Had to grab the Raid and squirt a few scary-lookin spiders that had begun to call the RCA home, but I yanked the chassis after gingerly pulling the HV lead (and wrapped it in tape, to make myself feel safe :P)

As (Sandy, I think?) would say, she's a dirty old whore!
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c234/FujiFrontier/tv/fithy.jpg

My first thought is, "What have I gotten myself into????!"
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c234/FujiFrontier/tv/omg.jpg

It does indeed use PC boards, but they're riveted on. How'mi supposta solder them new caps on? It seems that the RCA had work done, but why they didn't replace the other caps at the same time confuses me. There are also a cuppla orange drops on a small board on the top of the chassis.
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c234/FujiFrontier/tv/ordoptr.jpg

Inside the HV cage
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c234/FujiFrontier/tv/hv2.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c234/FujiFrontier/tv/HV1.jpg

Don't some of those have natural wax dripping, or do you think it might be bad?

To pull the front glass, would those clips be the ones to take out?
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c234/FujiFrontier/tv/clips.jpg

The pot on the far left turns, but doesn't move. I think it might have been pushed back... the others feel grainy and dirty when you turn them.
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c234/FujiFrontier/tv/potnm.jpg

What would cause a spot like this in the HV tube? Age?
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c234/FujiFrontier/tv/hvtube.jpg

"Television Movement"
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c234/FujiFrontier/tv/tvmovment.jpg

How do you re-wrap these canned tubes correctly when you put them back in? I unwrapped one out of curiousity, and I couldn't make it go back on correctly.
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c234/FujiFrontier/tv/wrapped.jpg

Tube layout
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c234/FujiFrontier/tv/rcat.jpg


When I get the good camera later, I'll take some more pictures of it. I realise that in order to take on a project of this size I'm going to need a dedicated work area where I can have this chassis in one place... it's not like the Philco I can shove in a bookshelf and fume about.... Looking over this chassis has made me realise how little I know about TVs and electronics in general. I would like to -try- and work on it, but some of the questions I will have more than likely will cause some to wonder "do you even know what you're doing?"

Anyone have that schematic?

That tube is not "canned" but instead has a shield over it. The tube should have simply pushed out in the direction of the pins from the shield. Sometimes the shields can be unruly and not want to let go of the tube but I have never had to "unwrap" one.

Regardless you have done no harm. Simply re-insert the tube in its socket and slide the shield down over it. If you have bent it then shape it as best you can until you can get another. As long as you get it around the tube it will do its job. It doesent have to look pretty to function....

About the spot on the tube, from what I can see the spot is shiny which is good. The spot is a coating that was put there when the tube was manufactured. I believe electrons bounce off of it or something. Someone else may want to take you down the theory road. I just know that it is no sign of age or anything bad. Now when you see a tube that this spot and other places has become milky white you are seeing a tube that lost its vacuum. These tubes are garbage...

Fujifrontier , great to hear you got it out all right .
The shield , you can roll a big marking pen around inside ,roll it on a book or somthing flat, it will straighten it. Those paper caps are toast . It has a nice spread out chassis , it will make the whole recap go alot smoother . It looks as if you will have to completely unsolder the caps . The best way is to do one lead at a time , that way you keep the polarity correct and also you dont have to look for the other wire . If the new cap wont go through the hole just touch the soldering iron on the wire , it will heat the wire and melt the solder and allow the wire to go through .
I will look through my schematics and see what I have . I know I dont have a identical match , but there were a few sets with the same circuit .

I have an RCA set very similar to yours. The circuit boards on mine were solder mounted via bent metal tabs of the chassis in such a way as to make it very difficult to get at the solder traces of the boards. So I cheated and just clipped the wax cap leads with enough above board lead length so I could "J hook" the new cap leads to them and solder the Js. It worked. I didn't try to unsolder the circuit board mounting tabs, as there's still a ton of wires still connecting the board to elsewhere in the set anyway.
http://www.geocities.com/wa2ise/radios/rcatvback.jpg

I have restored a couple of the Philco Seventeeners that have the PC boards soldiered to the chassis. Even though it is some work, I took the boards up and took the old capacitors out completely. It worked out ok.

She's going to have to wait until I can afford a Weller station, the one I've seen being used in a few other members' pics.

So basically, let's say I was going to remove one of the orange drops. I would hold the soldering iron to the leg of the capacitor, very near to the PC board, and gently tug on it with a pair of tweezers or something until it comes out?

And then to put the new cap in?

As far as the canned tubes, i know they're like a heat sink or EMF shield, and can be removed, the tuner section has a couple of them too. I didn't want to scratch the tube in case one was unobtainum, or wear away tube markings.

What is your opinion on the HV transformer coil?

The last time it was plugged in I had audio and a horizontal line, so at least we know that part of it works; I heard the 16khz whine as well.

The HV transformer is allright , if it was working . If it produces a horizontal line across the screen , and any brightness at all . it is all right . If I was going to put my finger on the wax , I would say there was a leaky cap in the HV circuit . Be sure to replace the caps around the flyback transformer , and also in the output stage of the horiziontal these are usually 1 KV and up . I have never serviced these sets before , wa2ise's J hook advice would work great on it . just clip the lead right at the cap , and take needle nose pliers , make a J and then do the same on the new cap . the other way is , make a little loop , on the new cap , snip the old one, leaving about a 1/4 " of it above the circuit board , the fit the new one , with the loop onto it . then solder it into place . It works , but the " J HOOK " is the best I find also .

Fuji , your signature make a lot of sense .:D

I thought the one with the dripping wax -was- the flyback. :(