Motorola 14P3 restoration

[bandersen]

I picked up this set along with some other vintage gear a few months ago and promptly forgot about it. A few days ago I was cleaning out the garage and stumbled across it. I figured this was a good a time as any to take a closer look.

It sure is dirty


Specifically, it's a Y14P3-2. The -X part indicates the cabinet style.


I'm not sure if any of these are the correct knobs.


It's looking a little more respectable after some cleaning.

[bandersen]

Here's what I found inside. Aside from some dirt and cat hair, it looks OK.




Time to check that 14RP4 CRT.


Uh-oh!

[Eric H]

Ah shoot, the tube is dead, well guess you'll just have to part it out now.
I'll take the safety screen.

Are you sure it's a RP4? I have the old 14QP4 from my Philco Transitone, it's kind of weak but it makes a pretty good picture.

[bandersen]

Oh, I'm not giving up that easily! The filament is glowing nicely - there are just no emissions. So I tried the old cathode re-welding trick and after about a dozen whacks got it to stick

Yes, it sure is a 14RP4. Those "lumps" on the top and bottom seem kinda odd.




There's not much to this set and I hope to fire it up later tonight

[bandersen]

If anyone is curious, this is the cathode welding procedure I used.

http://www.videokarma.org/showpost.p...4&postcount=30

[Eric H]

Cool, you got it working, I wonder if those Lumps are there to give the glass some strength? Looks like an early attempt at a higher angle deflection tube.

I have this same set in Pink, it almost works, at least it lights up fully but doesn't seem to pick up anything.

[zenithfan1]

I've seen those lumps on several Zenith sets I've worked on, I too have wondered what they're for.

Good job on getting that tube going, the CR 70 is awesome. Looking forward to seeing that CRT light up.

[bandersen]

I finished a quick recap and tried to power up the set - nothing. I traced through the filament string and eventually found a tube that wasn't seated fully.


Bingo! I have a nice bright raster Now to try feeding in some signals.

[Boobtubeman]

got the 14 inch motorola as well, lumpy 14 inch tube awesome picture. heck i got 2 more 14 inch crts in the garage on a pair of emersons i never fixed due to lack of caps and knobs..

SR

[bandersen]

It's not the greatest picture, but I'm getting there

[mstaton]

That's a neat little set. Glad you got that CRT working again!

[Boobtubeman]

Other than reception its hella sweet mine has a small ripple in the pic, then again i didnt change that main silver electrolytic because its hard to tell which pin is which the print is faded and hard to tell the shapes appart..

SR

[snelson903]

hay im glad to see you do that ,iv had a motorola for some time that the crt is dead like that and i have been keeping it hoping some day to run across another crt that good, can that procedure be done using a b k 467 or sencore 133 if so id like to try to bring back to life. 17cfp4 crt the label says, i dont know why someone bent the tuner cover up like that, i just put it away after testing the crt . i just checked the crt and woke it up and wiggled the horz. osc. tube around and it came on. looks like just needs recap and tube sockets replaced or tightened up.

[earlyfilm]

Originally Posted by snelson903

. . . . . i dont know why someone bent the tuner cover up like that . . . . . .

Back in the day, everyone used big-can spray tuner cleaner, and they obviously misplaced their little squirting tube before doing this set.

This butchery is very common on tuners where the cover was soldered in place for better shielding.

[holmesuser01]

I've worked on lots of sets that were missing the tuner covers. If I had one that would fit, I'd put one on before the set left me.

The things that some shops did... Amazing.

Glad you got the little Motorola going. I saw few B/W Motorolas in my time.