Zenith delta gun CCII and RCA Colortrak
 

I talked to Danny again today, and we got to talking about that old 1974 Sylvania that I used to have before it broke. Anyway, Danny said that I could have these TV's as a consolation prize since the Sylvania has a bad chroma IC that we can't find. I'll be picking these TV's up this weekend.

Here is the CCII with a delta gun.

I have that same set. It has so many intermittents it never leaves my service bench....Of course it is my bench watcher so the back is never off, and when it acts up it gets slapped. :D

Which one? The RCA or the Zenith?

What Chroma IC do you need for the Sylvania? I have a junker chassis from the mid '70's that may have one on it.

RCA was a beast. Big heavy tilt down chassis, weighed
more than a Zenith ! Lots of cold PC & they loved to blow
a special fuse in the HV. If thats blown there is a
Goldenrod on it. IIRC it was $6 or $8 back then.
It was an "interesting" set....

Zenith is probably an E4025W first yr CC2 upright. Has
either a 4 lead cap or separate caps like your upright.
That gets attention first. Otherwise Zeniths easiest TV
to fix. Biggest seller that year.

73 Zeno:smoke:

Radiotvnut, Danny told me that the after he replaced the Chroma IC, for a quick test he watched Judge Judy, and when it showed the audience, the color was fine, but when it showed Judge Judy, her face went green to pink.

Zeno, thanks for the information. Those old caps have to go.

I've had a few of those RCA's (CTC74, IIRC) and I don't know why they bothered to even put a handle on it. I think those were only made for a year or two and then they were replaced by the flat modular chassis with the MDR "do not service" regulator module. We actually had one of those later sets from '77-'78 and it got a new CRT in around '82-'83. Ours had the single knob varactor tuner.

Interesting that a Zenith of this era would be so unreliable. I like the look of that Zenith, I first saw one in another thread on here where somebody was trying to find one and they used your picture of your old garage, Electronic M.

Now show a picture of the same bench the way it was last week when I was there!

.

I had the very same Zenith set 30 years ago as my daily driver and it was also very intermittent. It improved some after I worked on it, but just like Electronic M, I left the back off mine so I could get to it and fix it when something else went wrong and it was quite often. The only things I don't remember being intermittent were the tuner and high voltage sections.

I always said it was a TV meant for a repair man. I kept it going for years that way and finally decided to get a 32" Toshiba with a remote control and never looked back. It's in my basement now along with another couple of parts TVs I got to keep it going. I was always impressed with the design of that chassis and how everything fit together.

Even small transistors were socketed on that thing. I soldered them all in. I think the set had been in a smoker's house originally and it was gummed up and a little tarnished from that. It always had a beautiful picture, though, when it worked, and I left the instant-on turned on and was always amazed how quickly it came to life with that crackling sound.

My set was made in June of 1976. Danny said my set does not have instant on, so your set might have been a little older or newer. I hope this thing doesn't break TOO much, I would like to watch it once in a while.

The joke in my post was misinterpreted...I've never had the back off mine, and it does not appear to EVER ave been removed in the set's lifetime. It produces a wonderful picture, but the grayscale wanders, the fine tuning drifts, vertical rolls occasionally, and some horizontal streaks occasionally appear...It can be annoying, but has never necessitated me pulling the back. I've always wanted to pull the back to re-seat the modules, spray contact cleaner and touch some service adjustments (which is probably all it needs), but am too lazy...All it needs when it acts up is a slap or two on it's side or for me to kick the bench it sits on, and usually it behaves its self for a satisfactory interval.

I might take Jim up on his taunt. :D Of the 2-4 times in the last 4 years my bench has been it's cleanest/most organized that photo is one of them. :tongue: ....Actually I can't quite take Jim up on that since I've shifted the mess around since he saw it, and could not recreate the EXACT state he saw it in to save my life.

Honestly guys, it looked like it had been set up and used for about 40 years. I guess that just shows how much work has been done there in the few years he's lived in that house.

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