Recapping continues, I decided to do all the lytics in the power supply.

Here's the old ones, with cardboard removed. One was already replaced, guess which one was overheating? :scratch2: My guess is the one with the tar that dripped all the way down to the bottom. That same one was oozing crud out the bottom as well.

http://miniman82.4t.com/images/Sylvania/chassis5.JPG
http://miniman82.4t.com/images/Sylvania/chassis6.JPG

For the main quad of filters, I opted to saw them apart and put new Nichicons into the remaining wafers. This method works well when you have cardboard covers to go over the tops like I have here, or when you just plain don't care what the finished product looks like. Pushing the leads through the wafer holds them securely in place, so no glue is needed.

http://miniman82.4t.com/images/Sylvania/chassis7.JPG

With the cardboard back on, no one will ever know by looking at it from the top.

http://miniman82.4t.com/images/Sylvania/chassis8.JPG


The remaining small value caps were soldered in underneath the chassis, since there is ample room on this particular set. It's nice to have some space to work with here, RCA's are typically pretty cramped under the hood.

Here's the video processing side of the chassis, with new caps installed. The only ones I have left are the .22uf ones, they should be coming from Allied early this week.

http://miniman82.4t.com/images/Sylvania/chassis9.JPG

I used the variac to form the new caps today, everything went as expected. Nothing blew up or got hot, and it looks like the power supply is working like it's supposed to. I also have a nice horizontal waveform going to the output tube grid, so next time I power it up I'll likely test HV output and find out if that pesky Corotron tube does it's job. Hope those caps come soon...

Nick, how do you get the cardboard covers off the capacitors intact? I could not figure out how on my RCA 8TS30.

I have usually been able to pull cardboard covers off after softening the tarry adhesive with a heat gun. Some of that tar is really tenacious, but with patience the heat gun usually works. In a couple of cases I got impatient and slit the cover up one side with a razor to speed the process. After restuffing, I glued the cover back together and put the slit side where it wasn't visible.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

What is the type number of the Corotron tube? I've got loads of TV tube pulls.

It's not a glass tube, it's a metal regulator. Very hard, if not impossible to find. If it's bad, I'll end up doing the 6BK4 mod to control HV.

Just for kicks though, the numbers from the side of the tube are:

13-93967
M125-24

Part number in Sams is:

624-0004

Chris, I got lucky on these caps. Sometimes I can just grasp and twist and they come right off like these ones did, other times I end up removing them from the chassis to do something a little more drastic. One time I placed a cap in a plastic bag and dunked it in boiling water to loosen the old tar, seemed to work out OK. Most times it's a total loss and the tar is on there too good, so you end up cutting them off like Phil said.

Oh, I see. I wondered why I'd never heard of this before... Hey, If I had found one, You'd been welcome to it!!

Bruce

It's only used on a few sets that I know of, this one and the Philco prototype that Folsom has. Keep your eyes peeled, if you find one I'll definitely take it! :thmbsp:

can you take a picture of that regulator?I would be more than happy to check Fair Radio for it. They probably have a million things that are not in their catalog because they only have one or two of them. I have walked the building for hours and found all sorts of interesting things

Sure, here ya go.

http://miniman82.4t.com/images/Sylvania/chassis10.JPG

It was also used in the my Motorola 16CK1 15" color set, but the one in my Motorola was bad, so I had to do the 6BK4 mod to it.

I found the company on the net and sent an email, but I don't think they will be of much help. These things always seem to end up being a wild goose chase.

The contemporary GE set used a corotron as well.

Thank you both for the notes. I am going to start restuffing the electrolytics on my CT-100, so I plan to try the "untwist the prongs" method on some or all of them.

The Sylvania set is a nice project, I look forward to your success with its restoration.

I talked to the owner of Fair Radio. He has some of those tubes.......somewhere.

The owner is currently working on a project but will keep that tube in mind and if I see'e any he will let me know. I will start looking myself next time I go in.

There are plenty of hiding places for oddball items so they might be found or might not but I will keep you posted. I have seen them there before, but where............

Ran up the chassis to check HV last night, got a solid 21kv so it looks like the Corotron is still good. After making a few checks, I discovered that the B++ line was at only 40 VDC. Tracing it back to it's source revealed an open 1600 ohm 15 watt power resistor, replacing it fixed the problem. Then while attempting to pass a luma ladder through the front end, I also noticed that AGC was really unstable. Finally it quite working all together, and there was no signal. Problem again ended up being a bad power resistor feeding the IF and tuner, this time an 1100 ohm 10 watt job. I don't have one of those laying around, so repairs will have to wait till I can ge that resistor replaced. Apparently they used some pretty low quality resistors in this chassis...

I love it. Wondering here how long the designers of this set wanted it to last anyway? Most of those guys are dead and gone now. We owe it to them to keep these sets operating. This helps to keep them in our memories, and they arent really gone, then, are they?

I look forward to seeing this set producing its first images.

Bruce

I doubt they were meant to last more than 5-10 years, the fact that any are around at all is a testament to good engineering and a bit of dumb luck. This chassis looks like it was really run into the ground- bunch of bad/weak tubes, burnt up resistors, covered in tar and grime... It's a wonder it works at all.

