Found a Zenith

[NewVista]

Getting back to the Banjo picker for a moment,
He seems like a true Country Boy, not like one who
went to school in the Big City (Knoxville).

[sampson159]

i just rescued the same model zenith.has a replacement crt that is excellent,works with a nasty tuner and a sync issue.vertical is all there but shakes and wont lock in.came from a used car dealers office here in columbus.he used it 15 years until the digital conversion.was going to the recycler if someone didnt take it.cabinet needs some help but the set is all there and again,the crt is excellent.

[Sandy G]

Originally Posted by NewVista

Getting back to the Banjo picker for a moment,
He seems like a true Country Boy, not like one who
went to school in the Big City (Knoxville).

The guy who was the banjo picker is a guy named Billy Reddin. He got well off the money he earned in "Deliverence", & found a whole bunch of new friends who helped him spend it. He'd worked at a service station, & about a year later, he was back at the service station. He's been in a few movies other than Deliverence. I DON'T think he ever attended UT, he was more Georgia Tech material...Prolly woulda been Summa Cum Laude there...

[timmy]

well now that is ashame about that flyback because on ebay about a month ago there was a lot of 10 flybacks that went for i think 30.00 and there was a fly629c that said for zeniths and i was going to bid on it but didnt and here he would have had the right fly for the set because i would not have used that one. ok sorry it was not the ho-629c but rather a thordarson fly 629c but it did say zenith and thordarson and stancor are different and the numbers, this is why i revised this, sorry.

[sampson159]

upon further inspection of this zenith,a crt label in red and white,looking like rca but says zenith.another sticker reads hi-lite.this is a low level set with a plain cabinet.looks like a rebadged rca crt.it is excellent and between the jumps and shakes,the picture is sharp and the color saturation is beautiful.i will pull the chassis and look at caps.cabinet might have to be completely overhauled.then again,flyback is good and crt is excellent.that can get 2 more roundies back in service for someone else

[NewVista]

Originally Posted by sandy g

,... He was more georgia tech material......

*lol*

[Tubejunke]

I was told that the metal cabinet versions of these sets are rare. Supposedly the metal cabinet sets were not saved for the furniture factor that saved a lot of sets long after their useful service. I got one and thought that it was junky because it had the metal cabinet, but frankly it's one less worry as far as refinishing and supposedly more valuable.

[snelson903]

Originally Posted by Penthode

Last weekend I spliced in the part of the missing leg with a piece of poplar. I do not know the original wood but the poplar should stain to match.

I am a sucker for these down and out sets. But this roundie deserved to be saved. The chassis fortunately survived in good state.

thats amazing that chassie looks in better shape laying outside ,than my chassie did sitting inside a barn ,i had wire brush dirt and rust and who knows what off mine.

[Penthode]

Originally Posted by snelson903

thats amazing that chassie looks in better shape laying outside ,than my chassie did sitting inside a barn ,i had wire brush dirt and rust and who knows what off mine.

The set had sat outside two weeks I was told. In that time there was one minor rain shower. Testimony to the good plating used on the chassis was that it escaped relatively unscathed.

I am still looking for the flyback transformer. No luck with Talon or Moyers...

[julianburke]

What a terrific story and what a nice job you did with this set!! You get first prize for this restoration and to think how close it came to meeting up with a dempster!

[Penthode]

A month ago, I returned to our old house in Carbondale to clear out some left behind items. Amongst the stuff brought back was my old Zenith. Recall I found this set by way of an article on the front page of the Southern Illinois University student newspaper, the "Egyptian". A photo depicted but made no reference to the set on a front lawn, but to a banjo player sitting on the porch. (See beginning of the thread).

To make the story short, after cleaning up the set, we moved house. I patiently waited more than two years to continue the restoration.

I thought the flyback was fried. Kevin helped find me a replacement which I was just about to install. However I had another look with the set switched on and found only the HV rectifier bad. The tube had an invisible crack and was down to air. Interestingly it made a frying sound and loaded down the sweep section enough to cause the Horizontal Output tube plate to glow red after a few minutes. A new 3AT2 and I got good sweep and a good raster. HV measured and stayed at 25kV and so I am all set! Thanks anyway, Kevin.

The photo below is the set tuned to MeTV (Rockford Files) this afternoon with only a most cursory purity set up and convergence. Shortly after the set lost color lock. I decided to do the color APC and quadrature injection adjustment when the quad injection coil crumbled in the can!

I took the transformer apart and the coil former was in bits. So my call out Videokarmaland is do any of you have a spare injection coil/transformer? (It is Zenith part S-66788 and it looks like it was used in most if not all early Zenith color sets from 1962 to 1967. Note it is mounted in a standard aluminum can and has 8 terminals).

Failing finding a transformer, a two inch length of coil former which takes threaded ferrite slugs would do. I am prepared to rewind the transformer but even the formers are hard to find these days.

Any help would be sincerely appreciated.

Terry

[old_coot88]

Is that coil form plastic/nylon like the 'effficiency' coil and blue convergence coils?

[andy]

...

[Tubejunke]

Originally Posted by Penthode

The set had sat outside two weeks I was told. In that time there was one minor rain shower. Testimony to the good plating used on the chassis was that it escaped relatively unscathed.

The great thing about having one of these metal cabinet sets is you can take it to the car wash and pressure wash it with a little de-greaser and make it like new!

[Penthode]

Originally Posted by andy

... You could probably reuse another coil form after you remove the windings. If you don't have a junk pile, I'm sure someone here can find a spare coil with a long enough form. I will be interested to see if your rewind is successful, or if the characteristics of the coil are too critical to replicate by hand.

Andy and Old Coot: The original coil former looked to be a brown phenolic tube which would take those little powdered ferrite threaded slugs with the hexagonal holes. You know the ones that after some years jam and split when you try to free them.

I carefully counted the turns as I unwound the coils from the crumbled mess. The quad injection transformer is reasonably complicated but as it is operates at roughly 3.5 MHz, the number of turns are relatively few. I have had success rewinding IF transformers in the past so this should provide a medium challenge if I can only find the length of coil former. If anyone has one, no matter what coil it may already have on it and if it is at least 2 1/4" long, I'd be most grateful if you can spare it.

Incidentally, I received a reply from Moyers: they said they could not find the part. I suppose it is now 50 years but it was used in pretty well all the Zenith sets of the period.