1st generation Zenith 19" System 3 from 1979

[radiotvnut]

It's been several years since I've been active on here and, hopefully, I'll make an appearance on a more regular basis now.

In my area, CRT TV's are getting harder to find. Some thrift stores take them, some don't, and some of the ones that take them are about 20 years out of date on their prices. Most of what I see is '90's and later stuff that usually does not interest me.

Anyway, I walked in one store and saw this 19" Zenith System 3 with a single-knob tuner sitting on the floor. I asked for a price and she said that if it worked, it would be $10. She was going to plug it in and I told her not to worry about it. For $10, I'd take it.

When I got it home, I was pleased to find that it's a first generation System 3 that uses a cold chassis with a voltage regulating transformer and the 9-153 horizontal sweep module. When I saw it at the store, I was afraid it would be a 9-160 set and those were not nearly as good as the older sets.

I got it home and like many old Zenith sets, it still works with a strong CRT. With that said, it could stand a minor grey scale touch up, the dial lamp needs to be replaced, and I'll inspect all the boards for bad solder connections and any questionable capacitors. It looks like the 9-153 board has been replaced in this set.

As far as the 9-153 module, I haven't had my hands on a set that used one in ages and I have not worked on a ton of them; but, the main trouble I remember them giving was bad soldering on the horizontal driver transformer and glue that becomes conductive. I don't think I've ever seen a bad flyback in one (unfortunately, the same can't be said for the 9-160 sets).

I think this chassis was only made for one model year and was used in 19" and 25" System 3 sets. Out of all the S3 Zenith sets, I think this chassis was the best one; but, as usual, the bean counters likely got their way and that's why the bulky transformer and 9-153 board was replaced by the 9-160 board.

When I was a teenager, I knew a guy who had a 25" S3 console with this chassis (non-remote, PB varactor tuner). It ran probably 12-14/day and all I ever did to it was repair the horizontal board and, later, I had to fix the 9-155 video output board. The last time I saw that set was at the estate sale, after he died, and the CRT was about shot. It seems that the 23V/25V tri-focus inline tubes didn't hold up nearly as long as the CC2 delta gun tubes; but, they were still better than a '90's Zenith tube. However, the 19" and smaller tri-focus tubes held up much better.