Zenith 27KC0Q (Chancellor) resto and swap thread

[Carmine]

Hello everyone. Long time since I've made a real posting here, life can get in the way... While I have not given up my love of old TVs, I have decided to get serious about what I can honestly restore and display in my lifetime. I've been rounding up all the stuff I had stored in various rental houses into one commercial building as I try to thin the heard. The most attractive way for me to do this is exchange restoration labor for "desirable" sets... That way I can get some enjoyment NOW instead of when I retire and disappear off the grid into a little shed full of tubes on a Caribbean island.

A FB poster (who I've invited to join VK) helped me get it kicked off by purchasing the Zenith Danish Mod combo AND PROMISING NOT TO GUT THE TV SECTION. ESPECIALLY BECAUSE IT STILL WORKS. He chose a shipper that appear to be based in the Chicago area. Here is that set:



BTW, weird thing here is the set is not hooked to any antenna/digital convertor, yet it was picking up some kind of signal on UHF?!?!

Since this set had to go to Baltimore, I was hoping for a good deal if I could send the shipper back home with a load. Thinking of all the TV people who live in Chicagoland-ish, I recalled that ElectronicM was interested in my Sylvania Silhouette that I grabbed out of NY state about 16.-17 years ago. Halo and CRT worked, never went further than that. Stress crack at right corner that should repair and something small under the nameplate. Here is that set:




Knowing that Tom did an awesome job restoring a Chancellor once already, I asked if he'd like to take mine on. Look at this sad thing:



For once, someone is correct when they see a cataract and say "tHe PiCkSuRE tUBe iz bRoKen!"



I got him to take on the radio/amp by throwing this (plus parts cost for everything) into the mix:



Which leaves me here...



and with a pile of stuff waiting to get shipped around the east coast and midwest, starting tonight...



More to follow

[Electronic M]

Looking forward to it.

Carmine's Halo-lite is the model I've always wanted and will be displacing a place holder Halo-lite model I've had a few years.

Wow, they necked your chancellor too...I guess when 2 non-collectors are moving 8' of 200-400 lb furniture the level of give-a-damn in those movers isn't very high.

Did you ever check if that rectangular color is a MC or NC chassis?...I like it either way but knowing which helps me know if it leaves before winter or I try and make it a permanent resident of the collection.

[Carmine]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Looking forward to it.

Carmine's Halo-lite is the model I've always wanted and will be displacing a place holder Halo-lite model I've had a few years.

Wow, they necked your chancellor too...I guess when 2 non-collectors are moving 8' of 200-400 lb furniture the level of give-a-damn in those movers isn't very high.

Did you ever check if that rectangular color is a MC or NC chassis?...I like it either way but knowing which helps me know if it leaves before winter or I try and make it a permanent resident of the collection.

Let me be fair to the shipper... He didn't neck the set. He hasn't even arrived yet. I've had this Chancellor stored for a long time and it was necked when I got it.

I didn't pull the back on the rectangular set because it's wrapped in plastic (from a move years ago) and it kind of helps protect/seal, I can try to take a peak in when I head back over to the building and meet the shipper.

[Carmine]

Photos of things waiting for the truck:

I'm sending two yokes because the original might be compromised (insulation between h/v windings) after the necking. Also my NOS cloverleaf




I just sent the control panel minus doors to keep things easier. I vacuumed the chassis, but I'm sure there is glass hiding somewhere. There always is. The TV and Stereo tuner are in another box. Yoke/Space Command are another box. Stereo amp is a third box. Three cardboard boxes in total.



Here's the Halolight. I added some stiff foam to the front and taped carboard and secured the glass. It fits tight, but this should keep it down over bumps.



The rest of these are just to help me reassemble.

