Found a 1969 Motorola Quasar Works in a Drawer

[drh4683]

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.


DSC03424 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC03442 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC03443 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC03444 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC03445 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC03449 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC03451 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC03462 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC03452 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC03456 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC03455 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC03460 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC03461 by drh4683, on Flickr

[jstout66]

Me love this set long time! Can't wait to see a screen shot. I'm sure you'll have it fixed in 2 seconds.

[Jon A.]

TS-915, I have a remote and some paperwork for one of those somewhere.

[Findm-Keepm]

Nice set - we had the same Quasar, 'cept ours had the Insta-matic switch where yours has the Mototola Batwing - yours must be a base model without Insta-matic. The same base chassis is featured on the cover of the January 1969 issue of Radio Electronics magazine.

Our Quasar was the first set I ever adjusted - at 6 years old. One Saturday morning I played with the drive controls on the back and got things all screwd up - and got a good butt-chewing as well. My not-so-great start in messing with TVs.....

[drh4683]

Originally Posted by Findm-Keepm

Nice set - we had the same Quasar, 'cept ours had the Insta-matic switch where yours has the Mototola Batwing - yours must be a base model without Insta-matic. The same base chassis is featured on the cover of the January 1969 issue of Radio Electronics magazine.

Our Quasar was the first set I ever adjusted - at 6 years old. One Saturday morning I played with the drive controls on the back and got things all screwd up - and got a good butt-chewing as well. My not-so-great start in messing with TVs.....

I'll have to look for a copy of that magazine. The drive controls were always much to easy to access for anyone I thought since the controls protrude out of the back cover!

You set must have been a little newer though. The instamatic feature made it's first appearance on models starting in December, 1970.

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by drh4683

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.

BTW, ERO caps are Roederstein caps - good caps when made, but like all film caps from that era, they do fail.

Motorola went to Europe for a lot of parts - resistors from Spain (Piher), caps from Germany and Holland, and some coils from France. But their transistors were from Feenix, or Pheenix?

[radiotvnut]

Excellent find and you never cease to amaze me with all of your excellent finds! Many moons ago, someone gave me console with legs that used this chassis. IIRC, all it had was a raster and I wasn't as smart back then (I'm still not smart now). I think I ended up junking it and as I look back, there were lots of TV's that I got rid of that I wish I still had. Back in the '90's, I took for granted that there would always be an endless supply of older TV's.

[andy]

...

[tom.j.fla]

Hi DRH, you can find the 1-1969 R-E in pdf form at AMERICAN RADIO HISTORY web site. Just use lower case and dot com. All the best Tom.

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by drh4683

I'll have to look for a copy of that magazine. The drive controls were always much to easy to access for anyone I thought since the controls protrude out of the back cover!

You set must have been a little newer though. The instamatic feature made it's first appearance on models starting in December, 1970.

Our set was a TOTL set, with a Drexel Early American/Georgian cabinet that hugged the floor. We got it in January, 1970. Dad worked nights for a Motorola/RCA dealer, Snug Harbor TV, and Ralph, the owner, wanted the set gone - it was the last of his first batch of Quasars, and had gone unsold. Dad paid 60 dollars a week out of his pay to pay for the set. The only problem we ever had was once in 1971 - a lightning storm took out our Quasar (power supply diodes) and also took out an aquarium heater and a clock radio of our neighbors - dunno what dad did to fix that. The CRT blue gun went in 1980, and we junked it for panels. Our caddy of panels was missing a few...

Motorola had to hyphenate the Insta-matic to avoid a trademark held by Kodak on "imaging and photographic products" - so Galvin and Co. created the hyphenated name, and never trademarked it. Somewhere in Dad's stash of stuff is a LP record with highlights of a 1970 Motorola shareholder's gala in Chicago where the head of Consumer Electronics told the story. Kodak agreed on paper to let them hyphenate it and pronounce it the same as their trademark, but only if Motorola didn't seek trademark protection.

I noticed one of the bolts holding down the power supply is half removed- did you do that, or was it some earlier repair? Dusty threads, so someone might have been into the power supply.

