1950 Motorola TS-88
 

Hi, I'm new to the forum... I'm planning on restoring a 1950 Motorola 14K1 (photo attached). This has a TS-88 chassis, that appears to be complete and 100% original (aside from a few tubes). I will have to replace all the capacitors, and go from there. My question is this; once I get this set running again, I may need to re-align all circuits; does anyone have a service manual for this chassis? any advice for a computer technician-turned-tv-technician? Thanks!!

The unit has never been refinished, is all original, and does not function. No sound or picture; most of the tubes glow; thats it.

Also, is this a fairly common Motorola unit? worth anything? (not planning on selling, but just curious).

-Brandon

Sweet Tv, sweet GE fan. Great condition of both. In high school I used to be really big into collecting fans. Now its just Tv's.

I've never seen your console before, but I am sure someone else with more experience might know more about it.

Glad you found our group here. Lots of good people and good advise.

Best of luck to you in your project (and future projects)
-
Matt Davala

Brandon'll fit in well here. You guys need to help him spend lots of time and money on this thing. But not too much, he knows where I live.

Ooooooh...That's Purdy !!! (grin)

Motorola chassis 14k1 is in Sams Photofact folder 112-6. Someone on the forum will likely be able to make a copy or have a spare. You can also purchase a copy from Sams. http://www.samswebsite.com/

My usual approach is to replace all electrolytic and paper capacitors, clean the controls, check tubes, and then see where you stand. I usually leave mica caps alone unless I have a specific reason to suspect one; they are generally more reliable.

Carbon composition resistors tend to drift upward in value with age. Those with high values (1 meg and over) tend to drift more. I usually check the high-value resistors and replace as needed, and ignore the rest unless I have some reason to suspect one.

Not every old TV needs to be aligned, unless somebody messed with it in the past, or you unnecessarily replaced a lot of small-value mica caps and resistors. If it plays and tunes well after the above treatment, you're home free.

This article gives basic information about replacing capacitors in old TVs and radios: http://antiqueradio.org/recap.htm .

Have fun!

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

Nice set! Welcome aboard!
Dan