Mighty Monarch of The Air

[vts1134]

I wanted to start a thread to show my Majestic 1600 restoration. I am a little late on posting progress but I'll get you up to speed. I found the unit in an antique store and fell for it pretty hard. It had a price tag on it for $125. I worked the owner down to $75 and tax and took it home that night. I thought it would just make a nice decoration in the apartment but then something started eating away at me to find out the history of the unit. Some Google searches later I found my way to this site and made the decision that I would restore it. The first thing I did was clean the insides as much as I could. It wasn't extremely dirty but it did have a fine layer of black dirt on it. It cleaned up very nicely with some elbow grease and electronics cleaner.

After cleaning the interior I replaced the missing tube you can see on the right hand side. I work with some one who is a wealth of electronic parts and he gave me one for free. With all the tubes in place it was time to fire it up and see what we've got. I brought the voltage up slowly with a variac and got raster :-). Unfortunately there was no vertical deflection, just a solid horizontal white line in the middle of the screen.
My next step was to pull the chassis from the cabinet and put it on a tabletop to get ready for recapping. I got a copy of the photofact and ordered my capacitors from www.wjoe.com, 17 of the them to be exact. Today I think I'll begin the recapping process.

[vts1134]

Underestimated the difficulty of replacing capacitors. I removed the first cap and I don't know where the markings are for polarity. I've read in another post
"The symbols are little cutouts in the phenolic material right next to the terminals."
I can't seem to find any markings though.

[ggregg]

that's on the bottom of electroylic multistage cans. With most new caps (except electrolytics), polarity is not an issue, like resistors. The old ones had the terminal with the outside foil on it marked, not usually the ground. Be careful though, small electrolytics will have the negative marked and that must be followed. They usually have a paper or cardboard covering and are pretty easy to read. Electroytics are usually 1-2 mfd (microfarad) or higher. You usually won't see one lower than a 10 or 8 mfd. That .1 mfd you have in your hand is not an electrolytic. Some capacitors are rated in mmfd (micro micro farad), or pf (picofarad, same thing), which is even lower. Mmfd or pf caps are usually mica or ceramic.

Is this your first attempt at electronic repair? If so, I would suggest letting the TV sit for a while and buy a cheap AA5 tube radio. This will help you to identify parts and repair something that is a lot more simple than a TV. Also if you totally screw it up, like I did the first couple of times, you haven't wrecked anything important. I hope I'm not out of line. Just a friendly suggestion.

[vts1134]

I think I'll forge ahead and break something important the first time. You have however made my evening a lot shorter. There are very few larger mfd capacitors in the set, and they are all very easy to read polarity.


What kind of capacitor did I have in my first picture?

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by vts1134

What kind of capacitor did I have in my first picture?

Wax paper. Guaranteed to be bad. Nonpolarized. Replace with "Orange Drops" or similar mylar and foil cap. Use the same capacitance (or within 10%) and same or higher voltage rating. More at http://www.wa2ise.com/radios/repair.htm

[ggregg]

Originally Posted by ggregg

Electroytics are usually 1-2 mfd (microfarad) or higher. You usually won't see one lower than a 10 or 8 mfd. That .1 mfd you have in your hand is not an electrolytic.

I meant to say you usually won't see one lower than a 10 or 4 mfd.

Good luck, ask for help if you need it.

[Phil Nelson]

Here are more articles that may be helpful. The first one covers recapping:

http://antiqueradio.org/recap.htm

http://antiqueradio.org/restoration.htm

Regards,

Phil Nelson
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

[vts1134]

Thanks for the articles. I read both of them before actually. I did run into one more thing. I actually ran into it when ordered my caps. There is one cap that on the photofact says 600v but the one that is installed is 800v. I ordered a 630v trusting that the photofact is correct but now I'm second guessing myself into thinking I need something over 800v.

[Sandy G]

Steady as she goes, Grasshopper...It ALMOST worked before, that is a VERY good sign...Somethin' THAT purty HAS to work well.

[ggregg]

The flyback might be quieter because it's not putting out any voltage. Check your work. Believe me, I'm not doubting your ability, but I still hook up stuff wrong sometimes and I've been doing this for years. Just did it on the last one I did. Also check the tubes in the HV cage, 1B3, etc. Make sure nothing is shorting and trace the schematic on each cap you changed to make sure it went to the same spot the old one went to. Have fun, this is what it's all about.

[vts1134]

All good things come to those who wait!!!

Spent some time looking over my work, going from solder point to solder point and making sure nothing was shorted, not soldered, etc. I also refered to my photographs to check polarity on the three electrolytics that I replaced. All of my checks turned up nothing, all looked good. What could it possibly be? I decided to give it power again and have a good look around and visibly check the tubes. I fired the set up and confirmed that all the tubes lit up. They lit up like a warm fire on a cold night. All of a sudden what do I see?



Wait for the set to warm up of course!
I forgot watching television as a child required turning the set on, going to the kitchen to get a bowl of cereal, and then returning to your Saturday morning cartoons.

Now I wait for my next batch of caps with a feeling of satisfaction that, lack of visible progress not withstanding, at least I'm not moving backwards.

[Phil Nelson]

A raster, yay. The bright horizontal line is the classic sign of issues in the vertical circuits. It may be cured after you finish replacing capacitors.

Don't play it long in this condition, lest it make a permanent line in the picture tube.

Phil Nelson

[vts1134]

I set to task today and replaced the multi-stage can capacitors with new individual axial lead capacitors.

Cans I replaced.


It was a bugger trying to find room for all of the new leads, but I got all of them in without any shorts.

After picture with the 7 new individual caps.


I have not yet plugged it in because I do not have a variac here at the moment. I don't know if that makes a difference now that I have replaced the capacitors but I wanted to ask all of you. Should I wait until I have a variac to fire it up, or should I fire her up all at once? I await the councils decision.

On a related note does any one have advice on procuring a variac? Specs, things to look for, price range, etc...?

[miniman82]

I would use the variac. If you hit the caps with full B+, you risk damage. I had that happen once, the caps all hot really hot even though they were 'new'.

[Electronic M]

Vintagepc, I believe that this is not a color TV so it should not have purity or convergence adjustments.