Most complicated 50s Philco B&W
 

I remember from the late 60s when my elderly dad enrolled
in a tv repair course at the local tech high school that there
were lots of old Philco B&W sets that were super-complicated
in terms of having multiple chassis hooked together with
octal-plugged cables. I'm thinking I'd like to get one
to fix up.

Any suggestions?

Oh yes, one other thing: they (the high school classroom) had on display a 15GP22 that had been cut in half lengthwise with a carborundum saw and
one half cut further apart to see the shadow mask! There must
have been lots of old CTC-100s and 21CT55s and CTC-5s around Ft. Worth at that time since it was one of the very few cities that had color TV in the CTC-100 time frame.

My trade school didnt have them but I know special teaching sets
were made. Be interesting to see who made them. Must be
some still around but havnt seen one ever.

73 Zeno:smoke:

The dual chassis Philco's have a reputation of being well designed sets. Not really super complicated though. Lots of sets had dual chassis, old Admirals, Sylvania Sylouettes, etc. Usually makes them easier to work on, not as much junk crammed together.

Agree, here is a pix of a dual chassis 1953 Philco with optional UHF tuner. Most early 50s Philcos, excluding portables, are of this design:

http://www.videokarma.org/attachment...8&d=1373419170

From "Scored a 1953 Philco" : http://www.videokarma.org/showthread...ht=1953+philco

jr

That's it exactly, the chassis that is. But no model number.
The model I remember was a table model.

I found a picture online of a 1951 Philco 51-T1635. That's close to it.
Anybody have a schematic?

Some of the Philco split-chassis sets:
51 Ad: http://tvhistory.tv/1951-Philco-Brochure.jpg
52 Ad: http://tvhistory.tv/1952-Philco-Brochure1.jpg
53 (no brochure on tv history site)... typical non-UHF table model: http://tvhistory.tv/1953-Philco-2124.JPG
54 Ad: http://tvhistory.tv/1954-Philco-Brochure1.jpg
55 sets look slightly different, but are possibly split chassis (I don't know): http://tvhistory.tv/1955-Philco-Brochure1.jpg
From: http://tvhistory.tv/
My 17 inch 53s are 53T-1853 (mahog. console) and 53U-1827 (Birch? table model)
My '51 16 inch round CRT set (1634-M?) has a power transformer and 5U4s... My '53s do not. I' m digging... but I don't think I have a schematic for the '51 set.
Eric's lovely 21 inch Philco : http://www.vintagetvsets.com/philcof.htm

jr

Easy sets to work on, if you ask me. A lot like working on two radios.

I totally agree!

The only 'gottcha' that I can remember is on some models, the smaller chassis will not stand on its side for servicing, without flipping over and cracking the base of a few tubes.

One solution was to use two small wooden planks with a "C" clamps to support the chassis during service.

Once you have seen these well designed sets, which are so easy to repair, you will wonder how only a few short years the same company could make the Predicta, an almost impossible to repair set, that always seemed to need something fixed.

To make matters worse for the independent service shops, Philco charged the shops full list price, plus shipping, for the many specialized Predicta replacement parts that were not available from independent jobbers.

Jas.

I remember when my brother enrolled in tv repair classes at Arsenal Tech High School in 1980 the sets they had were Magnavox roundies and Rca ctc12-16 and the black and white sets were Philco and Magnavox sets that they repaired for the Indianapolis Public Schools ... I wish I had photos of that shop it was huge when they stopped those classes I got some of the old test equipment and sams photo facts from 1949 to 1969...

Yes indeed and right after the Predicta era, the "COOL CHASSIS TV" was promoted. Meanwhile, Zenith and Motorola gained market share over Philco after that big 1958-60 stumble.

Sorry, I have to disagree on that statement. I always considered them harder to work on. Harder to remove from the cabinet, as most sets here had the UHF option. Plus, you had to remove the yoke, from the CRT assembly, for bench testing and troubleshooting. You had to have a test tube, or the CRT had to be removed, as well.
BTW, the 55-56 models were better sets. A full power transformer and one piece chassis.

If you had brought an SUV to the last ETF meet you could have bought the Philco split chassis console that the RCA you bought from me was sitting on....

I liked the split chassis from a service stand point easy to dismantle and work on.
My old 20" console had these metal yoke supports that went to the sides of the cabinet which one could use to prop up the CRT when on the bench for servicing.

Believe it or not, Philco had service cables for the split chassis sets which made life waaay easier for the technician! Somewhere around here I have a set of those extension cables and I bet there are more sets kicking around that no one realizes what they are for and they get trashed...

Jim

In northwestern Tennessee, we had no UHF during the time these sets were common, so I can see how that could have caused extra effort.

To service these sets, we had a felt backed oilcloth that we draped over the set, and then put a sheet of cardboard on that and plopped whichever chassis that had problems --or both chassis-- on top of the cabinet and just connected them up with extension cords! No benchspace lost. The CRT and yoke stayed in the cabinet.

Jas.

Has anybody here had trouble with intermittent inter chassis connectors?

The service men at the TV shop where I apprenticed in the late1950s HATED the Philco 2 chassis sets because the connectors were always a problem.

Occasionally some, but not nearly as much trouble as the tube sockets, especially on the high temperature tubes.

I do remember problems of corroded connectors on the ground connections used between the chassis, and chassis to tuner grounds, but can not remember if those were Philcos or not. We were in a deep fringe area and these quickly degraded the signal.

If the set had been running in the typical not air conditioning home of the era for a couple of years, accidentally touching either a tube or connection could start a problem. While you were in the home, you were careful not to disturb any connectors. The absolute worst offenders were the tube sockets and line voltage compensating switches mounted on top of the power transformers, but most of those were found on sets other than Philco.

Since you mentioned "apprenticed" . . . . . .

Both shops where I worked, it was the apprentice who had the job of removing the chassis, cleaning it and testing the tubes, and providing a detailed list of which tubes that checked substandard for the service tech.

Part of the apprentice's cleaning included *brushing on contact cleaner on all connecting plugs and power handling tube pins inserting and removing them two or three times and then leaving them apart for 15 minutes to dry, before replacing them.

Cliff, maybe that is why you remembered this :-)

*"Brushing" because the much more expensive spray cleaner was only used on house calls.

James

The biggest problem we ever saw with the early split chassis was "flag waving" at the top of the picture. Changing all capacitors in the horizontal oscillator/drive stage usually helped. I liked the upright metal console 17 inch with the inside cabinet lined with an asbestos sheet. Heavy well made set.

I back this 100%. I have posted through the years about my $10 Goodwill purchase of a 1956 Philco 21" table model. Although nothing really special like some early DuMont or something, the set is pretty much indestructible, or at least has been for me since the early 80s when I bought it. I have replaced one paper capacitor and a few tubes through the years, and it has been through one CRT since new unless someone replaced the original CRT with a factory Philco unit before I got it.

The chassis is simple, light weight and easily removed. The only battle I am fighting now is since analog transmitting ended I have not been able to get the sound in sync with the best picture when using a digital converter. Wish I knew what to do about that.:scratch2:

We were talking about sets made for training. I was thinking that Hallicrafters or maybe Heathkit might have made those, but I am not sure. I took one year of electronics before college and my H.S. had sets donated by locals.