1950s or '60s vintage Zenith TVs, Need some info

[Electronic M]

I think I paid $25 for my 1077...One of of the best $25 purchases I've made.

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

I think I paid $25 for my 1077...One of of the best $25 purchases I've made.

Well unfortunately I don't have that luxury I have to make do with epay and whatever prices the sellers on there dictate which like I said aren't that cheap.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by vortalexfan

Well unfortunately I don't have that luxury I have to make do with epay and whatever prices the sellers on there dictate which like I said aren't that cheap.

Try visiting the ETF meet some year. I've seen easily 5 of those B&Ks go that cheap there.

[Notimetolooz]

I don't really know why ebay prices get so high. Decades ago it was more like a flea market or yard sale. More people have a side business selling things on ebay now, making extra cash for one thing. I think some fools with no idea of what reasonable prices should be and more money than brains paid a lot for an item and then other sellers used that sale as a new standard of the going price.
Ebay is the last place to buy vintage items. Local auctions, Craigs list, yard sales, estate sales, club flea markets, etc. are much better. You can't predict what will be offered, you can't say "Today I will go to a yard sale and get a tube tester.". You have to be open to what you come across. Knowledge is the key. You have to get out there and look. Be patient.

Last month a relative that lives nearby told me of a yard sale across the alley from her having a yard sale. I don't really go to that many yard sales. I had some other things to do while out that day first and didn't get to the yard sale until the middle of the afternoon. Most things sell before noon at yard sales. When I showed up they were about to quite. They said "Pick out anything and you can have it." (meaning free). I found a box of audio/video cables, a box of power cables, a bin cabinet full of items, five vacuum tubes still in the box, a couple of spools of wire and two oscilloscopes (one a 1965 Tektronix), and a few other things.
All free! "Life is like a box of chocolates."
A couple of weeks later, at a radio club convention flea market I was able to sell some of the stuff and recoup the cost of the convention registration.

[vortalexfan]

OK So I got the Bugeye TV mostly recapped (except for one paper cap I forgot about and 4 electrolytics) and when I powered the TV up I got a whiff of smoke from somewhere (I couldn't tell where it was coming from but it looked like it was coming from around where the contrast control pot was situated) and so I quickly shut it down, but I did get a shot of what the screen was doing, its basically got severe vertical foldover and not much horizontal deflection.

See picture below.

[Kevin Kuehn]

Originally Posted by vortalexfan

Well unfortunately I don't have that luxury I have to make do with epay and whatever prices the sellers on there dictate which like I said aren't that cheap.

I've got a well used B&K 1076 that I cleaned up and recapped a few years back. It isn't the nicest looking one on the planet, but it's serviceable. I'll let you have it for FedEx shipping cost. Let's just say your enthusiasm for fixing up old TV's is justification for you having it, and it will surely be an educational tool for you to have at your disposal. It could very well be $50-75 to ship it from WI to IN, I really won't know until it's packed up and weighed. If you're game I'll dig it out and make sure it's still working.

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by Kevin Kuehn

I've got a well used B&K 1076 that I cleaned up and recapped a few years back. It isn't the nicest looking one on the planet, but it's serviceable. I'll let you have it for FedEx shipping cost. Let's just say your enthusiasm for fixing up old TV's is justification for you having it, and it will surely be an educational tool for you to have at your disposal. It could very well be $50-75 to ship it from WI to IN, I really won't know until it's packed up and weighed. If you're game I'll dig it out and make sure it's still working.

SUre, I'll take it. For me test equipment condition isn't everything, as long as its functional.

In fact most of my radio repair/diagnostic equipment is not in the best of cosmetic condition but its functional and that's all that matters to me.

I'll pm you my address and we can go from there.

[kvflyer]

Originally Posted by vortalexfan

SUre, I'll take it. For me test equipment condition isn't everything, as long as its functional.

In fact most of my radio repair/diagnostic equipment is not in the best of cosmetic condition but its functional and that's all that matters to me.

I'll pm you my address and we can go from there.

Another "Pay It Forward". Good for both of you and that is what makes our vintage stuff community great.

[vortalexfan]

So does anyone have any idea what's going on with my Zenith Bugeye TV?

Like I said the TV is just doing a more or less "full screen" version of what it was doing when I first got it before I recapped it, also the "magic smoke" smell I was smelling but not seeing where it was coming from.

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by kvflyer

Another "Pay It Forward". Good for both of you and that is what makes our vintage stuff community great.

Exactly!

