Accidentially bought a ge locomotive tv

[fumplet]

I bought a ge locomotive and a motorola 7vt5r in cincinnatti. Just a wiggle of a few tubes to get them to light and It got raster. It reminds me of the top board in an atwater kent 40 radio. Havnt hooked my converter box to it yet to see if it gets sound, picture. Its been somewhat recapped and has old paper caps in a few spots but Ive never seen so many dry electrolytic caps all lined up before. Should I run it and see how it performs or replace the dry caps first? Id guess a bunch more of these caps need to go.
Cabinet is flawless and has all knobs.

[kvflyer]

It looks as though some restoration may have been done. Large electrolytic capacitors have numbers on them, could they have been "Stuffed"? I think I see some blue radial lead capacitors which may be replacements?

Black Sprague capacitors with red lettering could also be Mylar and still good, or a former repair.

[bandersen]

Yeah it's been at least partially recapped.

[fumplet]

I didnt even think to look to see if the dry ones had been restuffed...will look

[Chris K]

It's one of the more difficult chassis to work on. Things are very crowded and the cabinet affords almost no access to do much of anything. Tube replacement requires complete removal of the chassis from the cabinet. Very cool looking and I love the one I restored but not designed with service in mind.

[Chris K]

Originally Posted by fumplet

I didnt even think to look to see if the dry ones had been restuffed...will look

That'll be interesting. Probably not. Most "Restuffers" are OCD restorers who want to keep the originality look but get modern function and reliability. I see lots of original parts in there still including the rectifiers, although they may have been disconnected and left in place. The new caps don't look like they have been carefully and neatly installed. Hey, if it works, who cares what it looks like under the chassis especially on this TV where you need to practically tear it apart to take a look.

[kvflyer]

Originally Posted by Chris K

That'll be interesting. Probably not. Most "Restuffers" are OCD restorers who want to keep the originality look but get modern function and reliability. I see lots of original parts in there still including the rectifiers, although they may have been disconnected and left in place. The new caps don't look like they have been carefully and neatly installed. Hey, if it works, who cares what it looks like under the chassis especially on this TV where you need to practically tear it apart to take a look.

I've not worked on a GE Locomotive set but I have seen pictures of below deck. They appear to be layered and difficult to work on.

[bandersen]

Hands down my least favorite chassis to work on. Nearly impossible to probe and troubleshoot. However, they do produce a great picture.

[fumplet]

Originally Posted by Chris K

That'll be interesting. Probably not. Most "Restuffers" are OCD restorers who want to keep the originality look but get modern function and reliability. I see lots of original parts in there still including the rectifiers, although they may have been disconnected and left in place. The new caps don't look like they have been carefully and neatly installed. Hey, if it works, who cares what it looks like under the chassis especially on this TV where you need to practically tear it apart to take a look.

I probably wont ever be neat installing the rest of the caps. On a higher note its the cleanest outside and inside tv I have ever bought. Most of the few tvs I have purchased have the whole garden plus 15 years of dirt and jimmy hoffa in side to clean. This one looks like its practically stuck in a dishwaser clean! NO, the dry electrolytic caps have not been restuffed, just magic marker labeled by someone probably troubleshooting. I think I will get all filter caps replaced before I see how it performs. I dont yet know where the rectifiers are yet... oh wait as Im typing this just saw them and diodes along side the selenium rectifiers spotted so thats good.

[bandersen]

Good. The one and only time I had selenium rectifiers go up in smoke was in one of these chassis. A smell I won't soon forget!

[kvflyer]

Originally Posted by bandersen

Good. The one and only time I had selenium rectifiers go up in smoke was in one of these chassis. A smell I won't soon forget!

The last selenium rectifier that went up in smoke was when my Dad was working on something when I was a kid. I'm 76 now and I can still smell that stink!

[fumplet]

testing the picture tube now and it doesnt even make the needle move up the scale on my sencore cr 70 when I adjust for cutoff. So I dont even know where to set the cut off knob for emissions for an acurate emissions test. cutoff knob setting location does affect the emissions reading. It is the Im guessing original tube because it does have the ge symbol on the tube pin base.
I guess cutoff knob position doesnt matter when measuring for emissions? No cutoff then your not supposed to care about emissions?

[Allison Rae]

We have a GE 10T4 in the wooden cabinet that is going to be a future restoration here and its 10FP4 CRT is shot based on our BK 467. so far I get the impression that when theses set run they are really reliable but when they break they are a major pain.

[bandersen]

If I remember right, the CR70 does not use the cutoff knob setting when testing emissions. It's fixed internal bias. Maybe you have a bad joint on the CRT base. Try reflowing the pins

[fumplet]

when in the emissions test function, varying the cutoff varies the needle when in emissions test. When in the emissions test function, varying the cutoff varies the needle when in emissions test.
Trying to resolder the g1 pin and still nothing. Never seen one have zero needle movement when cutoff is adjusted in cutoff test. cutoff does seem to affect emissions test, I can make the needle go from just below the cutoff box all the way to well into the good zone when set to emissions while adjusting the cutoff knob so if cutoff isnt supposed to affect the emissions setting or test then this tester is not working correctly