Just for my TeeVee friends...

If the timing belt broke then it could've bent the valves and that would account for the sound of the engine spinning over fast (no compression any longer.....it would crank over as fast and sound just like there were no spark plugs in it)

Anthony

[bgadow]

Since I'm guilty of keeping things OT, I'll bring things back with this photo I took in the spring in Louisville. I went inside and found 2 techs in a crowded shop working on later model sets. One of them said all the tube stuff was long gone. Lots of neat signs like this in Louisville.

[Tony V]

It would probably be best to take all the pictures you can of the old tv shops and their signs. As we all know...tv repair is becomming a thing of the past except for us collectors and restorers. There soon wont be anything left of our tv repair history. Its nice to see pics of some of these old shops. The town i live in used to have at least 5 repair shops and now theres none. The closest one now is about 40 miles away.
-Tony

[Jeffhs]

Originally posted by Tony V
The town i live in used to have at least 5 repair shops and now theres none. The closest one now is about 40 miles away.
-Tony

I live in a very small town some 30 miles east of Cleveland. Nearest TV shop to here is just five miles south, but they don't do anything much anymore except sales of new sets and warranty repairs. The last time I had them out to fix my TV (that was over three years ago), it cost me something like $60 because the warranty didn't cover the problem, which was a broken antenna connector on the tuner PC board (I have a 1999 RCA XL-100 19" color set, with the troublesome on-board tuner). The technician must have fixed it right (!) this time, however (resoldered all the ground points around the tuner) after repairing the antenna port, because the set's been operating just fine (good picture and all on cable) since then, as I said, now over three years later.

Now, if they could only make digital cameras that last...I have a Polaroid digital (no flash) that I bought on the Internet for $40 a couple years ago; it quit on me about a month ago. Just ordered a new one today from Radio Shack, with built-in flash; I hope that one lasts me a bit longer. I mention this because of the comments which have been made here in reference to appliances, etc. being throwaways if anything goes wrong with them after the warranty expires. I guess that's branching out to the less expensive digital cameras now as well. Grrrr.....

A quick note about WW Jones's Westinghouse range: Wiggy, you may like that range because it was made in the late '50s, but if things are starting to go wrong with it, such as burnt-out burners (replacements may not be available anymore after 45 years), perhaps it is time to get rid of it and get a new one. After four and a half decades, believe me, you and your wife have gotten your money's worth from it. Time to retire it before something really big goes wrong with it, or (heaven forbid) something shorts out in it and sets your kitchen on fire. Personally, after 45 years, I wouldn't trust anything with heating elements anymore. The insulation may be crumbling off the wiring, the switches may be on their last, last legs, the timer clock almost certainly gave up years ago (I had a neighbor in my hometown who had an electric stove dating back to the '50s; by the time she died, the year I moved here [1999], the timer had been inoperative some 40 years), etc.--just about anything could happen to an appliance (or anything else electrical) that old. With a brand-new one, you will have a factory warranty on it, so no repair or service worries for as long as the warranty is in force. If you get a brand such as Sears, Whirlpool or some other well-known make (I'd steer clear of LG and other offshore imports for obvious reasons), the stove should last you at least a few years without giving you major trouble.

Air conditioners are probably just as bad. I don't have one, since I live in an apartment building with central air (and never had one where I used to live, either), but I've been reading the posts about how car and home AC units go bad after so many years (loss of the Freon charge, compressor burns out or otherwise stops, seals go bad, etc.) and am not surprised. These days, with brand-new window ACs going for less than $100, you are right; no point in getting them fixed if anything goes wrong. It will cost as much or more just to have the thing looked at, and this isn't figuring in the cost of the repairs themselves (labor charges these days are very high) or parts. For that much, the best bet is simply to buy new.