My variac and my Knight Kit Tube Tester I got from a fellow radio collector who gave them to me as partial payment for repairing some radios for him.

the only test equipment I got that wasn't given to me was my signal generators and my frequency counter, which I got those from eBay but those I somehow managed to find for dirt cheap (the descriptions stated that they weren't functioning or were parts only and when I got them all that was wrong with them was bad tubes or loose connections.)

[Notimetolooz]

Originally Posted by vortalexfan

So does anyone have any idea what's going on with my Zenith Bugeye TV?

Like I said the TV is just doing a more or less "full screen" version of what it was doing when I first got it before I recapped it, also the "magic smoke" smell I was smelling but not seeing where it was coming from.

It gets confusing when you cover two different TVs in the same thread.
I can't keep them straight.
That TV seems to have some HV because there is light on the screen. Obviously the sweeps are not working right. They are so wrong that it is difficult to say what is wrong. I would get the raster fixed up first. In general comparing voltages with what it shows in the service data is a good place to start. If what is on the TV CRT doesn't help much to diagnose a problem then a scope looking at the waveforms will reveal more.
Every time you install something wrong or burn something up you dig yourself in deeper trouble.

I think you would profit by leaning more how the TV circuits work.
Did you ever read at "Television Simplified" by Kiver?
Below number 128 on this page.
https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSH..._Gernsback.htm
If you learned not "how to" but "how it works" or "why it works", you will be able to figure out some things yourself without always asking "What should I do now?".
You are very lucky to be around in a time when such knowledge can be downloaded easily and for free.

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by Notimetolooz

It gets confusing when you cover two different TVs in the same thread.
I can't keep them straight.
That TV seems to have some HV because there is light on the screen. Obviously the sweeps are not working right. They are so wrong that it is difficult to say what is wrong. I would get the raster fixed up first. In general comparing voltages with what it shows in the service data is a good place to start. If what is on the TV CRT doesn't help much to diagnose a problem then a scope looking at the waveforms will reveal more.
Every time you install something wrong or burn something up you dig yourself in deeper trouble.

I think you would profit by leaning more how the TV circuits work.
Did you ever read at "Television Simplified" by Kiver?
Below number 128 on this page.
https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSH..._Gernsback.htm
If you learned not "how to" but "how it works" or "why it works", you will be able to figure out some things yourself without always asking "What should I do now?".
You are very lucky to be around in a time when such knowledge can be downloaded easily and for free.

Sorry about the multiple tvs in one thread, but I thought it would of been kind of redundant to start separate repair threads on these 2 tvs when I already had one thread started on both of them already.

Anyways I'll take a look at that book passage you linked to in your post and see what I can figure out.

But considering I'm coming from a generation where for the most part TVs and radios were considered throw away items and because of that there was no such thing as electronics repair classes in high school or community College, I'd say I'm doing pretty good by getting to the point that I have in electronics repair by myself with the help of these forums and the internet.

[vortalexfan]

Good news I got a full raster on the small Zenith TV!

I ended up replacing the rest of the electrolytics and it fixed the raster issue.

[Tom9589]

I first checked out Milt Kiver's book when I was a sophomore in high school. The next year my folks gave me the revised edition for Christmas. It's been my mainstay over the years for tube TVs. If you want to know how a particular circuit works, this is the book for you.

Tom C., I also bought my 1076 for $25 back in the mid 1960s. Used it. Loved it. Then I got a 1077B and liked it even more.

[Kevin Kuehn]

Originally Posted by vortalexfan

But considering I'm coming from a generation where for the most part TVs and radios were considered throw away items and because of that there was no such thing as electronics repair classes in high school or community College, I'd say I'm doing pretty good by getting to the point that I have in electronics repair by myself with the help of these forums and the internet.

What Notime was suggesting is that you're struggling to understanding the fundamentals(small stuff), yet you so desire to fix very complex problems, things that required advanced troubleshooting skills even back in the day. Electronics is simply one of those disciplines that if you don't "learn yourself" the most basic elements, you may never be able to find your own way. There simply is not a canned answer for many of the problems you'll encounter, not even in advanced text books of the past, so you need to become quite well versed in the basics in order to find your own way. The B&K 1076 I mentioned earlier - being it's old, all tube, and quite a complex piece of test equipment, I fear if it has stopped working when you get it, or stops working at some point, you will just have wasted the shipping money on a useless paperweight. No one here is scolding you, but there simply is not a way for any of us to help you advance beyond your own willingness to teach yourself.