Crosley 9-403M Restoration
 

Time to start another restoration. This one will be my Crosley 9-403M.
S/N 1528 112320.

Overall the tv is in good shape. The cabinet is in great shape except for some scratches on the side and a small piece of missing veneer in one of the top rear corners. All easily taken care of.

BTW, no back. Anybody have a picture of one so I can make a back for this tv?

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The chassis looks like it has never been worked on underneath. No evidence of any work. Of course there were some tube changes along the way.

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The metal chassis has the usual plating dust all over it. Everything steel has it. A quick trip to the quarter car wash and most of it is cleaned away. Though the metal will have to be scrubbed clean.

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The chassis looks like it was made from galvanized steel. It appears that something has "run" on the surface of the chassis. This makes me think it's from the galvanizing process.

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Now the one bit of bad news. When I got this tv I did a quick check on the CRT. It checked real good! Problem was is that the 10BP4 CRT is gassy. Yup, there is a purplish glow around the inside diameter of the tube. BTW, this tube is a rebuild. I have several 10BP4's that checked good from "donor" tv's.

Ah, it has one of them new-fangled invisible CRT's. Nice.

Crosley
 

Safer that way, no worries about implosion!:yes::D:D

Very nice looking Crosley, best wishes as you restore it!

What are the dimensions of the set? I may have a back that would work.

The width would be 20 1/2 inches and the height of 10 1/4 inches. I got the height from "witness marks" on the back edge of the cabinet.

I used a 1/2 inch square piece of hard maple to make a "stand" while I work on the underneath part of the chassis. I removed the tuning scales to keep them safe. I then tape some folded over paper towels to the top of the power transformer and to the top of the HV cage to protest them while inverted.
I used an existing hole in the chassis and bolted on a small cross-member so the stand will stay in place.
Much easier to work on when it is this way.

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I also use some spacers that I make up so I can grab the chassis when upright.

These spacers are 1" x 1/2" with a 3/16 hole down the middle. I then use a 5/16 drill bit and counter bore a hole about 1/4 deep. Then I round the "bottom" corner to prevent it from digging into my bench top.

For the hardware I use some #10 (3/16) x 1 1/2 long countersink head 10-24 bolts. I also use some 10-24 nylon lock nuts. Using my disc sander I reduce the head diameter so it'll fit into the counter bored hole.

Then the spacer is bolted to the chassis. Works great and I can grab and lift the chassis much easier. Been doing this type of thing for awhile now. Works great!

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As my usual practice, I labeled all the tubes, resistors, capacitors, coils, inductors, and transformers according to the Sams docs. I also label all the terminal strips.

There was only 1 resistor that was in the chassis that wasn't covered in the Sams. See if you can spot it in picture #2. I also found a mistake with the value with C56. Sams has it listed as a .002uf while it should be a .003uf which was installed and Riders has it listed as a .003uf.

Now I'm ready to start re-stuffing the E-Caps.

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While I'm posting pictures I thought I would show you guys 2 capacitors that this set uses.

C35 is a 4pf IF Coupling capacitor. C26 is a 2.5pf IF coupling capacitor.

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That set is a Dumont made or at least a Dumont based design. Dumont loved those zip-cord capacitors. One or two of my RA-103 chassis used those zip cord caps, the other used a regular capacitor.

O_o weirddddd.

I'm guessing the 'zip-cord' cap is to capacitors what fusible links are to fuses?

Also called gimmick capacitors. The (very small) capacitance depends on the wire length and how it is twisted/bent. So don't bend them into cute new animal shapes.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
https://antiqueradio.org/index.html

Seeing it is a Dumont based design, should it be a good playing tv?

Yup, gimmick capacitors. I won't bend them out of shape.

BTW, could I just use some micas instead?

I forgot to post this picture of the chassis with everything labeled.

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Started working on replacing the E-Caps tonight. I won't go into detail on how I make them up. BTW, these E-Caps all have cardboard covers so I left about 1/4 of the "donor" can to help align the PVC sleeve. Then the original can will be trimmed in length for the cardboard cover.

