Here's one of those Sears sets that has been discussed in earlier posts. It's in Canada. http://cgi.ebay.com/Sears-Model-41101-Vintage-Color-TV-with-Rabbit-Ears_W0QQitemZ110050901640QQihZ001QQcategoryZ3638Q QrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Wow!
I never saw one like that.
Would that model have been available in the US?

most likely it would have been available here. I had a set very similar to that one but in black and grey. It uses a toshiba chassis, and has on OK picture. the DC restoration is less than great, but its a neat looking set none the less.

It must be a sanyo or hitachi. I dont know who else made stuff for sears. Maybe sharp did too. Wasnt vegomatic looking for one of these?

Good memory, Doug! At the moment, I seem to be the only bidder.

And I thought I was through with fixing up TVs...

veg

As a historical footnote, you could call this the television that ruined the American electronics industry.

I think this was the exact TV that Sears was selling for less money than the set cost to build in Japan. This resulted in "dumping" charges that were pretty well ignored until 90% of US electronics manufacturing had moved overseas.

Ahhh... history. :sigh:

This was our family's first color set. My mom put it on her Sears Charge account in early 1972 after the old B&W Magnavox died.
We used it as a table model, without the legs. The thing took what seemed like five minutes to warm up, and the heat it gave off probably helped mom save a few bucks on her fuel bill in winter. I remember looking through the grill on the back of the set and seeing all the tubes glowing. I was kind of surprised that they still used tubes in TV sets 1972.
I recall the set having a good picture, but it seemed to have a chronic case of overscan. And, for once, Mom got her money's worth with one of those Sears "Service Contracts", since the picture tube had to be replaced twice in two years.

Well, looks like I won it. Let the games begin...


veg

Veg, best of luck with your new toy! Hope it makes it to Baltimore in one piece. I have some Sears service lit if you need it.

Nice score there Veg :)

Thanks Bryan! I already ordered the SAMS for this set. Is what you have something different?

Hoo boy. I cannot believe I bought this. Well, here we go again...

veg

The Sams would be the first line of defense. Might be some troubleshooting tips in the papers I have, if you need them. On top of what I already had, I just got a bunch of service lit on microfiche from Sears-no way to copy it so not real useful, but might be something in there thats useful.

I got the SAMS for this set in the mail yesterday and it's dated 1/71. I'm kind of surprised it's that "new". Apparently, the picture tube is not bonded, but has a separate safety window instead. I thought by '70-'71 all picture tubes were bonded? Guess I was wrong again.
A number of the components are labeled Sanyo. Think this is an actual Sanyo set, or just some of the components?

veg

According to numerous newsgroup posts, 564 in the model number indicates that it was made by Sanyo.

I agree that it looks old fashioned for 1971. It's possible that the Sams wasn't published for a couple of years after the set was made. Can you see any date codes? Is it all tube, or a hybrid? I have 2 early 70's Sanyo color portables (one branded Sears) and they are both hybrids with solid state tuner, IF, chroma, most of the luma, and audio.

Nice set! Very rare set today, but I remember seeing a lot of those in the 70s in apartments. It is definitely a Sanyo-built set. I have a friend who had one up to about 1980 when the FBT burned up. Did the shipping work out OK from Canada on that set, and did $150 cover it?

Charles

Unfortunately, all I have right now is the SAMS! I'm betting it's going to take a looooooong time to get to MD from Canada.

Okay, we've got it all settled that it's a Sanyo set (thanks, Andy!) All I'm going by is the pictures of the chassis. I believe there's one transistor in the UHF tuner, but the rest is all tubes.

According to the seller, the set gets a raster but I think that's it. I can't remember if they said there was sound or not.

Does anyone know when Sears stopped using "Silvertone"? I notice that the set is marked Sears, but that's all. At first I thought it might be because the set was so low-end, but now I'm wondering if the Silvertone name had just been phased out by then.

Anyone happen to have a Sears catalog from the say, '69 to '71 era that might have a picture of this set?

Thanks!

veg

Silvertone survived into the seventies but these imports seemed to stick with just plain "Sears". I have seen a number of them that way. I guess it is like how they sell Craftsman tools but then also cheaper versions under the Companion or just Sears name. Didn't want to tarnish their "premium" marque?

The real top of the line sets were the "Silvertone Medalist"
Sometime in the mid 80's the Sears electronics were branded "LXI" but I don't even think there are Sears private label sets any more.

Sometime in the mid 80's the Sears electronics were branded "LXI" but I don't even think there are Sears private label sets any more.

My first TV I had since I was 8 (still have and use it) is a 1990 Sears (Sanyo) 20". It is labeled as a Sears TV on the instruction manual, but the TV itself actually does not have any name on it anywhere... all it says is 'remote control' on the front, heh.

