I would have added this to the Estate sale finds, but since I'm looking for a little service help I didn't want to derail that thread.

I'll give details like Doug does...

The house was in St. Clair Shores, an older Detroit suburb (also the city where I live). It's bittersweet to find one of these time-capsule houses, because while I enjoy all the "stuff", I hate that the WWII generation is dying off leaving only old hippies in their place. :tears: Here is the house:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/1203202377.jpg

Check out this Philco stove...!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/1203202381.jpg

Now the set in its "environment". The set on top was 80s era Capehart (some kind of Japanese/Korean re-badge) Thankfully there was a towel underneath it. The Gen-X slacker help was watching the set. The Zenith was STILL plugged in and attached to an outdoor antenna, nobody even tried to turn it on. I asked if they had the remote, and they said somebody already bought that and left the TV. How nice...:thumbsdn: The 20-something kids couldn't believe it HAD a remote.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/1203202379.jpg

Now some pics of the set...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/1203202374.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/1203201323.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/1203201319.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/1203201316.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/1203201313.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/1203201325.jpg

Not the greatest pic of the chassis, sorry. I remember the chassis number starts with a "12", or maybe a "15", which I believe designates the number of tubes on a tube-era Zenith. Some sections of the set have stand-alone transistors which are obviously directly replacing tubes from an earlier version of the chassis.

Now for the problem...

I removed the back and fired her up, listening for the correct "sounds". I hear a little static from the speaker (haven't made much effort to tune for audio yet) and the traditional Zenith "motorboat" sound which I associate with a raster. Also hear the HV, but doesn't quite sound normal, but the flyback looks perfect. CRT heaters light with no drama.

However, no raster.

After about 45 seconds of warm-up, or at least long enough for a picture to appear even on a long-sleeping set, I start to hear some HV "crackling" noises that sound like they are outside the HV cage. At this, I have been shutting the set down. I ran it with the HV cage open, and although I know the 3DC3 HV rectifier doesn't give much light, I could see none, so I swapped with another in my box of used tubes, with no change. Also noted the the Horiz. Output tube appears normal.

One abnormal thing I noticed is the presence of some kind of "goo" that appears at the top of the 2nd Anode and runs down to the yoke. It's like a sticky grease. I do not believe the set came from a smoker-house, as everything else just has normal grey dust. You can see it in this picture...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/Chromacolor2/TVs/1203201327.jpg

Nothing around the 2nd anode seems to have "decomposed", so I have no idea what this sticky goo is. The tube is a Zenith, but I don't know the date code yet.

Feel free to begin diagnosis...:scratch2:

A neon lamp tester carefully held near the plate lead of the horiz output tube will tell if the horiz output stage is working at all (should light when held near the insulation of the lead) This is where I would start.

The goo I think is some kind of silicone or other sealant that has disintegrated and ran down the side of the CRT, I think it was originally applied around the HV connector. Have seen this on other similar Zenith sets.

A neon lamp tester carefully held near the plate lead of the horiz output tube will tell if the horiz output stage is working at all (should light when held near the insulation of the lead) This is where I would start.

The goo I think is some kind of silicone or other sealant that has disintegrated and ran down the side of the CRT, I think it was originally applied around the HV connector. Have seen this on other similar Zenith sets.

The standard 120V voltage tester type of neon lamp?

Glad to hear that goo might belong there.

Looks like my 1970 Chromacolor except for the control knobs.

The standard 120V voltage tester type of neon lamp?

Glad to hear that goo might belong there.

Yes, a standard 120 v neon tester. There is enough RF radiation coming out through the insulation of the horiz output plate lead that it will light the neon tube up when just held near the insulation. For the utmost in safety you can attach it to some kind of non-conductive support such as a plastic ruler and lie it against the plate lead with the power off, then power it up and check for the glow.

What a great find! You can't get much better than this! Looks like probably a 12A12C52. Very impressive find. If I ever get up that way again, Id like to get that fixed up. Those are my favs to work on.

What a great find! You can't get much better than this! Looks like probably a 12A12C52. Very impressive find. Does it appear to be a low hour set? Most original tubes still in there?

"Better" might be a raster, lol.

I was there in literally the last hour of the sale, it was dumpster food if I hadn't found it. :yes:

I haven't spent very much time poking around it today, but the tubes I can see all appear to be Zenith. One nice thing is that because it was a remote set, it appears to have not been "touched" very much, so all the controls have no wear.

http://jonsey.blogdns.org/img/hvcup.jpg
Have you checked the plastic cup that holds the 3DC3 socket? The HV seems to burn through these pretty easily, arcing to the chassis. A coat of GE silicone II on both the inner and outer surfaces fixes it right up. As you can see from the picture, the burn holes are practically microscopic. I've found at least three zenith sets in basements with the same arcing problem. I have a feeling thats why the sets are retired, they started snapping and the owners didn't bother servicing them.

You should be able to tell if the arc is comming throught the HV cup by the sound. If its somewhere else in the chassis, then its obviously not the cup. In these chassis, the pincushioning saturable reactor can be a culprit for HV trouble. Hopefully the fly is OK. Is this a 12B14C52 chassis? Should say on the paper tag ontop of the HV cage.

Dont worry about the residue. ITs typical on practially every zenith of this age. Its just breakdown of the HV anode cup. It becomes sticky and trying to clean it makes more of a mess and has no effect on the operation of the set.