Finally joined the club! (CTC-9 content)

[miniman82]

Last night, my dream came true. Special thanks to Mark (zenithfan), he was the one who alerted me to this one's whereabouts. It's a CTC-9F (210CK905, The Atherton), from 1959. Heavy beast must weigh at least a solid 250, I about threw my back out getting it into the apartment.

Curiosity got the best of me like it always does on the first night (I move fast, ask my wife ), and I plugged it in...


Pulled the HO tube first, just to see what would happen. Low and behold, all the (apparently original) tubes warmed up, and I heard the vertical output transformer making it's normal scanning sounds. That went well, so I plugged the HO tube back in and let 'er rip.

At first I didn't think anything was alive, but after a good 25 seconds of breathlessness horizontal came up strong all of the sudden and static on the back of the picture tube blasted away 50 years worth of dust. Tweaked the knobs on front, and: LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE A FULL RASTER!




Mark is gonna stop by this Friday with his tube tester, so we can see what the real condition of the kinescope is. After that, it's on to chassis resto, cab resto, ect. Enjoy the pics, I'll put up better ones of any angle for anyone who requests them.

Doubt I'll sleep, but I'm off to bed.

[jr_tech]

WOW! That is one pretty set!
jr

[jpdylon]

So Jealous.....

Great score!

[zenithfan1]

WOW! Looks like it's gonna be an easy one. It seems the caps hold up well in CTC9s, I've seen a few now that still work with no smoke.
I'm very glad this is working out well for you. It's a great first roundie, that's for sure. I was thinking when I was debating getting it, this one hasn't seen much use and the number of original tubes are proof. How do the the boards look? BTW, you are very welcome for the heads up. I'm just glad it went to a good home, not a fishtanker

[miniman82]

Originally Posted by zenithfan1

WOW! Looks like it's gonna be an easy one. It seems the caps hold up well in CTC9s, I've seen a few now that still work with no smoke.

K, I lied- can't sleep just yet.

I didn't pull the chassis obviously, but the only thing I saw from the tops of the boards was poly caps (brown drops?). I assume there's at least a few nasty (PIO) ones lurking 'under the hood'? Other than that, all I could see was the can caps. They were not showing any signs of distress, but they will be replaced as a safety precaution.

How do the the boards look?

Clean! The whole set, actually. Only nasty thing in the entire set is some wires that have some sort of sticky film on them, and I can definitely deal with that. I think you were right on the money BTW, this set could not have been owned by a smoker- it's too clean inside.

BTW, you are very welcome for the heads up . I'm just glad it went to a good home, not a fishtanker

hehe, me too.


Now for the bad news: the volume control is shot, stuck at slightly less than mid level. Pulled the audio output (6AQ5), to save sanity in the meantime. I hooked it up to the cable box to try and get a picture, but nothing- tuner appears to be dead, but it may just be a dud tube somewhere in the strip or whatever. Vertical control is a bit wonkey too, one direction intermittently causes a loss of vertical deflection about 2/3rds of the way into rotation. Other than that and some jacked up plastic knobs, which I'm sure I'll come across at some point, it appears I have a winnah!

Thanks, jr and jp. It's been a long time coming.

And now, I SLEEP.

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by miniman82

Clean! The whole set, actually. Only nasty thing in the entire set is some wires that have some sort of sticky film on them, and I can definitely deal with that.

That sticky goo is probably the plasticizers separating from the rest of the insulation. And the wire insulation will eventually get brittle. It'd be a PITA to have to change out all the wire, though. You probably don't have to worry about it for a few decades... Not sure if you can just wipe it off and call it done.

That stuff can also corrode the untinned copper inside the insulation. You've probably seen old line cords oozing green jel, that's copper oxide and some other yucky stuff.

[old_tv_nut]

Lovely! Enjoy your new old baby!

[zenithfan1]

Hey! I'm thinking about it now, but don't let me forget about bringing a bunch of CTC9 info that you will most likely need. You can make copies or borrow it for a week or two. I also repaired the Sencore CR-70, it was bad solder joints like we were talking about. I resoldered a bunch of suspect ones and bam! works great now.

[zenithfan1]

It does wipe off, rubbing alcohol or strong glass cleaner (I have concentrate from work) does the trick. I think you're right, they seem like they're good for a few more decades, just not sticky anymore. The reason why I cleaned them, besides it bothering me because they were also black is what you said, corrosion, seen it many times when wire is like this. Maybe it's similar to the oiliness associated with the rubber gasket on non-bonded color CRTS, they clean up well and are still supple.

[miniman82]

I guess I'll wipe it off, then. Sure is annoying when you're trying to work on an otherwise clean chassis, wires leaving nasty streaks everywhere and all.


OK, last night I pulled the chassis out to have a closer look at it. There's nothing besides the can caps, and a 2uf/350-volt 'lytic on the video amp board that I can see needs to be replaced. Everything else is either an orange drop, or a brown colored film cap. Did these come with film caps originally, or did someone already do my work for me? They look original to me, they have the same lead covering on them the resistors do.

I had a look at the volume pot, since it was having volume issues. It's a multipurpose thing having a power switch at the back, volume pot in the middle, and color pot in front. Looks like the power switch had been repeatedly slammed to the off position, because the thing had seperated causing intermittent connections on the volume control. I 'rebuilt' it, giving it a good cleaning in the process, now it works as advertized.

I also installed a composite video input jack on the video amp tube's grid, since the tuner is currently dead. This will allow me to work around the tuner, and get the thing at least running.

Put the chassis back in, fired it up. Looks like everything's working, but something's amiss with horizontal hold. I think I might have disturbed something in the circuit, because now the horizontal control is unresponsive. It's definitely getting the signal because it's trying to display a picture, but I can't get horiz to lock to investigate further. I'll look into that more tonight.

Mark: you wouldn't happen to have a small 350-volt 'lytic for the video board, would you?

[zenithfan1]

Yep, I have a spare 2 Mfd 350v that you can have. I put a sprague atom in there and had this one left over from my order. Those "brown drops" are original but they aren't always great so it would be good to check any in an area where you think there might be a problem. There are several in the horizontal section you may want to check since you are having issues there.

[miniman82]

I figured you might, since you're doing a '9 right now.

It's been my experience that the film caps never go bad, but I'll check in the section that's giving me trouble right now anyway. I think I already know what it is anyway: I bumped the horizontal hold control during chassis reinstallation, so I might have broken one of the fine wires on it. Shouldn't be a big deal, I've repaired them before.

[miniman82]

K, dug into the horiz thing. Turns out I broke the ferrite slug in the control when I installed the chassis last night, so I took it out to glue the slug back together. Once it sets, I'll probably have a rough pictureon the screen!

[miniman82]

Glue is done drying.

I get something that resembles a picture, but horizontal and vertical are a mess. I think I might be injecting the signal at the wrong spot or something, because there's too much wrong to be just one section of the set. It's more like a weak signal. I had my RCA jack coming from the LD player going to the 1st vid amp's grid, then switched it to the 2nd and it was worse (lost color). It might just be the wrong value coupling cap though, I'll fool with it some more when I get home.


Mark: if you have a degaussing coil, add that to the list of things to bring on Friday. Also, you'll need a moving van for all the sets in my garage. lol

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by miniman82

It's more like a weak signal. I had my RCA jack coming from the LD player going to the 1st vid amp's grid, then switched it to the 2nd and it was worse (lost color).

Usually video amplitudes in a TV set are significantly higher than the 2Vp-p unterminated you'd get from the player. Something like 7Vp-p, so it looking like a weak signal would make sense. So you may not be in that bad of shape.