Finally started my CTC-5 recap
 

Wow, this thing has TONS of capacitors. It took me lots of hours mainly due to all of the cigarette goo. I could not read the values on any of the parts so I had to clean as I go. No flyback wax drippage. :) I like the little plug in crystal made by Midland radio. Hope it's good. I'll keep you up to date on the progress.

Mmmm yellow chinese caps. I hope you are fully testing each one before they go in. I would have started by just doing enough to test the HV. That if one flyback that can't be subbed and I almost want to say can't be found.

Caps test fine. I KNOW, I KNOW, CHINESE CAPS ARE CRAP. If all is good, I will get some USA made ones later. I have a NOS Fly that may be able to be subbed in.

Last SBE orange drops I bought from Mouser were also marked made in China on the package.

http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/...?f=19&t=187233

Probably best to find older NOS ones. I think NTE are still US made but don't quote me on that.

cool ! show pic's when its all finished ,hope all you need to do is just cap's and dont find any transformer problems, or any other hard to find parts.

What is wrong with those yellow Chinese caps? I use them almost exclusively and have had no problems. Sure I've heard of one or two testing bad prior to install that other collectors have found, but come on!....Out of the thousands bought and installed what is one or two bad ones?...0.01%!....Most of the parts these are replacing had higher escaped factory dud rates back in the 30's-60's than these yellow ones have and a MUCH higher short term mortality rate than modern caps!

Aside from lytics, even cheap film caps of today are Worlds better than old school paper and paper-film types of the past and have a MUCH higher expected lifespan.

We should count our blessings that we can EVEN GET the right values for our equipment anymore!

i agree the cap's today are far more superior than the paper ones, and the tar filled multi sides caps have high failure rate ,i agree today lytics have there issue to but take modern one anytime.

OK, got it running somewhat. I do not have the correct schematic. Found one online(ETF) in pdf form but has a different tube lineup. Theirs shows two different sets but dont match mine exactly. The issue is when I turn up the contrast, the picture blows out losing HV. Have 20KV until I turn it up. Brightness seems to work OK. Of course it starts rolling etc. BTW mine is a super.

Those are tough problems to find. How's the cathode current? If you can tell me what I'm looking for I will look through the sams later and see if I can find your chassis. As far as china goes I will not give that country one more penny towards the ownership of this one

Hey, you have a full screen!! Have you tried setting up the screen adjustments 'by the book,' yet?

Have you got a degaussing coil?

Getting roundie sets running gets better and better every time it happens!! Seemed like these sets were shunned for alot of years after rectangular screens became the norm.

I have the Sams CTC-5 manual (set 385, folder 9) in .PDF format if that would be helpful.

Send me email via http://antiqueradio.org/contact.htm if you want it.

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

IIRC, there is a mod that helps separate the brightness and contrast from interacting with each other on the Super chassis. It helps with the blooming issue as well. I can't find it online though. Maybe someone else here knows?

I have that sams 385-9. It is for the Deluxe model not the Super. The one at the ETF is correct. I must of been pretty tired and half asleep when I was looking at it. I have a degaussing coil. Any info on the contrast mod would be great. The exact model is CTC-5B. Sams may have that mod listed but unlikely.

Found the mod: http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...ontrastMod.jpg

Sounds exactly what my issue is.