A few months ago, I was fortunate enough to bring home a "new" G-2000. This set had no previous owner. When it was brand new, it was floor demo for a TV shop in Wisconsin that closed up. The set has all its hang tags, manuals, warranty cards, name plate sheet and even the remote is still wrapped in its felt bag attached to the back of the set. The cabinet has only one ding in it on the off white portion. The chassis seems to have little time on it as, except for a very fine layer of plain old dust, it is in pristine condition. Still shiny after all these years.

The set has been in regulated storage for nearly 30 years and was powered up about 3 years ago. At that time, I was informed, it had a good picture but it was not a full raster suggesting a failure or bad module connection in the vertical circuit.

While this chassis, albeit transistorized, is very similar in layout to a CTC-21 or 38, it is not a tube set and I am uncertain about powering it up with a variac. I am not certain if this set has a switching supply or some hybrid form of one since the tuner, etc is electronic. I know with the old Zenith space command 300/400 sets, there was simply a separate receiver that operated independantly of the main chassis.

I know there are a few of you who have worked on these sets in the past and I was wondering if you had a good procedure for bringing this set up for the first time. I just want to be very careful with this set so I can see where I am before I dive into it and start cleaning module contacts, recapping, etc.

Thanks in advance!

Check the electroylitic capacitors, they tend to go lower in value, or the ESR (effective series resistance) goes up.

A few months ago, I was fortunate enough to bring home a "new" G-2000. This set had no previous owner. When it was brand new, it was floor demo for a TV shop in Wisconsin that closed up. The set has all its hang tags, manuals, warranty cards, name plate sheet and even the remote is still wrapped in its felt bag attached to the back of the set. The cabinet has only one ding in it on the off white portion. The chassis seems to have little time on it as, except for a very fine layer of plain old dust, it is in pristine condition. Still shiny after all these years.

Wow that's really awesome. I also picked one up a few months ago at an auction for a tv shop in Iowa that was closing down. It sounds as if yours is in much better shape than mine. Mine has several dings in the white trim and on the top because it lived the last few years in the service department of that tv shop, with stuff piled on top of it. I have the owners and technical manuals (that came with the set in the pouch on the back.) And I also have an RCA Service manual for it. BTW, if you need anything out of the service manual (File: 1969 No. T19) just let me know and I can provide it for you. If you get a chance, post some pictures of your 2000 on here.

The set has been in regulated storage for nearly 30 years and was powered up about 3 years ago. At that time, I was informed, it had a good picture but it was not a full raster suggesting a failure or bad module connection in the vertical circuit.

While this chassis, albeit transistorized, is very similar in layout to a CTC-21 or 38, it is not a tube set and I am uncertain about powering it up with a variac. I am not certain if this set has a switching supply or some hybrid form of one since the tuner, etc is electronic. I know with the old Zenith space command 300/400 sets, there was simply a separate receiver that operated independantly of the main chassis.

If the set was powered up 3 years ago and operated fine although it had the vertical problem, I agree with WA2ISE that you could check the electrolytic cans to see if they measure what they should. But, you should just be able to power the set up normally and do the touch test on the electrolytic cans to see if they are hot or not. This set is new enough that you don't really have to worry about bumblebee or wax paper caps.

I don't have the data in front of me right now, but I believe the CTC-47 chassis (which is the 2000) and the CTC-46 chassis are very similar. Both chassis are solid state, with the 46 being RCA's first. The main differences between the two being the HV section of the 47 is completely solid state, whereas the 46 has a HV Rect tube. and of course the tuners are different, given that the 47 has the new electronic tuning.

I know there are a few of you who have worked on these sets in the past and I was wondering if you had a good procedure for bringing this set up for the first time. I just want to be very careful with this set so I can see where I am before I dive into it and start cleaning module contacts, recapping, etc.

Thanks in advance!

I will be very interested in your progress with the set because mine has recently developed some issues and will be going on the bench soon, so we'll both be working on our sets at the same time. Mine has quite different issues than yours though. It has a ringing or smear in the chroma, so that the blue and green are smeared to the left and right, and the tv will slowly loose chroma so that if the set is on for about a half an hour the chroma will be gone and you're stuck with a black & white picture. Also the motor that turns the UHF tuner does not work.

I think a good check would be to check ESR on all those electrolytics (power supply and signal circuits). These sets are getting almost 40 yrs old so the probability of age-related problems from electrolytics is greater.

One way to soft start your 2000 is the light bulb. Connect a 60 watt light bulb in series to hot side of the ac cord. Disconnect the deguss coil and put a jumper on the on-off relay,{ pins 2 and 5}. Turn on the master power switch and Plug it in the wall. If you are in a quiet room you should be able to hear the high voltage and sound start up and the bulb should be dim. Check the B+ and stand by voltages too. They will be lower than normal but a good clue that the set will power up at full voltage .
Warning.... When you check the electrolytic caps at full voltage with your meter, Make sure you remove them out of the circuit first.
DO NOT... Move, Jiggle or remove any plugs or boards when the set is running.
The best way I can put is if you look at the transistors the wrong way, They will short. When you recap the set check for bad connections on all the boards and burned resistors too.
It will be cool to see your set running, The 2000 has a really good picture.
Ed

With an ESR meter, it does not apply high voltage to the cap like some other types of meters, and it can be used safely and accurately for an in-circuit test, as long as the circuit is unpowered.

When electrolytics dry out, their resistance goes up. An ESR meter measures the internal series resistance of the cap.

It only applies a small AC voltage, so it won't tell you if the cap is leaky. The main thing it does is tell you if the cap can still work well as a filter. This is particularly useful when looking for the cause of hum bars, or vertical problems.

The biggest risk on a TV that hasn't been used for a long time is that a cap will be leaky, shorted, or needs to be re-formed. Caps that haven't been used for a long time can temporarily become leaky. Suddenly applying full voltage can cause them to over heat and fail. If you gently charge them over several minutes to several hours (re-forming), they may be ok.

In a typical 60's TV I usually find a few caps with high ESR that must be replaced. The rest of the caps are usually ok, even without soft starting to re-form them. High ESR caps usually won't hurt anything except with switching power supplies.

I don't like to run solid state TVs for long on low voltage. It can actually stress parts.

The safest option is to simply replace all the electrolytics before you even plug it in. I usually just stick with as many original electrolytics as I can (knowing that I will probably have to replace some of them eventually).

The problem I have been running into with the 60's color sets is the electrolytic caps I did not replace fail. When I pull a set out out of storage to watch, The first thing I do is replace the old electrolytic caps.
I did replace all the electrolytic caps on the boards in the 2000 but still need to do the cans. The set works fine but I don't trust them.
Ed

After figuring out what the heck I did with these pics, here are some of the set as I found it. These are pics that were given to me by the seller of the set.

I will post more when I get her cleaned up and working. As you can see, I lucked out as there is only the one blemish on the lower left corner of the white veneer. I was even more lucky to find the base not cracked as these are prone to do.

I must admit, I am pretty tickled to have it even though I primarily collect tube sets. But I fell in love with it the minute I saw it.

You did good, That is a really nice set and in vary good condition. Did the seller throw in the cart it is sitting on?? The 2000 is a heavy beast and It weighs more than my 63 zenith 21" color combo.
Enjoy your new find.
Ed