RCA KCS92D tube chassis. Any good?
 

I picked up one of these TVs yesterday from the son of the original owner and was wondering how good these old TVs are. I plan on replacing all the caps and then giving it a try. This is my second all tube tv (purchased about 10 mins after the first).

Overall I really like how this thing is built. It really is a neat old tv.

I never do a complete cap job before trying the set!
I've been in this game for so long that I'm maybe a bit fool hardy. A good way of initial test is using a lamp limiter, at least a 100 watt incandescent lamp in series with the power source. Check the brilliance of the lamp, if it barely glows, continue on with the test. If it glows brightly and stays that way, pull the 5U4 tube and check again!
The KCS92 chassis was one of the few RCA's that used a stacked B+ voltage divider.

I took your advice and gave this old thing a try on a variac. I slowly cranked it up and it actually has some life to it. The amp section hums so the caps are shot for sure. The screen actually came on! The screen is all choppy and isn't filling up all the way, so yet again the issue is caps. Hopefully my orders for caps knock out all of them.

So is it okay to power up old tube stuff? I know my variac has saved a ton of solid state stuff from blowing up even more.



This is a really neat tv and if I cleaned it up it could pass for near new. Once it's done it's going to be a really hard decision deciding to keep or let it go. I have an admiral tv here I need to restore and may be picking up a silvertone. I get the "You don't look old enough to mess with this stuff" discount so old tvs are fairly cheap to pick up and play with.

When this thing is done I'll update this thread to show it off (that is if it doesn't have any more issues).