Crosley bakelite tv

[Radiotronman]

I can get the horizontal to hold for only seconds at a time.

[Kevin Kuehn]

Did you try what bandersen suggested?

Originally Posted by bandersen

One side of the coil adjusts the shape, the other side the free running frequency, That's usually the end that is accessable from outside the chassis. Set the horizontal hold control in the center and adjust that coil until you get a lock.

[old_coot88]

Originally Posted by Radiotronman

I can get the horizontal to hold for only seconds at a time.

Could you post the schematic covering the video detector and video amp chain?
I'm wondering if there's a chance the vid.detector diode* could be installed backward. There's been a couple of such cases on this forum, and it produces a display very much like what's seen in the screen shot you posted.

*That's assuming it uses a SS diode (1N34 etc.) and not a tube diode (6AL5 etc.)