Got My Zenith Going Again

[compucat]

After about six months or more of downtime I got my Zenith 25MC33 roundie running again. The vertical had shrunk to about half size and tube changes did not fix it. It turned out to be a bad electrolytic cap in the vertical output circuit. I replaced the cobbled together convergence neck components with some of the recent spare parts I got from TV Tommy. I replaced the tubes in the color circuits, most of which were original. I had been having a little trouble with the color. Specifically the backgrounds would be a little too green until the set had been on for about five minutes then you could see it snap into normal. I went through a complete setup of the entire set including checking the horizontal output cathode current, high voltage, convergence and greyscale. I even got most of that annoying buzz out of the sound. The set is working great again and is ready to resume regular service. I have noticed that this set is quite a bit more maintenance intensive than all of my black and white vintage sets. Once restored, the b&w sets seem to go for five or more years without needing anything but this color set, my only tube color TV, seems to need more attention. I know the tube count is a lot higher but keeping this thing running definitely takes more than any b&w set. I want to bring home an early RCA console b&w set that was offered to me but my wife says that if I bring that home, I have to sell the roundie. I have to say, I am thinking about it. I just seem to get better reliability out of the black and whites and they are easier to repair.