I want to get new E-Caps in so I could power it up and see where I am.

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But I wanted a pony!

I figured shape would affect it.

A later Crosley model, the 9-407, was a clone of the DuMont RA-103. Your 9-403 uses a continuous tuner a la DuMont, but the chassis layout is quite different than the RA-103. And the immediately preceding DuMont model (RA-102) was very, very different from this Crosley chassis (and the RA-103), so no obvious kinship there.

Was it DuMont-based? Maybe comparing schematics would tell you. Since Crosley eventually used a DuMont clone chassis, the two companies might have had some kind of earlier licensing or technology exchange agreement, short of full cloning.

As for replacing the gimmicks with mica caps, why replace them at all? They are just pieces of wire. What could go wrong with them?

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
https://antiqueradio.org/index.html

Phil,
Thanks for the insight. I have to admit, this TV will be a bear to recap. Lots of caps and resistors. Some jammed pretty tight.

I finished re-stuffing the E-Caps. Then I installed them.

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After carefully checking my work and a good look see. I powered it up. First without the LV rectifier tubes, then with them but no H. Osc tube. All went well. Then all the tubes and my test CRT.

I got a raster and clear but faint sound. I tried twiddling all the controls but I couldn't get the horizontal to lock.

Then I installed the CRT that came with the set. Works great! A little too much light in my shop to really check for that purple glow. I'll do that tonight.

I switched over to FM, then screen went blank but I couldn't get any signals.

Overall I'm happy so far. BTW, the sound was very quiet. No hum or hash.

Later on after I check the CRT again, I'll start on the recap.

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Oops. Duplicate post.

Very encouraging for an un-recapped set. I predict smooth sailing from here on out. It's fun to watch the picture shape up as you replace more and more old caps.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
https://antiqueradio.org/index.html

Yeah, I'm looking forward to going through each section. I'm sure I'll have questions on the tuner.

BTW, I just finished checking the CRT in the dark. It still has that purple glow around the perimeter of the neck. Great bright raster though. We'll see as we go along.

I think I'll start with the HV section and work backward through the set.

After turning the chassis over to start recapping, I found this on my bench top.

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Wax drippings from a capacitor! A quick visual showed which one started dripping. It was C81. 1 of the Damper filter caps. L29 is the H. Linearity Coils.
Looks like I was pushing the limits when I powered it up.

Here are the before and after pictures along with the schematic.

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Well you know what they say: if there ain't no wax under it, there ain't no wax in it.

Er... wait.

I have a question about a cap that is used in this TV. It is C63 and it is listed as a .00025uf 600V cap. The one in the chassis is indeed a .00025uf 600 paper cap. It is used as a Sync Coupling cap. Can I use a 250pf 500V mica cap instead? I can't find this value anywhere in a film capacitor. I've included the area of the schematic that it is used. I would think a mica cap would be better than using a ceramic disc cap.....right?

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I would think that a mica cap would work fine in that application.... surprised to see such a small value paper cap.

jr

Good!......Me too! Thanks.

OK, finished the Horizontal section tonight. Tomorrow I'll power it up and check my progress.

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Finished the vertical section today.
When I powered it up I still got good audio but still no video. I then tried direct video injection and after turning the H. Freq. adjustment I got a picture. Things are looking up.

I think I'll do the Video Amp section then roll onto the Audio next.

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Completed some of the power supply section and the video amp section. The picture below is direct video injection to the video amp tube. Getting better.

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I don't see any pictures on the last two posts... what's different? :scratch2:

jr

Crist,
All of your pictures for this thread disappeared yesterday on my computer.:scratch2:

Try and hit the 'Refresh" button.

No luck with the refresh button.

No luck here, either.... cleared my cache and lost all of the pictures on this thread. :scratch2:

jr

OK, I'll check with my IT guy and see what's up. Everything from my computer is fine. Don't ya just love it!

Pictures are working down through thread #25 here. I am using Chrome as the browser on a Win 10 machine.

Should be fixed by now! My IT guy is great!