Hi all!

Been a bit of a fly on the wall member for a little while. Just recently acquired this RCA CTC44A "Trans Vista" 25" model. Got it for $40 delivered. The guy who sold it to me said it belonged to his aunt who purchased it new and he inherited it upon her passing. The cabinet is immaculate on the outside, and after a bit of air dusting the inside, its remarkably clean. I went ahead and plugged it right in, gave it a few minutes to "warm up" (it's an instant-on set). Flipped the On/Off bar and voila! Came right on. Fed it a signal from a Comcast "converter" box and got a picture! And not a bad one for what its worth. But when flipping through channels, I noticed that the picture had a slant to it. From the top left of the screen the picture slants down to the right. You can't really tell when the picture fills the whole screen, but letterbox format made it all too obvious. I have attached pictures to show what I'm describing. Any suggestions? I'm fairly new to the TV collecting scene so to be frank, I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing...:D

Thanks to all in advance!

-Sean

Here are a couple pics of the set....

easy fix.the yoke is crooked.loosen it up and straighten it

1. Take the back off the TV and carefully clean it, a vacuum cleaner and a paint brush to loosen up the dust works nicely

2. The "yoke" could be crooked.. on this kind of TV it's probably held to the neck of the cathode ray tube with a metal strap and a set screw... if you loosen the set screw, you can rotate the "yoke" a little, and then tighten the set screw... don't tighten it too much though, it's clamped to glass. Do this with the TV off.

3. Nice TV... welcome to VK

4. "instant on" means unplug it when you're not using it, or defeat this feature.

easy fix.the yoke is crooked.loosen it up and straighten it

It might have that yoke clamp, that rusted and cracked. I think it was a reaction with the rubber coating. Or was that the purity, blue lateral assy.
IIRC, the CTC44, was less common, than the CTC40.
Great find! :thmbsp:

Thanks for the info everyone, I will take a look at it this afternoon. And yes Max, I intend to kill the power to it entirely when not in use. I presume a Comcast cable box with a switched AC outlet is acceptable, as I was planning to have it hooked up to one and just power the box on first and then manually flip the on switch on the set. I will post my findings later on!

Man, that's a beautiful set. Back in '80 when I was selling used TV sets out of my college apartment, this would have easily been a $250 unit, and would have sold almost instantly. Great score!

Thanks again everyone! I adjusted the yoke ever so slightly and that did the trick. Got the picture level in two tries. :thmbsp: So I suppose my next question is, if I am planning to use this set on occasion, should I go forward and replace any caps or electrolytics or leave it alone since it seems to be working fine?

"On occasion" I personally would leave it alone until something actually needs to be fixed, maybe buy a Manual for the tv and study it and buy a book about how tvs work and read it before jumping in. I use an older tube chassis CTC-38 with all original electrolytic capacitors daily without any issues. I am going to change them eventually, but for now it works just fine.

"On occasion" I personally would leave it alone until something actually needs to be fixed

That's what I pretty much figured. I only plan to watch it for an hour or two every couple nights or so. Thanks to all again for the help!

if it aint broke,dont fix it!this set will last you a long time

....you can rotate the "yoke" a little, and then tighten the set screw. Do this with the TV off.


Where is your sense of adventure? I've been adjusting them with the set on, on tube sets where there is higher voltage, and using a mirror to get it perfect for years....I even got a good shock once from not watching what I was grabbing and it has not perturbed me in the least.

Where is your sense of adventure? I've been adjusting them with the set on, on tube sets where there is higher voltage, and using a mirror to get it perfect for years....I even got a good shock once from not watching what I was grabbing and it has not perturbed me in the least.

What I tell someone to do, and how I do it myself don't always intersect... I think it's a bad idea to advise someone new to the field to poke around inside a tv that is turned on, when they aren't fully aware of the risks.

Believe me, I understand there is a lot of voltage surging around in those various components and I will not be prodding around with it live, at least until I'm a little more comfortable. I've messed around with other electrics and electronics, audio amplifiers and such but not a TV. I'm going to do my homework first. And I think I'll be on here a lot more in the future....

