Finally, the work on te packard bell has begun...
 

Almost one year ago, Eric H was kind enough to pick up a 1964 Packard Bell Roundie for me. Being swamped with work at the time, i basically went to his workplace to get it, took it home and put it in the workshop.
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/att...3&d=1162526292 http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/att...4&d=1162526292
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/att...5&d=1162526292
Where it has sat ever since....until today.

I was cleaning things out and thought...."It's time to get to that packard." I pulled numerous boxes of parts and junk out and underneath was the set just as I had left it. I cleared out the inside of the cabinet and dusted everything off. The chassis swings out like me heathkit, and boy is it packed!
This is an actual Packard Bell design, and not a clone of another company. I tried to variac it, but it started pulling two amps as soon as I got to 30 volts. The electrolytics in the PS have no shorts, however one of the main rectifiers was shorted.

The chassis has been serviced many times judging by the scores of different mis matching caps in various parts of the set. The tech also did a shotty job of replacing the diodes, not to mentioning only using .75 amp 250v diodes :stupid:
The small .001 ceramic cap that shunts the diode is also bad. It measured 500 ohms out of circuit.

Further troubleshooting in the power supply is necessary due to the heater line being dragged down by a short somewhere. The heater line gets very hot and the voltage is getting pulled down to about 3.7 volts. Time to pull the tubes and track down the short.

The CRT was replaced with a ColorRama in 67 (?), however it was tired. 10 minutes on the beltron and all three guns came back to life with equal emission and a long interrupt test. This is the first RCA CRT I've seen that has the green Halo rather than the PVA cataract.

The cabinet is also trashed on top. I can probably resurrect the sides as they are, but the top will need to be refinished.

This set is probably one of the biggest challenges I have come up against in a long time. The condition of the patient is still unknown until i get its heart beating again. It may be some time before I get back to this thread with all the stuff going on right now, but I hope to get this set on its way to fully functional again and take some "after" pictures to show it off while I'm at it :D

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My family's first color set was a '66 Packard Bell, rectangular CRT, but the same chassis. Not surprised you see evidence of a lot of repairs because I recall that set being serviced an awful lot. I'd call it a lemon...but it was the family's main watcher more or less continuously for almost ten years.

My first color TV was a Packard-Bell 21CT7, which was a roundie but it was the later flat-chassis. I think it was a '68 model. Mine had a 21FBP22 with separate safety glass. I have a soft spot for those...

Charles

Maybe SgtRob would want to comment on this set... He got one with that chassis from me a couple years ago, and has restored it beautifully!

Charles

Hey Jordan, good to see this set again!
Can't wait to see how it works.

I have a spare Packard Bell chassis that appears similar to this one if you happen to need parts. I have already sent one part from it to a person in Italy.

The CRT in the set was toast and the wood case heavily water damaged, so they were tossed.

(My wife would agree with David Roper-Her families first color TV was a Packard Bell that needed repair quite often. Her families second color TV was a Zenith that did not need repair for 10 years).

Huh... I never would have guessed those sets to be unreliable... I see a big power X-fomer, and no circuit boards... Sounds like an alternate universe Zenith to me. (I'd also love to have one!)

Only thing I remeber being bad about Packard-bell was that the motherboard would self-destruct if you unpluged the keyboard with the power on; although I would expect that isn't the case here, lol.

Game Over!
 

Hmmmm.

Well, I worked over the power supply, replacing caps and installed two new rectifiers --only to run into another problem.

The problem with a short in the heater line has been found. Its the transformer :tears:

I isolated the heater lines from the transformer and there is near infinite resistance with all the tubes removed. However its a dead short between the heater winding and ground. Even disconnecting the lead still results in the tranny getting hot and eventually tripping the breaker on the variac at about 60 volts :no:

Since I have no service literature I can't find a suitable replacement. The model # and chassis # tags are missing so there is no way to identify the set.

This one is dead in the water, boys. Don't think this patient will recover :tears:

Jordan:

You should be able to find a Sams for it. There weren't that many Packard Bell color sets made at that time. I just looked in the Sams index and a 21CC5 is in that time frame. If you have access to Sams just start looking through the folders and you a bound to find the correct chassis.