But yeah, I haven't seen any Sears branded electronics for several years now.

Let's not forget the other Sears house name from the 80s & early 90s; SR3000, wasn't it? Not a model #, that was the name on the front.

Charles

Were there different numbers, like maybe SR1000, SR2000? I did have a small boom box in that series, which I was quite proud of. It had a defect and was being sold as-is at the store. One of the channels didn't work right. Had detachable speakers and both decks recorded.

I have a friend who is a retired Sears tech...tickles me, always talking about how lousy a tech he was, how he couldn't really do much after things went solid state but they kept him on until early this decade. Heckuva nice guy.

Okay, I'll come right out and admit it: I'm geographically challenged.

I thought the set would be coming straight down to MD from British Columbia. Huh. Turns out BC is on the *left* side of Canada. Tracking shows the set has made it to Portland.

If this gets here in one piece, I'll be surprised.

veg

I have two Sears Sets from a TV shop that I cleaned out that are either very similar or exactly the same as this one (without the stand). These are in Texas.

Other than determining that the CRTs are good, I have not gotten around to restoring them yet.

Progress.

According to FedEx tracking, it was delivered this afternoon. Can't wait to see what kind of condition it's in...

veg

Well, the set arrived Monday and I unpacked it last night. It was in absolutely perfect condition! The seller sure packed it right--I don't think I'll ever manage to clean up all the flying packing peanuts!

Being the impatient soul I am, I fired it up last night, just for a bit. The good news is that it does indeed have picture and sound! A bit of fiddling with the HHold knob brought the picture in.

So far I can only pick up UHF stations, but that's with nothing at all attached--no antenna, no cable, no DVD.

The problems I noticed so far: Wavy vertical lines which means I'll have to recap it. Dang. The convergence is WAY off--distinct red and green outlines everywhere. I'm hoping the static convergence just got knocked out of whack on the trip over. Adjusting the brightness control seems to affect the size of the picture. The CRT bias switch is in the 3 position. I know I'm going to have to fiddle with all the controls before any final decision is made, but does that mean the CRT is on the way out?

Off to order some caps!

veg

Wow, i'm glad it made it ok! Kudos to the seller on a good packing job. As far as the crt, If you can get a halfway decent grayscale on that set don't worry. Get us a screen shot after you touch up the static convergence.

I was really worried about the packing on that one too.

It's been a while since I've done this, so bear with me.

I went to tubesandmore.com and found some of the caps I need, but it looks like I'll have to be only approximate with some of them.

Can I successfully substitute the following caps?

Specified What I could find
60@450/ 100@450
30@450/ 33@450
50@450/ 47@450
2.2@450/ 4.7@450
220@315/ 220@350
140@450/ 100@450
3@300/ 4.7@350
100@100/ 100@160
22@25/ 22@50

Now that I look at my list, I realize that I only found 2 exact matches out of 19!

Thanks!

veg

For the 140 I would parallel a 100 & a 47. That's easy & gets you right where you need to be.

100 in place of 60 isn't ideal but is problably okay. If you look around I think you can find some 68 mfd caps, maybe from justradios or radiodaze.

I think everything else is plenty close enough. Heck, one day I was in need of something like a 150 @ 25volts & I stopped in the CB repair shop downtown. He gave me a 1000 mfd cap and told me it was close enough! Maybe for him...

Well, so it's one step forward, one step back.

The good news is that I did the grayscale adjustment last night and got some pretty good color! The convergence still sucks, but I did the static conv. and at least it improved a little bit. Oh, and it worked just fine with the bias switch at 1 instead of 3.

The bad news is that I no longer have any sound at all. Dunno what happened--I had sound when I turned it on the other night. Now I don't even get static.

Other bad news is that I still can't receive VHF channels at all. UHF works, so what the heck?

I don't think this set got much use. It looks like all the original Sears tubes are in it (though there are a couple I couldn't see easily.) The picture tube has a date sticker of April (I think) 1970, which pretty much answers my question of when it was made.

Here are a couple of pictures I took last night. They're not great, but they're a lot better than when I first fired it up!

veg

Off to a good start! Have you been wiggling the tubes? That's where I would start with the audio problem; also on the VHF tuner. I don't think your audio tube just died but since the VHF didn't work when you got it maybe a tube there is bad. Could also be just dirty contacts in the tuner.

Okay, I can't resist: Nice Beaver!

Thank you. I stuffed it myself...

has the yolke slipped back a little during shipping. looks like the purity is also off a little. looks to be a nice set. congrats. steve

Thank you. I stuffed it myself...
:lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

forget about silvertone, signature 2000 is where its at; you can't watch smarter than wards!

