Motorola "Works in a drawer" Find
 

I lucked out out the estate sales today. Passed on a Zenith & RCA B&W stereo combo. The RCA had no sound and the Zenith was in the garage and was a tad beat up. It did have a cobramatic turntable and I almost got it. Anyway.... Went into the den and saw a Motorola solid state color console. It's the "works in a drawer" It has a beautiful "craftsman" style cabinet (2 tone mahogany) and it has a "cabinet by Drexel" emblem on it. Works perfectly and has a damn good picture. Better than I remember those sets having when going on house-calls. The 25ZP22 picture tube has a 1968 code date. I love this tv! Will post a picture in the next few days.

Sounds like a great find!
I am glad that someone other than me is collecting them now!!

Hey...I collect them too! :) However I have only found 1...the works in a drawer are very rare around here. I did find a Quasar 17" Portable w/tubes this weekend, though.

Hey Dwight, I had a question for ya on this one. I see 2 resistors on the antenna screws. (where you hook up rabbit ears or antenna lead. Each one tied into the VHF/UHF screws. This looked odd. Is that a Motorola "thing" or did someone do this later? And why are they there? Thanks! James

Well... Post some pics guys! Let's see some Motorola/Quasar stuff!

see my post in the swap forum. The "H" module I suspect has gone out as it has a non-stop vertical roll. I would like to sell this to one of you if interested, for the price I paid which was $20.00. You would have to arrange your own shipping. I am in Omaha, Ne.

A vertical roll can't be but so hard to fix, right? Change one bad cap & you're in business (famous last words...)

Dwight is so cool! He is going to fix my module for me! I had just gone in a panic mode because I couldn't figure out anything on this set. I never did get to work on solid state stuff. When I worked in my Uncles shop I only did tube changes and adjusting, along with the occasional picture tube change. Anyway.... I'm going to hold on to this one and hope all will be well after Dwight works his magic on it. I also want to thank everyone who gives me advice on my various posts. You're all appreciated! Also, I don't know if it's like this where you live, but were you guys aware of how downright unfriendly service shops can be once they find out you want an older item repaired? I'm in Omaha and called 5 shops, one that has been around since the 50's, and they wouldn't even work on this. They just couldn't comprehend why I wanted this fixed so badly...... James

Picture of Motorola
 

Pic of Motorola

Picture of Motorola control panel
 

Control Panel pic

Nice set. I talked to a service guy a while back and he said he made most of his money on waranty repairs. Which is more like swap a bad module out I think in most new units. So for them to actually spend hours working on a unit that is that old would keep them from fixing 3 newer units, thus cutting down on profits.

James, I live in a small town some 30 miles outside Cleveland, and have found the same thing to be true. I once tried to get my Zenith H511 radio repaired at a TV shop in the next town (the only TV shop within say 10 miles of here), but they said no--they wouldn't so much as look at anything that old (the H511 dates to 1951), let alone repair it. The chances are good they wouldn't touch my Zenith K731 (1963 vintage) with a ten-foot alligator clip lead, either.

The thing is about the Quasars, the flyback transformer, horizontal output and damper tubes are in the rear of the set, not on the works in the drawer...I don't know if the totally solid state models have the deflection components on the "drawer" or not.

yes, deflection componets are in the drawer. This one was made in 1968, and is solid state, so I don't think any true "works in the drawer sets" were hybrid. The power transformer and some caps are not in the draer tho.....

Re: Picture of Motorola
 

Hey. What's that 4th slider from the left? Looks like "Interlock" or something like that?

Considering how hot the horizontal output and damper run in all TV sets, it's a good thing they aren't in the drawer in Motorola's tube-powered works-in-drawer sets. The heat from those two tubes alone would probably melt the front panel in no time flat the first time the set was turned on, not to mention causing a fire hazard and/or making the panel so hot it would be difficult or impossible to adjust the controls--let alone melting the shafts :eek:--unless the panel and control shafts were made of heat-resistant material.

BTW, I noticed a button on the front panel of jstout66's set with the stylized "M" Motorola trademark on it. Was/is this an automatic color control or some other defeatable system? Also, wasn't there a version of this design with push-button UHF tuning, five buttons across the control panel arranged something like the presets on old car radios? If so, how were these buttons adjusted for the local UHF stations in a given area? I've seen at least one set with an arrangement like that.

4th slider from the left is brightness. Also notice how there is a Hue AND a tint control? And like I stated earlier, this set is one of the first production runs for the "works in a drawer", (1968) so I'm not sure they used any tubes. (in the consoles anyway). the set is very service friendly for those who know what they're doing. (not me) I still have a vertical problem on this set, and think Doug is going to come get it sometime as he has been looking for a plain cabinet style in a "WID" set. I think the sets with the pushbutton UHF were in the last production run when it was still owned by Motorola which would have been 1973/1974. Captain Moody would know for sure. I never saw many Motorola's "back in the day", and NEVER run across any now, so I'm not familiar with em....... This set was very well taken care of, and the cabinet is beautiful. Also displayed a very good picture before the vertical went nuts.......

oh... and Jeff, those push-button UHF's were set like a car radio. I think there was still a UHF knob, and you would set your station by pulling the button ALL the way out and pushing it back in. As for the emblem on my set... Not sure if a color control was available or not on this chassis. I know they had the "INSTA-something" auto color control on later models.

Fourth from the left Jason is intensity, Or color level.
BTW, Pushbutton tuning was available on that model. My 1968 combo has it.

OK, thanks. Those Motorolas are neat sets, my aunt and uncle had the later version with the flip down door and the radio buttons. Far as I remember it was a good set and I loved all the buttons.

ooopssss. see.. I can't even count from left, so can you imagine me trying to fix it.... LOL!

RE: Picture of Motorola
 

That is one nice looking TV. I like all the sliders and knobs. Thing I am wondering is why does it have a separate hue and tint control? I thought those were the same thing. Unless one is a coarse adjustment and other fine.

I think the hue is the chroma phase control, what we would call tint on most sets.

The "tint" control here is probably the color temperature control, for controlling the color balance of the three electron guns, like varying the screen controls...it can make the picture either toward a sepia tone or a bluish tone, like the color temperature control on a computer monitor. Admiral calls this control "color fidelity".

Before you guys get in any long discussions look at the pic again, It has a tint and intensity, (or color level) controls not tint and hue!

It looks like the Hue and Intensity are slide controls, the Tint is a round control underneath the slide control panel.

Oh, Ok. I thought you were talking about the sliders!

Since I was unable to get this set repaired (despite the excellent help from Captain Moody) I am offering it to anyone who is interested. It has a vertical problem that makes it unwatchable. Before that problem, the picture was perfect. PM me if interested. The set would have to be picked up tho, as it is solid wood and heavy! I'm in Omaha.