Picked up this 1969 Motorola Quasar at an estate sale in Northbrook. This is a nice low hour one and was always in the living room since day one. I wasn't able to capture a good "original habitat" photo since they had people move the set for me as I was getting my truck backed in.
This is one of the higher end varieties as it's housed in a Drexel cabinet. It's nice that it's in a smaller cabinet; something you don't usually see with the Drexels. You would think this set wouldn't be very heavy considering it's size, but think again... I had to catch my breath after moving this thing. Drexel cabinets are the essence of solid quality construction.
This one is uses the popular first generation TS-915 works in a drawer chassis and was built on January 24, 1969 at the Franklin Park, IL plant. It was never serviced. The original service manual is still stapled down inside the cabinet within it's plastic envelope. Notice the remnants of the red "Solid State QUASAR" sticker that was on the CRT when the set was new. Somehow that little surviving piece got inside the cabinet. Someone also mounted the Drexel badge upside down! That's an easy fix though.
So the big question: Does it work? Nope, it doesn't. It pops the breaker a few seconds after it's turned on. So probably one of two (related) things is going on: The infamous leaky ERO caps, or a shorted vertical output transistor. A shorted vertical output transistor is usually because of a leaky ERO cap. I've experienced this on a few other TS-915's that have been untouched. So either way, ERO caps ALWAYS cause trouble in these sets. It still has it's original Motorola built CRT (EIA 185) and tests strong at a cold start which is a great sign. I always replace the ERO caps with Cornell Dubilier type DME film capacitors and the sets typically work flawlessly after that. Had it not been for those horrid caps, these sets would have been as long lived and reliable at the Zenith's assuming one kept the instant on in the "off" position.
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