Well, after all these years, I finally got the TV that started it all. I think I mentioned in another post that my old babysitter had a Zenith roundie that I used to turn all the knobs on. There's actually a picture here somewhere of me standing in front of a Zenith roundie, so there was one in their house at some point. But, the TV that was their family set that I played with was actually this '74 Truetone (model WEG2497A-47). After seeing the set, it brings back memories. I guess I was just wishing for the roundie! I asked them if they had any more old TV's and they said this one was it and the only reason they kept it was to give it to me one day. It's been sitting in their storage building unsued for at least 20 years. I'm having a run at finding TV's with no knobs because these are missing just like on the Zenith I recently found. This set is totally dead and I have not made an effort to troubleshoot it yet. I think a good clean up will be the next order of business. The red and blue guns were almost dead but rejuvenation brought them back. This set is one of the few tube type sets that I've found with a modular chassis. I think '74 was also the last year for Wells-Gardner tube sets. I'm sure someone here has memories (probably bad) of these Wells-Gardner built sets.

i had one of these in the early 80s.rauland crt and it was very crisp and sharp.sold it to a friend of mine.hybrid that had three modules. that is a good set. mine was a pennys. i am happy on your find!

I've had two of them, they are good sets. Enjoy:thmbsp:

Dumont-First with the finest in television.:yes:

I'm glad to know the memories are not bad, so far. I was talking to an ex-Tv repairman and he said the tube Wells-Gardner sets were better than the solid state sets. This was coming from a guy who generally does not like tube sets.

I've started cleaning this set up. Man, it's NASTY inside!

That's interesting! I had seen early Wells-Gardner B&W sets marketed by Sentinel, Airline, etc., but I never gave it thought about the later model store brands (Truetone being Western Auto Supply Stores), and I guess I always blamed them on Warwick (made for Sears and others from the 40s to 70s). The Bradford (W.T. Grant Stores), had model numbers starting "WGEC-xxxx". I bet that was a Wells-Gardner set too.

Charles

I did see a Bradford once with a W-G chassis similar to this one.

We had a Truetone on our service route which was a Wells-Gardner. I always thought it was cool that it had modules with all the tubes. When you got a replacement module the tubes were included. The set on our route (this was in the late 70's) saw a TON of use, but still had a decent picture. Can't remember what finally gave out on it, but remember the owners bought a new Chromacolor 2. It was kind of rare to have one in our service area, altho our town had a Western Auto (Truetone) and a Gambles (Coronado). We had 3 TV dealers. My Uncle was Zenith, guy up the street was Sylvania, and on the outskirts of town we had the RCA/Magnavox dealer. ALL gone now. The RCA place closed last year after being in business since 1947. Anyway, most people wouldn't dream of getting a large TV from the Western or Gambles. I think it was a "prestige" thing to have a name brand.

It saddens me when I think of all the great old radio & TV dealers / repair shops that were forced to close for whatever reason. We recently lost our Zenith/RCA/GE dealer after almost 60 years in business. The reason? They couldn't compete with all the discount stores. I can remember when this town was full of TV shops and they all stayed busy. Most of what is left are young guys that really don't know what they are doing. They pretty much charge high check out fees up front and then yank people around.

I have a friend that used to fix a ton of Truetone sets for a business that would buy "salvage" items from Western Auto. These were all new sets that got damaged at some point. A couple of years ago, my friend cleaned out his TV junk and he had many, many boards and other parts for these type sets. Being as I never worked on that many of these and figured I'd never see another one, I let him throw all of those parts away. Payback will be when I need an unobtainable bad part for this set!

BTW, I did discover why mine is dead - open circuit breaker. I'll dig around in my junk for a good one. One of my ex-TV repairman friends suggested that I jump the circuit breaker with a clip lead. I DON'T THINK SO! The last time I did that, the TV caught fire. I was young and stupid then.

I had been wondering if one of these would ever turn up! I've only seen them in piles of photofacts. They always had a "depressing" look to them, thanks to the plain styling I guess. Somewhere I have a copy of a letter that a local TV shop had sent to Western Auto in the mid-70s, trying to locate a part for a set like this that was unavailable through other suppliers.

This set had a weird circuit breaker. The original had three solder lugs. Two of the lugs connected to the circuit breaker which is in the AC line. There is a .9 ohm resistor inside the CB that connects between the third lug and the metal case (which is chassis ground). The .9 ohm resistor is in the cathode circuit of the horizontal output tube. There is also a 100 uf cathode bypass cap for the HOT. My friend was telling me that he's seen several of these cathode bypass caps blow up due to the .9 ohm resistor opening inside the CB.

Anyway, I replaced the CB with a two terminal device and used a seperate resistor to replace the .9 ohm resistor inside the original CB. I now have sound but no HV. I've determined that the HOT (6KG6A) is dead. I'll also change the 6GH8A horizontal oscillator while I'm at it. I hope I can find a HOT in my stash. It seems like NOS sweep tubes become more expensive every day. But, I'll order one if I have to. I must amaze my babysitter and get this set going.

Did you test the 6KG6? It's odd that one is totally dead, unless something caused it to blow. Does the set use a damper tube? I'd check that as well. Here's the link of who I order tubes from. I see he has "call" by the tube you want tho. That means he either has little to none in stock, or it's pricey :(

http://vacuumtubesinc.com/index.html

Is it possible that excessive HOT current took out the circuit breaker?

Is it possible that excessive HOT current took out the circuit breaker?

The resistor part of the original circuit breaker was OK. It was the CB itself (in AC line) that was open.

I'll have to look, but I seem to recall that the resistor part of the circuit breaker would heat up with excessive current draw and cause the breaker to trip. It was a thermal circuit breaker. It worked as a regular breaker in the event of a short. But also provided protection from excessive HO cathode current. Try to find the original or fuse the HO cathode.

Bill R

Did you test the 6KG6? It's odd that one is totally dead, unless something caused it to blow. Does the set use a damper tube? I'd check that as well. Here's the link of who I order tubes from. I see he has "call" by the tube you want tho. That means he either has little to none in stock, or it's pricey :(

http://vacuumtubesinc.com/index.html

I didn't test the HOT because it's not listed on the chart for my Hickok 6000A or my later Heathkit tester. I did find a used tube in my junk; but, no change. I pulled the plate cap for the HOT and I'm getting 275 volts, so, the damper circuit should be OK. I pulled the HV module and found several bad solder connections, including a power resistor that was loose on the board. Still no change. Then, my neighbor brought me a bunch of lightning damaged TV's that belonged to his sister. So, I had to stop on the Truetone for the day. I'll double check the horizontal drive voltage as well as the tripler. I've heard they can go bad in these models and kill the HV and load down the horizontal circuit. The tripler in this set is a big blue device and crosses to an ECG501.