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#1
03-20-2017, 04:44 PM
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Most interesting repair house calls/oldest sets serviced.
Saturday I did something few if anyone could claim doing in the last 5 years. I serviced a 70's TV set in the spot it has sat since new. Whats more I had to deal with RCA's infamously confusing SCR sweep circuit. My friend Greg inherited his grandfather's house some time ago and has kept it very original (only adding more old furnishings to it). In the living room there is a 1973 RCA CTC48 that has sat there since bought new in 1974. IIRC I was told the picture vanished in the late 80's or 90's while tuned to golf (TV got bored and went to sleep lol). I'd been promising I'd get to it for a while and finally hopped in the 78' Lincoln with a load of test gear to get it done.
Symptom was no HV and no breaker trip. Available for reference was a working CTC 68, an RCA booklet on SCR sweep sweep troubleshooting (thanks Zeno!), a sam's for the CTC 68 (twas all chester electronics had from that family of sets). I also had available the complete guts of a non-working CTC-46 set. The RCA book covered the 40, 44, and 47. Procedure was follow the RCA book, find what it called out in sam's then use the sam's as a poor guide (sam's was a similar but not identical chassis) to find it on the chassis. went through every part called out and I tried to check the trippler input with my HV probe with an SS focus diode added to the business end and learned that don't work (IIRC I actually tried that before going into the RCA book) I spent hours going through the RCA book and the only identified part I had not checked by RCA's methods was the trippler. I decided to try the RCA method as a last ditch effort...I had to really guess as their trippler test procedure specified testing a point on a simplified drawing of the fly that did not come close to matching the actual fly....I ended up reconciling that point to B+ boost since it was similar and easy to find. RCA specified measure voltage at the test point (I used boost) with the trippler connected and disconnected. I did that about 800V of the 900V volt boost was disappearing with the trippler connected. Bingo! We harvested another trippler off the CTC-46 chassis, and Greg not wanting to change an original part for a unknown replacement had me test it....I learned I can't test a trippler with a B&K 1077B (or that mine needs work), then tried to test it with the RCA chassis that needed it...With Boost test still hooked up we connected the trippler IN fly lead to (only) the new trippler, and connected DC (chassis ground/brightness limiter) on the new one to chassis hooked a HV probe to the out of the new one and powered the chassis for an instant (it immediately gave all the right voltages) to confirm. With the new trippler proven good it was installed, the set came right to life with full HV and almost full width (may have been an aspect ratio thing). After ~8 hours of sitting on carpet I was able to go home triumphantly and eat/rest my aching back. It was a unique experience with their Saint Bernard/black bear mix drooling all over and demanding petting regularly and the pungent pet rats next to the TV chewing and eyeballing us suspiciously the whole time. I ended up leaving late and racing home late....Almost ran over my idiot neighbor....I'm zipping along at 10:30pm in winter when it is freezing out and the moron jumps out flailing his arms hollering "slow down I have kids!"...I think, "Dude, they are not in the street presently, you seriously did that just to try and insinuate that you own the road? WTF, man?" Some people need to learn that it is impossible to tell the world to stop being unsafe for their stupid kids, and learn to teach their kids to avoid danger (or keep them indoors)...He could tell every neighbor, think their safe, and find his kid flattened by a pizza delivery truck the next day...All he is doing is annoying people and deluding himself. Next day for a change of pace I added to my back ache by changing the starter on my GMC... Anyhow this whole event reminds me of some of the interesting and funny house call stories in 50's TV repair magazines, and makes me wonder... Many have bought consoles out of their original homes, but how many have serviced them there in this day and age, and for those who've closed up shop long ago how old was the oldest for it's time you serviced on house call back in the day? I also thought others might have entertaining stories they would like to share.
__________________
Tom C. Zenith: The quality stays in EVEN after the name falls off! What I want. --> http://www.videokarma.org/showpost.p...62&postcount=4 
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#2
03-21-2017, 11:47 AM
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#3
03-21-2017, 01:55 PM
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Jesus, when I was a kid (which wasn't that long ago!) I was taught to look both ways before crossing, and to WAIT for the cars to pass, NOT to expect cars to stop for ME. Now we have this stupid law in Illinois that says cars have to stop for peds in a crosswalk, which has made pedestrians a bunch of entitled morons. I can't tell you how many times I've had to screech to a halt because of some idiot adult who was walking their children in front of a moving vehicle! But anyway... I'm afraid I don't have any housecall stories (bc I'm a mechanic). But speaking of 70s, I once worked on a 72 Jeep CJ, one owner, that had been used only as a plow truck on the owner's property since new. He said it didn't run too good. Looking under the hood, it had an AMC V8... with all original parts. I thought it was pretty cool to see the original AMC spark plug wires still in service. That's probably something no one's gonna ever see again unless they're looking at a Concours restoration job. Needless to say, it had 40 year old spark plugs, wires, cap and rotor, and the owner wondered why it wasn't running well. Last edited by MadMan; 03-21-2017 at 02:02 PM.
