1967 Magnaovox Stereo Theatre

[TV Engineer]

I worked for Magnavox service in the 1980s, and worked on many of these sets. There were tons in daily use in my area. They are no more or less problematic than any RCA or Zenith of the era. I will say though, they produce a superior color picture when serviced correctly. The stereos sounded amazing, and the record changers were the finest made. I never played my records on anything but a Micromatic, and they're as good as new. I see your set has remote too, and those are easily made operational by just replacing all of the elctrolytic caps in the remote chassis. It also looks like yours is the 704040 remote chassis, which included an auto off feature. It would shut the unit down after the TV station it was tuned to left the air for the night.

If I can be of any assistance, please contact me.

[zeno]

When you get to the TV fix things one problem at a time.
Dont jump in & order a bunch of tubes & caps first.
Start with getting the screen lit ( a raster ) & work from
there. Next step is making it a good B&W. Then you do
any color problems & detailing.........

Maggys were a good set but I personally didnt care for them.
They always had the best cabinets & HiFi's.

73 Zeno
LFOD !

[DaveWM]

nothing special good or bad, as mentioned tube based TV's are no where near as reliable as solid state stuff, but then again not a lot of parts and not hard to diagnose if you have a scope. The problem is the TV signal packs a lot of info on it, and demodulating it is very different with 3 things going on (AM/FM/PHASE) add to that then need for exacting sync esp on the color means more challenge but then again more fun when you get it right.

I see a brightner in there, hopefully the crt is not toast but if it is they are not hard to come by.

I would suggest a slow start up with the horz out and the vert out tubes removed from the circuit. Monitor the B+ and variac it up slowly (this assume its been out of service for some time). If the B+ comes up (should get to about 400v). then go ahead and plug those output tube in it, put a ma meter in series with the cathode lead of the horz out (you don't want more than about 220ma max) and to a full power start up.

This establishes a base line operating condition for the set, from there you can determine if any of the systems work and contcentrate on those that do not.

things to avoid, mass clean up, maggies will have a lot of slimy goo on the all the wires that interconnect the stereo/tv/speakers. there will be a lot of dust all over the chassis. Do not clean this up until after the baseline. If it works do not clean it anyway, a dirty chassis pcb that works is better than a clean one that does not.

If the dirt really bothers you, clean as you go so if a new problem pops up, you can go back to where you just cleaned. this is the same as only doing a cap or two at a time vs a shotgun recap.

the most likely issues will be vert defection and maybe power supply caps.
Often that era can caps are fine so hold off on replacing until you know they are a problem. There are lots of resistors/small caps/wires all tucked in tightly to the can lugs, so what I do is if the cap is bad, just saw it off from the top, drill holes thru the base of the can, install caps (radial thin work best) from the top and you leave the lead dress below untouched.

the vert deflection caps have a hard life, look for 1000-2000v rate film types in the feed back circuit. they get leaky and foul up the process.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by TV Engineer

I worked for Magnavox service in the 1980s, and worked on many of these sets. There were tons in daily use in my area. They are no more or less problematic than any RCA or Zenith of the era. I will say though, they produce a superior color picture when serviced correctly. The stereos sounded amazing, and the record changers were the finest made. I never played my records on anything but a Micromatic, and they're as good as new. I see your set has remote too, and those are easily made operational by just replacing all of the elctrolytic caps in the remote chassis. It also looks like yours is the 704040 remote chassis, which included an auto off feature. It would shut the unit down after the TV station it was tuned to left the air for the night.

If I can be of any assistance, please contact me.

I don't think the auto-off feature was necessarily unique to Magnavox. Some years ago, I had a 19" Emerson table model TV that also had the same automatic shutoff function; it would, like the Magnavox being discussed here, turn off the TV after the station the owner was watching signed off. Of course, today these auto-shutoff systems won't work, since all TV stations run 24 hours a day; they do not sign off except in case of an emergency (one of the stations in Cleveland left the air for about six hours a few months ago after lightning struck one of their antenna towers, but that was the only time in the last ten years or so I can recall that station ever being off the air any extended period of time).

My set also had a peculiar habit of shutting itself off almost every time there was a lightning storm in the area. The storm didn't have to cause a power outage; the set would shut off any time lightning struck anywhere near my house. The TV antenna was in my attic, so I was never concerned about a lightning strike on it, but the TV shutting off after nearby lightning strikes always puzzled me. Perhaps the auto-shutoff feature may have had something to do with it?

[amglow]

I want to thank everyone for the incredible knowledge shared here for this television restoration. I do, indeed, intend to keep it as original as possible. I will concentrate, for now, on what I know best; the stereo restoration. Once I have the stereo playing well, I'll probably attempt the restoration of the television. Lastly, the record changer. I definitely want to see the color television come alive. Neighbors across the street from us, when I was a pre-teen (1960's) had a Magnavox Stereo Theatre. I look forward to seeing some vintage movies roll across this screen.

I guess the "7126" stamp on the RCA Hi-Lite tag indicates a tube built in the 26th week of 1971? I believe this model Stereo Theatre was from the 1967 time frame. Would a CRT go bad that quickly? Where would the actual CRT model number be located? I know some are located on the bakelite tube neck, where the pins are located. However, this CRT has no bakelite pin mount. It's very low profile. Just a thin wafer.

knowing I have a CRT to check, I purchased a CRT tester. It's a Hickok model 265. I purchased it because I have a couple of their military and commercial pieces that have proven very good quality. It also has all 11 CRT attachments. Have any of you had any experience with this tester? Good/bad? It looks like a newer style tester from the 1970's possibly. I'll attach an image for your review.