Also, see if you can get it to lock by reducing your width and vertical size. Remember, once in the cabinet it won't take up 100% of the picture tube face.

Can kind of get my horizontal to lock now. It wobbles from side to side a bit but the vertical is impossible to lock. I can get it to slow down a bit but it wont lock no matter what I do. Swapped out the already good 6k6 vertical out tube to no effect. Assuming off value resistors in the vertical section or possibly the sync sep circuit.

Man, oh Maniechewicz, I've been following this tale, & I sure do wish you could get this Bad Boy "Pinned Down"... I have a feeling, though, that you are SILLY close, & when its over & done, we'll ALL be going, "Yeah, I FIGGERED it was that D@mn XYZBR-549 gonkulator... They ALWAYS give trouble...

Is it approaching lock mid range, or at one extreme or the other?

Assuming that you can make it "freewheel" in both directions and the picture is linear, I'd check voltages and resistances starting from the 6BA6 sync amp and work my way forward. Since the set's 95% there, let the set tell you what to do.

Eventually you're going to hit a reading that makes you go "ooooh, that's it".

Can get both to come close to locking its either slowly moving vertical and somewhat stable horizontal or both are out of sync. Depends on where I rotate the hold switches.

Riders mentions the AGC can affect the sync on this Admiral - see page 4-13 (26 0f 66 in the PDF on the ETF site). It says the AGC voltage should be about -5 volts, and if not, it can affect the sync.

OK so should I start at the agc or the sync sep? I can barely get the horizontal to lock but the vertical is impossible to lock.

Test the resistances at both tubes, compare them to the chart in the Sams and see what you get.

Found some off value resistors in the vertical section. Put some new resistors in although I am not finished and it almost locks just barely moving up in a slow speed. Now the horizontal is pretty weak I can get it to just barely lock but it loses sync quickly. Off value resistors in the horizontal circuit? I also noticed a broken, cut in half 68 ohm resistor going to the horizontal drive variable capacitor could that be a big issue?

Yes - that 68 ohm resistor feeds the grid of the horizontal output tube. No way can it work without it so there must be another connection to the grid.

Thanks for the input Bob. Will replace that and see what I get!

You should also check to see what is connected to that 6BG6 horizontal output tube grid first. There's no way for you to have any HV or raster with that resistor cut in half unless it's being bypassed somewhere.

replaced pretty much all the resistors in the vertical and sync sep circuits. Vertical still rolls but extremely slow but I still cant get it to lock completely. The horizontal is semi lockable but only at low brightness and contrast settings. This is after I replaced all the paper caps in the whole chassis and all the resistors pretty much in the vertical and sync sep section. Also replaced the 8500 ohm damper cathode resistor after it checked out at 1.5 MEGS! What to do now? I am somewhat confused why my vertical will not lock.

I am not an expert by any stretch of imagination. If you can get the vertical to stop rolling but not lock on, it seems as though you are not getting the sync pulse. Have you checked the sync circuit? If it providing proper sync, you should be able to turn the vertical almost from end to end and still have a stable picture.

Well the sync section which is half of the vertical osc 6sn7 and the 6au6 sync sep have had all of the resistors and capacitors replaced in the circuit. Only thing that might be an issue is that I burned a .1 cap too much with my soldering iron and I think that cap may be bad. But that cap goes from a pin on the vertical output tube to the damper and that cap doesnt seem to have much to do with any vertical or sync circuitry. Should I replace that cap? all of the tubes are new ones that I replaced the old bad ones with so I am not sure where to go from here! :scratch2: