I found this 19" Montgomery Wards TV on the curb tonight. It was made back in 1987, model# JSJ12638. Apart from a dark picture which I expected from a 21 year old TV, it had shrinking vertical.

I opened it up, and I got the most pleasant surprise ever. The flyback and power caps are on a separate board! This meant that I could remove the board that I wanted to work on without having to worry about the flyback! I have NEVER seen this setup before, and I wish other manufacturers did the same thing.

Even better, the various sections of the PCB were CLEARLY labeled! Finding the vertical section was a piece of cake. There were a few lytic caps in that section. One of them, a 100uf @35 volts tested at only 69uf. I replaced that and BINGO! No more vertical issue.

A slight adjustment on the flyback brought the brightness up, and now I have the TV playing.

Ya know... It's almost like Wards designed this TV to be easily fixed... Who'd a thunk it? Now if only other manufacturers had done the same thing...

An '87 Monkey-Wards was either a NEC or Sanyo IIRC. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Nice to hear you saved it and that it was easy to work on!

Sounds like you turned up the screen control (G2) to brighten the pic. So long as you don't have retrace lines, you're probably good to go. Nice! How about a picture of the set?

I found this 19" Montgomery Wards TV on the curb tonight. It was made back in 1987, model# JSJ12638. Apart from a dark picture which I expected from a 21 year old TV, it had shrinking vertical.

I opened it up, and I got the most pleasant surprise ever. The flyback and power caps are on a separate board! This meant that I could remove the board that I wanted to work on without having to worry about the flyback! I have NEVER seen this setup before, and I wish other manufacturers did the same thing.

Even better, the various sections of the PCB were CLEARLY labeled! Finding the vertical section was a piece of cake. There were a few lytic caps in that section. One of them, a 100uf @35 volts tested at only 69uf. I replaced that and BINGO! No more vertical issue.

A slight adjustment on the flyback brought the brightness up, and now I have the TV playing.

Ya know... It's almost like Wards designed this TV to be easily fixed... Who'd a thunk it? Now if only other manufacturers had done the same thing...

That could also be a Sharp chassis. I've fixed a lot of '80's TV's and many of them are easier to repair than this crap they make now. Everything is so tiny in these modern sets! That set of yours will probably go for years! If you can post a picture of the set and the chassis, I may be able to tell you who made it.

BTW, many sets of the '70's and '80's were built on more than one PCB. In the '70's, many sets had several plug-in modules that could easily be replaced. If you had vertical trouble, you'd swap the vertical module. Color trouble, you'd swap the chroma module. That made it real easy for in home service and for technicians that were not familiar with troubleshooting solid state circuits to the component level.

No idea who made it but I have a 1988 Monkey Wards 27" that I bought new. Picture is still as good as it was 20 yrs ago. The remote however works pretty poorly these days.

Hm. This TV has a Sharp picture tube and IC's with the Sharp name on it. I'm guessing it's a Sharp chassis.

And no. No retrace lines. I only adjusted the G2 a bit. I won't save a TV if I need to crank the G2 up so much that retrace lines appear.

I'll go and snap a pic of it.

No idea who made it but I have a 1988 Monkey Wards 27" that I bought new. Picture is still as good as it was 20 yrs ago. The remote however works pretty poorly these days.

Try taking the remote apart and cleaning the contacts with rubbing alcohol.

I should start a thread titled "JC Penny made some good stuff", or more accurately "Technics made some good stuff for JC Penny". For some reason I'm not having a good time starting threads lately...

I had MCS components all thru college and then some, and liked it. My dad gave it to me.

Here's a pic of the TV for anybody interested:

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o121/mrx3750/Montv.jpg

In spite of it looking too blue in the pic, the color on the TV is fine. It also has a decent black level in spite of the G2 being adjusted. It's pretty decent for a 21 year old CRT, certainly better then the 90's Zenith CRT's...

RCA made some good stuff for Penney too. Mom's got a 20" AccuScan from 1986 that I freebied for her. Plugs along pretty well for its age.

I should start a thread titled "JC Penny made some good stuff", or more accurately "Technics made some good stuff for JC Penny". For some reason I'm not having a good time starting threads lately...

I had MCS components all thru college and then some, and liked it. My dad gave it to me.

RCA, GE, Panasonic, Wells-Gardner, Toshiba, Samsung and NEC all made TV's for JC Penny during the '70's and '80's. I've actually had a few TV's and stereo's with the Penncrest name. I think JCP dropped Penncrest in the very early '70's.

I know some people turn their noses up at the MCS brand (as well as other store brands). IMHO, they had decent stuff and they had junk, just like everyone else did. Those store brands were generally rebadged equipment made by a well established electronics company.

Here's a pic of the TV for anybody interested:

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o121/mrx3750/Montv.jpg

In spite of it looking too blue in the pic, the color on the TV is fine. It also has a decent black level in spite of the G2 being adjusted. It's pretty decent for a 21 year old CRT, certainly better then the 90's Zenith CRT's...

That set has Sharp written all over it. I had a couple of late '70's Western Auto Truetone brand rebadged Sharp sets and they both had fantastic pictures even though they were 18-20 years old at the time. There are two early '90's Sharp TV's in the house and they continue to work fine.

BTW, you'll be interested to know that Zenith built some TV's for Monkey Wards during the mid to late '90's. No wonder MW went under, LOL!

Well, then I guess Sharp made some good stuff. It just surprised me how easy it was to fix this TV... no SAMS needed, no $80.00 service manual, etc.

BTW, you'll be interested to know that Zenith built some TV's for Monkey Wards during the mid to late '90's. No wonder MW went under, LOL!

