a family friend gave me a tv today she had it 23 years never turned it on said when she bought it they said it worked. its a very dirty 1951 Motorola 17k6. ive taken a quick look online cant find any mention of it. only work i can see to it was were the crt was replaced so hopefully it should be easy to get running.

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t122/duked_2007/th_EFDAEBD5-7E37-4F8A-8047-882538EE4AC3-769-0000005A33BFC8C6_zpsa8eea957.jpg (http://s159.photobucket.com/user/duked_2007/media/EFDAEBD5-7E37-4F8A-8047-882538EE4AC3-769-0000005A33BFC8C6_zpsa8eea957.jpg.html)http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t122/duked_2007/th_121B1648-5744-40A0-8D24-B4DFAE412398-769-0000005A20B3AB59_zpsdfe748be.jpg (http://s159.photobucket.com/user/duked_2007/media/121B1648-5744-40A0-8D24-B4DFAE412398-769-0000005A20B3AB59_zpsdfe748be.jpg.html)
http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t122/duked_2007/th_9E886EE7-C8CB-4BB3-BE36-D32CBC3551C9-769-0000005A3050FF1E_zps89bbb5ec.jpg (http://s159.photobucket.com/user/duked_2007/media/9E886EE7-C8CB-4BB3-BE36-D32CBC3551C9-769-0000005A3050FF1E_zps89bbb5ec.jpg.html)http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t122/duked_2007/th_08B9E236-1D24-4189-9CE5-F1B61447C970-769-0000005A261C2509_zps1e4df734.jpg (http://s159.photobucket.com/user/duked_2007/media/08B9E236-1D24-4189-9CE5-F1B61447C970-769-0000005A261C2509_zps1e4df734.jpg.html)

I lose interest when I see a rusty chassis.

thats one of the weird things its only rusty right there pretty much in the shape of the back cutout, under the covers is beutiful and the chassis is beutiful under the dirt. ill get a pic today.

Nice find. I believe that's Motorala's first 17" rectangular set and it uses the TS-118 chassis.

copper colored chassis i have one of those sets works good.

finally some chassis pics there are a few replaced capacitors but soldering looks like it was done by someone who knew what they were doing. all the small tubes were missing when i got the set except one which was hidden by a shield, I've replaced most of them but tehre are still 2 or three tubes i have to get.
http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t122/duked_2007/th_908C25F0-30A8-46D1-9776-AAC99989ACEB-932-000000C3AB565EB9_zps0273e5a4.jpg (http://s159.photobucket.com/user/duked_2007/media/908C25F0-30A8-46D1-9776-AAC99989ACEB-932-000000C3AB565EB9_zps0273e5a4.jpg.html)http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t122/duked_2007/th_13C7FBFE-CDB6-4285-B791-2C4FF8E76E58-932-000000C3BA2415D0_zpse512659b.jpg (http://s159.photobucket.com/user/duked_2007/media/13C7FBFE-CDB6-4285-B791-2C4FF8E76E58-932-000000C3BA2415D0_zpse512659b.jpg.html)
http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t122/duked_2007/th_20544B47-8277-460F-AC52-8BC0CF38A354-932-000000C3B45A9749_zps9b7cf57b.jpg (http://s159.photobucket.com/user/duked_2007/media/20544B47-8277-460F-AC52-8BC0CF38A354-932-000000C3B45A9749_zps9b7cf57b.jpg.html)http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t122/duked_2007/th_9E085ADC-377E-4D5D-888C-F1033C750D19-932-000000C3C6819DA0_zps0a8eafe5.jpg (http://s159.photobucket.com/user/duked_2007/media/9E085ADC-377E-4D5D-888C-F1033C750D19-932-000000C3C6819DA0_zps0a8eafe5.jpg.html)

Nice find. I believe that's Motorala's first 17" rectangular set and it uses the TS-118 chassis.
I bought and sold several of those sets, 50+ years ago. There was never too much wrong with them.
According to the pictures, the CRT was the original. See the 4M51 orange stamp. Motorola did that to identify the original factory issue parts. :yes:

well dug around the house have a full set of tubes now just where to go as the next step. Ive had experience fixing radios and newer televisions but never really had luck with anything older than 1964 (ruined a ge 810 by just doing a gungho recap ) would it be safe to try and slowly bring this thing up on a variac just to see what im starting with?

Perhaps, but make sure you have a fused variac and keep an eye on things. Those old black beauty/bumblee caps are likely to start popping. Personally, I usually shotgun the caps and test individual components like the yoke, flyback etc. All those old paper caps are going to be leaky. Likely some of the electrolytics are leaky or bad too.

How exactly did you ruin the GE ? Burned out parts can be replaced if you fried something accidentally.

i just screwed everything up i had sound working but i had made so many mistakes that by time i was finished it would pop the 5u4 instantly. i figured id put it away come back to it when i knew better but i just relized i had made way too many mistakes and the flyback was damaged. i still have the whole set tried selling it but life got in the way and never got back to anybody.

OK, got it. I was thinking maybe you had tossed the set in frustration.

back to the Motorola. i powered it up slowly brought it up to 100. got that lovley high pitched whistle at about 80v and the speaker started to crackle. no picture no sign of reception, decided to go up to 115 it started whining in a different way ( like a fire truck siren winding up) so i turned it off least now i have a starting point and nothing caught fire.

I started packing up to move today and somehow as it goes went to move the Motorola and somehow ended up with the chassis on its side replacing capacitors. Did quite a few of them, did the horizontal section and some of the vertical brought it up on the variac and was rewarded with a raster.but no video or sound. so I started swapping out tubes and realized i made a boo boo 6bc6 in place of the 6ah6 video amp. tore the house apart and no 6ah6s to be found, but at least I've made progress.

Pulled the set out of the storage unit today after getting the 6ah6 I ordered. replaced all the caps I had replacements for ( not many) and now the horizontal and hv work dependably, and vertical which used to scream now sounds fairly correct. Also i have a strange inkling that the AGC is working if I turn up my variac a little the picture dims some then comes back up and if I turn it down it brightens back up for a second then dims back. Still no sound or video, if I shake the video amp the screen lightens and darkens and I get crackling and popping from the speaker so I'm pretty sure the tuners dead. Im thinking probably a section of a can elecrolytic is open and there's no voltage to the tuner. I'd check voltages but the box of tv books and schematics somehow got rained on and are now useless so i have to fly blind. anyway here a picture of my progress.
http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t122/duked_2007/IMG_0137_zps29fd5077.jpg