The Sears is back
 

Been organizing the house lately and it turns out I made room to put another TV set, so I decided to drag out the old Sears (by Sanyo) that I got several years back. I hadn't powered it up in at least three years, so I thought I'd just display it and not use it. Then I decided that since I have two of those newfangled digital adaptors, I'd hook one up and see what happened.
Wellsir, the thing powered up with a monochrome picture but after a few minutes, color popped in. Not a bad pic, either, though it definitely needs to have the convergence done (which I'm probably not going to mess with.)
There was a terrible buzz in the audio whenever text appeared on the screen, but a little fiddling with the AGC lessened the problem.
On to the pics! Here's a bad one (I forgot to turn off the flash), but it gives you a look at the set itself

I have a hard time snapping the digital camera at the right time. Think I'll go back to my Instamatic...:D

And now, the problem
 

Here's really the only problem I'm having with the set: the top has somewhat severe pincushioning. I messed with the height and the vert. linearity and that made it a little better, but there's still a pronounced curve. The SAMS showed a...pincushion phase?..thingie that I adjusted, but it made no difference. Is this something that's easy to remedy? Youall may remember what a yutz I am when poking around inside a TV, so if there's a simple way out of this, I'm all for it! Otherwise, I may just have to live with it--we don't watch much TV anyway.
P.S. The picture looks better in person than in the picture. Must have shaky hands...

Here's another pic, with the show in letterbox format. Not so bad when it's full screen.

What a huge forehead on that man...

Seriously though, I like the set, and it's not likely there are many of those left. Is the cabinet grey or green? Any idea what year it was made?

000

Looks pretty good! Those aren't sets I ever expected much out of. I think on the smaller ones they simply ignored the pincushion issue; since yours has the control but it doesn't seem to work...sounds like something flaky in that circuit. "Okay, Bryan, tell me something I don't know..."
:)

The cabinet is green vinyl-covered metal. May just be painted, but I think it's vinyl. The SAMS is dated '71, which seems kind of late for a set of this style. Definitely a Sears Bargain Model, since it's not a Silvertone.

His forehead actually looks like that...:D

:lmao::lmao:

It actually has a very good picture IMO especially since it was a bargain set...

:eek:

Ha ! Those guys in "This Island Earth" DID consort w/the locals, then...

Those Japanese Paper In Oil caps (ELNA, Suzuki) make me groan at the prospect of working on any of these sets. A full recap is pretty much a given. If they haven't exploded/leaked already, they will soon.

You basically have to go through the same shotgun process as you would when recapping a late 40's-mid 50's American made set with paper caps.

looks like something in the pincushion circuit failes.. Possibly the coil itself failed?