1953 Motorola from Canton

[Charlie]

I decided to pull the chassis and do some cleaning. I have a feeling I am going to start re-capping this set... which I'm not supposed to do because I told myself I wouldn't work on any sets until I'm finished working on my shop. Actually, I'm surprised I kept my promise to myself for this long!

Anyway... before pulling the chassis, I noticed a bit of what seemed to be insulation under the chassis towards the rear. I didn't think too much of it at first... just a little bit of fuzz in there from mice I thought. After finding corn in my Zenith roundie, I figured I have seen it all. Well, again, I was wrong. When I pulled the chassis out of the cabinet, I could not believe what I found! I was right.... it was indeed insulation... but a WHOLE LOT of insulation!!! It was so damn well packed in there, you would have thought it came from the factory that way!! Hmmm.... maybe it really was? Perhaps, Motorola's way of protecting the innards from moisture? How bout a way to keep the chassis warmed up for a faster picture upon turning on the switch? Yeah, well, nice try!

Not only did I fill a bag from the grocery store with this stuff, I also had to change the bag in my Electrolux after sucking out the parts that did not pull out as quickly by hand!

The first photo was after removing the screws to hold the chassis in place. I lifted the chassis a little while in the cabinet and thought, "Wow... how much stuff is in there?"

The second photo was after pulling the chassis without removing any insulation... however, some did fall out on it's own.

Third photo is after removing most of it by hand. Notice how well packed the remaining stuff is in there!

Last photo is after a good clean-up with the Electrolux. I had also removed the HV cover at this point, although there wasn't any thing in there that wasn't supposed to be.

With things cleaned out now, I do not find any obvious failures. The dope around the HO windings is cracked up quite a bit due to age, but no drippings and it's likely the HO transformer is good... or at least I'm hoping so. I've never found a bad HO transformer in a b&w set, and hope it stays that way.