Greetings All!
Happy to find this place!
I am a collector of all things old... as the pic indicates below. That's my "toy" room.
I have a 1971 Sylvania TV 27inch that I keep in my collection room. When I bought it - it turned on fast but the picture turned at an angle.
I finally talked a TV repair shop to come out. They ended up taking it back to their shop. 6 weeks later and 380 dollars later... they kind of fixed it. It would only work with one type of VCR... it still pulled a little on top and bottom. but it worked. They said it was the best that could be done for a 43 year old TV. So I went with it and set it back up.
It lasted 2 weeks with just a few hours of use. Now its pulling horizontally again and no tweaking on the knobs and controls will pull it straight again.
My grandfather was a TV and Appliance repairman from the 50s to the 90s. I wish I had paid more attention when I watched him repair things... I am an IT guy... but not an old school repair guy.
So my question is - is there anything I can do to work on it myself... or better yet is there anyone from the forum here that lives in the Northern Virginia area that would be willing to look her over and help me out?
I have posted a few pics of it working and then now - not again.
THANKS ALL!!

Those Sylvanias were very good sets in the day, in same league with Zenith. That picture looks fine and you have a horizontal issue. Try adjusting a control called "AGC first.
Do you have a copy of the bill for what was done by the TV guy? What was thier function?

You can get some great help here for sure. What is the model number, IIRC these Sylvanias began with "CL"

AGC is what got it to the state you see now. It helped - but not enough to pull it all the way over.
I will have to look the bill over tonight once home from work and I can respond again with what they did and what the exact model number is.
Really hoping to get her up and running again. I love watching just like I used back as a kid in the 70s...
Plus I have a feeling I will be buying more TVs in the future... I really enjoy all models from 1980 and before.....
=)

Very cool toy room ! ! !

I remember crashin in front of the tv on the floor..... Haven't done that in a while....

Not sure I would get up.... Not that I would want to either.....

Good to have ya-

As for the tv, it looks like a horizontal hold kinda thing......

Ya know "they got a knob fer that..."

.

Nice to see some love for the more "recent" sets here. The young'n showing some appreciation for it is the icing on the cake. The only advice I'm able to give right now is to stay away from today's ham-fisted "repair techs". They probably do little more than re-cap flat-panel power supply and inverter boards.

I finally talked a TV repair shop to come out. They ended up taking it back to their shop. 6 weeks later and 380 dollars later... they kind of fixed it. It would only work with one type of VCR... it still pulled a little on top and bottom. but it worked. They said it was the best that could be done for a 43 year old TV. So I went with it and set it back up.
It lasted 2 weeks with just a few hours of use. Now its pulling horizontally again and no tweaking on the knobs and controls will pull it straight again.
Does the invoice state specifically what service was done and what parts (if any) were replaced to the tune of 380 bucks?:yikes:

Does the invoice state specifically what service was done and what parts (if any) were replaced to the tune of 380 bucks?:yikes:
Knowing today's "repair" shops, most of that was probably charged just to open it up and take a look.

It's from the 70's, so it's right on the cusp of having capacitor issues. You might try recapping the horizontal section to see if that helps, if not it might just be out of alignment. Try and get the Sams Photofact for your set, there should be a horizontal alignment procedure in it you can try.

I'm not entirely versed in Sylvania as it was not one of our house brands. But one of the resident gurus on here should know off the top of his head whether your set uses a horiz. AFC diode ('phasing diode') or not.
If it does, it's the very first thing to replace (after checking the horiz. oscillator tube).
It'll be located near that tube, and is a small rectangular block with three leads. You should be able to spot it easily if the set uses one.

Knowing today's "repair" shops, most of that was probably charged just to open it up and take a look.

Sadly thats what i am afraid of

Does the invoice state specifically what service was done and what parts (if any) were replaced to the tune of 380 bucks?:yikes:

Yeah - i know... i gut sucked in because i really wanted this specif one to work and i cant find ANYONE in the area to work on them.
Unfortunately it just states antique tv - tubes replaced and maintains performed.

