1959 Motorola 21T64M - Videokarma.org TV - Video

Charlie · #1 02-27-2005, 03:05 AM

This 1959 Motorola 21" table set is one I brought home from the TV shop recently. It's model number 21T64M, chassis TS-556. Cabinet is made of pasteboard (or particle board) with the fake photo finish on it. Has 16 tubes with the heaters run in series.

When I got this set home, the first thing I found was the 21CBP4 CRT was very weak. The next couple of times I went to the shop, I searched for other sets with the same toob to get a replacement. On the day Polaraman was here, I found the blonde Motorola pictured in the "TV Shop" thread. That CRT checked a little better, but was still on the weak side. Plus, the cap was pretty loose and the heater connection was intermittent. A few days ago, I found a Silvertone table set and hauled it home. The CRT in that one tested like new! I pulled the tube and will trash the rest of it.

I spent today taking apart the Motorola to see if it had any other troubles. Actually, the biggest trouble was taking it apart! The entire cabinet... top, bottom, front, and back all comes apart in different pieces to get to the chassis and tube!

I tried soft starting it with the HV offline, and got garbled audio. I let it run for a little while to see if anything was gonna blow. Nothing did, but, I found the main lytic under the chassis oozing snot out of it! The cans on top were running cool and showed no signs of ooze. Changing that one lytic didn't help the audio any, so, next thing to check was Motorola's notorious failing coils. Sure enough, I found one that was bad. Yanked one off the Silvertone chassis to replace it with, and now audio was clear as a bell.

After that, I brought HV back online. Seemed to be fine, but as suspected, I had a dim picture due to the weak CRT. Swapped out the tube with the Silvertone tube, and all brightened up nicely with a really good picture! Success!

I watched it for about an hour or so, and all was good. There was just a little shrinkage from one side of the screen... maybe a 1/2" at best... but other than that it played like a champ. Sometime later, I'll go thru it and see if I can get the shrinkage problem staightened out. For now, it's not serious enough for me to worry over.

The only chassis tube i changed was the 12DQ6 horz output... only because I broke the cap off when I went to disconnect it.

Charlie · #2 02-27-2005, 03:07 AM

Here's a screen shot without the flash on.

Charlie · #3 02-27-2005, 03:08 AM

Another...

Charlie · #4 02-27-2005, 03:10 AM

Chassis shot when I first took it apart. It has those selenium rectifiers in it. I'll change those out once I go thru my stash and see what I have to put in there.

Charlie · #5 02-27-2005, 03:18 AM

This was the Silvertone set that gave up it's original CRT to replace the Motor tube. Not very pretty, but it's tube tested perfect!

When I pulled the tube from this set, I just barely noticed a line slightly burned across the screen. Apparently, this set must have lost verticle output, and I am guessing that the owner ran the set for a while with just the white line across the screen. I guess they just listened to the TV.

Now, with the tube installed in the Motorola, you can just barely notice the line in the picture. It's not bad, but is noticeable if you get up close and examine the picture really good. I'm just glad it had good emissions.

jstout66 · #6 02-27-2005, 07:58 AM

Man Charlie, Nice set! I wish you were in my area. I could keep you busy with a few sets!! In the chassis shot of the Motorola, is that a B&K picture tube tester or tube tester only? If it's a tube tester, we have the same model.

Charlie · #7 02-27-2005, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jstout66

Man Charlie, Nice set! I wish you were in my area. I could keep you busy with a few sets!! In the chassis shot of the Motorola, is that a B&K picture tube tester or tube tester only? If it's a tube tester, we have the same model.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, but, I think i have more than enough projects to keep myself busy for quite some time... and that doesn't even include the others that will make their way to my door later on!

The tester you see is a B&K 470 CRT tester. My tube tester... which is pretty old... is a National Radio Institute Model 69. It works fine, but, has no listings for any of the newer tubes like you'd find in 60's color sets. Not sure when this thing was made, but, I'm guessing early 50's.

Update: I just noticed that someone over on the AntiqueRadio forums says that my NRI 69 was made by Triplett... around 1947-48. hmmm... no wonder I can't check any of the more modern tubes!

polaraman · #8 02-27-2005, 02:30 PM

Charlie,

I thought you were not going to tear apart new sets till you got some old sets repaired?

polaraman

Charlie · #9 02-27-2005, 02:43 PM

Yeah, well, you know how that goes! I went ahead and tackled this one because I figured it wouldn't take long to get it back in order. Only changing the pix toob, one lytic, and one coil wasn't bad. Didn't take a whole lot of trouble shooting.

This Motorola, like my other Motorola 21" b&w floor model set (also from 1959), needed very little. I am surprised at how well their capacitors hold up. My floor model only needed the peaking coil and a tube in the tuner... and I watch it pretty often.

bgadow · #10 02-28-2005, 08:15 PM

Here is mine, one of many I got from the estate of a repairman several years ago. This one was pretty easy to bring back & the crt is strong. Very nice focus.

Charlie · #11 02-28-2005, 11:40 PM

Hey Bryan,

That's pretty cool! Your set makes a really sharp picture!

Although mine is nice and bright, I didn't feel it was quite as sharp as the 21" floor model I have. A closer look at the table set's picture shows it has interlace issues. Probably will have to build one of those combination components for the verticle circuit. I think mine will sharpen up nicely after I do that.

Telecolor 3007 · #12 03-24-2005, 01:01 AM

That "Motorola" haves the look of the early Romanian tvs.