Fleetwood Constellation Restoration Thread

[VintagePC]

Yes, it's mine. I still can't believe it. This thing is in INCREDIBLE condition. Came with original documentation, everything! (Turns out son of the original owner was selling it, and man, did he take care of his stuff!)

Pictures coming very soon, I need to get some better lighting (first batch is all fuzzy) and some dinner first.

Stay tuned, I can't wait to share this with all of you!

[Electronic M]

Congrats! Hopefully the CRT and fly are good so you will have more than just an audio console with a dead TV in it at the end your restoration.

Good luck! And don't forget to play some Mac on that thing after you get it working.

[VintagePC]

OK, here we go - some pictures. Apologies if they're fuzzy, it's a cellphone camera as I don't have my "proper" one on hand.

First up: Documentation! Yes, ALL that came with the set!



(also, scored a pair of free baluns from elsewhere but grabbed 'em because I knew I'd need 'em)

Front of the cabinet:


TV Chassis:









Turntable:

Back of radio chassis:


Tube charts:



Flyback is cracked on the outside, but no signs of extensive wax leakage or burning/arcing, which is good. Can't see the getter on the CRT, but it looks in good shape. It's a 21AWP4 from October 1969, mfg by "Canadian Admiral Corporation". Has a giant red sticker on the neck saying "DO NOT USE ION TRAP", and looks to be aluminized.

I also don't see major problems, though I haven't flipped the chassis upside down yet (don't know what to do about that massive CRT yet...)

More pictures later, right now I'm going to have a sit down and flip through all the documentation that came with it.

All the knobs are there, but they're white and powdery, hopefully that will clean up nicely.

If you guys have questions I'd be happy to try answering them. I know there's VERY little about these sets online AFAICT.

Long weekend coming up, so lots more to come!

[VintagePC]

Pulled the radio chassis, it's a thing of beauty. Will post more pictures tomorrow.

The underside looks so clean I can almost smell the factory-fresh odor, I think its nigh on all original, doesn't look like any replacements have been made.

Have yet to get to the tv chassis, but hopefully it's just as promising! I need to decide what to do about that picture tube though, it's a beast and I'm hesitant to remove it because it doesn't have an implosion band on the glass, just the metal strap holding it to the chassis.

A little more good news, the set _is_ fused (fuse OK), and I found that one of the dial lamps on the radio face is blown. Hopefully that was the flash they saw on power-up.
Nothing looks burnt or toasty that I've seen yet, so it looks _very_ promising.

Flipped through the documentation, includes full service info and schematics for the radio and tv chassis, even bigger bonus since I don't think I'd be able to find those anywhere online.

Chassis for the tv is model #55M16

[VintagePC]

here's the underside of the chassis... almost like pr0n for those of us that like our sets untouched before we get them


One question - those red tubular caps are listed as "molded" instead of 'Paper' in the parts list.

Are they paper-filled and due for replacement as well, or are they a different kind?

Looking at the schematic, this is a mono 6v6 push-pull amp. I'll try to get the schematics scanned and posted for folks to look at too.

Am going to _carefully_ attempt CRT removal later today, then we'll get our first peek at the underside of the TV chassis!

[VintagePC]

Succeeded in cleaning the knobs, the white powdery crap came right off after a soak in some warm water with a dash of dishwasher powder

[bandersen]

Originally Posted by VintagePC

here's the underside of the chassis... almost like pr0n for those of us that like our sets untouched before we get them

One question - those red tubular caps are listed as "molded" instead of 'Paper' in the parts list.

Are they paper-filled and due for replacement as well, or are they a different kind? ...

Nothing better than a pristine chassis (well maybe a few things )

I'm pretty sure those are just paper caps in plastic tubes and should be replaced.

Originally Posted by VintagePC

Succeeded in cleaning the knobs, the white powdery crap came right off after a soak in some warm water with a dash of dishwasher powder

Excellent! That works for me every time too

[VintagePC]

Okay, silly question perhaps, but what's the _proper_ way to remove the CRT from the chassis? Do I leave the yoke assembly intact, loosen the strap holding it to the chassis and slide it out the front, or do I unbolt the CRT brackets and remove it strap and all?

Pictures of yoke/front here:



Poked around a bit and looked at the turntable. Bearing grease in the motor was solidified, but after a cleanup, all seems to be in order. I might re-grease some of the linkages later, but it's cleaned up nicely.

Disassembly:


Bearing cleaning:

Reassembled motor:

Complete table after cleaning:


The mat is in pretty sorry shape, hard and cracked here and there. Might see if I can restore it with some glycerin.

[Eric H]

You loosen the strap and slide it out the front, after disconnecting the High Voltage anode from the side and the base connector of course.

You have to be very careful when sliding the base of the CRT through the Yoke assembly, sometimes things have shrunk a little and it will be a tight fit, if you try to force it you can rip the base cap off the CRT.

You might also want to discharge the HV anode on the CRT to ground, if it hasn't been powered on in years it should be discharged but sometimes static can charge it up a little and give you a little zap, not dangerous but startling.

