First time posting here on the B&W forum. Found a Motorola 16" B&W set that is in fantastic condition. Will have to do some serious troubleshooting on this one as it has no sound and no pic. All the tubes light up but I'm sure its gonna need recapped and gone through. Does anyone have a schematic of this set? Novice tv guy here but would love to get this beauty up and runnin. Best of all it was free for the taking.

Mark,
Congrats on your find. I may have the factory service literature on your set.
I won't be able to look until this weekend.

Welcome!! What you are looking for is a Sam's Photofact #102-8 In there you will find all the service info you will need to get her up and running. Dates from 1950.
Terry

thanks, any help would be great. I figured it shouldn't be too complicated being B&W set. Seems as though it should have low hours on it from the way it looks and the controls are all free and move easily. But I did notice almost all the tubes have been replaced at one point and most of the screws on the back are missing.

Are these sets pretty easy to work on?

Wow! It looks like brand new in the front view photo. Congrats.

John Y.

It was in the same house since the day it was bought. Pristine house with much care, I got lucky.

That's probably a fusible resistor in the last picture; they get all corroded and are often bad. I forget how they are wired, but that could be killing your B+. You can search for a NOS part or make it up with a new power resistor and add a fuse in there. You'll want to recap it, anyway.

I don't have a ton of experience on early Motorola sets but I wouldn't expect them to be too tough. The factory manual offered above might be the way to go-I think Motorola was one that liked to do running changes that might have been missed by Sams. I took a quick look for the Photofact but the pile is too much of a mess right now.

Good luck...you can have a lot of fun bringing this back to life!

I don't have a ton of experience on early Motorola sets but I wouldn't expect them to be too tough.

I don't know if I would call them "tough" if compared to say a Dumont, or my personal favorite Sparton, BUT they are durable. I say this because I have had two similar models (same basic chassis design) and one was a plug and play with NO restoration at all, and the other played for an hour or so before the picture went out (picture not raster).

I still have one of the two, the one with no picture, and like some others I PLAN on giving it a go at restoration someday if/when times get more stable:scratch2:. The other bakelite set that played was sold sight unseen to a fellow from Massachusetts who made me an offer that I could not refuse. That was crazy! There is a thread somewhere here where this fellow was searching the country for this certain Motorola set that happened to be seen on the set of a science fiction show called "The Room." To this day I have never seen this show. Anyway, it was my set and "Chucklebunny" I think it was, wanted to recreate the set of the show in his home bad enough to travel with a friend around 800 miles one way, in two days of shift driving, to pick up my set here in Boondocks,:boring:VA. I'm not making fun of Chuckle, just telling the story. Actually, I was impressed by the determination, and knowing that the set was going to be cherished and taken care of. I think in the thread he said that it was somewhere being restored by a pro. Thanks again Chuck!!:thmbsp:

Interesting story but back to the topic, NO the sets aren't tough but rather more cheaply made for profitable mass production to working class homes. By that I mean very basic with unfortunately a good, smelly, set of selenium rectifiers, and a series heater string. Actually, I think some models had a power transformer. That resistor, I think, is an 8 ohm, wire wound fusistor, if memory serves me correctly. They had handy banana plugs on the ends for easy replacement.

At any rate this is a good find and perhaps Mark will keep us filled in on its progress and motivate me to jump into mine.

Good luck Mark!!

Mark


Your in luck again !
I have the factory service manual and the Sams too.
Nice set ,16TP4 or 16BP4A CRT plus 19 tube chassis.
That pic you took of the resistor on top of the chassis is supposed to be a 5W 5ohm surge limiter. Below the cover on the back -left of the chassis is a test socket that brings B+, B- and other test points to the rear of the chassis for easy service checking without chassis removal.PM me and we will figure out a way to get this service info to you.

I was thinking not too tough as in not too tough to work on...sometimes I think I could make a career out of confusing people! Sorry!

GREAT NEWS!

I replaced that resistor and the tv fired right up. Has a damn good picture for being 58 years old. The set does need some work, mostly cleaning the controls, tuner and such...then I'll move on from there but its very very good. I'll post a picture tomorrow of it. I have to get the "size" of the picture adjusted properly as it is a little off. Have good vert height and linearity and damn good horizontal. I did notice that a few of the controls are almost adjusted to the extreme side so I'm sure a recap is in order. Watched a movie on it tonight, wow it was weird watchin black n white again. Haven't watched a B&W set since I was a kid.

I can't believe what a fantastic picture I'm gettin off this set. Goes to show ya how well we used to build things in this country.

How about a screen shot?

I'm envious. :thmbsp:
John Y.

I was thinking not too tough as in not too tough to work on...sometimes I think I could make a career out of confusing people! Sorry!

Hey Mark, don't even think of a career move. I'm just easily confused. :banana: Nothing gained other than a good long winded TV story, and certainly nothing lost. I'm sorry that I left out the part about Chucklebunny going way off the beaten path to your house and picking up the 21ZP4 c.r.t. that I needed for my 56 Philco. The set still performs as if new!!:thmbsp: Thanks again Mark!!!

Thanks to Bkharris for correcting my flub on the value of the resistor. It made me realize that I should never try to remember the value of any component.

Just the facts......

Here is a screen shot for ya. Camera takes such crappy pics but you get the idea.

I don't know if I would call them "tough" if compared to say a Dumont, or my personal favorite Sparton, BUT they are durable.


I would agree with that, they are durable sets. I have a Motorola 9VT1 8" electrostatic set from 1949. It is my back and white roundie and it is well made and not difficult to work on. I need to make a ballast tube replacement for it as I was watching it and it just turned off. I knew right away what was wrong. I need to get it out of the attic and repair it. I used to have it set up and in regular use when it was working. Although Motorola sets are designed to be relatively inexpensive, they are well made and perform nicely. I would not hesitate to work on another one. Even though it was considered a "cheap" TV, many are still around and serviceable 60 years later. You cant say that about today's cheap Walmart sets.

I wouldn't say all Motorolas are designed to be inexpensive - mine, a 19 inch console, has a pretty decent chassis and design, though a bit weird. I'm having random sweep issues but otherwise it's coming together decently