Considering that Wards sold a lot of "Admiral" branded stuff in the late 90s, I wonder if Zenith might have made any of 'em? That would be some irony.

My in-laws had a 25" Wards from the early/mid-80s that I wanted to at least tinker with. I was always curious who might have made it. I think it got tossed on their last move. I would like to find, just for fun, the last model built by Wells-Gardner, which was somewhere in that time frame.

Well, then I guess Sharp made some good stuff. It just surprised me how easy it was to fix this TV... no SAMS needed, no $80.00 service manual, etc.\\

I hear you! I could fix a lot of those older TV's without a diagram. These newer TV's are often too complex to try to fix in the dark. A Sams is over $25 now. You're lucky if you can find a factory manual for only $25. I've also found that many companies will not sell you parts or service data if you are not an authorized repair center. Given the current situation regarding used CRT TV's, it's simply not worth the expense and headache.

Considering that Wards sold a lot of "Admiral" branded stuff in the late 90s, I wonder if Zenith might have made any of 'em? That would be some irony.

My in-laws had a 25" Wards from the early/mid-80s that I wanted to at least tinker with. I was always curious who might have made it. I think it got tossed on their last move. I would like to find, just for fun, the last model built by Wells-Gardner, which was somewhere in that time frame.

That early '80's console could have been a GE. I had one that had the PC chassis in it.

The last W-G chassis I remember seeing was from the early '80's. It was a compact chassis with stand-up modules that plugged in side by side. Very hard to troubleshoot those chassis unless you replaced modules. I've seen some Teknika sets with that same chassis.

\\

I hear you! I could fix a lot of those older TV's without a diagram. These newer TV's are often too complex to try to fix in the dark.

Well, not so much complex, but made with cryptic layouts, tiny, hard to read numbers, and unlabeled IC's that could be for pretty much anything...

Try taking the remote apart and cleaning the contacts with rubbing alcohol.

i do that as a matter of course with every used remote i get. i go a step further in fact, and wash all the chassis parts and rubber membrane sheet in DAWN water in the sink. some may be scratched to hell and back, but at least they're squeaky clean...:music:

This is kinda on topic, but not really. However, I don't see a board for chainsaws anywhere.

I found an old Montgomery Wards electric chainsaw. It's easy to take apart and clean. The chain that was on it is quite dull. Not having access to a suitable file, I switched it out for another, better chain. It also has a small oil tank which I filled.

The chainsaw works pretty good. I cut through a 6 inch thick log without too much trouble.

So, two Montgomery wards products, both from the 80's (the chainsaw may be older), and both were easy to fix.

I think both Penneys and Montgomery Wards had some very good units. First thing to look for is Made In Japan on the back.

Considering that Wards sold a lot of "Admiral" branded stuff in the late 90s, I wonder if Zenith might have made any of 'em? That would be some irony.


Actually, in the early 1990's, I distinctly recall seeing Admiral-branded sets at Monkey Wards that were very obviously made by Zenith. Somehow I thought that was a bit fitting, since Admiral and Zenith were geographic neighbors.

Now, while at that time, Admiral was practically a Wards house-brand as far as consumer electronics were concerned, I did notice that TVs bearing the "real" Wards house brand ("Signature 2000") were not re-badged Zeniths; I seem to recall that they appeared to be Sanyo-made, but I might be misremembering that.

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Actually, in the early 1990's, I distinctly recall seeing Admiral-branded sets at Monkey Wards that were very obviously made by Zenith. Somehow I thought that was a bit fitting, since Admiral and Zenith were geographic neighbors.

Now, while at that time, Admiral was practically a Wards house-brand as far as consumer electronics were concerned, I did notice that TVs bearing the "real" Wards house brand ("Signature 2000") were not re-badged Zeniths; I seem to recall that they appeared to be Sanyo-made, but I might be misremembering that.

Someday that will be a trivia question, along with the Admiral-built Sony color TV!

I've seen at least one Zenith made Signature 2000. Later Zenith's even had a mode in the service menu that changed the remote codes, and how the on screen display looked.

Interesting about the Zenith/Signature 2000 observation. Actually, now that I think about it, I remember seeing department-store-label console on the curb on trash day a while back that surprised me, since I recognized it as a Zenith Advanced System 3 console in disguise. I think it was made in 1990 or so, which was a few years before I saw those Sanyo(?)-made Signature 2000 sets alongside the "Zenith" Admirals at M-W. I'm trying to remember for sure if the set I saw was a Signature 2000, but I think it was.

You're right about that option in the Zenith service menu-- it's the "ZEN/PL" mode select option at least on some early/mid-90's Zenith-made sets. I tried that once long ago on a 1993 25" Zenith which was my main TV at the time. If I remember correctly, setting it to "PL" (Private Label) not only altered the labeling of some of the OSD menu items, but it also removed a few of the menu options entirely. I suppose if someone wanted to save a few bucks at the time, they could have bought a "private-label" Zenith, then gone into the service menu and turned it into a "real" Zenith set. :)
...Not that doing that would have improved the reliability of the CRTs they were using at the time, however. :(

The service menu was pretty cool though. At least on some Zenith lines, the service menu included a number of settings that were obviously intended for hotel/business/institutional applications. At the time, I figured that if I ever encountered a *really* annoying salesperson at a store that sold Zenith TVs, I thought the following procedure would be a funny (read: mean) practical joke to pull. Go into the service menu on one of the display models in the store, then enable the "power set on automatically when AC cord plugged in" option, set the default power-on channel to an active channel, set the minimum/power-on sound volume to its maximum, and disable the front panel controls. Then, exit the service menu, power off or unplug the set and (quickly) leave the store. At most mass-merchandisers, if someone did that, I wonder if the anyone working there would ever figure out what happened or how to fix it. :)