I have the same set--in my house garage. It was a "shopping find" in 2009 in Monroe.

It worked the last time I tried, has a good tube but not a SPECK of color !! I have not messed with it in a few years.

up here right now in Hilliard. my ctc-7 is in the auction for the morning. THIS year--I WILL be there, and not in the hospital down the road!! (Lord willing !!) , on my laptop in the motel, getting ready for bed.

CTC40 & 44 probably the best RCA colors built. Saw too
few of them in for repair. Oh well, the junk put the steaks
on the table :yes: I very nice find.

73 Zeno:smoke:

I just realized that I posted this in the wrong place! :nono: Should be in the Solid State forum.... My bad.

I just realized that I posted this in the wrong place! :nono: Should be in the Solid State forum.... My bad.

We forgive and forget!
At least, you posted your great find. :thmbsp:

CTC40 & 44 probably the best RCA colors built. Saw too
few of them in for repair. Oh well, the junk put the steaks
on the table :yes: I very nice find.

73 Zeno:smoke:

Those two chassis, along with the very similar ctc-47, may indeed have been the best BUILT RCA SS color sets ever--but the first gen XL-100 chassis (CTC-46, 49, 48,54, 68, etc) And the 1st gen Colortraks (CTC 74 and 81), the ONLY RCA sets with a VRT power transformer, AFAIK, were not bad either. Not quite up to the Zenith flat-chassis quality, but not too bad either. After those--the build quality went downhill FAST.

CTC40 & 44 probably the best RCA colors built. Saw too
few of them in for repair. Oh well, the junk put the steaks
on the table :yes: I very nice find.

73 Zeno:smoke:
If you had been in TV service when the CT100 and Predicta were introduced you could have gotten rich.

If you had been in TV service when the CT100 and Predicta were introduced you could have gotten rich.
True but I did quite well anyways.
In the 70's every little town had a shop or two selling and service.
We ran a 2-3 week backlog, 1 week on road. Most "better" SS audio
was 4-8 weeks. What we didnt do up to the late 70's shows how much
there was to do :

NO Jap sets
NO carry in on consoles (no room)
NO solid state sets unless it was Zenith or Admiral
NO Sears :banana:

Exceptions were made for "good" customers....... We slowly started
doing that stuff in later years.
Then abt 1982 in march we noticed there were no longer repairs
stacked 3 high in the show room. By April we were waiting for
stuff to come in. New ball game, tubes history.......

Now if there were a shop doing the 60's-80's sets I would work
for $5 an hour :thmbsp:

73 Zeno:smoke:

Those two chassis, along with the very similar ctc-47, may indeed have been the best BUILT RCA SS color sets ever--but the first gen XL-100 chassis (CTC-46, 49, 48,54, 68, etc) And the 1st gen Colortraks (CTC 74 and 81), the ONLY RCA sets with a VRT power transformer, AFAIK, were not bad either. Not quite up to the Zenith flat-chassis quality, but not too bad either. After those--the build quality went downhill FAST.
Not to piss anyone off BUT........ I dont remember RCA chassis numbers
like I should. I hated that damn tilt down monstrosity (CTC74 & 81 ??) , you know, the one with the special fuse & cold joints. Maybe it was the weight & bulk of that beast. The others yes. I especially liked the 19" one with the "normal" horz sweep. Zenith & RCA built the best all around sets but others put out some damn nice product in the first few SS generations, and some dogs:thumbsdn:
Gives me an idea for a thread.:scratch2:

73 Zeno:smoke:

yep I hated those rca's too that trace and retrace sweep circuit. heavy as hell and beast to work on the 19" and 13" was no piece of cake either. in the early 80's tubes was history everything was solid state. I hate to say it but I chunked a lot of tube sets in the trash. I always did good my shop was in my home I was going good until walmart started selling new sets dirt cheap. in 2000 I pulled out of the biz and went to work in a grocery store., but the memories I loved and I miss it.