Well, after replacing every single electrolytic capacitor and reassembling it, my Sony 8-301W does get a raster. As most of you know, there is a VHF input gain control, the antenna gain control, which is a 1k pot that varies the level of the VHF input. Well, anyway, with it turned all the way down, I get a grey raster that looks pretty normal. With the tuner on channel 3 and the RF output from my tivo connected to it with that tab thing which connects to a 75 and 300 ohm input. The picture is very very snowy. With the volume turned all the way up I can hear static as if the signal is weak. With the antenna gain control turned all the way up it look as if the tuner is overdriven but it still is snowy. Is the tuner not aligned or is it that silly tab connector causing a lot of signal since there is lots of corrosion on the pins that the tabs touch? Or could the tuner be dirty? The horizontal and vertical looks pretty stable.

The 50uF electrolytic capacitor that was part of the horizontal oscillator (C37 in the Sams) had this white crusty stuff in between the metal can and the plastic sheath. I'm guessing it was the electrolyte. At first I thought it was a coil because it looked so weird. So when I replaced all electrloytics except that one I has the wrong horizontal frequency from what the raster looked like. After figuring out it was an electrolytic, I replaced it. Since I had the shield off and everything apart, I figured I'd replace the horizontal drive transistor (2SC41) because I had the very expensive NTE replacement. I figured it would give me a stabler horizontal when it heated up, as when I assembled it and powered it up, it kept a fairly stable raster for a few hours of operation.

It just has a snowy picture. I think everything else seems to be working great otherwise, as the raster is stable and the audio is working well.

Thanks.

Jonathan