Restoring a Motorola 12VK11R - A Beginner's Plea for Guidance

[tombeiter]

Hello all,

I just joined. I'm sure you are bored silly by the number of people who find an old tv at an estate/garage sale/curb and join this forum looking for guidance, but here I am!

I did some preliminary reading here http://videokarma.org/showthread.php...hlight=12VK11R regarding this same model.

I broke the cardinal rule of plugging in an old tv, but not having money for a variac and even less patience, I pulled the chassic from the cabinet, placed it in the middle of my driveway away from all flammable objects and used a really long extension cord to plug it in. Nothing. Well, one tube glowed. I did leave it plugged in for about 10 minutes to see if it just needed warming up, but still nothing.

So, my intention was to start by replacing the capacitors, but I'm wondering if there isn't a first step in determining whether the CRT is even still functional. I see there are CRT testers on eBay ranging from $15 to $135. I'm wondering if the $15 model is sufficient or the more expensive model is required or if there's another way to determine the status of the CRT.

Also, I'm missing the center post knob on the right channel selector. Any chance of finding a replacement for this?

I've uploaded some pictures of the cabinet and chassis here http://videokarma.org/album.php?albumid=601

The chassis is a model TS-23B and has a manufacturer's date stamp of 1948 or 49, the last digit is hard to read.

Currently, I have the chassis pulled and a newer 13-inch tv inside the cabinet, but I would like to take a stab at getting the original tube working.

Any advice, guidance, comments, or jeers gratefully accepted.

Thanks for your time,

Tom