I just saved a Zenith CCII from the trash.

[Jon A.]

Whoa... that's like trash night for me and a couple of friends 20+ years ago, except for the car. The closest thing we had was a Dodge Mirada with a leaning tower of power.

You picked the right one for sure. An inline RCA, yuck city.

[Electronic M]

Wednesday's Delayed results (Typed the post and lost it on wed so gave up):

CRT tests 84% on my tester which is as good as NOS.
DSCN1402 by Tom Carlson, on Flickr

Jumpering the power switch did nothing, so I tried playing with the breaker (again) and started getting sounds from the chassis. Playing with the bright/contrast controls got a flicker of a horizontal line. A flip of the service switch (which the previous owners left in the wrong position) got me a full raster.


Some twiddling of the controls got a much nicer picture.


I love how darn near immortal and easy to service the CCII series is.



The main differences between this set and my table model (aside from cabinet) are that the table set has two matching knobs (one volume, the other on-off) different from the console's, and the console has plastic thumb grips on it's antenna terminals instead of plain screws. One really wacky thing is that the back has 4 service saver twist clips holding the back on PLUS 3 screws holding it on....Every other Zenith I've seen has either just the screws or just the service saver clips.....Adding the screws defeats the purpose of the clips: getting the back off fast.

The tuner indicator light is burnt out, and the tuner is rather dirty (It wanted to tune channel 7 with the knob set to 8, and pix would get noisy occasionally and need knob jiggle or a slap to the cabinet to straighten out).

This set has a rather unique odor combo that is part smoker's set part damp moldy basement. With how beat up the cabinet is, the ready interchange of that 23" V Chromacolor CRT with most of my rectangular sets, and me already having a nearly identical metal cabinet set, part of me thinks I should just part this console out....I'll have to think over what to do with it.

If any one wants to give this set a home I'll be happy to let it go.

[brokenbroken]

I have the same set but in the metal table model. The channels used to drift when I first got it many years ago. The problem turned to be broken solder connections where the tuner plugged into it's module. It's behind the chassis if I remember correctly.

[zeno]

IIRC you need a short NE-2 for the selector. Get short ones anyways,
they fit anything.
If the selector has a normal switch it will clean up but if its
built on ceramic it may not. ( like the pkgs on 9-151's etc ).

Normal to find 1/4 inch along with twists from the factory.
Always had one at the cord & a few along the top. They held
down the plastic bag with the owners manual, remote, etc.

Pix is very nice, better than I remember ! Also heart warming to
see it in the trunk of a 5000 lb REAL car. I miss those as much
as the Zenith TV's.

73 Zeno

[drh4683]

Tom,

I'm studying Zenith production data and see this set has some valuable info on it. Could you post a brighter picture of the back cover model tag and also a brighter shot of the chassis that shows the tag where the chassis was assembled? There should also be an ink stamp to the right of that chassis tag.

Thanks

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by drh4683

Tom,

I'm studying Zenith production data and see this set has some valuable info on it. Could you post a brighter picture of the back cover model tag and also a brighter shot of the chassis that shows the tag where the chassis was assembled? There should also be an ink stamp to the right of that chassis tag.

Thanks

Sure.

This makes the fifth and newest CCII I own. If you want info on any of my other CCII's just ask.



More pictures here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/137849...h/25468045990/

I'd assume Oct. 1978 was fairly late production for CCII sets.
It's interesting to think that my car was built near exactly 1 year before the TV, and 14 years before I came to be (both have Oct. final build dates like me ).

[zeno]

The model number starts with a single S. This makes
it a big store set. Probably came from a major retailer
although we could sometimes get them as drop ins.
K-line is the switch over to 1st gen System 3. Top
line 25" & 2 19" sets came that way. In L-line almost
all were 2nd gen S3 sets ( 9-160 ) with a few uprights on the
lowest end sets.

73 Zeno

[drh4683]

Originally Posted by zeno

The model number starts with a single S. This makes
it a big store set. Probably came from a major retailer
although we could sometimes get them as drop ins.
K-line is the switch over to 1st gen System 3. Top
line 25" & 2 19" sets came that way. In L-line almost
all were 2nd gen S3 sets ( 9-160 ) with a few uprights on the
lowest end sets.

73 Zeno

Thanks for all the great photos, Tom! This helps a lot.

Zeno, what exactly did the "S" stand for and how did that make it a "big store" set? I also see some models that start with the letter "T" as well, typically sets from the early 70's. Were those sets for institutional use? What was a "drop in"? Otherwise, most models typically start with the familiar letter associated to any given model year. What made the "S" models different enough to justify to that designation?

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by zeno

The model number starts with a single S. This makes
it a big store set. Probably came from a major retailer
although we could sometimes get them as drop ins.
K-line is the switch over to 1st gen System 3. Top
line 25" & 2 19" sets came that way. In L-line almost
all were 2nd gen S3 sets ( 9-160 ) with a few uprights on the
lowest end sets.

73 Zeno

It's amazing, if you bought the lower end model you got a better chassis.