I would second Charlie's advice to hold off until you get the Sams service manual. Poking around in the dark and powering it up a lot is not the best idea at this stage.
In the meantime, you can clean off the dust & grime and brush up on your schematic reading and soldering skills.
It's usually prudent to replace all electrolytic capacitors. This article has basic advice about recapping.
http://antiqueradio.org/recap.htm
Here's what a dead thermistor looked like in my RCA CTC-11A.
A disc roughly the diameter of your thumb, with two metal leads. I replaced it with a new type CL-90. There may be other types I'm not aware of.
Phil