Motorola VT71 in Italy

[Giulio Maiocco]

Hello guys,

I saw some time ago you were talking about the silly price a Motorola VT71 went for on Ebay, well, I just finished the restoration of this TV set for my friend Angelo (Ferrari on this forum), and I would like to ask you a couple questions, if you don't mind.

During the restoration of this chassis, it became clear to me that this chassis never worked out of the factory! In fact, I found that the wire coming from the 110Vac plug and going to the ballast socket was soldered to pin 6, and on the correct pin 5 (just look at the ballast pinout and it will be clear what I'm talking about...)there is absolutely no evidence this pin was ever touched! How common is to find this kind of mistake? As is, the TV is pratically NOS! The chassis itself and the copper plating are still looking very good

Someone in the past (but I think no more than 10 years ago anyway!!) tried to restore this chassis, doing, in all honesty, a poor job for my standards, but I think he/she left the restoration halfway, probably after discovering it was impossible to power up the TV. The original metal housed ballast failed because of corrosion/oxidation of the crimped connection to the resistive wires, but the mica supports are still very clean, usually the mica assumes a brownish color when heated for a long time. In your opinion, is it possible to fix the original ballast (i.e. spot welding the resistive wiring to the connections on the socket or...)?

At this point, I think also the CRT is NOS, the raster and the image are both very bright and very well focused, am I right to assume this??

Thanks

Giulio Maiocco

[compucat]

Wow. That CRT looks great. I can't believe a set that had a factory defect would have been preserved this many years. Something like that when new surely would have gone back to the store right away. Maybe it was a gift that could not be returned. I'd sure like to know the story behind that one. It is probable safe to assume that the entire set is NOS. Definitely a keeper in my opinion.

[ferrari512]

Hi everyone,
find some more pictures of this nice VT71,
Angelo

[Eric H]

That is a very clean set!
Were all the tubes original Motorolas?

I've found several factory mistakes in sets but they were just joints that had never been soldered, obviously the sets had worked that way but I always wonder if they caused problems over the years, intermittent glitches that perhaps drove the owners batty.

[Don Lindsly]

You will need the high voltage cover to eliminate an annoying hash in the picture.

[Sandy G]

Wow...Talk about a "Time Machine"...

[ferrari512]

Hi,
the high voltage cage was taken off to be cleaned. Tubes and CRT on the set were all Hytron, some of them were missing. On pictures the ballast is by Amperite (glass bulbe) found NOS.
Angelo.

[Don Lindsly]

TV looks great. One of the best I've seen in the last 40 years.

[mkoser]

I have this very chassis in my attic. It was there when I moved in. The cabinet is there, but is in very very rough shape.

The chassis has had some repairs done to it at some time, since there are some capacitors missing here and there. There is no picture tube, or knobs. Some of the tubes are missing.

I have no interest in working on this set. If anyone is interested in this set, they can have it for the cost of shipping (it might fit in a flat rate usps box.

Thanks
Matt K.

[Dickaviation]

There is a dfference in pin-outs for different models of this set. The TS-B,C,D,E,F,G,H and (Early model) J have a connection to all eight pins. The TS4 J (Late model) only uses pins 1-2-3-4-6 and 7. Reference Wallaces Telaides Motorola Schematic Diagrams Chassis TS 4B thru TS 501A. Are you using an incorrect ballast for this chassis?