[dtvmcdonald]

It was out of alignment worse than any TV
I've ever seen. Their signal generator alignment produced a better waveform (the HV being disabled again). A sweep alignment test showed it still be rather poor.
A full sweep alignment made it look exactly waht a cheapie 3 IF stage design should look like, plenty good enough for a 7 inch screen.

Edit: installing a good 5BP4 resulted in a quite good picture. Its off center as I am awaiting insulated shaft extender for the shafts.
Brightness is average for 5BP4s. It does suffer from focus shift with large brightness changes.
Pictures will follow before a recap. Only one change is visible, the red cap replacement as the new pot looks almost the same.

*******

After a break I discovered that all that was a line voltage of 90 vac. I was measuring at the input to the dim bulb.
Turning up the line slowly with the HV off resulted in better video signal and better lock. Until, at about 111 volts there suddenly was a puff of magic smoke.
This was the plate isolation resistor for the audio IF
.
It was instantly burned to a crisp: 37 ohms from 2.2k. Since I literally had my hand on the variac it only lasted
about 2 seconds. At low voltage the caps to ground test good. The new 630 volt ones have3 not arrived.