is that OK? As far as shorting out or any other dangers? I think I have heard members here refer to my set as transformer less/ hot chassis and I have been reading some horror stories so I thought I'd better ask.

2) The insulation on the filter choke is iffy. It is cracking and splitting apart. Can I just join it back up with electrical tape or leave it alone?

OK, thanks again for helping a real NOVICE