Zenith Chromacolor II (Ch. 19EC45) 19" color tabletop TV repair log
 

I've been looking for a delta gun Chromacolor set for a little while, and one such set ended up following me home! :yes: I was out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday visiting family, and decided to visit an antiques store I spotted on the interstate. Fate was on my side, as this set was waiting for me...it was so cheap I just decided to grab it and go.

It's in pretty good cosmetic condition, a bit of wear on the front panel and a power cord that appears to be oozing some sort of green, sticky goo that absolutely does not wash off, but nothing else of note. (What is this goo from? My ~1957 Zenith tube type set's wiring is suffering the same ailment, some sort of chemical produced by decomposing insulation?)

Anyway, I pulled the back off to check the CRT - it tests excellent, and the G2 voltage pots reflect this (a half turn to 3/4 turn from max). So if worst comes to worst, we can at least get a good picture tube from the set.

Unfortunately...it still has all the original white HV safety caps which are known to have a high failure rate, and upon further inspection, one apparently blew open at some point in the past. I'm pretty sure this is the reason the set was retired, it probably scared the hell out of the original owner too. :tears: It also appears the vertical output fuse is blown open, which makes me wonder if anything else was taken out as collateral.

At this point, I've decided to put the set back together and shelve it for a rainy day...need to order the replacement caps (22-5001, apparently 0.0018uF at 1.6Kv) as well as go through and make sure none of the major components (horizontal output transistor comes to mind) are shorted. If anyone else has this set and/or its schematics, I'd be infinitely grateful if you could provide the value of that vertical fuse as I was unsuccessful in removing the old fuse from its casing.

More to come soon, hopefully. This set is a bit of a back burner project until I can finish the other sets I've made threads on as well (Zenith tube type tabletop, filthy and beat-up RCA tube portable), but I plan to start work on it as soon as I can.

One of these is my repair bench TV...Mine still works and has never received anything but 'percussive maintenance'...Which it has been needing more frequently the last few years.

IIRC the chassis is 19HC-something...If you post the chassis number I may b able to scan the Zenith issues schematic.

It's a 19EC45. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the first letter designates year of manufacture, isn't it?

Model year actually. A was 1970, and some letters such as I, l and 0 were skipped due to their resemblance to numbers.

I gotta not post late so I don't miss things like chassis number in the title.

Its an E4025W early production probably sold in 1973.
Uses separate caps instead of one 4 lead cap. IIRC there are 5 in
the set. Look behind chassis, flyback & behind the horz output.
Change them all at once unless they are orange.
IIRC vert fuse is 400 ma. See tag near fuse. If you change the module
you can use a 9-92 or the updated & better 9-147.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

There are six of those white caps in this set - three on the chassis (one of which blew open), two soldered directly to the tripler and one soldered directly to the horizontal output transistor. I plan on replacing them all, need to find a good source for 22-5001 caps (or I might just order modern Panasonic replacements, even though they're radial types and might be a challenge to fit in some spots).

The tag near the fuse just advises me to replace the fuse with an authentic Zenith factory replacement or damage might occur...that helps me a whole lot. :nono:

Hmm, the tip on the updated vertical module is interesting. I'd prefer to fix what's there, but if I come across a whole bunch of fried components, I'll definitely see if I can find one. Thanks!

Well it's in Sam's 1377-3 which I don't have, and my Zenith issued manual is on loan to a friend based on the sticky note on the manual so I can't help you any time soon...
I know why 19HC was in my head now...I parted a 19HC45 out and was considering using the modules to build something.

Good news, it's alive!

I finished the project that had been occupying my bench for a good few weeks (recapping and repairing corroded traces on a Panasonic Travelvision 1.5" portable set from the early 80s), so I figured I'd dig the Zenith out and attempt to get it running again. I decided to go the ghetto route and just parallel six of my .0018uF caps together into a sort of "flower" formation and tack them to the back of the flyback for easier access. In the future I'll likely order the "correct" part, but I'm really cheap and this solution works just as well. I also replaced the vertical fuse - it is a 250V, 0.6 amp part for anyone who might have this problem in the future.

