I did the heat method. there is a you tube on how to remove the s...

Hey bluenorm,

Just curious, where in Wisconsin did you find this beauty?

HAHA I didn't pay close enough to the OP, Should've directed the question to Kevin not bluenorm.

It was in a small out building next to a log home. :para:

Kevin

Was going to keep my hands out of this thing for a while, but it's been calling out to me. :sadwave:

So I did I little housekeeping, so I could see better what obviously might need fixing.

The HOT was totally cooked and open to air, and someone had replaced the 6AU4 damper with a 6DE4, is this an acceptable replacement? Also, the plastic focus shaft was cooked, and that fell off when I dusted.

Then I noticed the HOT's plate cap wire was cracked and has what looks like a drip of melted insulation on it. :scratch2: Have not pulled the HV cover yet. I have a new 6DQ5, but something tells me this ain't going to be one of those plug and play sets some of you guys find. :no:

In the process of getting the SAMS. Would appreciate any advise from you RCA experts. I have not applied any power yet.

Kevin

That set sure cleans up nice! That cracked HOT and improper damper would be a red flag for me. Once you get to where you are doing your first power-up, the HOT cathode current would be one of the first things to check. If it runs high (more than 230mA) it can cook the flyback or red-plate the HOT until it melts the glass and looses vacuum (maybe what has already happened). a reading between 180 and 210mA is the safe zone for that. Take your time and enjoy this beauty, I'm finally getting my CTC-9 up and running after owning it for two years so there's noting wrong with taking your sweet time. It's better than rushing and breaking something LOL! Good luck and keep us updated.

Thanks! I enjoy dusting and mopping old stuff. :D

Think I'll test the rest of the tubes and proceed from there.

Nice to see there are several people here from WI.

Kevin

Among the preliminaries, clean all the pots and don't overlook the service switch, which tripped me up once. While you have each tube out to test it, clean its pins with very fine sandpaper or whatever you prefer.

Re the 6AU4/6DE4 replacement, the Nostalgia Air database ( http://www.nostalgiaair.org/Tubes/ ) lists 6DE4 as a sub for 6AU4 (with an asterisk) but not vice versa. You can also look up data sheets at a site like http://tubedata.tigahost.com/tubedata/ for more details.

I'll let smarter people advise you when & how to apply power (perhaps with HOT pulled, for instance?). My advice is usually to replace all electrolytics before powering up, but I've been known to bring up an as-is set on a metered variac to see what happens, so do what I say, not what I do :)

The HV cage has a circular cover that you can slide open to peek at the flyback. One of my CTC-11 flybacks has dripped a fair amount of wax but the set has played trouble-free for many hours in that state, so dripped wax alone isn't a death sign. If it doesn't look completely burned up, I'd assume it's OK for the moment.

Phil Nelson

Thanks, Phil!

Kevin

What part of Wisconsin are you from? Kenosha here.

About 50 miles North of Eau Claire up US 53, little town of Barron.

Took a peek under the high voltage cover, not too ugly under there.

Kevin

Flayback looks nice, that's a good sign. The one in my '9 was all dirty, but it all cleaned off with soapy water and looks almost new now. I agree with Mark about the current readings, I did a lot of work to the '9 and finally got it to stabilize at 179ma. My 4 and 7 both run at 200ma, but I always try to shoot for the lowest possible number.

Kevin, do you go down to Eau Claire very often? If so there's a great little electronics parts supply house there that you should check out called Bushland Electronics. It's always fun to go in there whenever I'm in town. They do have a lot of vintage TV parts. Anyway, they are on South Hastings Way behind WEAU-TV so pretty easy to find.

Matt,

Been in there a few times. I went to Chippewa Valley Technical College back in 83-84 for electronic servicing. Another neat place is Indianhead Electronics downtown on Barstow, thats the place in the old church. I called them today and they still had a new SAM’s folder for my TV.:D Unfortunately both of these places threw out a lot of their old TV parts years ago. Sam at Indianhead told me they had a big dumpster filled with NOS CRT's.:tears:

Kevin

Bushland Radio
 

Funny you should mention Bushland Radio. I made 2 trips up there about 6 weeks ago to clean out his inventory of NOS picture tubes. It took two trips with my trailer and full size Ford Econoline van to get them all back to Milwaukee.
56 NOS crt's in all. Mostly newer types.

He must be one of the last old time independent distributors in the state. Unfortunately he dosent own a computer and has a disdane for the internet or it would be convenient to query him to see if he had an old part or two. He still has lots of NOS inventory. Pretty good supply of old flybacks and yokes too. GE vacuum tubes. He is a Channel Master Distributor. I would have made him an offer to buy all his old Merit, Thordarson and Haldorsen, but he was not in the mood to do any liquidating of inventory. He would rather sell a part here and there at todays market prices.

Very Nice fellow. His name is Roland Bushland and you can get the phone number by Googleing Bushland Radio in EauClaire Wi. IF you need a part give him a call, perhaps he might just have what you need.

Good Luck