Hi you all.

My grandma's mid 70s Philco color set died yesterday, it's already on my bench and i'm trying to fix it but it's really beyond repair, the tripler shorted and took out the flyback, and i don't know where to get a spare one, the line output thyristors got toasted too...

it already had a serious meltdown back in 2003 when a wirewound pot arced and caught fire, taking out quite a few assorted semiconductors in the process, but i managed to fix it back then...

it's also a quite high hour set which lived a hard life, the wood cabinet has quite an assortment of scratches, bumps and stains, the power button is quite worn along with the woodgrain finish around it, and the last times i saw it working, the CRT was starting to go.

Now, i just don't need yet another POS hopeless set in my already cluttered barn... but i think i may regret it if i throw it out... this is the set i was watching as a kid, i remember spending countless evenings with my grandparents watching Wile Coyote, Bugs Bunny and Fury on it...

Would you keep it?

Since it seems to have sentimental value, I'd keep it. I still have a CTC-16 that was in the living room when I was a kid, and even though it's not fixable
I keep it as a memento.

Dumont-First with the finest in television.:yes:

Damn, that IS a poser...I'd guess I'd hafta keep it, for awhile anyhow...It bein Mamaw's TV & all...

When in doubt, keep it! You can always toss it in the future, but once its gone....well, ya know.

I'd say keep it. Ya never know... You might find another one with a bad power supply or something, but with a good CRT and flyback...

If I had the parts for it, I'd ship 'em out. Maybe somebody else will.

I'm guessing this was built in Italy? I'm curious as to whether, at that time, Philco of Italy had different ownership than in the US. When I first read the post I was thinking it was a Sylvania clone but I guess not...

Italian Philco sets were built by Philco's Italian plant, mine was the bottom of the line set, without remote control, and is fitted with their own clumsy Italian-made chassis with that terrible Thyristor line output stage, fancier remote control models were usually fitted with a Telefunken chassis, and that's why it's hard to get a replacement flyback for my set...

Perhaps i should have retired it in 2003 when it had its first meltdown... instead it spent 4 more years working everyday 10 or more hours a day... the CRT would still be good at least.

anyway, i finally decided to keep it... yesterday i was about to chop off the CRT's neck out of frustration and throw it out, but hey, it's a little piece of my childhood and even though it won't show a picture anymore, it's just too sad to let it get crushed in a trash compactor and i'm pretty sure i'd miss it badly someday... as much as i miss my grandpa's car

I just got an used flyback for the Philco! i'll let you know if it works.

YES! keep it. I have made the mistake of throwing out or selling and it sucks.
And it was your Grandma's, Always keep that kinda stuff.
Mark

I wish I still had the late '60's Zenith color console that belonged to my uncle. When I was a young teen, I hacked it up to see how it was made. I'm sure a few tubes would have fixed it right up. The only thing I have left of it is the old cabinet and CRT. That's one time my Dad and Uncle should have taken charge and stopped me!

There has been many TV's that have passed through here that I should have kept, especially the Zenith sets.

You should keep that Philco even if you can't get it going because once it's gone, there's no getting it back!

The good news: The new flyback is good.

The bad news: when i turn on the set, the HV comes up fine, the tuner, IF and audio sections are also working fine, but the set only displays a bright blank raster with heavy retrace lines, as the CRT warms up (a few seconds) the blank raster gets brighter and brighter and BRIGHTER! then some protection circuit kicks in and shuts off the set. :tears:

There should be about 200 to 250 volts DC going to the video output stage. If this voltage is not present or very low, the screen will get very bright. Look for a low ohms resistor in the B+ line feeding the video output stage. There could also be a bad electrolytic cap as well. Look for a value between 10 and 47 uf / at least 250 working volts.

The Philco is working again!

I noticed a small capacitor well hidden between the metal chassis frame and a heatsink that was about to blow apart, it measured badly resistive (about 35 ohms) on my multimeter.

After replacing this capacitor, the set came back to life... but what's really great is that the apparently weak CRT is now displaying a bright, sharp picture with great colors!

The dark picture and color bleeding were probably caused by this cap slowly going bad

I'll post some pics ASAP!

The havoc one little cap can produce is crazy aint it? VERY glad to hear the set is up and running!:thmbsp: No matter what, keep this one forever!:yes:

Glad to hear it's up and running again!