Ozone smell HV voltage cage.
 

I am working on getting this 1950 Mercury 106 chassis up and running. Last night I did my first successful power on. Now I am tracking down remaining issues.

So I am getting an ozone smell coming from the HV cage, I am not able to see anything arcing or hear much of anything. I can see that it appears this is not a new issue as there is a lot of insulating goop all over the socket of the 1k2.

I am going to wait for dark and try to look again for any signs of arcing but I am not wanting to run it very long. I ordered some MG Chemicals Super Corona Dope and I am thinking about just painting it on over the stuff that is already coated if I cannot find where it is exactly arcing.

Does anyone have any tips on what I should do? I realize I do ask a lot of questions but I am new to TVs and am learning as go.

Thanks in advance!
Chris

Any conductor with sharp points will be more likely to produce corona. It looks like there are a lot of them there. More insulation may do the trick, but if not, the solder joints may need to be more rounded.

Thanks! Well, I found without the HV cage it stops. So hopefully that will help me find where it is producing the corona.

Get some GC Carona Dope and coat all bare solder connections.

Try breathing over it in the dark. The moisture in your breath will encourage any weak points to produce a corona.

Thanks! I have it on the way. I ordered some today.

WOW!! That was AWESOME! I did exactly as you said and corona appeared! I can see exactly what pin in the socket that is causing it.

Seriously, thank you. I would have never known this.

While waiting for the corona dope to arrive, I would carefully clean everything in the high voltage compartment -- including the inside of the cage cover -- using rubbing alcohol.

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

Thanks! I am working on that now.

The ozone smell has gone away more or less right now. But it will still come back if I blow directly on the HV rectifier. Is there risk of damaging my flyback or anything if run the test for testing?

So I couldn't keep myself from working on the set a little bit. This is the picture I have after around 5 minutes of run time. Still a few issues to work out and the yoke is not sitting correct but the TV chassis is on its side.

I think is pretty decent for a TV that hasn't ran in 50 years. I was expecting a lot worse. This TV has had a lot of repair work over the years, rebuilt CRT, replacement flyback, a load of different brand tubes, it might even have had the power transformer replaced.