Steve

Jordan; If the filament winding is the only problem with the xfmr, you could try repairing it yourself. The filament windings are usually the last to be wound. They are usually a few turns of large gauge wire depending on the current rating. You will have to disassemble the iron core to access the windings. There are several sites on the internet that could guide you through it. Good luck. Fred

Yeah, its probably repairable. Worth opening it up to look. Also, Is that a voltage doubler power supply? For what it's worth, you can probably substitute some common transformer. Maybe ctc-12-15. Voltage doublers in roundies are almost all alike. See if you can find the sams. If you just had some voltage specs to work with, it should be possible.

John

Jordan, see post #7 above. :yes:
Perhaps a transformer is available?

Good point Eric. I'll shoot him a PM and find out.

Don't want to pull a tranny apart unless I have to.

Is this the power transformer? My Thordarson book only lists 2 PB roundies.

Your chassis is either 98C3/4, 98C6, 98C7C/D/E, 98C8.

26R150 subs from RCA CTC 7 to CTC 15.


polaraman

As mentioned earlier, I do have a Packard Bell chassis in my garage that appears to be similar, if not the same as this one. If you need parts, let me know.

Thanks for that info polaraman --it is the power transformer. I will look for spare parts chasssis if I can't get my hands on a transformer.

If anyone has sams for any of the above listed chassis I would be interested in them. I have been unsuccessful so far in locating a sams around here and in the library.

Let me know, and thanks in advance.

Packard Bell Made TV's???/
All I know is PC's in the early ninties!

oh yes, radios too. I think they stopped making sets in the mid 70s.

I'm as surprised as you are.

If their TV's are like the computers they made, I wouldn't take one even if somebody wanted to pay me to take it. Their computers are a troubleshooting NIGHTMARE!

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The Packard-Bell name was bought by a firm in Chatsworth, CA in the late 80s. Previously, the name belonged to the aerospace firm Teledyne, since they took over the original TV factory on Olympic Blvd in Los Angeles in the early 70s. There were a bunch of 70s-era Teledyne-Packard-Bell TVs, then the name was gone 'till it showed up 20 miles north and 20 years later. That Packard-Bell PC company was a short-lived operation. It started in about 1989, grew to occupy 5 or 6 large 25,000 sq ft buildings in Chatsworth, then came to a crashing halt (literally) at 4:31 AM on January 17, 1994. After most all their concrete tilt-up buildings got leveled by the Northridge Earthquake, they moved someplace else, but only lasted a year or so.

Interestingly, the Packard-Bell PC company relabeled a few Toshiba TVs as Packard-Bell. They were only sold to Packard-Bell employees, and I only ran across 2 of them at the TV shop I was working at in Chatsworth. It was 3 blocks from Packard-Bell.

Back on topic, I may have the factory manual for that set. If so, it's still up at the old place in Santa Clarita. I'll look for it next time I go there.

Charles

The CTC-7 would be the later chassis (1958/59) that used a doubler circuit, instead of the two 5U4's used in the earlier chassis (1957/58).
Interesting chassis. I recall seeing a Sams for their first color chassis that used the "donut" shape. Looks like the chassis swings out for repair/adjustment.
Kevin

I did some digging:
chassis 98C3 & 98C4 are in Sams 546-1
chassis 98C6 is in 614-2
chassis 98C7C (which includes model 21CC5, mentioned earlier) is in 685-1
chassis 98C7D, 98C7E & 98C8 are in 744-3

The only one of these I have is the last one. If you'd like it, send me a PM with your address. From the photo on the front, the control panel is the same. Uses a 6JE6 horizontal output.

Update:

After Moving to a new house the last couple of weeks I dug out the packard again.The transformer I got from peverett is in and I brought up the set on the variac with the HO pulled. Nothing got hot and no smells. I popped in the HO and crossed my fingers.

We have a raster!!!!!

The width is a little lacking on the right side, but the set is all original as far as I can tell. At least now I know I probably won't have to part it out.

:banana:

That's great news! Not to be nosey, but are you still in the SD area? I still need to get out to see your collection some day!

Charles

Yup! still in the SD area, just a little north west of where I was before!

Oh this sounds so great guys.... another roundie wakes from a deep dark slumber... i wonder if it will recognise a world full of set top boxes and DVD players?

I really hope this set can get going... Love the looks and chassis.