RCA 630TS restoration

[Jonathan]

I'm going to try to restore my RCA 630TS to perfect working and cosmetic condition. It all starts with this and this. The underside of this chassis looks nice actually, and I cannot wait to dive in. I'm going to replace every paper capacitor with metalized polys and every electrolytic with moden axial leaded ones underneath. I'm going to remove the old cans, but save them. I know it won't look authentic, but I'll still have them to possibly restuff in the future. Removing them reduces a few pounds of weight too. The "micamold" capacitors are being replaced with silver mica capacitors. The drifted and bad resistors will be changed. I'm going to organize things a bit more with this chassis than I did the previous 630TS clone chassis (Air King A1000). The two electrolytics on the plate on the underside will of couse go and so will the plate, and a terminal strip put in it's place. Again, mainly for weight reduction. I'll keep you guys updated with my progress on this thread.

Thanks.

Jonathan

P.S. If anyone has the RCA servicing information this set (not the Sams), please let me know. I'll gladly pay to have you photocopy it and mail it to me. Thanks

[Dave S]

Here's an owner's manual you might find interesting. I'll try to find a copy of a service manual for you.
--Dave

[Eric H]

Hi Dave, thanks for the link to the Manual.
You might oughta warned us that it's 60MB tho!

Eric

[Jonathan]

Thanks so much! I love this manual! It's such a great scan too. Thanks!

Jonathan

[Bill Cahill]

This set is a little intimidating to me. Also, mica molds were not mica capacitors. They were cheap paper caps in a mica like body. Just use high quality 600v mylar there, and it will be happy. In fact, on ac line, I just leave them out, and it makes chassis slightly safer.

[Jonathan]

Hello Bill,

I worked on an Air King A1000 and completely recapped it, and got it partially working. After working on this guy, the RCA 630TS is familiar territory for me. Yeah, the "micamold" are just cheap paper caps. Replacing them with mica caps is what I did on the set previous with the horizontal and vertical, as well as the video IF section. I actually ordered mica replacements and got everything today, so I'll just use those. I also ordered AC rated safety caps to replace the AC line filter "micamold" caps. If they do fail, they'll open, and not short. So it's just as safe as leaving them out and filtering HF noise. I have great ambition to get this set displaying a sweet picture and sounding good.

Thanks again.

Jonathan

[Bill Cahill]

Well, I'll tell you, RCA bw tv's then had a very nice picture. Their weakest point was always that miserable, microphonic, trouble making tuner, but, sets performed very well, otherwise. Nice sets, and I like them. I grew up with a 1950 RCA 6T74 16" tv.

[Jonathan]

Ahh, I heard these sets have a great picture. I'm only going to use channel 3 on the tuner, so once fine tuned, I think it'll work pretty well. Now I just need the time to work on it.

Jonathan

[bkasindorf]

I have the original red bound factory service manual for the 630 if you want a scan or borrow it for a while. I may have 2 copies but I doubt I can find both at the same time :-)
-Barry

[Bill Cahill]

Are you talking about the 1946 hard bound one that covers everything? If so, would you consider trading, or, selling the extra copy? I don't have that year, and desperately need it, especially for my 630, and my 641 TV......

[bkasindorf]

No,
This is a soft cover book just for the 630TS and 8TS30.
-Barry

[Jonathan]

bkasindorf,

Thanks for the offer, but I already have a copy.

I have started recapping this bad boy, finally. I had lots of confusions when rewireing the electrolytics, but I believe everything is good to go. I replaced most of the paper caps and two of the micamold caps. There was also a black beauty that I changed too. I also have damaged one of the inductors wound around a resistor in the video amplifier section. My soldering Melted the wax and I went to move it out of the way and the inductor broke from the resistor lead. Could I get a new inductor and resistor and connect them in parallel in place of the broken inductor/resistor or is the inductance and lead dress really critical?

Also, where can I get it's 10BP4 rebuilt? It has no raster, but doesn't appear to have lost it's vacuum. I tested it on a working chassis to see. I still have two good 10BP4's from the two 630TS clone sets I have, but I wanted to keep everything as original as possible. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Jonathan

[Dave S]

You GO! Glad to hear that your restoration is progressing. (mine sure aren't )

Good 10BP4s are still fairly plentiful and it should be a lot less expensive to buy one than to rebuild. Hold onto the one you have in case that changes in the future, but I can't imagine how a replacement CRT would make your set any less "original".

[Jonathan]

Dave S,

Thanks. Original being originally came with the set. I'd bet rebuilding would cost around $500, so about double the cost of one that you can buy. I was just wondering though, but I have two RCA 10BP4s just in case.

Jonathan

[Jonathan]

The inductor I broke is the 93uH peaking coil on the video detector. Sams says it's DC resistance is 4 ohms. Can I substitute a 100uH inductor here?

Thanks.