[VintagePC]

Originally Posted by Eric H

You loosen the strap and slide it out the front, after disconnecting the High Voltage anode from the side and the base connector of course.

You have to be very careful when sliding the base of the CRT through the Yoke assembly, sometimes things have shrunk a little and it will be a tight fit, if you try to force it you can rip the base cap off the CRT.

You might also want to discharge the HV anode on the CRT to ground, if it hasn't been powered on in years it should be discharged but sometimes static can charge it up a little and give you a little zap, not dangerous but startling.

Thanks. That's what I thought initially, but then I saw the various bolts and wondered if that was the best way.
Will give it a go later.

[Eric H]

One other thought, sometimes the lip on the front CRT bracket means you have to lift the tube up a little before it will slide out, that might mean you have to loosen the Yoke mount to allow it to tilt up also. If the Yoke is hardwired to the chassis then this is pretty much what you are stuck with, if it plugs in via a socket you could unplug it and remove the whole thing together.

You really need an 8" Test CRT (8XP4) when working on a set like this so you don't have to keep installing and removing a big bulky CRT each time you want to test or tweak something.

See the bottom of this page:http://antiqueradio.org/5AXP4PictureTube.htm

I would probably work on the chassis with the CRT in place, this has it's risks but it might be less risky in the long run than removing and installing that big jug many times.

[VintagePC]

Originally Posted by Eric H

One other thought, sometimes the lip on the front CRT bracket means you have to lift the tube up a little before it will slide out, that might mean you have to loosen the Yoke mount to allow it to tilt up also. If the Yoke is hardwired to the chassis then this is pretty much what you are stuck with, if it plugs in via a socket you could unplug it and remove the whole thing together.

You really need an 8" Test CRT (8XP4) when working on a set like this so you don't have to keep installing and removing a big bulky CRT each time you want to test or tweak something.

See the bottom of this page:http://antiqueradio.org/5AXP4PictureTube.htm

I would probably work on the chassis with the CRT in place, this has it's risks but it might be less risky in the long run than removing and installing that big jug many times.

What kind of risks are we talking about - just general CRT handling risks? I'd like that option since I won't have to deal with finding a safe place to set the CRT.

I'd pondered the possibility of just tipping the chassis on its side (power xformer and HV cage down) but I wasn't sure whether that was something I'd regret doing, because the metal brackets holding the CRT stick out awkwardly from the sides and the CRT wouldn't be sitting completely level or resting on something. Given this chassis comes out of the cabinet tube and all, I would assume the design takes into account a tech pulling it out and flipping it on its side to service it.

[Eric H]

I'm talking about the risk of breaking the CRT mostly, if the chassis falls over while you're working on it, or if you drop a tool on it or something of that nature.
A 21" CRT Imploding is not something you want to be near! That said they are pretty robust, the fragile areas are the neck and sides of the bell, it's unlikely to implode just from handling it but a sharp blow to the bell could do it.

I've worked on chassis with the tube installed, you just need to use care when rotating it up or down, make sure it's well supported or tied down so it can't slip, don't allow any stress on the neck and be careful not to stick your hand on the 2nd Anode and you should be fine.

[VintagePC]

Originally Posted by Eric H

I'm talking about the risk of breaking the CRT mostly, if the chassis falls over while you're working on it, or if you drop a tool on it or something of that nature.
A 21" CRT Imploding is not something you want to be near! That said they are pretty robust, the fragile areas are the neck and sides of the bell, it's unlikely to implode just from handling it but a sharp blow to the bell could do it.

I've worked on chassis with the tube installed, you just need to use care when rotating it up or down, make sure it's well supported or tied down so it can't slip, don't allow any stress on the neck and be careful not to stick your hand on the 2nd Anode and you should be fine.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I expected. I'll see about tipping the chassis and how well supported I can get it in that condition - given how awkward and heavy the tube is, I think there's more risk of breaking it from full removal than just tipping the chassis, as you so rightly point out.

[VintagePC]

A'right, I tipped her over to take a look. Unfortunately we broke the "pristine" streak. Someone's been here before...

General overview.
Note the blue wires patched in, those go to the yoke. Probably a repair from when the tube was replaced.



Blast, there were mice. They've nibbled at some of the capacitors, but apparently this one tasted by far the best. I must make a note of that the next time I'm feeling peckish.

Fortunately, the coils didn't appeal to them very much - that's a good thing. I probably had beginners luck with my 4068, but at least I won't have to find out whether that's the case (knock on wood)


There's also a lovely bodge job on a replacement control:


Next step is to photocopy the schematics and trace things out... then I can order up some parts and get re-capping.

I still have a decent stock of resistors left over from my radio job (cheaper to order 5 than just 1, or minimum quantity was 5) so I should be stocked for the bad ones I run into.

In the meanwhile I'll work on the cabinet. Looks to be photo-finish or a print-on of some sort. Top surface is a bit scratched, but should look all right with some elbow grease.