Telebar Power up

[bigaudioal]

Well, replaced the one two section candohm resistor with a terminal strip and two ohmite wire wound resistors.

Hooked everything up, hooked up an antenna, turned the tuner to channel 7 and fired up my modulator. Brought the set up slowly on a variac. At 90 volts - no smoke, no bad smells, all tubes lit. Cranked it up from there slowly and CRT lit up and heard very low static - then very low sound. Waited a few moments looking for smoke or any sign that the set needed to be shut down. All ok so far.

Walked around the front of the set and saw a decent picture. Switched signal over to my DVD player (thru my modulator) for a test pattern. With only a slight height and linearity adjustment, then an ion trap adjustment got a decent picture. Sound was very bad. Barely audible and full of static. Fine tuning did nothing. So I switched to channel 8 and got fantastic sound. GREAT, just need to adjust the channel 7 tuning lug, right? Wrong! When I removed the channel/fine tuning knob, the tuning screw for channel 7 was either sheared off or not there. Then as I turned the tuner around - noticed the same thing for channels 3-10. No tuning screws visible where they should be. Well since the set had a decent pic, I decided to turn on the radio. Turned it on and CRT slowly faded to black and TV sound faded as well. Nothing from radio. Hmmmm??? With the radio still on, I turned off the TV power knob and the radio came to life. Dial lights came on and got stations on AM and FM bands. Now it gets strange. Turned off radio knob and tv knob and the set would not turn off. Had to unplug it totally to kill the power. So something is not right there. Good news, nothing blew up and got a raster/picture and sound. NOW THE BAD NEWS!

Pulled the chassis and pulled out the turret tuner. EVERY SINGLE tuning screw from channel 3-10 is DESTROYED! Someone butchered this tuner. UGH! When I got the turret out, it sounded like shaking a jar full of pennies. Pieces everywhere. All the tuning screws were driven in too far, destroying the tuning abilities for all these channels.

So on the hunt for a late 40's/early 50's Admiral turret tuner.

Over all, a decent first power up all by myself. Lots of bugs to work out, but there is life and nothing blew up. I did not really mess with the phono at all. When I switched the radio to phono mode the turntable did start turning with a little kick start from me. So it had power too.

[bigaudioal]

Radio did have power, but I could not turn it off once it was on. Hmmmmm???

[Kevin Kuehn]

Hi Al,

I just happen to have this Admiral tuner handy. I think it's a 1954 date code. Not sure if the screws are compatible? It's yours if you can use anything. Oh, and your switch contact may be stuck in the on position. Maybe a squirt of contact lube will free things up?

[bigaudioal]

Originally Posted by Kevin Kuehn

Hi Al,

I just happen to have this Admiral tuner handy. I think it's a 1954 date code. Not sure if the screws are compatible? It's yours if you can use anything.

THANKS! PM sent.

[bigaudioal]

I hit all the pots with deoxit last week. So can the on/off knob on either the TV or the Radio be stuck on, even if you hear and feel the "click" when turning it off???

[Kevin Kuehn]

Originally Posted by bigaudioal

I hit all the pots with deoxit last week. So can the on/off knob on either the TV or the Radio be stuck on, even if you hear and feel the "click" when turning it off???

Yep. I've had it happen where the actuating mechanism clicks, but the switch contact would not pull in(or out)

[bigaudioal]

Originally Posted by Kevin Kuehn

Yep. I've had it happen where the actuating mechanism clicks, but the switch contact would not pull in(or out)

Good to know. Thx!!!

[bandersen]

Those tuners are pretty easy to fix. The tuning slugs are short piece of threaded brass rod and if they are turned a little too much they fall inside. Pop out one of the channel strips, pull up on the piece of wire near the end and it will come out. Then just thread it back in. I've had a little practice doing it

[Boobtubeman]

Turntable power switch stuck on? or does the turntable not control power in this unit?

SR

[Kevin Kuehn]

Originally Posted by bandersen

Those tuners are pretty easy to fix. The tuning slugs are short piece of threaded brass rod and if they are turned a little too much they fall inside. Pop out one of the channel strips, pull up on the piece of wire near the end and it will come out. Then just thread it back in. I've had a little practice doing it

Guess I assumed the plastic pieces were damaged(butchered). Hopefully like you say they can simply be screwed back in. Maybe butchered was a slight dramatization.

[Kevin Kuehn]

Here's the little spring wire Bob was referrencing. Should be able to lift it up and shake the tuning screw out of the tube. The screw threads are suppose to stay under that little wire.

[bigaudioal]

Oh, when I said destroyed, I was not being dramatic. All channel strips look like this . . .

[bigaudioal]

Originally Posted by Boobtubeman

Turntable power switch stuck on? or does the turntable not control power in this unit?

SR

The TV has a turntable power knob and the radio has it's own turntable power knob as well. But the radio uses the TV's audio circuit to get sound to the speaker and gets its power through the TV chassis as well.

At first I just turned on the television. Once I was sure there was no smoke and had a decent picture and a little sound, I turned on the radio knob. The picture faded to black and the TV sound cut out. But the radio showed no signs of life. Turning off the radio knob restored the picture and TV sound to the set.

So I turned back on the radio knob, TV faded to black and TV sound cut out again. I then turned off the TV knob with the radio knob still in the on position. This brought the radio to life, but once it got power to the radio, turning both knobs off does not kill power to the entire set. The picture tube and TV sound stay off but the radio chassis and some tubes in the TV chassis stay on. It's like it's stuck in radio mode.

So with both knobs off, some TV tubes lit, radio dial lights on, no picture, no TV audio no radio audio.

With both knobs on I seem to get the same condition as above.

With TV knob on and radio knob off TV seems to function fine but radio dial lights still on.

With TV knob off and radio knob on radio seems to function okay.

I am going to insert a shorting plug into the radio socket and just work on the TV once I get a replacement tuner.

[M3-SRT8]

I would keep the original tuner. Just get the channel strips from a donor set and snap them into place, tuning slugs and all.

[bigaudioal]

Originally Posted by M3-SRT8

I would keep the original tuner. Just get the channel strips from a donor set and snap them into place, tuning slugs and all.

That is the plan!

I am actually very excited. If this were just a TV, I'd be in really good shape with that kind of first power up.