Model - CL813P-1

Serial - 004-1184019

120 volts

60 hertz

240 watts

Yeah - i know... i gut sucked in because i really wanted this specif one to work and i cant find ANYONE in the area to work on them.
Unfortunately it just states antique tv - tubes replaced and maintains performed.
Nice set for sure, good to put the effort into to keep it alive. Sucks that it cost such a large sum first though. Tubes replaced huh? Sounds like whatever may have burned the out original tubes wasn't corrected and it happened again. The rest of the "maintenance" is likely contact cleaner.

Its a D-16 hybrid chassis. Very good sets.
Tube compliment 6BL8, 6LR6, 6CE3, 6LU8 & 6MD8.

If the horz hold wont bring in the pic. the first thing I would do
is change the 6BL8 tube with a known new one.
If that dont do it there is a horz freq coil that can bring it in range
but it takes a special tool & it can break easily on an old set.
If you do get it back the horz hold should be at the CENTER of its
range. If it goes out again there is something drifting & its
going to get deep..............
Also post what the shop did to it. Keep in mind even if that tech
started in 1980 he worked on few if any of these & I am
surprised you found anyone to touch it. The only person I know
that has a real shop & does it for a living that would touch it
would basicly say:
I will get a color picture and sound back.
I will not guarantee how good it is.
You will see it running in the shop when you get it.
Once its in your cars you are on your own, NO GUARANTEES !

73 Zeno:smoke:

That's what the repair guy is saying now too. He is here looking it over. Said he replaced it but with the only used one he could find.
I don't guess you have a person that you could get those from?
Or am I stuck looking on ebay?

OK folks...
I had the repair guy come back. I told him what all yall said. He now agrees with that.
He said he replaced the HO tube with a used one he was able to find - so it may be bad as well.
He did do some additional work while here. He fixed the end points on the power tube for the horizontal area (it was fried pretty good before it seems).
He also recapped part of the horizontal area that he said looked bad.
Oddly enough it did hold for a few minutes when he put in a Harry Potter DVD (the only one he said he could get to work before)... yeah i know... magic huh? But once you turned it off and back on - it went right back to the horizontal issue.
SOOOOO...
I have already bought a New In Box (old stock) tube to replace the older HO tube i found on Ebay.
I will get it in next Tuesday and update yall..
Keep your fingers crossed for me...
=)
And Thanks for all the help!

OK, one more time.:D As mentioned in post# 9, find out if the set uses a horiz.AFC ('phasing') diode. If it does, that diode should be replaced as a matter of routine in the case of weak or absent horiz sync.

Lacking the Sams, it should be a simple matter to have a looksee to tell if the set uses one.

OOPs.. just missed your last post. If you can still catch the service guy, have him read post #9 and this one.

Looks like a D16 chassis table model set I rescued a while back. I have been able to get color back and better convergence since I last updated that thread, but it still could use some work (dead sound and color acuracy issues). If I can get life out of that heap yours should be easy to get perfect.
http://videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=258006

By HO Tube are you talking output or oscillator? The output should not have an effect on the hold...It it the oscillator that is responsible for keeping the horizontal in synch. The horizontal phasing diodes mentioned earlier are a possible cause of horizontal issues.

I have a paper copy of the sam's photofact manual for the D16 chassis that I can give you excerpts of if that will help.

One thing to keep in mind is that if you can get the set to synch to a VHS source and there is horizontal waviness (flag waving) in the image (especially at the top) it is not the sets fault so much as it is the fault of the lousy synch VCRs tend to output. That set was designed before VCRs were common in homes and as a result were not designed to compensate for the lousy synch VCRs produce like newer CRT sets were.

There is a way to fix flag waving...Pass the VCR output through a TBC (Time Base Corrector) and then into your TV. There are a variety of TBCs and devices with TBCs built in. I've found that some DVD RECORDERS have decent enough TBCs built in to stop flag waving...

Looks like a D16 chassis table model set I rescued a while back. I have been able to get color back and better convergence since I last updated that thread, but it still could use some work (dead sound and color acuracy issues). If I can get life out of that heap yours should be easy to get perfect.
http://videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=258006
The progress on that thus far is an excellent testament to the quality of those sets.

I have an update... =)
Click here to the other thread please..
=)

http://videokarma.org/showthread.php?p=3105837&posted=1#post3105837