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#4
03-21-2017, 02:35 PM
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Tom, I love your story and this thread.
In the late 70's through the early 80's, I would go on house calls with my Uncle. My Grandpa would go on some as well, and he could be a little "crusty" 3 stories come to mind... 1) Went to this old maids house. Prissy, kinda MEAN old lady. House was spotless and I don't think one thing had been replaced since the day she moved in. She had a 50 or 51 RCA. Picture tube was so dim you could hardly see it. We tried to get her to not put any more money in repairs, but.. she was kinda mean, and would accuse us of ripping her off every time a mention of a new set was brought up. We go out on the call. Set needed a tube, and after the replacement, while the set was running.. the picture tube simply burned out like a light bulb. My uncle muttered an "Oh shit" buttoned up the set and told her it was too old to get parts for. Don't know where she got a new set from, but it wasn't from us. 2) The town vet was well to do, and lived in a cool LARGE mid century house. Sadly his wife had Alzheimer's, and had taken the back off, and wrapped everything in tin-foil (so the people in the set couldn't spy on her) and managed to blow up the set in the process. That set was a tubed Zenith color 3) We had a weirder than weird family that was Catholic to the extreme. I'm talking statues all over the house and the goriest life size crucifix bolted to the wall behind the TV. I remember grandpa imitating the pose and I couldn't stop laughing. On the way home.. in all seriousness he said "Why the hell would you want that behind a brand new Zenith?" There were many house calls in that era when you would pull the set out, only to discover "kitty" liked to go behind it to poop on the shag..... YUCK!
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#5
03-21-2017, 04:49 PM
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Last edited by Jon A.; 03-21-2017 at 07:17 PM.
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#6
03-21-2017, 08:46 PM
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Odd Service calls...
Being the kid that went on service calls with my Dad in the 70s, I saw and learned a lot about people, just from holding the mirror...
We pulled up to one house on a service call for a Zenith, only to have two other shops pull up within a minute of us. The idiot called four shops, and wanted to give his business to the one that showed up first. None of us that showed up wanted anything to do with the guy and we all left. He called us a week later begging for someone to come fix his set. It seems the word got out on his shenanigans, and 11 shops all turned down his business. Dad once went to the wrong house, serviced a TV, got paid, only to return to the shop, and take a call from the irate, original caller.....the neighbor of the wrong house.... Dad went on one call, opened up the back of an RCA, and found a revolver. The lady of the house told him not to touch it, and called the police. Her ex-boyfriend had been implicated in an armed robbery, and that turned out to be the weapon. Dad only had to give a statement, and had nothing more to do with the set or customer... We went on another call where the (good looking...) lady that owned the set asked a million questions - Dad found an open fuse, replaced it, and refused payment. It turned out to be a local TV station's consumer watchdog......and a setup. Dad wasn't mentioned in the piece that aired, but one shop charged them for a module AND parts on the module, but not for the open fuse! They later did the same with an in-shop repair of a VCR with a belt taken off the capstan pulley. we never saw the VCR in that one. I got a little thrill once when the lady of the house had to move some stuff off a Maggie entertainment unit so we could move it away from the wall. I was on the end nearest her when she set the stuff on the floor and her robe came open. We were both red faced, and Dad never saw or knew what happened....and we dealt only with her husband after that. One thing I'll never miss...everyone asking me if I wanted to be a TV repairman like my Dad......"no" was always the answer, till I was 15 or so, then Dad answered - "he already is"....I was the black and white tech. I had more time with the sets and liked detailing them, cleaning the sets up. When I wasn't fixing sets, I was junking sets, mostly sets with cabinets either damaged or emblazoned with the previous owners name/info. Fun place to grow up, a TV shop....
__________________
Brian USN RET (Avionics / Cal) CET- Consumer Repair and Avionics ('88) "Capacitor Cosmetologist since '79" When fuses go to work, they quit!
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#8
03-22-2017, 12:31 AM
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My friend has tons of horror stories when he did house call for his shop.He could write a book.
