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I just brought home a Crosley 9-408 tv that is all original with no repairs having been previously done. It looks nearly new especially the underside with it's numerous paper/wax capacitors. All the tubes are RCA with date codes ranging from the 11th-22nd week of 1948 with the exception of the two 5U4G's which are Sylvania.
I powered it up on a dimbulb tester with a 250 watt heat lamp and it passed that test. I also have an early RCA 630 TS that I electronically restored with the ever popular "shotgun" method of replacing all the Paper/wax caps and re-stuffing all the electrolytic caps. The set has been working quite well now for four years. While on the dimbulb tester I monitored the current draw with a kill a watt. The Crosley drew only a few watts less than the RCA.
The previous owner said the set worked and provided photographic proof. This mans father is a retired tv tech that fixed old tv's he is nearly 90.
I cautiously powered the set up on a power conditioner for a computer at a line voltage of 120 volts. I also hooked it up to a dvd player and applied a signal. After about 15 seconds I got a raster and after some fiddling with the brightness, horizontal, vertical and contrast I got horizontal and vertical sync and after a minute or so a fairly stable picture that looked quite good! Current draw was 295 watts, about 5 watts less than my RCA. I did not leave the set to run for more than a few minutes fearing that something might give out.
I was quite amazed that this was even possible! All the capacitors, resistors and even wiring looks nearly new. The resistors under the 1B3 have only a little dust and no carbon build up on them. I could even read the color bands easily after brushing the dust away. This set seems to have very few hours on it.
Unfortunately I don't have any tools for trouble shooting radio and tv other than a DMM which can measure resistance, capacitance, inductance, frequency and diode test. I do have a good digital soldering station.
The one job I enjoy the least is re-stuffing the electrolytic cans! After reading much of this thread I am convinced that it may not always be necessary.
Any suggestions? I will try to post some pictures of my set soon.
Thanks in advance!
Paul D.
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