Fingers crossed and prayers said, I hit the power...it came right up! Everything was horribly misadjusted, but after a bit of tweaking I was able to get a pretty respectable picture out of it.

However, that victory was short lived. I was tweaking convergence and focus when the picture suddenly started shrinking, followed by the circuit breaker popping. It now does not stay on for more than a few seconds before the breaker pops again, so I've stopped powering it on to prevent damaging something.

I have yet to dig into the set, but I suspect the big oil cap went open. It appears to be original, and according to a few videos I've watched it is a moderate failure rate part. More soon...

First you have to use the right caps for the 22-5001 or they will
short. See old threads for subs.
Hum then quick breaker pop is almost always the caps, damper,
hoz out or shorted oil cap. Longer pop ( apx 10-15 sec ) the
tripler.
Quick checks are unsolder one end of oil cap. If the cap opens
the pix will pulsate but work.
For H out just hang an ohm meter on the H. out collector to GND.
Should be in the megs. If shorted unscrew the H. out ( 121-831 ).
Then the damper ( 103-193 ) then caps etc...... Dont run with any
hoz parts unloaded. Oil cap you can run without a short time.
Last hint for now is all the original boards have plug in semis. The
sockets will get intermitant especially the IC sockets on the 9-86
color board.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

Interesting - I did some reading, and apparently I can use an 800-860 as a sub. Is that the correct value? It is a later four lead cap but should fit. Will purchase one for experimenting. :scratch2:

Thanks for the troubleshooting tips, after I get the proper cap I'll start going through all the possible failures. I hope it's the oil cap, but it really could be anything.

800-860 is the kit for this chassis when it uses a 4 lead cap.
I never did the math on the mfd value so be sure.
The cap has 2 pairs of leads that each pair read a short. One
pair is used to complete the emitter circuit, the other the
collector. If the HV goes too high they open & kill the HV.
Personally I would stick with the 22-5001 or a proper sub.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

I worked on dozens of them, when they were relatively new. Two other components to check; the damper diode under the horizontal output socket, and the feedthrough capacitor in the collector circuit of that transistor. For a quick check of the tripler, disconnect the output lead of the flyback transformer from the tripler, making sure to space the wire well away from anything that it could arc to. Apply power; if the breaker now holds, the tripler is shorted.

Also check the electrolytic capacitor and the rectifier diodes for shorts.

I have many modules for that chassis, if you should need any.

On sets where the trippler may be bad but no breaker tripping occurs the trippler can be checked by measuring the boost voltage with and without the trippler....if is is low with and normal without you know the trippler is done.

It's been a while since I posted about this set (or on VK in general) so I thought I'd give an update! It was sitting in storage for a while and I finally decided to properly fix it since I know how well these sets perform and it's one of the sets in my collection I like the most.

I replaced all of the white safety caps with the one large four lead cap I soldered to the back of the flyback. It works fine so my math is correct, they do all add up to 0.01uF.

The breaker tripping/shrinking picture problem was indeed the oil cap in the PS as a few here suggested. It was getting untouchably hot before the breaker tripped. Mounted a new 3.5uF motor run cap, problem solved.

I also went ahead and replaced all the small electrolytics on the modules, resoldered some questionable joints and re-tensioned all the connectors and went over the convergence, just general preventative maintenance stuff. And I am pleased to announce it works amazingly well! I think it is one of the best looking color sets in my collection and I am very glad this set finally has a happy ending. :D

There is ONE more problem I will need to figure out once I procure (or borrow) a high voltage probe. I suspect it is producing excessive HV as even after thoroughly cleaning under the anode cap and the surrounding bell of the tube, it makes a continuous hissing sound and produces a lot of ozone. I've confirmed it's coming from the anode as bringing a screwdriver near it exacerbates the hissing sound, and once or twice I even got an extremely nasty arc that shot out from underneath the cap! The plastic does seem to be decomposing some (getting sticky and oily), so maybe it's becoming conductive? I also noticed the focus control needs to be at its extreme end for the picture to look good, so maybe that also indicates high voltage outside normal operating range? I know focus is often derived from the anode voltage though I am unfamiliar with whether or not that's true with this set specifically - I never did find a schematic for it. I will update if and when I figure that out, but for now the set works well and I am not extremely concerned.

