road side Sylvania Hybrid set
 

Well yesterday afternoon something happened that I would never have expected. I found a set, that I would actually consider adding to my collection, on the road side! All winter a few BPC sets and a moldering couch have sat on the roadside near a place where three driveways converge at the side of the main road a couple of blocks from my home. I've considered taking everything but the CRTs and cabinets from these sets for spare parts but didn't feel the need. Then yesterday while out for lunch I spotted some new additions a couple of consoles that looked to be late 70's-80's solid state models. These piqued my interest as the possible chance to get a new delta gun CRT to replace the dying one in my '67 Admiral remote console for free proved irresistible. I figured they were probably inline(and was right) but biked over later to check it out. After observing the carnage of the several BPC sets that had already been plundered in the way I was contemplating and the beat up SS Sylvania inline consoles I noticed a metal cabinet Sylvania table set laying on it's back that I almost instantly knew was a delta gun set.
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6455b354.jpg
From it's cosmetics I figured it was might be a SS set, and I further figured the CRT was toast seeing as it was on it's back and there was an ugly chip/crack on it's face...either of which could have broken the vacuum.
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...ps44b4ea5f.jpg
Well I was curious so I put it on it's feet and looked at the warped scrunched in back and figured it was necked for sure, But to my surprise after peeling the back off I discovered the CRT neck was intact and whats more it had tubes!....Five of them.
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...ps82fea53d.jpg
Upon seeing this I called in for backup and when my Dad arrived I loaded it into the C-RV and raced on my bike back home to unload it and give it a more detailed examination/damage report. The wood grain vinyl is toast, the UHF dial string is snapped, some knobs are stiff,the back severely warped, the speaker grill damaged, the set was full of leaves/mouse nest , the degauss coil and HOT plate lead were unplugged(prompting me to hazard a guess that this set was dead before it's days outside). I also observed that this set is a five tube hybrid with a trippler for HV and focus which I've never seen on a set with a tube horizontal section before.
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...ps10d51822.jpg
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6de376bc.jpg
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http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6f977918.jpghttp://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6d551770.jpg
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The chassis was a cinch to pull just two screws holding it, two more holding the hardwired pencil box control board, and a bunch of things to unplug. Service techs must have loved this back in the day. I then checked the CRT which read bad on all guns. Unbothered by this I cranked the heater up to 8 volts and let the CRT cook for a few minutes as I tried to get some of the yard waste off the PCBs. In that time it went from the middle of bad to the middle of good on all guns so it seems the CRT lives.:banana:
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...ps439b4143.jpg
The chassis looks like it can be saved. There about 6 cracked to hell ceramic caps, half as many similarly ruined orange drops, a couple of scary power resistors, and some questionable ceramic peaking coils, but it still looks like I may be able restore it. If I can make it work I'll be left with the choice of whether to get new wood grain vinyl, sand and paint, or leave it as is to shock visitors that such an obviously ruined looking thing actually works.

If anyone knows what model this is it would be appreciated as I doubt a readable ID number can be found. I've never in all my 21+ years in this world found a vintage tube set at the curb that genuinly might be restorable before or came upon a Sylvania in the wild before so it must have been a real cold day in hell yesterday.

I'm curious how these sets compared to others at the time(I have several 70's Zeniths as a yard stick for that brand) performance wise. I wonder how did the picture detail and color compare to other makes, and what service issues were common?

this is either a d12 or d16.very good sets.crts were amazing.sylvania developed a reputation for outstanding picture and easy repairs starting with this set.later,a slide control model was built and that was the best set sylvania ever manufactured.you should see the 25v crts of that era.good find,rough but i hope you can save it.not many out there

I don't remember working on that model. I worked on simular models, but they were transformerless 19" models. That set is a little beyond hope.
I have a Panasonic that has a chipped CRT screen like that. It still has a great picture.
I think some kid, heaved a rock at it, when it was laying behind a thrift shop.

There was a chronic problem with hybrid Sylvania chassis that looked very much like this one.
The collector load resistors for the two demod transistors were 2 watt carbon composition. IIRC, they were 27K (possibly 22K). They ran very hot, and over time their phenolic casing would char and carbonize, creating a low resistance shunt that dropped the ohms value drastically. This applied higher and higher voltage to the transistor (supply was something like 150V) until one of the transistors shorted out from overcurrent.

