Ozone smell HV voltage cage.

[DeLorean00]

I am working on getting this 1950 Mercury 106 chassis up and running. Last night I did my first successful power on. Now I am tracking down remaining issues.

So I am getting an ozone smell coming from the HV cage, I am not able to see anything arcing or hear much of anything. I can see that it appears this is not a new issue as there is a lot of insulating goop all over the socket of the 1k2.

I am going to wait for dark and try to look again for any signs of arcing but I am not wanting to run it very long. I ordered some MG Chemicals Super Corona Dope and I am thinking about just painting it on over the stuff that is already coated if I cannot find where it is exactly arcing.

Does anyone have any tips on what I should do? I realize I do ask a lot of questions but I am new to TVs and am learning as go.

Thanks in advance!
Chris

[old_tv_nut]

Any conductor with sharp points will be more likely to produce corona. It looks like there are a lot of them there. More insulation may do the trick, but if not, the solder joints may need to be more rounded.

[DeLorean00]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

Any conductor with sharp points will be more likely to produce corona. It looks like there are a lot of them there. More insulation may do the trick, but if not, the solder joints may need to be more rounded.

Thanks! Well, I found without the HV cage it stops. So hopefully that will help me find where it is producing the corona.

[ohohyodafarted]

Get some GC Carona Dope and coat all bare solder connections.

[irext]

Try breathing over it in the dark. The moisture in your breath will encourage any weak points to produce a corona.

[DeLorean00]

Originally Posted by ohohyodafarted

Get some GC Carona Dope and coat all bare solder connections.

Thanks! I have it on the way. I ordered some today.

Originally Posted by irext

Try breathing over it in the dark. The moisture in your breath will encourage any weak points to produce a corona.

WOW!! That was AWESOME! I did exactly as you said and corona appeared! I can see exactly what pin in the socket that is causing it.

Seriously, thank you. I would have never known this.

[Phil Nelson]

While waiting for the corona dope to arrive, I would carefully clean everything in the high voltage compartment -- including the inside of the cage cover -- using rubbing alcohol.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
https://antiqueradio.org/index.html

[DeLorean00]

Originally Posted by Phil Nelson

While waiting for the corona dope to arrive, I would carefully clean everything in the high voltage compartment -- including the inside of the cage cover -- using rubbing alcohol.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
https://antiqueradio.org/index.html

Thanks! I am working on that now.

The ozone smell has gone away more or less right now. But it will still come back if I blow directly on the HV rectifier. Is there risk of damaging my flyback or anything if run the test for testing?

[DeLorean00]

So I couldn't keep myself from working on the set a little bit. This is the picture I have after around 5 minutes of run time. Still a few issues to work out and the yoke is not sitting correct but the TV chassis is on its side.

I think is pretty decent for a TV that hasn't ran in 50 years. I was expecting a lot worse. This TV has had a lot of repair work over the years, rebuilt CRT, replacement flyback, a load of different brand tubes, it might even have had the power transformer replaced.