Clean up the HV cap and seal it with some clear RTV (the stinky stuff) and the problem will go away.

My grandparents had the console version of this TV in the back bedroom of their old house, it worked except that the picture was b & w rather than color, no matter how much you fiddled with the front panel controls, unfortunately that TV is now burried underground from when my uncle tore the house down.

Those are awesome sets and I'm so glad you got it working as it should!

N.b., some rubbing alcohol on a rag will take the sticky gunk right off of those wires.

That doesn't seem right to me. The picture on that TV should have been in color if the set was getting enough signal from the stations. Were your grandparents in a fringe area for Chicago TV (Northern Indiana should be part of the normal service area of Chicago television stations), or was their TV antenna in bad shape or not oriented in the right direction for reception of Chicago stations? If your grandparents were in a near-fringe area for Chicago TV I could see why they would have problems with reliable TV reception, but in northern Indiana they should have been getting each and every TV station in greater Chicago (channels 2, 5, 7, 9, 11 and whatever UHF stations the area has) very reliably.

I can see, however, why they might have problems with poor reception if they were in a near-fringe area, and were trying to get Chicago TV with anything less than a large outdoor TV antenna. I live in something of a near-fringe area now, having moved here 21 years ago from an eastern Cleveland suburb. The latter is in fact part of the coverage area of every one of the city's six TV stations; however, the village I moved to is in fact a near-fringe area for Cleveland TV stations (especially the CBS affiliate on channel 19, which does not reach here at all without an antenna or cable; I have never forgiven the company which now owns channel 8, Cleveland's former CBS affiliate from 1949 until some time in the 1990s (why didn't they just leave everything alone?), especially now, since all TV stations are digital (this town is some 40 miles southwest of the stations' towers), requiring the use of an outdoor TV antenna or cable to get good reception.

BTW, another reason your grandparents' TV did not show anything in color might well have been that the CRT was on its last legs, or else they didn't know how to properly tune a color TV (the fine tuning must be exact on a color set or else the picture will appear in b&w, even if the station is showing a color program). Another cause may be the color killer control was set so high it caused the killer to cut off the color on everything, including local stations. Did your grandparents ever have this checked by a qualified TV technician? I say this because the rear-panel adjustments on all NTSC televisions (DTV ones too) are not meant to be adjusted by anyone other than qualified persons who know what they are doing. An incorrect setting of any of those controls can damage or destroy parts of the television. One of the best things to happen with modern TV sets, IMHO, was when the secondary controls were hidden from view, so they cannot be messed around with by anyone not qualified to adjust them.

Picture looks amazing!

My grandparent's lived closer to where you live than to where I live, as they lived near Fort Wayne, Indiana which is in Northeastern Indiana.

The TV I suspect might of had some issues with the color modulation circuitry because when I adjusted the color adjustments on the back of the TV the color came back in somewhat, but it definitely wasn't a reception issue because the pix was crystal clear (or about as crystal clear as an analog UHF TV Channel could be with a mid-grade amplified TV Antenna which was all they had as they didn't have access to an outdoor tower antenna) it just wasn't in color.

I do remember though that it had some smearings of red along the edges of the screen but that was about the only color the screen had.

The Channels my grandparents had access to was Channel 15 WANE the CBS Affiliate out of Fort Wayne, Channel 21 the ABC Affiliate out of Fort Wayne (I can't remember the call letters for that station), Channel 33 which was the NBC Affiliate out of Fort Wayne, and Channel 39 which was the PBS Affiliate out of Fort Wayne.

My grandparents got the TV from my uncle who in turn got it from a friend of his who was a TV serviceman and that's about all I knew about that TV's history and how my grandparent's got the TV, they actually never used the TV they mainly used it as a night stand and a catch all for some of their stuff, I only knew about the issues with it because I in my infinite curiosity decided to plug the TV in and try it out and that's how I knew it wasn't working correctly, I of course got in trouble for that because my grandfather didn't want me messing around with it.