|
If you want to make that TV play reliably, that means replacing all of the electrolytic and paper capacitors. That is probably a few dozen caps. Not knowing who lives in your area, it's impossible to know how much they would charge. Presumably they would charge you the cost of the new parts -- say, something under $50 -- plus their labor charge for the hours spent replacing caps.
Once the old caps have been replaced, it's possible the TV might just work. Or, you might have to fix some other problem, such as a burned-out flyback transformer, which was the reason the owners retired it in the first place. Or, you might have to fix a couple of other problems. It's like finding a 60-year old car in a barn. Looks cute, but what needs fixing? Does it have worn-out rings, a chewed-up transmission, a busted axle? Impossible to guess by staring at the outside.
Until you recap it, you can't usually play it long enough to uncover other problems. So a repair guy needs to spend a minimum number of hours just getting it to that state. Once it is sort-of working, then you can use conventional diagnostic methods to locate other problems and estimate how much they'll cost to fix.
In 1952, someone might have been able to fix this TV by just popping in a new tube or whatever. Today is decades later. What the TV needs now is restoration -- that's far more work than a quick easy fix.
Phil Nelson
|