The sets would come in with a complaint of "bad color" from one of the demods being dead. The other demod was still working but severely overheating.
We would replace both transistors, and replace each collector load resistor with two 2-watters in series, giving each string a 4 watt rating. The values chosen were something like 12K and 15K.

Looks like that set sat out in the weather for a long time, and might not be fixable...

You might be able to use one of those car windshield chip repair kits to fix the chip on the CRT face.

Well it seems to be a D16 chassis(it is painted in big letters on the HV side) there was a somewhat readable model sticker on the chassis that read CF701W-20 (everything after the w I'm not sure about). I hosed the chassis off, let it sit in the sun and it looks a lot better. If the transformers are still good, potentiometers are good/obtainable(I do have a spare convergence board of another brand to pirate from some of those from), the transistors are good, and something can be done about the tuner then I think it might be restorable....If not is is a good source of parts. I may pursue the windshield repair kit idea for the CRT.
Here are some pictures of the chassis as it dried.
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9ca4d0e5.jpg
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...psd5ce5ed2.jpg
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http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3329d472.jpg

big tuner d16!really good sets and oldcoot is right on the money with his post.i remember those days too.fixed too many demod issues on these.also power switch had 2 sections.on contact would break off and the set would go up in smoke

Does that CRT have a bonded faceplate? If so it might be possible to remove it and replace it with a good one.

Nope! Bare screen as far as I can tell....Unless it has the most transparent safety glass and PVA ever.

Sampson: Would you recommend taking the power switch out of circuit or anything else to prevent the set from burning up from that switch?

Well, it looks a lot better than before. If you can get it working without putting too much money in it, strip off the vinyl, sand it smooth and paint that cabinet gloss black. I think it would really look nice, it worked for the metal roundies:D

i wouldnt recommend taking the switch out.its a double part switch.just be careful.you ll know when the switch mal functions.you will get a picture with no color,pulled in from the sides and top,and weak audio.shut off immediately.only happens when you power up.

Sylvania used tension band CRT's earlier than some of the others.
That's the CRT, that has the chip.

Well the hot cap was off for two good reasons. First off the original(?) blue label Sylvania 6JS6C HOT tested in the bad range on my tester. And second the top cap don't want to grip the 6JS6A(the big difference I see between A and C is the big heat radiator plates on the anode of the C) I dug out of my tube stash. The 6LU8 vertical output is too weak as well, and short of grunting my '67 Admiral and the Silvertone roundy on top of it away from the wall I don't have a spare(just a few 21 prefix series string types and a 6 that is worse than the original). If a local TV repair shop which actually still has tubes don't have a spare I guess I'll have to keep an eye out at the swap meets.

I may take some time to pick away at this set in the next few weeks, but between college and an experimental tube amp design I'm working on there may not be much time to steal for it.

At least your CRT is in better shape than the one in a set Elvis had...
http://images.travelpod.com/tripwow/...02aw-27180.jpg

Where was that picture taken?
It had been said that Elvis shot at the TV, when Robert Goulet was on.
Elvis must've been really high that time. He was never any kind of a threat to him or his fame.

Elvis might have been alive today if he only had someone to smack him up side the head when he was doing stupid stuff like the above pic is evidence of.

That pic sort of reminds me of my first cataract removal attempt....It devolved from normal procedure to chipping off the safety glass to putting a sun HEATED CRT into a COLD vat of water then realizing as I put it in that I had just done the equivalent to pulling the pin on a grenade. If the heat hadn't messed with my judgement I most likely would have put 2 and 2 together before loosing a good CRT...At least it was only a the CRT that was harmed.

"Elvis, that's not the remote!" .... :(

Oh yes it is, but only for the off function! :D

The recent direction in this discussion has Zappa's "Help I'm a Rock" playing in my head.

The remote in the picture really isn't the remote, it's for a Zenith, how did that get in there?