[drh4683]

Originally Posted by Findm-Keepm

Our set was a TOTL set, with a Drexel Early American/Georgian cabinet that hugged the floor. We got it in January, 1970. Dad worked nights for a Motorola/RCA dealer, Snug Harbor TV, and Ralph, the owner, wanted the set gone - it was the last of his first batch of Quasars, and had gone unsold. Dad paid 60 dollars a week out of his pay to pay for the set. The only problem we ever had was once in 1971 - a lightning storm took out our Quasar (power supply diodes) and also took out an aquarium heater and a clock radio of our neighbors - dunno what dad did to fix that. The CRT blue gun went in 1980, and we junked it for panels. Our caddy of panels was missing a few...

Motorola had to hyphenate the Insta-matic to avoid a trademark held by Kodak on "imaging and photographic products" - so Galvin and Co. created the hyphenated name, and never trademarked it. Somewhere in Dad's stash of stuff is a LP record with highlights of a 1970 Motorola shareholder's gala in Chicago where the head of Consumer Electronics told the story. Kodak agreed on paper to let them hyphenate it and pronounce it the same as their trademark, but only if Motorola didn't seek trademark protection.

I noticed one of the bolts holding down the power supply is half removed- did you do that, or was it some earlier repair? Dusty threads, so someone might have been into the power supply.

Very interesting, so you had a set from January, 1970 with Insta-matic? I never saw or heard of one that early. Not trying to say no such thing existed. I got my info about December, 1970 being the announcement date for Insta-Matic per a 1970 Motorola annual report.

(seen here on page 11: https://www.motorolasolutions.com/co...-5p48mb-28.pdf )


Thanks for the detail on the use of the Insta-Matic name. I kinda figured there would have been an issue with Kodak regarding it and how the two got away with using the "same" name.

That screw appears to have been like that for YEARS. I don't even see any contact or rub marks on the metal from where the screw touched it. Perhaps it was hand started and never fully fastened from the factory?

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by drh4683

Very interesting, so you had a set from January, 1970 with Insta-matic? I never saw or heard of one that early. Not trying to say no such thing existed. I got my info about December, 1970 being the announcement date for Insta-Matic per a 1970 Motorola annual report.

(seen here on page 11: https://www.motorolasolutions.com/co...-5p48mb-28.pdf )

Insta-matic tuning on the Quasar II, yes - ours was a TS-915, original Quasar, same as yours. On the Quasar II, the insta-matic multi-pole switch was a real PITA. The switch would get dirty and cause problems in either position. On the '915, it was just a DPDT push-push switch that switched in /out a small "daughter" board mounted on the C panel - no presets, just factory selected values that resulted in the best color picture. Same size button as the power switch, with "Insta-matic in white or silver against the bronze background. The only Motorola logo was right above the UHF preset buttons, with the Quasar name. I watched many a Saturday morning cartoon on that set, and we watched the POW homecomings (big here because of Jeremiah Denton) and even the Nixon resignation on it as well. We also had a 16" Motorola B/W portable, and a RCA sportable that rarely saw service - I can remember watching it only once, when I was home with severe Poison Ivy the first three days of 4th grade.

Heck, if I can find the LP, you can have it - I'm not a Galvinite, although Motorola Semiconductor products were the best among the US makers. I'm more into RCA, GE and Sony - brands we saw tons of, other than Magnavox, Philco and Sears(warwick - Sanyo and Toshibas were A-ok), brands that never impressed me.

If you need any panels, I can also see what dad kept - I remember seeing an F panel in a PTS box recently.

[Findm-Keepm]

Motorola used a set with a similar speaker grille in their 1969 report, and possibly your same model in this photo:

http://fossforce.com/wp-content/uplo.../01/quasar.jpg

[KentTeffeteller]

I always liked these sets, and they were very innovative then. Motorola made good TV sets and Radio/Phonographs. And the Drexel cabinets were very nice on upper end models. And the Works in a Drawer modular concept was really neat and well thought out.

[MRX37]

Can anything be done about the green halo?

Just wondering in case I find a set like this.

Edit: I know about removing faceplates from roundies. Are rectangular tubes similar?