Houston, we have sound!:banana: Last night I replaced the 6AQ5A (with a 6AQ5, actually) and now I have sound again! Volume control is a little scratchy, but I can take care of that.

I also bought a 1970 Sears catalog and found the set in it. Definitely BOL, that's for sure. Sorry the scan sucks--the picture was right at the gutter in the catalog.

Now. I still can't receive VHF. I replaced the 6HA5 in the VHF tuner and was going to replace the 6GS7 as well, but my tube guy sent me a 6SG7 by accident. I did what I could with the tuner--took it out and cleaned it as much as I could but still nothing on VHF. UHF works fine though. All I really need is to get channel 3 because I plan on using my DVD player as the tuner. Any thoughts, gentlemen and Sandy?:D

veg

While poking around inside, I found a couple of things I'd like to know about.

First, what the heck is that big round disk-thing on the yoke? It looks like a giant gear, but I can't see that the teeth engage anything. It turns, but it looks like there's a spot of paint that marks "home base" or whatever, so I put it back in that position.

Also, what are the two little thumbscrews for? I hesitate to touch either of them for fear that it'll do something horrible. My guess is that they clamp the yoke to the neck of the CRT? No mention is made in the SAMS about 'em.

Still no VHF, but I'm working on it.

veg

The tumb screws are most likely the yoke position clamp, loosen it and you can turn the yoke left or right for correct raster position. The round thing is your blue lateral magnet. By turning it, you will notice the blue convergence will move left and right depending on which way you turn it. Its serrated so its easier to turn by hand. Since it was moved, go to a stable channel (like the prevue channel on cable) and touch up that lateral magnet so the blue merges with the rest of the highlighted immages (anything white in color, like numbers or letters on a commercial). Even though its back where you had it, if its 1/32" away from its orignal setting will show on the screen.

Well, a little more progress, though a problem as well.

I replaced the last tube in the tuner last night but that didn't do anything. So I took the tuner out and cleaned the heck out of it. I also took the little fine-tuning slugs for channels 2 and 3 and cranked them all the way in, just to start from the beginning, so to speak.

Fired it up again and I had sound on VHF! Woohoo:banana: I played with the fine tuning and got a darn good picture, too!

One leeeeeetle problem though: no color. I have color on UHF but not on VHF. I also seem to be picking up channel 3 on channel 2 (running it off the DVD)

To quote Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent: "What the heck?"

veg

I take it you can't fine tune it far enough on 3 to get the signal? When it's tuned in on 2, it might normally not tune far enough to get color.... maybe. Maybe 3 is dead completely. Will your vcr do 4 or something?

John

Thanks Blue--that was a good idea.

I set the RF Modulator to channel 4 and am now picking up channel 4 on channel 4. So that's progress!

Still no color, though. I had a flash of brilliance and thought maybe it was the DVD player or the DVD itself that was being funky, so I tried the set on just plain old broadcast TV.

Nope. No color. Dang.

Also, the picture looks too wide for the screen. Like an inch or two at each side. The width jumper on the yoke is in the narrowest position. Does this mean an impending catastrophe?

veg

Hmmmm.... Well I am not familiar with that set at all but......

I think the tuner *has* to be working, on at least one frequency. As far as I know, the UHF tuner converts down to the VHF range, effectively making the set double-conversion. In english, the signal is going through the VHF tuner on UHF, too. I think. A schematic would help.

Is the signal really weak on VHF also? Maybe the balun is blown out. It used to happen from lightning. If there are 300 ohm screw terminals on the back, like most old sets, (probably), then inside the back there will be a piece of twin lead going from the back to the tuner. The first part it goes to on the tuner is the balun. It probably has two windings. I think there would be continuity between the wires connected to the back. There would also be continuity between the two wires soldered to the tuner, if you unsoldered a lead, but no continuity between one of each. I think. If the signal strength is good, this isnt it.

Next, maybe there is an RF amp stage in the VHF tuner that is not used on UHF? Maybe a tube? Gotta look at the schematic for that.

Maybe it's time to see if there is anyone still rebuilding tuners......

John

I was wondering about the tuner rebuilder...

I messed with the tuner a little more, cranking in all the fine-tuning slugs and starting over. Now when I fire up the set, I pick up the video on one channel, but the sound for that channel on the adjacent channel!

Seem to be making this worse instead of better....

veg

Quality Tuner Service is in Longview, Texas. The owner is Lewis Stangle is experienced and he does excellent work at fair prices.

LW

do you have Lewis Stangle phone number?

It's (903)753-3204