Back on topic.
I cleaned the VHF tuner(with a pencil eraser) and restrung the UHF tuner. The restring was simple enough to figure out without a diagram or sams(worst thing I could have done is make something move in reverse relative to something else). I also cleaned the tuner/control sub chassis pots and switches with WD-40(I lubed some other stuff too while I was at it).
I'm going to hold off on messing with the power switch since, judging by the number of contacts, this set has instant on which would make replacing it or removing it from circuit complicated without the sams.

I think I'll check all the caps, the deflection resistors, and the scary looking resistors then give it a go on the variac and see if there is life when I get the chance.

It might be a good idea to check those 2-watt carbon comp resistors in the chroma/demod area. If the set has a lot of hours on it, some of those are almost guaranteed to be low in value from charring on the inside.

Um RCA tv CTC38 ? seems non remote but has a Zenith
remote ? Digital clock ? Elvis with a low end TV ????

Actually had an Admiral shot by a 45ACP by an unstable customer.
He was pissed at a Bruins game. Round went down the neck, didnt hit yoke
& exited wound in the cup. Lots of shrapnel in the wall, metal, glass, plastic etc.
Great marksmanship. Oh to go back to those days..........

73 Zeno

Set is probably a CTC-31. And yep.. wherever the display is, they used the wrong remote. The RCA remote would have been better. ( Everything motorized, and not step-up, like Zenith) That set was not that old when he shot it. Elvis had in the basement rec-room, 3 sets mounted in the wall, each tuned to a different network.
In his bedroom he had the $2000.00 RCA Console. I'm pretty sure his sets, up to a point, were all freebies from RCA. I also read nothing got pitched, which is why a CTC-5 is on display at Graceland. When Elvis died, Graceland was up to date with the utmost tacky 70's decor. After he died "Cilla" put it all back to the way it was in the 60's when Graceland was opened for tours. I also read Elvis was fond of Sony's when they came out, and am sure one is on the "Lisa Marie"
Sorry to go off-topic.... as for the Sylvania.. poor set looks beyond repair. Talk about rode hard and put away wet.......

I had a CTC-31 remote set just like that one, should have kept it, another Vk'er got it. The remote sensor is that hole between the channel selectors.

I won't knock anybody for trying to resurrect something like this Sylvania; I've done it before. Never really worth getting all the cosmetics back to new, especially on the chassis end, but they can be brought back to life. Amazing sometimes how a set can be revived despite a chassis caked with rust/dirt/leaves. I've never seen many tube Sylvanias in the wild, though I have drug home a few. I still have a project 23v metal table top model myself, late 60s, that I would all but give away to somebody willing to come get it.

...

It's certainly fun to try and resurrect something in this shape, nothing to lose but a little time and effort. I've done some in about the same condition, just older.

There are no 2 watt resistors by the 'X' and 'Z' color demod transistors unless those rectangular resistor coded pieces of brown ceramic that I always thought were chokes are actually resistors.

Yes that's apparent in the photos that were posted subsequently. It is a different chassis than what I was referring to, possibly with factory mods to eliminate the charring resistor problem.

Well I replaced some caps and brought it up on a variac. Aside from pretty bad HOT redplating :yikes: that went unnoticed for a minute or two it seems to be doing okay. I'll try it with a signal source tomorrow, but I'm already pretty sure I'll get sound as the white noise from the speaker was definitely affected by changing channels on the VHF tuner.
Once that is done I'll try to figure out what is the deal in the horizontal section(maybe that roached VDR is the issue).
I should probably look into getting the sam's for it as I can only fly blind for so long.

Hi Tom, I applaud your efforts, and in my opinion, this classic older "Sylvie" is worth saving! :-) If you can PM me the model and or chassis number(s), I may be able to help you with a Sams! Thanks for keeping us posted on your progress, Dave, Bigdavestv.

Thanks Dave! PM sent.

I got a few minutes to test it before going to School today I pulled the HOT cap to save the tube from redplating, connected a VCR to the set and.....It has good sounding audio coming thru to the speaker. :banana: This tells me that the RF and IF are likely just fine and that there are good odds that the SS signal board is likely still in decent operating condition.

If I get a chance tonight I may hook up the horizontal plate drive from my B&K analyst to the HOT lead off the fly to see if that gives me horizontal sweep and HV...If it don't then I will have to worry about the fly, HV trippler, and possibly the yoke(or my decrepit analyst LOL.).

