Another gem rescued tonight. 70's Zenith Chromacolor II console
 

Picked it up tonight for free. Not sure if it works yet. Phone won't let me do pictures on this forum. Might be able to use photobucket later on. Manufactured March 1975.

Well, i found a cord as it didn't come with one. Plugged in and ran good for about 5 - 10 minutes. Then a snap, screen went dark and sound of arc or fizzing. Shut off and turned on while behind and seen spark from vertical module area/high voltage. Will get pics up tomorrow.

Possibly runaway high voltage from a bad safety caps?
I had this happen on a CCII and it blew the tripler out.

What's the chassis number (should be stamped on the bottom of the chassis, somewhere under where the power cord plugs in - 25EC45, 23GC45, etc)? The safety cap problem was with E and F line sets. If the set has an orange drop cap directly under the horizontal output transistor heatsink; then, you are OK. If it has any white capacitors in the horizontal output circuit; then, you should change them before powering up the set again. Triplers are a very common failure on all CCII (E through L line) and I'd bet money that the arcing is coming from a cracked tripler. Triplers would usually fail in one of three ways in these sets. 1. The case would crack and they'll arc/burn/shoot fire out of them. 2. The tripler will internally short; which, can often take out the flyback and HOT (this usually happens from people either leaving the set on when the tripler fails or constantly resetting the circuit breaker when it trips). 3. The focus will be poor, due to a defective focus divider resistor inside the tripler.

23FC45. Has the orange cap.

You are all set. Prob just needs the tripler. Part # is
212-141-** if never replaced. Cross it from there. Twas a common
thing in the olden days, got 24 at a time. Newer ones held up much better.

73 Zeno:smoke:

I believe that tripler is the same as an ECG526A or NTE526A.

Great! Now where to hunt one down. where would i find it and how much?

There are usually some on eBay but not at the moment, probably after the holidays die down there will be more.

Moyer Electronics might have one and there are other places online that have them.

DANG... know i have an ECG trippler lying around from a CCII, hope i can find it... :)

SR

I think NTE still markets them. A few years ago, I bought a new NTE tripler and it was around $30.

Yep. Contacted Moyer and said they was out. but NTE has them for $26.40. If anyone has one on here, holler at me. probably won't order till Feb.

I'd get one ASAP. Frankly, I'm surprised that NTE even still offers these because I don't imagine there are too many people asking to have these sets repaired and NTE could discontinue them at anytime.

any pics of the offending tripler? How many solder posts etc :)

SR

Right on. Wish i could but i spent my budget for Jan. and didn't expect another tv. Especially one requiring a $30 Part. ill see what i csn do for pics as its hard to get in there.