1953 Motorola from Canton

[Charlie]

Yesterday, my mother and I went to the Canton Trade Days. Most everyone from Texas and neighboring states are aware of this popular flea market... known to be one of the largest in the country. This was my first time to go, and it was quite an experience! Even though we were there all day, I was unable to cover the entire grounds. From what I understand, many folks go and stay the entire weekend as I've heard it's the only way you can see everything they have to offer.

I learned the hard way... if you see something and want it, get it right then! I found a Remington 870 I wanted, and decided to come back later as I was really on a hunt for televisions. Later, it took me at least a half-hour to find that same booth again, and naturally the 12 gauge was gone.

During my walk-thru, I found 4 televisions. Here's what I saw...

First was a Moto... roughly 1955, and very similar to the '59 Moto table set I have... except for the knobs all being across the bottom. It was in nice shape, but it was the first one I found and I wanted to walk around some more.

Second, I found a mid-late 50's Zenith portable metal table set. Those are pretty common. It was originally turquois, which would have been a neat find, but someone had brush-painted it with that antique-looking finish and I decided to keep going.

Third was a 1950-ish Zenith circle set combo. This one had the larger crt in it. The cabinet was in nice shape, and the guy wanted 50 bucks for it. Unfortunately, the center of the screen had the big round spot where the phosphor had been blown off as the air rushed in. I don't know if the neck had been broken... didn't bother to look. I've always wanted one of those, but decided against it due to the CRT being toast.

Lastly, I found a 21" Moto in a bakelite cabinet. It was in decent shape and looked complete. The lady told me she had plugged it in and got some snow on the screen. Now, I don't know if she was telling the truth or not, but I told her she was very brave for doing so. I thought it was rather large for a bakelite cabinet, and decided to get it. It was marked 65, and she let me take it for 50.

Today, I gave it a quick look-over. The model number was too faded to see, but the chassis is a TS-501C. Looking at info on the TV History site, the model would be a 21T3 or 21T4 from 1953. The CRT has been replaced... it has a metal/glass RCA 21MP4 date coded 5917. My B&K 470 shows emissions to be well up into the green... I was glad to discover that! The insides look like they need a good cleaning. I get a feeling that I've picked a good one.

[Charlie]

I decided to pull the chassis and do some cleaning. I have a feeling I am going to start re-capping this set... which I'm not supposed to do because I told myself I wouldn't work on any sets until I'm finished working on my shop. Actually, I'm surprised I kept my promise to myself for this long!

Anyway... before pulling the chassis, I noticed a bit of what seemed to be insulation under the chassis towards the rear. I didn't think too much of it at first... just a little bit of fuzz in there from mice I thought. After finding corn in my Zenith roundie, I figured I have seen it all. Well, again, I was wrong. When I pulled the chassis out of the cabinet, I could not believe what I found! I was right.... it was indeed insulation... but a WHOLE LOT of insulation!!! It was so damn well packed in there, you would have thought it came from the factory that way!! Hmmm.... maybe it really was? Perhaps, Motorola's way of protecting the innards from moisture? How bout a way to keep the chassis warmed up for a faster picture upon turning on the switch? Yeah, well, nice try!

Not only did I fill a bag from the grocery store with this stuff, I also had to change the bag in my Electrolux after sucking out the parts that did not pull out as quickly by hand!

The first photo was after removing the screws to hold the chassis in place. I lifted the chassis a little while in the cabinet and thought, "Wow... how much stuff is in there?"

The second photo was after pulling the chassis without removing any insulation... however, some did fall out on it's own.

Third photo is after removing most of it by hand. Notice how well packed the remaining stuff is in there!

Last photo is after a good clean-up with the Electrolux. I had also removed the HV cover at this point, although there wasn't any thing in there that wasn't supposed to be.

With things cleaned out now, I do not find any obvious failures. The dope around the HO windings is cracked up quite a bit due to age, but no drippings and it's likely the HO transformer is good... or at least I'm hoping so. I've never found a bad HO transformer in a b&w set, and hope it stays that way.

