I rescued a cute little 13" RCA xl-100 with a CTC-87 chassis in it. It produces an awesome picture when its working...

However periodically I can hear some HV arcing. When you hear the snap, the picture disappears briefly, then comes back. I have checked the wire dressing, looked for arcing around the chassis and CRT socket - none found. I've cleaned the spark gap on the CRT board. THe CRT itself doesn't appear to have any shorts according to the tester and the flyback doesn't have any evidence of arcing to the chassis. I also can't see where the arcing is coming from in a darkened room.

One time I gave the set a large THWACK on the side which then made the picture white out and go into HV shutdown. However, I have not been able to reproduce that again. There were no obvious signs of bad solder connections on the boards but then again my vision up close isn't always the greatest.

No trippler in this unit. Anyone got any ideas as to where to go next? I hate to toss the thing...

CTC87. Is that the single board chassis that's built on a metal frame that looks like a basket?

I had an RCA of that vintage do that and it turned out to be a very dirty second anode connection. Also, check the CRT aquadag ground connections. Make sure they are clean and making good connection. It might also be a good idea to measure the HV to make sure it's not higher than normal.

CTC87. Is that the single board chassis that's built on a metal frame that looks like a basket?

I had an RCA of that vintage do that and it turned out to be a very dirty second anode connection. Also, check the CRT aquadag ground connections. Make sure they are clean and making good connection. It might also be a good idea to measure the HV to make sure it's not higher than normal.

That's the one. I'll check and clean up and anode and ground connections and give it a look again to see if I can find anything that stands out.

Don't toss it yet! Those are great little sets.... hopefully someone else will chime in with a fix on it.

Is that a biscayne or impala in your avatar?

nice lookin ride :yes:

Thanks! Its a 1964 Impala hardtop sedan. Not mine, but thats the goal once I get mine running. Right now its the yard; me and my best friend bought it in HS and its been sitting since.

All it needs is a engine rebuild (250ci straight 6) or replacement but we want to stay original. Ours is maroon red.

Car buff? What's your pick? My all time favorite is a '67 GTO.

used to be a car buff - just happened to like the style of the impalas and biscaynes.

Ah if only I had the time and money.....

--man I need to stop hijacking my own threads! :D

Biscaynes are nice too. I also like your Beemer.....cool car.

Sorry I don't have any tips for the ctc-87; only what the guys have already suggested. Thats a tough one...

That 64 is my favorite color for a 60s car; I thought about painting my '67 Impala like that but now there is a guy in the neighborhood with a clean original 4dr that color. I will be painting it this winter, probably just go back red.

When I was a kid some friends of my parents had one of those RCA's in the dining room, which was a big deal to me. At the time we MIGHT have had a second set (an early 60s GE portable that my uncle gave us) but a 13" color set, wow, that was cool! Anyway, we were over there once and all us kids were in there watching something when ZAP! and the TV died. I never saw it again, assuming they junked it. Those same folks had, as their main set, an early 70s RCA solid state console. The last time I went to their house they were still using it. They also had a big sattelite dish and a stereo vcr...really uptown in the 80s!

Anyway, I would flex the heck out of that chassis trying to get it to act up. Other than that, I wonder about the flyback?

Yeah, I would definitely check it out well, those are great performers, I just had to give one away not long ago. What got rid of it was the picture quality on DTV. It got snapped up right away. It was a 1978 IIRC.

OK, so I watched it a little longer in a nice dark room. The arcing is occurring either on the CRT board itself or at the socket. You can see a bit of the board light up bright red for a second which leads me to believe that the problem is probably in the socket - since the spark isn't visible other than the light diffused through the board.

The symptom only happens after the set has been on at least 5 minutes. I'm hoping its not the CRT....

Yep, sounds like the socket. The carbon trails wait for just the right level of humidity and Zap!

Here's what I have for the CTC-87 - no mention of your problem though.

Cheers,

I'd put money on a bad dag ground connection. Check the wires that go from the CRT socket ground lugs to the X-ray shield, and also the cable or spring that's inside the X-ray shield touching across the dag coating. Also, if there's one from either of those places to the chassis frame, check that too. If that isn't it, some of those had light brown, ribbed anode caps that were famous for getting pinholes in them, and arcing out to the X-ray shield. The cap has a tiny phillips screw holding the anode wire in the middle (no solder), and you can replace it.

Charles

I've checked the dag ground strap and its in great shape. There is reasonable resistance from the coating on the CRT to ground (~200 ohms) and 0 ohms from the strap itself to ground.

No x-ray shield on this set. The arcing is visibly coming from around the socket. I definitely know someone worked on this set before. The CRT EIA dates 5 years newer than the set production and the fly was definitely replaced. Guess either there was no shield or it was never put back in.

Now the question remains, does anyone have a good socket or can I clean up and try to better insulate this one?

I would try to clean that one really well first, carbon tracks are very hard to get rid of though, sometimes they won't go away. I am guessing the arcing is coming from the focus lead? Deoxit the crap out of it then scrape any remaining carbon and clean the pin holder part of the socket too with a pipe cleaner or welding tip cleaner then use some dielectric grease to insulate the connections. This should at least buy some time. I would try to find another socket if you plan on using it a lot.