Well the analyst did fail to produce a raster about a month ago when I tried it.

I've gotten the sam's for this set so I can start to do proper troubleshooting on it again.

Really? I thought the remote sensor was the hole in the screen. :D By the way, I recall reading that Mel Torme was another one of Elvis' "arch rivals".

Seriously though, good luck getting that set to go. Looks like it would be pretty sweet if fully restored. I like the "sweep" style UHF indicator (not sure what else to call it, if anything).

If it is not a digital tuner or a turret type(click-stop) then it is called a continuous tuner. The indicator of the UHF tuner is called a slide-rule dial...Common on UHF tuners before the mid 70's and radios since before TV.

The fly ohms out fine, and the horizontal oscillator is running, but the wave shape is significantly off. Also the grid of the HOT which is supposed to be about -32V is 0V or higher depending on the HV control setting.
Because I could not get a raster with the HOT plate drive from my B&K analyst there is trouble either in the fly/damper section or the HV tripler.

I think I'll try testing the tripler by disconnecting it from the fly and connecting it to the plate drive of the analyst to see if it produces HV....I seem to recall someone suggesting removing a shorted HV winding on a fly and deriving HV from a tripler connected to the HOT plate which should be electrically the same as the test procedure idea I have.

Well after replacing most of the resistors in the horizontal section and fixing a bad PCB trace, I was able to get the HOT to stop redplating and get between 10-15KV on the HV lead(with the yoke unplugged).
At which point I figured it was a good time to put the chassis back in the cabinet for a test power up. At first there was no noticeable light(with the florescent lights on), but there was 20+KV of HV so I tried some knobs.

The result shown below.

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4a398c3f.jpg
:banana::banana::banana:
There is now sound and raster, but no hint of video so more troubleshooting still lays on the horizon.

I'm feeling a lot more confident now, that I will make this set usable again.

I'm probably going to pause work on this set here for a while so I can fix a vertical problem on my Zenith roundy.

MORE Bananas!!!!:banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :D

That's pretty awesome for a rusty old set someone though out in the garbage! Congrats! You can fix anything if you put your mind to it.

Great job, it's good to see a raster on that Sylvie! :-) :-) Looks like it will be useful again after all, good save!

You should display the "before" pics near that TV once it's restored. The back panel looks a bit too far gone though, perhaps it can be used as a template for a new one?

Thanks for the encouragement everyone!

"You can fix anything if you put your mind to it." This set will probably exemplify that saying more so than anything I've ever worked on before.

I plan to try and save the back. It was warped by moisture originally so I figure if I lay it flat on the drive way and hose it down until it softens gravity and perhaps some weights will flatten it back to a decent approximation of it's original shape. Then all I need to do is let it dry, and maybe paint it... I have nothing to loose trying that, so it is worth a shot.
I seriously doubt that I have the tools or patients to make a decent reproduction.

Well since it was raining this evening and fixing the back was on my mind I went ahead and did it.

The plastic neck protector cup was easy to remove which both makes work easier and will likely lead to a better end result as it's mounting tabs on the inside would have prevented the fiber board from laying flat if I left it on. I started by laying it flat on concrete, and letting it get saturated in water which got it started straightening out. After letting it sit a bit; I then used the stub of a brick in the photo below as a weight to slowly work the the milder warps out and diminish the worse ones until it got flat and pliable enough to do what is shown in the photo below...Put a flat board(in a garbage bag to keep it dry) on top of most of the warped area, weigh that down with a tire(with water in the concave parts), and use some water filled milk jugs and that chunk of brick to weigh down the remaining parts.
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1b7f425e.jpg

The result is that it seems to be flattening decently.
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...pscd9fa147.jpg

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...ps04db981b.jpg

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...psfafc29b9.jpg

I'm going to let it sit weighted like this outside overnight. Hopefully tomorrow there will be sun and it will dry and hopefully it will dry straight.

Once I have it working better, if I decide to restore the cabinet, I'll either lacquer the whole back or lacquer the labels(to preserve them) and paint the rest.

The reaction of the folks upon seeing the warped back before the straightening, was a shocked "What's that!?" from dad, and mom joking that one could put it on a stand and call it modern art, then observing that it is a bit moldy. LOL.