Amazing how much damage one bad cap can do

[bandersen]

I recently a posting on craigslist fro a free 1953 Admiral TV chassis just a few miles form home so I went to check it out. It turned out to be a 30B1 from 1948/49 with a replacement under warranty CRT from 1956. his parent bought the set new and he aid ti was working into the 90s when a transformer blew.

Unfortunately, he kept the nice blonde cabinet it came from to install a flatscreen inside. I figured if I get it running, I can offer it back to him or maybe put into one of my unrestored sets.





Ouch!


They stuck with Admiral branded tubes as the logo changed over the years.



Big gobs of wax under the power transformers seemed to confirm the previous owners prognosis but I want to find out for sure.


I also noticed a fried power resistor and another that was open. I decided to replace them and try a controlled power up.


No luck - the power switch is fried. I jumpered it and tried again. At about 80 VAC the replacement resistor was getting quite hot so I turned it off and did more hunting.

Eventually, I found another charred resistor in series with a 0.1mfd bumblebee cap. I measured the cap and it's a dead short!


It's also split open. So that one cap took out several resistors and the power switch


Ah, that's better


It still needs more work but has a pretty good picture already.