Thanks to a generous donation from Findem-Keepem, I received the diodes I needed. So now to replace them. Hmm... how to get at them without fully removing the chassis? That's a problem.
Fortunately I'm good at finding solutions to problems:
So here's my, er, less then elegant repair:
Not pretty but if it works that's all that matters.
So now to power it on, but first I need to do the following ritual, what I do every time before I plug in a TV that I've been working on. I connect it to my power strip with the kill switch ready, then I put my hands together and say the following:
"Please Lord, don't let this thing blow up!"
Here we go... the big moment. Shall I be joyous? or shall I be damned?
It's alive!..... barely.
So the HV comes up after about a minute or so and I see what looks like a very faint, very out of focus image. I noticed the brightness knob was maxed out, suggesting the previous owner had this issue as well.
My guess is the HV is very weak. I'll need an HV meter to be sure though. Wish I also had a CRT tester so I could see if the tube is shot.
EDIT: connected a DTV box. Tuner seems to be working. knobs are scratchy, to be expected. No horizontal hold, though I think vertical is stable... hard to tell with such a dim, out of focus image.