Philco Predicta Debutante Repair Help
 

I had been looking for a Philco Predicta off and on for about 10 years and I found a pretty nice one earlier this year. It does turn on and seem to work although it needs work as the bottom 3 inches or so on the screen is black and there's a lot more noise on the screen than is normal. I'm almost 100% certain the issue is just capacitors and I'm sure this set needs a partial if not a full recap for it to work. I'm really not set up for electronics repairs like this and I've never done anything like this before. I was wondering if there was anyone in the New England area that has experience and can help me repair this tv.

Hmmm. Well I am in New England and have restored a Siesta, but I am unlikely to be able to physically help, though if you are reasonably close I am happy to visit for a chat and lend equipment. It is also worth saying that I am no expert.

Basically all I had to do was recap, replace a bunch of resistors and adjust the yoke. There are couplates in there that I also replaced - several people sell sets of them.

The best advice I was given was that it is just like restoring a radio, there's just more of it.

Another piece of advice - just replace as much as you can because you don't want to be taking that PCB in and out. You just want to do it once.

Another: Take everything out of the case and take the CRT off the case so you can connect it to the chassis while the chassis is also out of the case.

I found this web site to be invaluable: https://www.antiqueradio.org/PhilcoH...Television.htm

I'm in central MA near Worcester. That site is very good, mine has the exact same issue that that one had. I'm just not at all confident in my abilities and I'n fairly certain I'm going to screw something up if I start soldering on this. I'd like to learn but I need something less rare and expensive to practice on. This one I'd prefer to just have someone with experience with tv's go through so I can start using it as soon as I can

I'm in Groton. PM me if you want to meet.

Get an AA5 table radio to practice on...they are a nice microcosm of the recap work you need to do and super common and about the easiest thing to start on.

Exactly. I was very glad I had done radios before I did the Predicta, if only for the added confidence!

You will need "couplates". There is someone on here that makes them. Considering how hard it is to get the chassis out for service I would replace them all.

http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=270955

Here is a link to the guy here who makes new Couplates for your TV . You are very wise to hold back on doing the work yourself till you gain soldering skills , for new vacuum tube hobbyists restoring AA5 radios is as easy as swatting flies , jumping right into restoring TVs with no prior practice is more like giving a Hornet's nest that big ol kick and then trying to outrun the angry little buggers :eek:

Some of the 17" sets had holes in the metal below the PCB (unlike the 21" sets). I was able to recap my debutante without pulling the PCB. YMMV.

That's why I'm hoping someone near me can do this one for me. I'm planning on learning to repair these things but I'm not going to start with something like that that I really care about. I'll start with maybe some radios and go from there.