Zenith Console combo
 

Picked this up yesterday, dont know when I will get to it, but at least I will have it when ready.

Nice. Its most likely a '67 model with a Looks like a 20X1C38 or possibly a 20Y1C38.

SWEET!!!! Nice save. That was a quality set for sure!

got the back off last night, all tube tv chassis, 25GP22 pic tube (will test later). The receiver was impressive. copper clad all metal chassis, all the transistors were socketed, and of course the chassis is all hand wired (don't see that with solid state very often). It had 4 IF stages on FM and 2 IF stages on AM, plus the AM had a tuned RF stage as well, Should be a great receiver. The power tranny was a good sized one, in put power rated at 85 watts.

now THIS is the way a SS receiver should be built..

What is a "power tranny" ???

power transformer on the SS receiver is a good size one, I have some magnavox astrosonics that are a little skimppy on the PT and you notice it when volume is set to the higher levels.

Nice set.

the one thing I really like about the old consoles like this is the abilty to power the stereo amp directly off the audio source, really makes watching TV with full sound effects a lot better. I had to modify the last couple of these to take advantage of the stereo output of the DVD/converter box, but its well worth it.

I'm not a big fan of solid state console stereos; but, if I could find a SS Zenith console with a chassis like this, it would be a keeper.

If I ever find a Zenith combo of this quality, something else will just have to go out the door.

yep, I have never seen a SS hand wired with all the sockets, very easy to service thats forsure. It looks to have all orig transistors save for one driver. will be fun to pull them and test, just like a tube, maybe I can do some transistor "rolling" :)

It's the power transformer, but it could be something else too LOL :D



On another note:

Yay! It worked instead of wrecking the post! All those darned edit buttons everywhere! I have to be careful.

Great cabinet
 

I sold those and the cabinets were solid cherry and cherry veneers. No photofinish or fake wood. If my memory is correct, all the veneers are on plywood, not particle board. The base is probably the only particle board used in that massive cabinet.

indeed, even the base on this one looks to be 3/4 ply. Def built like a tank, and in very good shape (not mint but def good). The legs looks good (not all dinged up from vacuum cleaner hits..), the speaker grill looks to have a lot of nicotine, although there is no smoke smell, maybe just the color. I have heard that oxyclean works well (foam) to clean these.

Another great score, Dave! You know, you are skating on thin ice!

Thats not the Zenith combo from TN is it? Good looking set I must say!

nope this was a south florida score. It was a bit of a drive but for 25$ I did no mind the gas money.

the one from tennessee is a flat chassis solid state.julian burke called me about it but i could never get a hold of the owner.this is a nice score.keep posting progress and we do like those pictures!

TV chassis, sorry about the glare

The red gun of the 25GP22 test a little weak, the G and B are fine. I have it cooking now to see if it comes up any.

I am a little confused on the sencore CR70 tracking instructions

I have tested each gun sep for shorts, cutoff, and emissions, then it says to set controls for R and switch to tracking, then switch to B, then G and look how much it varies, does that mean I leave the controls set for the R (2,3,4) and then just switch from R to G to B with out changing the 2,3,4?

well shoot by the time I finshed that last post I figured I would go check on it, the R gun is fine :banana: right up there with the others

My cabinet was never in a "smoking" location. The grill cloth ( fabric would be a better word for mine) is still as perfect as it was in 1970 when Zenith built the cabinet at their Springfield, MO, plant. I moved it last year to a new house and was really afraid the fabric would fall apart from bouncing around but after 40 years it is still hanging in there. I just wish i had spent the extra for the cherry doors. I added the ones on mine about 20 years ago.

I did not know the doors were an option, I would like to have some for mine as well.

The Italian Provincial was the only one available with or without the doors, except for the Oriental styling model. The one with the doors might be styled slightly different. Just moved and my brochures from back then are still packed up.

I have that exact set. Took allot to get mine going and the hv regulation is still sloppy compared to my other zeniths. If you need any service info or help I got it. The stereo works very well.
It seems this was one of the more common cabinets, I have seen several of them listed around. Glad you got it.
http://boxcarcabin.com/zenith-20x1c38.jpg

Thought I had seen that before, thanks for the offer, I will no doubt be checking with you on it.

finally hooked up the variac to the tuner, nothing, smoked fuse, hooked up, nothing, was in phono mode, finally got the AC line to show about 8 ohms, so started dialing up the variac, instant 2 amps before I got to 10volts.

I assume the primary is ok since I get the 8 ohms, so my guess is a shorted filter cap, prob what took out the fuse back when ever it was last tried. At least the fuse was not a standard auto glass type the some fool would have put a 20amp in place.

I will pull the tuner chassis later and see what the deal is.

last week a picked up a perfect tuner, the exact same model off ebay, I was thinking ahead, looks like it will pay off.

:beatnik::beatnik::beatnik::ntwrthy::ntwrthy::beat nik::beatnik::beer::beer::tongue::tongue::rockon:: rockon::drunk::drunk::smoke::smoke:

swapped the ebay stereo tuner, sounds good in the TV. Got the old one on the bench hooked up, not sure what the deal was but no short now.

couple problems, the on off switch is a SPDT with one side open, jumped past that, checked the output caps (cap coupled speakers), hooked up some test speakers. one channel is ok but has some hiss (leaky transistor) the other channel is hiss and bad garbled (guess is a coupling cap). I will get the scope out later and trace the signal which is prob the fastest way to find the issue.

