My First Predicta

[Yamamaya42]

That screen is indicative of the horizontal oscillator being WAY off frequency, L22 tweaked way too far, or something wrong in that area? For some reason it's not at 15.734 kHz -15.625 kHz where it should be.

[Electronic M]

IIRC these sets have a coarse horizontal frequency pot hidden inside the hollow horizontal hold pot shaft. Just need a small flat edge screwdriver long enough to reach it.

[Chris K]

It looks like L22 was off by quite a bit. I have a picture now albeit a poor one. It's a YouTube recording of an old CNN video that in itself, isn't great quality but the picture fed out of my RF modulator is a bit snowy and not sharp. The modulator works fine as a source on other TVs. Is this an IF section issue?...maybe weak tubes?? All original tubes in it because they all tested good.

[Chris K]

And I have no idea why photos that I'm posting the same way as I did when they were in the correct orientation are now posting 90 degrees counterclockwise.

[kvflyer]

Originally Posted by Chris K

And I have no idea why photos that I'm posting the same way as I did when they were in the correct orientation are now posting 90 degrees counterclockwise.

Cell phone picture? It happens all of the time. You can use something like MS Paint or Adobe Photoshop to rotate the picture, save it and then post it. The orientation is embedded in the picture.

[Chris K]

Stinky Work

[Chris K]

Final Stretch

[Chris K]

As good as it's gonna get

[Chris K]

Hi all...the picture is mostly good now. Contrast and focus are good. I can tell it's sharp because I can read small computer print on it just fine but...the picture is snowy...almost like it's not getting enough RF signal strength. I changed the tubes in the IF section and in the tuner to NOS but no change in fact, all of the tubes in the set have been replaced with NOS. I haven't done a thing to either the tuner or the IF circuit board. Any suggestions on a strategy to run this down?

[old_tv_nut]

Have you double checked for a broken antenna connection?

[bandersen]

Does the local/distance switch have an effect?

[Chris K]

Originally Posted by bandersen

Does the local/distance switch have an effect?

Antenna connection is good and there is a difference between local and distance images. Not in the shop right now but the top setting was better. Still didn’t get rid of the “showiness” but it was better.

[old_coot88]

Is there a balun (matching) coil at the tuner's input? Those frequently got popped by a nearby lightning strike.

[Chris K]

Hi all...thanks everyone for your invaluable assistance, expertise, troubleshooting and interest. It looks like the issue with signal strength was my RF modulator. It's the little white cased, $25 unit you can find just about anywhere. I got another modulator brand that, while cheap, has an adjustable RF signal output so I got enough signal strength to get a great picture. I needed to adjust the first and second sound IF coils to dial in good sound quality and eliminate buzz. The picture looks great. I wish I could take a decent photo of it to post but no matter what I do, there's banding and strobing. On to a cosmetic cleanup of the case. The brass, of course, is modestly corroded and pitted. It's right on the edge of "ehhhh, maybe I should just leave it...ehhhh, the rest of it looks so good, do I really want to leave it like that?". I do have some very good looking brass colored paint. I'm thinking of striping and polishing back to bare metal, adding a coat of filler/primer paint, wet sanding and top coating with the brass paint. The case is in great shape. Just a few edge wear marks I need to color in with a furniture scratch marker, coat it with some wax and it should look good. I debated what to do with the CRT enclosure. I have almost exact color matching epoxy based spray paint that would make it look showroom fresh but the same rubbing compound I used on the safety plastic did a pretty nice job of cleaning the plastic shell so I'm gonna leave it for now. I'll post some pictures when It's all done. Thanks again to all who contributed your time and wisdom!

[kvflyer]

Kinda feels good, doesn't it? It should, well done and good on ya for hanging in there.