Unknown Zenith
 

Hey Guys!:D
My wife was at a local GW store today and spotted an old zenith 19" portable tv she thought i might be interested in.She snapped a couple of pictures of it,but are kinda blurry at best.She also tried to get to the back of the set for a model no.,but to no avail.Do you guys think you can I.D. this set with these pics?they want $20 for it,but i think they're asking too much for it....

Cheers.

Judging from the two buttons at the top I'd venture a guess that it is a mid 70's Chromacolor II. It would be an SS set. These produce very good pictures when working right, and are worth saving(especially the delta gun sets).

To anyone but a TV collector that set is 4 times over priced.

That's going to be a little tricky to ID because Zenith used that exact same cabinet style for CCII sets as well as system 3 sets. I don't see the words "solid state chromacolor II" under the "Zenith" name; so, that leads me to think it uses the system 3 chassis (probably a 9-160 based set). However, the very last CCII's didn't have the "SS CCII" wording on the front.

Looking at the back will tell the story. The CCII's had an old style interlock type power cord with a red circuit breaker (reset button) above where the AC cord enters the back cover. This will be in the bottom center of the cabinet. The system 3's had the AC cord going directly into the cabinet and it will either be on the left hand or right hand side of the back.

If this is a CCII set, I highly suspect it is one of the last from '78-'79 and will likely use the inline tri-focus CRT. When Zenith introduced the system 3 chassis in '78, they also made some 19" CCII's that used the same inline CRT as the system 3.

For $20, I'd be real picky. If it is clean and produces a good picture, it would probably be worth getting. If it were a CCII, that would further convince me to grab it. Those 9-160 based system 3's produced a good picture; but, they can be harder to troubleshoot than a CCII and those 9-160 modules are getting scarce. Also, those inline CRT's don't hold up as well as the older delta gun tubes. The 19" version holds up much better than the larger ones; but, I've still seen my share of weak 19" inline Zenith CRT's. They are still no where near as bad as the '90's Zenith tubes.

Ok,thank you guy's for the feedback!
I'll drop by tomorrow morning to take a better look at this set and also the back end of it as well for a model no.Hopefully it's a CCII model!
Now the question is,can i talk'em down from that ridiculous $20 price tag!:scratch2::D

It never hurts to ask. Some thrift store managers are easy to work with; but, most of them won't budge. This is especially true of the big charity thrift store chains. We had a manager at our local SA who was easy to work with. Of course, they didn't keep that manager long and he was quickly replaced by the current witch with an FU attitude who prices everything out of sight.

Isn't that the heavy beast mudder, with the power transformer. Either an H or J chassis. My back is aching just thinking about it. Excellent sets.

If it's a CCII, it's heavy as lead.

Well guy's
It was bust!It wasn't a CCII and the condition of it was something left to be desired!I didn't even try to talk her down on the price.:no:
But i did find these nifty item's for all of $4.50!
3 sets of rabbit ears and a techtronix scope probe!
Maybe i'll have better luck next time....:yes:

Oh well, well we all know where that set will end up at.. "The Dumpster" eventually..

Well,I just didn't have the heart to leave that poor zenith there knowing that more than likely it was going into the dumpster pretty soon,so i went back today and picked it up!And i also managed to talk the woman behind the counter down to give it to me for $10!Maybe i still paid to much for it but hey,at least it will give me something to do for awhile....:D
One quick question for you guys, i need to take the back off the set and wash it in the tub (smokers set:yuck:)should i be conerned about covering the labels up?

Cheers!

That's really not a bad looking TV and I think you did OK for $10. I'm sure it would have wound up in the dumpster had you not taken it. Those labels will easily fade; so, I'd advise covering them up before you clean it. How's the picture on it?

Hi radiotvnut!
Unfortunately for me right now, i don't have the 75 to 300 ohm matching balun from the cable box to the tv! I saw one yesterday at another GW but didn't think to pick it up!:stupid:All i can the say is the set has a raster! seems like it's "pulling in" horizontally on the right hand side of the screen. But until i get a picture on the set,i won't know how bad it really is.:scratch2:By the way, do you have any good suggestions on how to cover up these labels when i clean the back cover?

I'm glad you got it.. $10 is a fair price.. We have a Salvation Army around here that gets these types of TVs in, they were selling them for $10, but now I see they have a few old TVs in, one being a Panasonic and the other a Portland, they have a price tag of $29.99.. They will just sit there for that much..

Ok, here are some pics of the internals.....

A few more....

Last two....:D
It looks like this set has been repaired at some point in it's life.I Believe it's written on the label on the back of the cabinet....

I really don't have any suggestions for covering up the labels. I think I'd manually clean the back as best I could. It will take longer that way; but, there's less chance of destroying the labels.

I'm not surprised that this set has been worked on. Frankly, I'd be shocked to find one of those that had not been serviced. That pulling in on one side may be caused by a bad section of the dual section power supply cap. There was also a 10uf, 315V cap behind the flyback that would cause one side of the screen to be dark. Also, the 9-160 module was bad about having cold solder joints on it. Also, the 9-155 video module is known for having bad connections on the big resistor network and the output transistors.