Oh, BTW: Bob has graciously allowed me to borrow his HV cage, so I can have it reproduced. The one for this set was missing, so it's a very lucky thing that Bob who happens to own one of these rare sets let me copy his good one. It's at the metalworking shop right now, instead of drilled vent holes I'm going to have louvers punched into it. Should look pretty nice when it's done.

I noticed the logo looked suspiciously like "Victoreen" which sparked (no pun intended) up my curiosity since I have a cinema projector xenon lamphouse that uses a victoreen spark gap to ignite the bulb and was shorted.

Anyway, Some light googling led me to this page.. is this of any help for people with bad Corotrons?

http://www.logwell.com/products/HV_regulators.html

These are all 'low(er)' voltage devices, the 20+kv ones weren't made for very long.

I located a 1k 15 watt resistor on another chassis, so I harvested it. Installed it and was able to pass a luma ladder no problem, so the resistor appears to have fixed the problem. Plugged the set back in, and I didn't have too much trouble making this happen.

http://miniman82.4t.com/images/Sylvania/sylvania2.JPG

Obviously I haven't aligned or converged it at all, but this proves that all major circuits are now functioning as advertized. I don't want to go too much farther at this point, because I need to take the CRT components apart so Bob can make anode boots for his set. He's going to copy my parts to fabricate the ones his set is missing, then we will both have complete Saratogas.

After this one is back together I will proceed with the front end alignment, chroma alignment, color AFC, and finally all the setup stuff to make a really nice picture. Should take about a month.

Lookin' good Miniman! Next is my 5. Saving the best for last.

Good work, Nick. You amaze me how quickly you can get things done.

Nice work! Seeing that really makes me regret selling mine to Bob :) Oh well, they both have good homes, unlike myself :mad:

love the set.:banana::banana::banana:

Thanks guys. Couldn't resist at least a little tweaking today, after I got off work. Green still needs a touch to get it a little stronger, but this set has great color in it I just know it. :thmbsp:

Now to take it back apart, so Bob can get the templates he needs for his Saratoga CRT boots.

http://miniman82.4t.com/images/Sylvania/sylvania3.JPG

The Bars look great. Can't wait to see an actual picture. Should be fantastic.

Great job Nick as always! The set is looking really good, glad you where able to save this one as well!

Beautiful set. Very uncommon to boot. And a genuinely unusual set in it's circuit design. Everything I like in less common make roundie sets. Beautiful job getting it to play again. Love her styling.

I divorced the HV chassis from the rest of it, to make it easier to take over to the fab shop whenever they get done making my repro cage cover. This way I can make sure everything fits before I pay, and I only have to carry a light little chassis with me. While it's apart, I did some much needed cleaning. The cups on all the rectifiers needed a good scrubbing to get old tar off, and I blew out the remainder of the dust. I hope to have the new cover soon, then my chassis will be complete. Also discovered that the 3A3 rectifier was a little weak, so I put a new one in.

http://miniman82.4t.com/images/Sylvania/chassis11.JPG

Got the repro cage cover the other day, it's very nice though it cost me a pretty penny. Top notch workmanship from Fabricators Unlimited in Grayslake, everything done by hand the old fashioned way. Instead of vent holes, I had louvers punched in the side and top. They also did not use spot welds to hold the 2 parts together, instead they are TIG welded. The metal is a slightly heavier gauge than the original stuff, it's strong enough to stand on top of now. :thmbsp:

All that's left now is to shoot everything in flat black, and affix repro warning labels and tube placement charts to it. Then the chassis resto will be complete, and I'll move on to getting this thing to put a decent color image on screen.

http://miniman82.4t.com/images/Sylvania/chassis12.JPG

They really did an amazing job making that. :yes:

Nick,

I didn't realize the cover was that large. That's military grade construction to be sure.

-Steve D.

That cover looks great, Nick. I especially like how nice the louvers are made. Since there are so many CTC-5s out there missing their HV cage covers (which also have louvers), I bet this company could make excellent reproductions of them. Perhaps if enough were ordered at one time (10? 50 even?), the cost would come down.

So many of those CTC-5 HV cage covers are missing because the TV techs got tired of backing out, and then replacing, that damn 4" ( at least) screw that held the lid on.

-Steve D.

...I stand in Slack-Jawed Awe of yr handiwork on bring this old beauty back to life...GREAT Job, Sir !

I'd go in on a HV cover......the one in my CTC5 is missing.

Thanks guys. The cover on my CTC-5 was still installed on the chassis, but I got lazy and haven't put it back on since the first time I took it off. I think I could possibly come up with a better cover that comes off more easily, any takers? If I did those in quantity, I would have everything digitized so reproduction would be simple. There's a company near my house called Dynacoil that does CAD drawing and steel laser cutting, but it ain't cheap...

HV chassis is now complete. I rattle canned the cage cover with flat black inside and out, then applied the stickers. These were just pictures of the ones from Bob's set that I printed out, then stuck on with glue stick. Time now to put the whole thing back together and see about getting it to play correctly, I hope to be done with a complete run through of all the setup adjustments by the end of next week. Then final cleanup/polishing of any cabinet parts, and final assembly. I think that stuff is going to get interrupted by a flight to France, though. :thmbsp:

http://miniman82.4t.com/images/Sylvania/chassis13.JPG
http://miniman82.4t.com/images/Sylvania/chassis14.JPG
http://miniman82.4t.com/images/Sylvania/chassis15.JPG

Sweet!