[Carmine]

[Electronic M]

So I've been busy on the combo...
IMG_20240725_235219342_HDR by Tom Carlson, on Flickr

Getting close to finished now. However there are some yoke parts that it needs that I don't have. http://videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=276746

The TV was a fairly straightforward resto. I shotgunned all the paper, film and lytic caps and all resistors that had drifted high and it begrudgingly came to life...The first variac session was stopped by arcing that I traced to a aired out HV reg tube arcing internally. Damn thing came apart in my hand when I unplugged it. After fixing that I was able to eventually get focus and H-hold good enough to get a synced picture from my B&K on IF injection mode then had to work on the tuner. It was so dirty In had to play with it to get any signal and signal would fade out after a few minutes on... cleaning the contacts got solid signal but the time fade persisted which experience accurately told me was a weak tube in the tuner....there were still mechanical issues in the tuner though. It had the typical remote control motor with a stuck shaft issue (unstick and lube and your golden), and several issues with the fine tuning. The belt was bad (hardware store O-ring fixed that) the shaft that goes into the tuner housing was stuck (had to hit it with penetrating oil and vice grips to work it free) and the fine tuning gear that meshes with the channel strip gears was starting to disintegrate.... Luckily I have some Zenith tuners of this era and basic design and was able to harvest a good gear from mine.
Then I had good color and video...however no sound. It seems like the output transformer primary was open (had no plate voltage and it checked open) however when I started poking around trying to see if the open was somewhere I could get to and fix continuity magically returned and it started working :shrug: All I can figure is a cold solder joint on the tube socket (I did retouch those joints to be safe)...I could not make it relapse so I'm going to hope it stays defiantly good.
Even if it does at some point relapse the speaker relay is wired to switch audio from the TV to the stereo when the stereo comes on so if the video source he has has line level audio he can plug it into the tape input if the stereo and have objectively better audio then the TV ever had. (I get the feeling Zenith anticipated stereo FM/TV concert simulcasts of the 70s and 80s with this design)

The remote receiver just worked on my 2 test remotes post recap...I did have to bend in the dormant return limit on the volume stepper to get it close enough for the field to pull it in. After that it didn't always ratchet/close fully, but then I remembered that on these roundy color remote chassis that if they're not oriented the way they're supposed to mount in the set (which uses gravity to aid stepper pull in) they normally act weak... changing from convenient bench mounting to inconvenient but correct set mounting orientation got it 100%.

I'm about to test all the tubes, try and replace the red screen pot (it's all or nothing like the carbon track is open), do the H linearity current dip (not sure In need to since current is a very safe mild 110mA), set HV regulation (it's a touch low), and go back to the radio chassis and replace a couple of damaged FM MPX stereo decoder coils. When I worked on the tuner I didn't have any spares and managed to jury rig the originals to function, but I've since located a parts stereo with undamaged parts (I rather good originals in something like this).

[Electronic M]

I've mostly avoided touching the sets I got in trade for my labor as I wanted to earn them before potentially messing up.... Unfortunately mess up I did.
Shortly after I got the stereo chassis going I decided to do a cataract on the set I got in trade (this guy).

The tube in it is an early Chromacolor replacement and oddly enough it had RCA style glue and an RCA style cataract...When I started working on prying glue chunks out I accidentally cracked the safety glass on the side where there was a ~1/16" glue gap between it and the CRT (the other side had ~3/8" glue gap so it was mounted drunkard level crooked from factory)...when ever you crack a safety glass on an RCA cataract your automatically doomed to chiseling some of the safety glass off. Unfortunately I misjudged how deep I was going and chipped up the face of the CRT something fierce (I was really mad at myself when I realized what I'd done).
The remote set is a Y or Z year IIRC....When I expressed interest in it I thought it might be an M or N (first or second) year rectangular (something I haven't had and kinda want)... before I did the cataract I planned to fix it put the Chromacolor tube in a different rectangular set steal the tint motor (for a different space command Zenith) and flip it (as a space command 400 with a non-chromacolor CRT). Now I'm contemplating just parting it out...

On the bright side I didn't screw up the set I'm fixing for the customer...I just screwed up my set that the customer gave me in trade. Still mad at myself though...

I haven't touched the halo-lite yet but I hope to do so this weekend....I have a second, place holder, Halo-lite model that I want to unload at Radiofest in a week, but logic says don't kick out the place holder/potential parts source until the new one is electrically complete... Monochrome sets do tend to be quick fixes especially if I restore to "good enough for my collection" standards which are lower than "restored it for a customer" standards.

[Carmine]

Tom, thanks for the update I really do enjoy reading the details of the restoration. I probably wonder if I would have phone and repaired all those problems as quickly as you did. (Well I know I wouldn't have but I might have eventually.) Sorry to hear what happened with the other set. I had never looked at it closely enough to even see it contained a chroma color picture tube.