A friend, who used to work on TV's, found these two sets in his chicken house and thought I could use them. One is a '77 Truetone (made by Sharp) and the other one is an almost identical Sharp set. Both of them are color and, as you can see, filthy. On both sets, the plastic backs are cracked at the bottom screw holes. I guess it's some of that famous Sharp plastic that cracks and breaks after a few years.

I've worked on a few of these back in the '90's and they actually made a nice picture when working right; but, I really didn't care to work on them. It seems that I ran into a lot of these sets with bad flybacks, weird power supply problems, and vertical problems. I have a friend who used to fix these sets for Western Auto and he always sang their praises. I may try to bring these back to life, unless I have to spend very much money on them.

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341/radiotvnut/2010_0306dirtytv0001.jpg

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341/radiotvnut/2010_0306dirtytv0002.jpg

Hopefully they're not ALL that dirty inside, probably just what dropped in directly down from the top grilles. I think you can cover the speaker grille and scrub off the top and front out in the yard and scrub the back when it's removed. That all assumes you've got a strong stomach! :yuck:

I'll probably just pull everything out of the cases and hose them down. Then, I'll clean the chassis and CRT.

I did open up both of them and the insides are just as dirty as the outside. It's obvious that whoever was working on these gave up, stuck them somewhat back together, and forgot about them as the backs were missing most screws and the antenna leads from the tuner to the back antenna terminals were disconnected. This chassis has a seperate flyback and tripler. The ones I worked on, that often had bad flybacks, had the flyback and HV rectifier in the same unit. Anyway, I'll get around to washing them out and giving them a test. I do think these '70's Sharp's were better quality than the newer ones from the mid '80's on up.

I'd be careful, WEAR A RESPIRATOR...You COULD pick up Coccidiosis or Leptospirosis from fooling w/these...Much as I hate to, I think I'd call "Calfrope !" on these 2 & fuggeddaboutit.

Would be nice if you could get those cleaned up and working. Reminds me of a set I have. Another 1977 13" model. A Coronado, which is a rebadged Toshiba. Got it at a thrift store and I only got it because it was so filthy. I've never seen so much grease and gunk on a set. Got it cleaned up, and I've had it about 10 years now. However, noticed theat there is a problem with the focus now. It will go blurry and snap back to normal every few seconds. It might be the picture tube, because the whole time I've had it, it's been a slow one to warm up. After about 5 minutes tho, the picture is pretty good. Mine is in a steel case and built like a tank.