Heres a couple . He had many house calls where the house wife tried to smooth him over to have him go into the bedroom as her husband is at work. One house call when he went over to fix a set and the customer gave him a hard time when the customer then pulled all the tubes and went down to Radio Shack or to a drug store to test all the tubes .The customer did not find anything wrong with all the tubes according to the tube tester in the store.The heaters lit up and the meter said they were all read good. My friend found the bad tube and replaced it with a new tube and the set worked great.After that .The customer gave him a hard time saying the tubes were ok and he refused to pay for the new tube.By that time my friend started to get upset and told the customer what was wrong with the bad tube and how come it tested good on the tester and failed to work in the TV set.More likely the customer got lost with the technical reason why this happen .After all that the customer got pissed off and still refused to go ahead with the new tube .At that point my friend was pissed altogether and just pull the new tube from the set and put the bad tube back into the set and just leave the customers house. A week later the same idiot customer pulled the same bull crap with a another shop as he found out from the other shop when they called him about it. Not to sway off topic.In shop experiences. I remember he had a customer come into the shop with a broken tube with all the glass was missing.He said "I cant help you" since the tube numbers were gone. I'll tell more when I remember more or get more from my friend. Last edited by centralradio; 03-22-2017 at 01:31 PM. Reason: typos
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#10
03-22-2017, 12:25 PM
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Naturally I don't have any of my own, but I saw these old posts by Randy Bassham on ARF ages ago and just found them again. In my opinion these are the best of that bunch.
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#11
03-22-2017, 04:25 PM
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Awesome thread Tom
Early 70s Admiral had been brought into the shop for a CRT replacement. We always brought them in, even table models. When new-regunned CRTs were breaking in, snapping and popping, it was too scary for even the most patient customer. How the hell can you "focus" on doing a good set-up and convergence in the home with all manner of distractions anyway???? So back to the Admiral. The boss and I deliver the console to a second floor apartment above a garage in a crummy little place north of Allentown on a crummier winter day. The owner was nice enough but when her adult son (think no-account d-bag here) walked in, he accused my boss of NOT replacing the CRT and presenting a bill for $220 or such. I said nothing and, as the boss protested, he removed the back cover screws. I was sooo sure he was going to point out the Sylvania ColorBrite 85 label but he then threatened to whack the CRT vacuum teat with his nut-driver saying "hey, Ill just get you a new covered under warranty". The dudes mom said "go back to your room and shut the ___ up", then apologized profusely. Jimmy then took $15 off the bill and told her to go out for dinner. Back in college again a few years later, I had to replace something on the tuner control cluster in a Sony KV-2601, the biggest screen and most expensive console available then. As I eased the assembly out, the power switch contacted something and the fuse flashed. I realized I forgot to unplug the set first  as it had no AC interlock like most others. All the while the owner watched over my shoulder. I said nothing and replaced the fuse before I bolted the TMA back in, but the set was now dead. I said it has to go in the shop and "this one's on us". I pulled the chassis and worked on it the same day, calling the customer with news I found only a fried regulator IC, common fail for any Sony.I did countless calls of my own on mid-1960s sets all thru the late 1970s and 80s, all sets owned by old folks and others who could not afford new TVs nor wanted to hear the usual condemnation of "its too old" from even the reputable shops. Bought a Zenith console stereo from a retired music teacher in 2005. As I walked out with my helper, I noticed her 1976 Colortrak Console CTC81. I asked how it was doing and she turned it on, so I adjusted the color for her. She said she had not opened that control door, ever. I figured a service gut had to have visited at some point in the preceding 29 years and done so. And yeppper-do, I got plenty of dirty looks in my '73 Fury Ex-cop car as that B-block roared past all those gas sipping POS's who decided to pull out in front of me to "make a point"  f-with me, will ya - and I paid heavily for that privilege every time I stopped for gas.
__________________
"When resistors increase in value, they're worthless" -Dave G
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#13
03-23-2017, 05:21 PM
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Add more .My friend also said he had to go to countless cigarette filled houses and bars to fix sets.Some sets were completely destroyed from the cig smoke.Couple sets were damage at the bars from wild sports fans.
On service calls .Also putting up with the rug rats "customers kids" as they annoy him by saying "Hurry up sir.I dont want to miss "Fill in the blank cartoon -________" . Last edited by centralradio; 03-23-2017 at 05:30 PM.
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#14
03-23-2017, 05:25 PM
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#15
03-23-2017, 07:13 PM
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I had a guy drop off a console one day, and the next morning I saw several roaches running around the shop. This particular set was filthy, so I had a good clue as to the origins of the bugs. When I pulled the back off that set, there were literally hundreds of cockroaches inside.....it looked like it was alive. I opened the front door, scooted the TV out on the sidewalk, and called the customer to come and get it. When I called, he got mad because I wouldn't work on it. When he got to the shop, he started cussing me and said he was glad he didn't have to pay me. I advised him he would be better off to spend the money he saved on an exterminator. Later on, I found out the guy had taken the set to another local shop for repair....that tech wouldn't work on it, either.
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