Pilot TV-37 Restoration

[Crist Rigott]

OK guys, now that I'm done with the Silvertone Combo unit it's time to start a new project. After wrestling that 24" tube and chassis I thought I'd go completely in the opposite direction.
I got this TV from the famous online auction site with a local pick up instead of shipping. It was part of an estate the auction house was taking care of. The pictures in the auction showed a clean and everything was there TV. When I went to pick it up, sure enough it was in very good condition, at least the cabinet was.
When I got home I slowly applied 6.3V to the CRT. We have glow. Whew! I know the CRT could still produce a lousy picture but that hurdle has been crossed. It sat waiting for me for most of the year.
As you can see, someone decided to mark up the chassis first with pencil and then with a Sharpie! Knucklehead. That what tape is used for. There is a corrosive something going on. Perhaps an electrolytic spewed out its guts. It seems to affect the steel parts only.
BTW, the serial number of this chassis is 208806. I didn't take any pictures of the cabinet yet. I'll get to that later.

[Crist Rigott]

I have an original copy of Sams 62-16 along with the Riders info as a backup. I removed the CRT and put it away in a safe place. Then I removed the speaker assembly and covered the cone with cardboard. It was also put in a safe place.

As my usual customary procedure, I labeled all the resistors, capacitors, inductors, pots, etc according the Sams.

I then pulled each tube to be sure it was in the correct spot, cleaned it, tested it, and wrapped it in a paper towel and put away till needed. All the tubes tested good. Most were either Raytheon or RCA. The 35B5 audio output tube was a Ken-Rad. The 4 12SN7GT tube were all Raytheon with a date code of 9-18. Could be 9-13 though. The 25L6GT H.V. osc. tube had a date code of 8-48, and the 1B3GT H.V. rect. tube had a date of 8-52.

[Crist Rigott]

I have the HV caps on order and will go to Mouser tomorrow to pick up the electrolytics. Then the fun begins.

[Titan1a]

Outstanding! Clean as a whistle. This is a classic.

[decojoe67]

The later '49 version, which that one is, had the shield under the speaker transformer. The '48's didn't and they got cooked by the heat of the tubes.
It's looking good! Those are a total classic. Not only really unusual looking, but historic, and they play very well to boot! I read that these were the first collectors item TV sets, that's why so many exists today.
Remember to always do a soft power-up with these. Unfortunately the scarce CRT takes jolt when they're turned-on the normal way, much like a pilot bulb in an old radio. I've used a Variac on mine since I first got it.

[Electronic M]

Couple of notes.

ARF has a thread where a TVS diode (basically a w way sense) is wired in parallel with the CRT heater and limits the voltage across the heater to it's designed value (more common cheap signal tubes take the hit instead). I'd highly recommend that option.

Second I've found that goof off or rubbing alcohol will take sharpie off of chassis metal.

Third enjoy your restoration.

[Popester]

Interesting way that you tune the channels. Much like a radio. Obviously there was no detent for the channels. Would this be a split sound design for the sound and video IF?

[Crist Rigott]

It is a 1949 TV-37U model.

When I got my electrolytic caps I picked up some TVS diodes too.

I don't think it is a split design. The sound pickoff comes at the Video amp tube. I forget what the proper name of that design is. Intercarrier?

[Crist Rigott]

I started on replacing the electrolytic caps tonight.

I decided not to re-stuff C1 and C3. Because it was easy to add a terminal strip for C1 and C3 was just wired in directly.

C1 is a double cap that has a 100uf and a 40uf cap both at 150 volts. I used a 100uf and a 47uf both at 250 volts and 10,000 hour 105C caps. I used a terminal strip to mount these.

C3 is a single 40uf 150 volt cap. I used a 47uf 250 volt cap like the one above.

I replace a 2 position terminal strip with a 3 position terminal strip and used that to mount C6. It was a 5uf 50 volt cap and was replaced with a 5.6uf 250 volt cap . The reason I used a 250 volt cap was that the 250 volt cap is more robust and less chance of getting damaged.

I cleaned, lubed, and polished R2 the Brightness pot.

[Sandy G]

These things are just SO KEWL ! Mine has the green CRT, but it appears to be pretty strong & in decent shape... Would like to have the blue CRT, but I can live w/the Green one Dunno which one freaks people out more-The little Pilot, or my 10" Zenith Porthole... LOTSA fun to screw w/ Arrogant, know-it-all Millennial twits w/either one.. "There was TeeVee back then? Why ain't it Color ?!?"

[Crist Rigott]

Does anybody know if anyone has used a chassis mounted resistor to drop the mains from 124Vac to 117Vac? I have a nice 12 ohm 25W chassis mount resistor that would serve that purpose nicely. What do you think?

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

These things are just SO KEWL ! Mine has the green CRT, but it appears to be pretty strong & in decent shape... Would like to have the blue CRT, but I can live w/the Green one Dunno which one freaks people out more-The little Pilot, or my 10" Zenith Porthole... LOTSA fun to screw w/ Arrogant, know-it-all Millennial twits w/either one.. "There was TeeVee back then? Why ain't it Color ?!?"

You ought to play a loop of a radar screen showing a newkleer attack on the green one and a close up of of the window of a front load washer on the Zenith....Now THAT would really mess with people.

" Why ain't it color?"... Look here son this one is Green and green is a color!...you go out n find me a red one and some dichloric mirrors and we can make those sets show us all the color(s).

[Sandy G]

Hmmmmmm... Ain't thought of that 'un, Tom...

[commodore]

Beautiful set, I can't wait to see how it comes out. I've seen a few of these sets in my life, just never a working model.

[Crist Rigott]

Some progress over the last few days. I must say that I'm not impressed with the workmanship of the original factory build.



I decided to redo the tuner and with the corrosion on the tuner I removed that section. I cleaned and lubed the tuners and did a recap. All ready to go back in at a later date.