To recap or not RCA 14PD9030

[Eric H]

I've had this set for 8-10 years I would guess, it worked from the start but the CRT was very weak.
About three years ago I found a new CRT for it, installed it then put it back on the shelf.

Yesterday I pulled it out to start working on it and decided to power it up again, I was surprised to find it works as well or better than the 17" RCA that I just finished recapping!

The Vertical does change a little after running for a while and starts to roll but it will adjust out. I'm really tempted to just clean it up and leave it alone and see how long it will run.

It has no yoke cover, it rotted away like the other two RCAs I've worked on the last couple months so I have to figure out something to do with that.

I also need to figure out how to repair the broken metal posts that hold the decorative trim around the screen, I think they were spot welded originally.
The posts are still there but they have dropped down into their holes.

[Telecruiser]

I wouldn't touch it. Are you really going to be watching this TV every day? If not, it looks good enough to me.

[Phil Nelson]

If you hold that trim piece upside down, perhaps you could shake it and wiggle & coax those posts back out of their holes with a sharp dental pick or the like. If they're magnetic, maybe a strong little magnet could pull them out. Then a dab of epoxy would reattach the posts to the rim.

Looks pretty darned good for an unrestored set. That is a nice size -- not too small, not too big. If I wanted to play it every day, I'd replace the electrolytics and those paper caps, and probably those "maroon drops" for good measure. But since it works so well as-is, maybe you have more urgent things to work on.

Phil Nelson

[Eric H]

Phil, the posts are accessible from the other side so getting them out isn't a problem, I have to figure out how to repair them though.

I was thinking of Silver Soldering them back together and then painting the trim.
replating it would be nice but probably expensive.

The horizontal flopped over after a half hour but it too adjusted back out, I want to see how it starts up when it's cold again, if it's out again then it probably needs some caps. I may postpone that for now though since it works okay.

[Tubejunke]

I had one of those back in the early 80s. The set had a really nice picture I remember, but the sync tended to be unstable even then and the yoke rot had already taken it's tole. Oddly, I purchased the set at a yard sale down in Alabama where I used to go to spend the summers with my mom. During school months I lived here in south central VA. So when I came home on an airplane, I wasn't coming without my TV.

They actually let me carry that set on the plane and stow it above the seats! These days they would probably think that thing would have to be a bomb! LOL! It must have looked a bit odd as well seeing the then skinny kid toting his 50s portable TV!

[Eric H]

I decided I am going to recap, at least partially but probably completely except perhaps the electrolytic.
I restuffed the can on the other RCA set similar to this and the cap was in pretty good shape inside, this one runs okay so I think it'll be fine.

The set isn't thermally stable over a long period, either vertically or horizontally so the wax, plastic and Maroon drop caps can go.

I think the transformer weighs as much as the whole rest of the set! The flyback looks great with a minimal amount of wax drippings. The set still has many of it's original RCA tubes, those that aren't are Tung-Sol, except the CRT that I installed which is a Raytheon.

There's a repair shop tag from Casper Wyoming so this set must have come from there, got it on eBay but I picked it up from the seller here in California so it has traveled a bit.

[DavGoodlin]

Really a surprise that your set works that good on original paper caps. I have a 14PD8053, a year older I have not opened yet.
I was very happy to find a power transformer in it, too

Those radial lead caps (upright black) will require removal of the metal shield on the back side of the PC board. They would be #1 on my hit list. Maybe your 'lytics would be OK but adding a fuse off the 5U4 cathode would be good insurance.

Tubejunke: That's a great story about your portable. What a tank those are. Did it have UHF too?

[Eric H]

I did a little work on this tonight, replaced most of the paper caps on the front of the chassis (short one .1 and one .47) and checked the tubes in the tuner (already checked all the others) turns out both tuner tubes had shorts, a 6BC5 and a 6CQ8, I found a good used 6BC5 and a NOS 6GH8 to replace the 6CQ8, i also installed a new RCA 6DQ6 horizontal output tube, it had been replaced before with a Sylvania and it was tired, the Damper was very good.

It worked pretty much the same, the vertical would still drift after running awhile (though the horizontal was now stable), eventually reaching the end of the hold range so i started poking around on the PC board with a soldering iron, warming up the caps in the vertical circuit to see if any made a noticeable difference.
When I got to this .0047 Bumblebee (below) it started rolling faster.

Swapped it out with a fresh new cap (didn't have to remove the shield) and powered it up, the picture was now shorter and the hold is now stable right in the middle of the range.

Of all the caps in the set it had to be the Bumblebee that was causing the trouble!

I adjusted height and linearity and ran it for at least another hour and it never lost sync, sound is excellent on this set as well.

[Eric H]

Well I've been poking along on this set for the last month.

I decided to do a full recap, after going through the hassle of removing the metal shield over the PC board I couldn't justify leaving any old caps in there.

These sets are harder than a Predicta to work on, at least on the Predicta removing the board entirely is a reasonable do-able thing, no so much on these.

I just finished tracking down one last problem with some bad solder joints that were causing some smearing in the picture, fortunately they were accessible without having to remove the shield again!

Now I just have to finish repairing the trim around the mask, I'll probably clear coat the cabinet too because after cleaning off all the yellowed goo (Cig smoke?) the finish is a little dry looking in places.
This is actually a black painted cabinet with some sort of texture applied, looks like silver paint applied with cloth or Litho.
I always thought this particular model was a greenish color, every one I've seen looks like that but it was just the gunk on the cabinet making it look that way.
Green would be a rather odd color, Black and Silver would fit in with the Black Mink finish RCA used on their Phonographs of the same era.

This set has a brand new CRT and it looks really sharp!

[kvflyer]

Originally Posted by Eric H

I did a little work on this tonight, replaced most of...


Of all the caps in the set it had to be the Bumblebee that was causing the trouble!

...

Don't forget to save those bumblebee capacitors and put them up for sale on "The Auction Site" with the appropriate descriptions. Could give you some return on your investment.

[Tubejunke]

Originally Posted by DavGoodlin

Tubejunke: That's a great story about your portable. What a tank those are. Did it have UHF too?

I don't think that it did. I remember liking the built in set of rabbit ears!

[StellarTV]

Wow, looks good! This set was similar to one of the very first sets I restored, which was a blonde 14" table model with a built-in 45 rpm record player. Same chassis.

What a bear to work on. The set had constant vertical problems, from oscillator drift to raster compression. The vertical output tube socket was bad and the PCB was pretty cooked from that hot running tube. Never figured out the oscillator drift on it... well over 10 years ago now.