finishing a Predicta Siesta restoration

[rsasnett]

By "shorting out" I assumed you meant connecting between pins 1 and 3 of the T7 coil, called "Hor Stab" in Philco component diagram, and "Hor Ringing Coil" on their schematic. I attached alligator clips between tabs 1 and 3 on the exterior of T7 (couldn't reach the pins underneath, hope that was sufficient to short it out) and restarted.

This time I had picture for at least 10 minutes!

It started out as a narrow horiz line but with some picture detail. Looked like no vertical deflection, so I tapped / wiggled the 6DR7 tube (Vert Osc & Out) and got a full raster. Was great for a while, but after 10 mins it dimmed and shrank and went away like before.

Two more restarts with no picture, then the third time I had picture for a little over 5 minutes.

So... shorting out T7 (if I did it correctly) does help -- when I get picture it stays on much longer than before. But it doesn't fix the problem.