[jr_tech]

Wow! nice find, that is a very nice piece of bakelite!

Too bad these sets can't tell their story, it would be interesting to find out how all that stuff ended up under the chassis!

Are those the correct knobs? ... they look very much like the ones on my Westinghouse 22".

jr

[Charlie]

Jr: As far as I can tell, the knobs seem correct. They do all match, and the fit with no problem. They're made of metal, so I don't have to worry about them developing that weird film that's common on Moto knobs of the period. It looks like they should be easy to clean up. The off-white paint has flaked off behind the letters, but I think they should be easy to repaint. I can dab the raised numbers with a little petroleum jelly, tape the outsides, then spray them with some off-white Krylon. Should look like new after that.

[David Roper]

I'm with jr, those are definitely Westinghouse knobs on the Motorola.

[Charlie]

My Sams are all in storage right now, so I can't look it up for a photo. I could not find a listing for a TS501 C, but there was a 501A and 501B in Sams 191-13. If someone has that on hand, have a gander at the front page of the folder and see what the knobs look like.

Perhaps they came from a Westinghouse color set? Wouldn't that be wild!!!

[Charlie]

Originally Posted by Charlie

Perhaps they came from a Westinghouse color set? Wouldn't that be wild!!!

Ya know, i was just kidding when I said that... but have a look at Jr's Westinghouse knobs, and the ones from my moto. It's seems a little hard to believe giving the odds of something such as this, but wow... take a look at them side by side....

[jr_tech]

The Westinghouse color set has a different fine tuning (a large outer knob) and mine does not have a gap between 2 and 13 (UHF position?) but other than that, I think they are the same.

[Charlie]

I did not realize yours had an outer fine tuning knob... but man... that's so freakin close... especially considering they're two completely different manufacturers.

[mkoser]

My Sams 191-13 shows a picture of a Motorola Wooden cabinet... not the set you have.

The knobs are not shown very well.

I can send you a copy of this sams if you want.

MK

[Charlie]

Thanks, but I'm headed out the door right now to go dig a few Sams out of storage... and to get some beer!

I'm starting to think like the others... these are probably not the correct knobs... which is a disappointment. If I'm not mistaken, all of the other Motorola sets I've seen of that time had plastic knobs... not metal. Also, I found that one of the smaller knobs has a rounded hole with a flat side, and the shaft it was on is split with two sides. They do look good on the set, but I wish they were the correct ones.

The chassis is sitting on the dining table right now and I will start playing with it some today after I get back with my Sams.

Thanks for looking, MK.

[Charlie]

Okay, I've got an oddball part here... a coil wound around a .15 mfd paper cap in the horz circuit just before the HOT. The two are connected in parallel. Haven't really seen this before. Can't just leave it... that .15 is sure to go bad at some point (if it isn't already).

So... how do I go about this??? Tell me what you think.

[peverett]

There is an article in the latest issue of Antique Radio Classified(www.antiqueradio.com) about placing a new capacitor inside the shell of an old one. Could this be done? If so, the old shell will keep the coil in it s present form.

I have seen this kind of thing in Philco radios, but not TVs.

Also, if you find out what the correct knobs are for the TV, I may have them. I have a box of NOS Motorola TV knobs from that era.

[Charlie]

Jody, I was thinking the same thing. I'll just have to be extra careful not to screw up the coil around the old shell.

Regarding knobs, it would seem that they'd be the same as any of the other 1953 21" models... and maybe the next size down (17 inch?) as well. If the NOS card have the numbers on them, this would be what I'm looking for....

36B720253 Ch selector
36C720252 Contrast
36B720250 (2) Fine Tune & on/off volume


Thanks

[peverett]

No luck so far. Most of the knobs I have are 36K....... I do have several 36C700889 channel selector knobs. I think these are for the 17 inch sets.

I will keep checking.