Wow! First board i decide to pull (9-152) C2176 just about fell out of the board!:yikes:Looks like it's going to be a fun day today....:D

Looks like the vertical output coupling cap.

I'm surprised it even had a raster:no:
Ok,CRT board resoldered and all tidied up...:yes:

...

Man, i'll tell one thing,this main board is a mess!:yikes:Apparently this board was upgraded from a 9-160-03 to a 9-160-05?Where they're any service bulletins issued for these sets?:scratch2:Here's what i found so far:

RX3363: cut out?
RX3366: cut out?
RX3367: cut out?
RX3364: looks like it was never installed (not really sure.)
A .33ohm 3 watt resistor in C3315's spot?
A .18 ohm 3 watt resistor in L3302's spot?
R3201: vaporized!Have no clue what it was!:no:
I'm assuming that the TO-3 installed on the center heatsink is the horiz.output?They mangled that too when they replaced it!Didn't even bother to clean off the old heatsink grease,they just added to it!:mad:
Going to need all the help i can get on this one guy's!

Cheers!

Actually this set isn't an "unknown zenith" anymore.It's a zenith L1924W9.:D

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Andy is correct... when those were new, it was all about replacement of the module. Zenith... in the work-shops I attended when the System 3 came out, bragged on how it cut down repair time, hence the name "System 3" which stood for 3 large modules.. and the TRI focus picture tube. Looking at my Zenith CRSP Guide (1985) it shows that they have 9 versions of the 9-160. For example.. if your set uses a 9-160, you could sub a 9-160-03, or a 9-160-05. Price in 1985 was 70.00. If the module is totally effed.. perhaps someone here would have one, or you could get one from Moyers?

Well,either the tech who "refurbed" the board or the service shop who repaired the t.v. did a really sh***y job on it!I 'm leaning towards the repair shop in this regard since they were tooling around with the other modules as well,especially the 9-151 tuner/if module which kinda scares me!And that board is a refurb too...:tears:I can't condemn the set yet cause i don't have the matching trans yet to hook up a video source!There is a raster albeit a slight horiz "pulling in" on the right side of the screen which i think relates to that fried resistor only because it's tied into the width control.:scratch2: Without a service manual,it's a crapshoot.....:tears:

Back in the '90's, I had so many problems with rebuilt modules that it finally got to the point that if I couldn't fix the board myself, it didn't get fixed. It got to the point where the quality went down, while the price went up.

From what I was told at my local parts supplier, the rebuilder does not actually test the modules. They have a pre-determined list of common failure parts that are replaced and the module is then sent back out. If the failure involved the parts that were replaced; then, you are back in business. If the defective part(s) were not on the "replace list"; then, the module would not work. I think I remember PTS claiming that each module/chassis was actually set-tested before it was sent out.

When I first started buying 9-160, 9-181, and 9-186 modules in the early '90's, they were in the $50-$60 range. About 10-12 years ago, they were over $100 (not worth it).

By the '90's, Zenith was using a single board "module" style chassis and the whole chassis could be replaced. It didn't help matters any that it was usually the CRT that was causing the chassis to burn up to begin with.

you may able to check out the video source... most system 3's have a black wire that comes out the back that plugs into an area right by where the screws are for the VHF/UHF. If yours is so equiped, you simply unplug that wire (it should pull right out), and surprise.. your cable wire plugs into the end of that black wire.

also.. i see a PTS module online, but geezzz.. 69.00? http://www.weisd.com/store2/PTS9-160-05.php

Well, thank you radiotvnut,andy and jstout66 for all your "zenith" knowledge!:yes:
By any chance, would you have a spare 9-160-05 board laying around or a schematic to look at? I think all i need is the value of that resistor(R3201) to get this set working properly again!In the mean time, i'm going to rebuild and spiff up the board a little bit.....:D

Damn.. I looked and was over-run by Chromacolor parts, and only 2 System 3 Parts.
I would have given you the 9-160-05 if I had it

I do have a new 9-152-02 (which in 85 was the replacement sub for a 9-152)
Also.. a 9-239 which states Tunar control
If you end up needing the 9-152-02, let me know.

Unfortunately mine is soldered in at the antenna terminals and then the coax plugs in the 9-151 module which is a phono plug.Is that what your talking about?

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That's way too much for me!I only paid $10 for the set and i consider it in "cosmetically challenged" condition. All i need is the value of a resistor and that would probably fix it.....:yes:

Now, why didn't i think of that? :stupid: :D

Here is the set up on the back of my System 3. I thought they all had this set up, but I could me mistaken... On mine.. see the black wire? If you plug it into the hole, you use the screws for antenna input, if you pull it out, you can use the "normal" cable feed.

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Thank you very much for your kindness!:thmbsp:The one i'll most likely really need though would be the 9-151 module since they were busy prying off shields on it for some odd reason.:nono: If you come across one cheap, please let me know!:yes:

Mines totally different.....

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