So, I finally took the back off of my CTC108. Rather clean for something this old. The only thing that bothers me is the blackened appearance on the neck of the P/T. Almost smoky looking inside and the large white adjustment near the yoke also has the blackened look to it.

Is this a problem? Could this be why my picture isn't at it's best?

How does a layman correct this? To be honest, I am scared of the high voltage aspect. An electrician friend of mine once told me that I am not affraid of it, but I respect it. No matter what Angelo said, I am AFRAID OF IT!

Any suggestions folks? I'd love to save this set. It's pretty cool to me.

(I can't get photos to paste inside of a posting so here is a link to the photo)
http://www.videokarma.org/album.php?albumid=644&pictureid=3527

http://www.videokarma.org/album.php?albumid=644&pictureid=3527

Thomson made some of the best picture tubes in the late 80's until the fall of RCA
Your set is a good one I'm sure the fly back was replaced as RCA had a bad run of them
After flyback replacement those sets would run seems like forever

I wouldn't worry about the dark area. I've seen a lot of RCA's from that time period and very few of them had bad CRT's. In fact, there are still many of these old sets still in service with good pictures. The main RCA's from this era that I saw with weak CRT's were the 25" ones.

I wouldn't worry about the dark area. I've seen a lot of RCA's from that time period and very few of them had bad CRT's. In fact, there are still many of these old sets still in service with good pictures. The main RCA's from this era that I saw with weak CRT's were the 25" ones.

Thank you all. I was thinking that something was causing the carbon and therefore reducing the picture quality.

It's odd. Turn it on and get an okay picture. Next time, it's not a nice and there is blooming. Then, it'll be good again.

One thing is for sure, ALL of the pots have been adjusted. I have the original RCA tech manual for it and just need time to try to reset everything. This will have to be by eye as I have no test equipment.

Should I pull the piece off the tail of the PT and clean the contacts? If so, what do I use?

I'd really love to save this set.

Looks like normal crud to me. Static will pull dust
etc toward the CRT area. Wouldnt bother cleaning it.

73 Zeno:smoke: