Hotpoint 14S202 ("Q" Line) Looking for a ghost

[cameronflyer]

Hello all,
I wasn't going to put this set up at all because it its not a very complex, challenging or particularly interesting set. But! As with anything built or rebuilt by man things happen. I finished it up last night after letting it sit on the bench looking at me for a couple of months.
The reason it took so long was entirely my fault. When I got the set I figured it would be a fun afternoon project.All I needed to do was recap and check and replace a few resistors or so I thought. After replacing all the parts and powering it up I noticed no matter what I did I couldn't get full vertical sweep without fold-over at the bottom of the picture. I checked and rechecked all my work. Replaced parts I didn't think were bad just because they were in the circuit. Went over voltages and waveforms with a fine tooth comb. I couldn't find anything wrong so I put her back on the shelf in frustration. Over the weeks I would occasionally take her down and go over everything again, still finding nothing.
Well, last night I started on her again but this time I not only went through every trace wire and part to confirm they were all in the correct place, for the first time I went over every cap. value as well. About halfway through the checks I ran across an incorrect cap value on the grid of the 12BH7A vertical output tube. The schematic called for a .022uf and I had installed a .0022. When I went to the drawer labeled .022 I found a few caps with .0022uf in there. Obviously I put the wrong cap in that drawer at some point in the past. When I installed the correct cap and powered her up everything worked great after only a few minutes of alignment.
Sorry to make this tread so long. I only wanted to post it to prove a point. I have been working on televisions for a living for about 25 years now and I missed something as simple as a cap value. The moral of the story is this. If you are sure you have done everything right and the set still doesn't work look back at what you did, and you will usually find the problem.

Don't apologize for that little set at all. I think they're great and are certainly harder to find than their GE twins. There's a couple of guys on here who like to trash them, but don't let them deter you as there's a lot more who like them. They seem to work really well in spite of their inexpensive origins. It's easy to see why GE cornered the market on portables at the time.

[zeno]

Originally Posted by cameronflyer

Sorry to make this tread so long. I only wanted to post it to prove a point. I have been working on televisions for a living for about 25 years now and I missed something as simple as a cap value. The moral of the story is this. If you are sure you have done everything right and the set still doesn't work look back at what you did, and you will usually find the problem.

Self induced problems & bad new parts are the worst to deal with, its
happend to all of us. Thats why I always say take it slow & test as you
go especially with recaps.

73 Zeno

[old_coot88]

Originally Posted by zeno

Self induced problems & bad new parts are the worst to deal with, its happend to all of us. Thats why I always say take it slow & test as you go especially with recaps.

73 Zeno

Yup

[Sandy G]

Virtually ANY tube-based TV or radio is worthy of saving/restoration. IMHO. After all, the NEWEST ones are 40-odd years old now, & that's only gonna get worse.

[DaveWM]

I have system that prevents this. I keep my eye tube cap tester on hand, pull the old cap, put on tester set for value and null the eye. even really badly leaky caps will get some kind of null. leave the settings alone, grab the new cap, put it on the tester, you should be in the ball park of the null setting. On a 10x difference like you have it become obvious that the wrong value is being replaced. After confirming value switch to leak test and confirm the new cap is indeed good to go. I have had new china yellows that were shorted.

My cap tester gets a lot of use when recapping.