...

you know andy you hit it on the head. I finally swapped the outputs since I could not figure out what was going on, bingo, both channels come back with no distortion at all. I still have a nagging hiss, its after the volume so it has to be in the finals, driver or amp. I think its the finals. I will try swapping around to see if I can isolate. I tested them for leakage and they had some, but on finals I think some leakage is ok. I tried swapping out the drivers with some good PNP germainium, no help. Maybe a leaky cap? well moving transistors around should test that theory. sure sounds like a leaky transistor.

Not a big deal since I have already swapped the tuners out, I just dont like unsolved puzzels.

well the stereo light is acting up. it comes on weakly, and the transistor that drives it get hot. gonna have to look into this a bit more. the tuner sounds great with the new coupling caps to the drivers and a couple new audio amp transistors (no more hiss at all).

a ha,

used an 1819x (glad I kept it) I replaced it with a #47

the 1819x is a 28v vs the 47 which is a 6.3v

gonna have to hit the local supplers for one.

I lioke that Stereo chassis.
 

It is the "second best" of the Zeniths. I have about 4 of the various complete chassis like that lying around, (including a 26XT20, and a 26NT20) and a complete console stereo with one. It is NOT as nice as the "big one" with the separate amp in the bottom and 15" 3 ways- (like the 6AT24 amp and 29AT24 tuner chassis--(a console set I ALSO have--and may get another one locally soon..) --but is is pretty good. Probably about 20W/CH or so, I would say. There was also ONE "horizontal version" of that chassis--laid out somewhat differently--but electrically very similar--the 26YT21--I have that chassis too. I LOVE the "look" of ALL of them--nice "eye candy" to me. I LOVE old SS stereo chassis-- and have a LOT of the Zenith ones a few RCA's and a couple GTE's.

I personally think the old Zenith SS stereos were THE BEST--MUCH better than Maggys or even RCA sets--though the Sylvania's of the time frame(1965-70) or -- were not bad--either....their TOTL and next in line anyway.

yea its a sweet chassis, its amazing to think of the hand wiring that went into that set AND the fact that it was done here in the the USA.

The only thing I dont like about it is the dumb soundess contour built into the volume pot. Kills the highs rather than pumping the lows, at least until you crank it up. I would love to just disable that tap but I respect the thing to much to start re engineering it.

I may check some of the componets in that area to see if anything has drifted making it worse that it is.

You are rigth about it in comparison to the maggie (the only other SS tuner I have), it has better sensitivity, and very low distortion at higher power settings. I seems to have a decent PS for an early SS unit.

I need to seset the opt transistors, the heat sink paste is all crumbly but at least those expensive PNP outputs are good.

there is a slight hum that is not present on the ebay find so I will need to go thru the caps. Funny how one set has bad caps and the other does not. I think it has something to do with the storage enviroment, maybe the useage as well. The Ebay find was pefect, but for a slight bend in the tuning shaft. I dont know how that could get bent and not break the tuning knob. It has a slight over center feel as you turn it, Not a big deal but just enough to bug me. The tuner that came in the TV console has a perfect tuner shaft.

new bulb fixed the MPX light, guess the #47 was messing up the bias. It now comes on like a switch and is nice and bright. Before it would always glow dim and just get a bit brighter (but still not very bright) when the MPX was detected. Not to mention the transistor was getting warm that drives it (warmer than it should be).

Only thing left is the SPDT on off. Not sure how that is going to go. my guess is a burned contact. It closes when the button is pressed, press again and its off, but will come on if the turntable is on.

progress, on off switch on stereo tuner fixed, took it apart and vigorously rubbed the contacts. seems ok now, but time will tell.

Now the decison, to I leave the replacement stereo in or put back the orig. The replacement has a slightly different face (mostly the way the channels are layed out).

Its a nothing job to replace it. But then again the switch may act up. I think I will just use the orig and test the switch.

I just got in some HV caps that I needed to finish off my 20Y1C38 zenith so I will button it up, leave the CRT for now (its the one with a weak reg gun but not too bad after it warms up), and then I will pull the chassis on this console and go over it. Its a filthy mess so I will start by a gentle cleaning, then will check the B+ for for shorts and leaky caps. If that goes well then will pull the HOT and VOT and do a slow power up to see if the filter caps are ok. after that the reg test.

the MPX light still varied somewhat with signal stength. for fun I swapped out a few and found a transistor that would act much more like a switch either on or off. For fun I tested it and the Beta was nearly 10 vs 5 of the other ones that while worked, did have some dimming on weaker stations.

The transistor checker is kinda nice since I can use it to match transistors.

That is the one I mentioned that was from Boca Raton. Glad it got saved!

while playing with the tuner I checked the phone input, seems like a lack of separation going on, seems like there is some signal leakage.

I am thinking decoupling or some other power supply problem. I will put a scope on the B+ supplies and see how much signal modulation is there if any.