Philco Seventeener III Electrolytic Access?

[Jon1967us]

Wondering if anyone has experience in replacing lytics on the Philco briefcase models. Apparently, they are located between the CRT and the chassis, and seemingly, there's no way to access them without completely disassembling the whole tamale, which includes disconnecting the picture tube and the speaker. Not very service friendly!

Does anyone know if there's an easier way? I'd hate to break down the set completely as I'd like to avoid damaging components, etc.



Jon

[Electronic M]

Most portables from that time forced you to pull the chassis and or CRT inorder to access the caps.

Just do things gently and it will work out. Make sure to discharge the HV if it has been run recently, loosten the yoke clamp and if it looks like the yoke could snag on the CRT base slide a playing card or sheet of thick paper between the yoke and neck to shoehorn the yoke over the base.

Just be glad you are not working on a early 70s Panasonic 6 tube hybrid color set...the sheet metal of the 2 chassis halves comes together around the can lytics such that you can't access them from any angle without undoing most of the wiring harness and unbolting the halves...

[Eric H]

Yep, they suck even worse than the Predictas for repairs.

[Jon1967us]

So, I found the best way to access the lytics was to carefully unfasten the picture tube retaining brackets and pull the tube forward. As shown, I have it resting on pillows to keep it stable. I pulled off the CRT plug and anode, but didn't remove the Yoke assembly. I'm trying to keep the CRT steady so as not to stress the Yoke leads.

I'm also trying to do the minimum amount of disassembly.

There are 8 electrolytics here, in 3 packages, that are now fairly accessible. I have taken my time on verifying all the respective cap sections, what color leads and where everything goes.

I've decided to go the terminal strip method for 2 out of the 3 and just the single lytic for the doubler, which I may encase in large shrink tubing.

Once the new electrolytics are in place, I will replace the CRT and test.

[Jon1967us]

I thought I'd try something. Since the space for the lytics, in the bottom front edge of the set is so confined and tight, I wasn't crazy about installing a terminal strip down there. Instead, I wanted to see if I could build something that could occupy the multisections' former spot, so I mounted all 4 caps, in this case, to a perf board to make a kind of plug and play module. I made a ground bus on the reverse of the board, to which all the negative terminals are connected - connecting leads to each of the 4 positive terminals. Ground and the 4 leads come out one side. The leads will have quick disconnect terminals, and the whole thing is inclosed in shrink tubing.

We'll see how well it works out...

Also, posting a picture of my notes on the listed vs measured value, plus ESR for all.

[Electronic M]

Don't forget to change that tubular ceramic cap in the last 2 chassis pictures.

One thing you could do is give the lytic a half-ass restuff: cut the can atleast 1/4" above where it is clamped and discard the guts and top, flare the open end a bit, drill a hole in the terminal end to fish the leads through and from then on do as christrigot does in his can rebuilds. I tend to do this on metal cans with cardboard outersleaves, but I pull the sleave off before I cut the can and slip the sleave back over at the end...my CTC4 has all sleaved lytics and every one of them has less than half a can hiding under the sleave.

[Notimetolooz]

Yes, replace the other caps. What the case is made of doesn't mean much, it is what the internal construction is like. "Paper capacitor" does not mean what the case is made of, it means the dielectric of the capacitor.

[Jeffhs]

I had a Philco "Briefcase 19" 19-inch portable TV years ago (in the '70s), and can vouch for the crowded conditions in the cabinet. The most repair work I ever did on my set was changing tubes; I couldn't do much else as far as chassis repairs, etc. were concerned (long story and OT) but I never had to do much inside the set other than the occasional tube replacement. This set worked very well and had a good picture. It served me well while I had it, and until I could get a better one (I eventually found a 1969 Zenith b&w portable in the trash), followed by getting a brand-new set almost exactly a year later, when the Zenith set developed AGC problems caused by gas in the horizontal output tube (a 22JF6, which I could not find anywhere).

However, I do agree that these portables were very difficult to work on due to the chassis being almost literally wrapped around the CRT. Changing tubes was easy, but anything else was a major undertaking; this may have been why I found my Philco set in the trash when I did. Also, if I remember correctly, these portables had at least one PC board on the chassis. Because of a very bad experience I had with a Sears Silvertone 19-inch round-screen color set (a tube socket broke out of the video-output PC board), I was (and still am to this day) very wary of PC boards in televisions, and am reminded of the experiences with my Silvertone color set every time I read here in VK of sets with such boards.

[Jeffhs]

I had a Philco "Briefcase 19" 19-inch portable TV years ago (in the '70s), and can vouch for the crowded conditions in the cabinet. The most repair work I ever did on my set was changing tubes; I couldn't do much else as far as chassis repairs, etc. were concerned (long story and OT) but I never had to do much inside the set other than the occasional tube replacement; this set worked very well and had a good picture. It served me well while I had it, and until I could get a better one (I found a 1969 Zenith b&w portable in the trash), followed by getting a brand-new set almost exactly a year later, when the Zenith set developed AGC problems caused by gas in the horizontal output tube.

However, I do agree that these portables were very difficult to work on due to the chassis being almost literally wrapped around the CRT. Changing tubes was easy, but anything else was a major undertaking; this may have been why I found my Philco set in the trash when I did. Also, if I remember correctly, these portables had at least one PC board on the chassis. Because of a very bad experience I had with a Sears Silvertone 19-inch round-screen color set (a tube socket broke out of the video-output circuit PC board), I was (and still am to this day) very wary of PC boards in televisions, and am reminded of the experiences with my Silvertone color set every time I read here in VK of sets with such boards.

[Jon1967us]

Well, I've finished wiring in all the electrolytics and the .22 tubular, and have remounted the CRT.

The picture, in terms of stability has improved, and I will say the picture, when dialed in just right is very nice. Thanks to the replacement of these caps I can see better deflection all around.

One problem has arisen in the sound. The audio is very poor and almost wiped out by noise. I've tried to follow the Philco audio alignment instructions, but it seems I'm running into a roadblock because one of the transformers appears broken. It is the Audio IF.

This is a big problem because I'll either have to rebuild it, if that's even possible, or try to search for a replacement.

[Jon1967us]

Finished with the lytics, new fusistor and inrush limiter. Much better!