20 year old Sony (UK Pal)

[Combwork]

Hi,

Despite being at least 20 years old this 25" set works well. But last night it fired up with a good picture, but also a ticking sound from the back; about once every couple of seconds. With the back of in the dark I saw a spark from the casing of the line output transformer to a middle size capasitor. It seemed to the side of the cap but maybe it was tracking through dust. I cleaned it, gave it a squirt of switch cleaner to wash anything off that was stuck to, fired the set up and all seemed well. Then after a few minutes the ticking started again; only once in about thirty seconds but still there so I bent the capacitor away from the LOPT and all seemed well. Except now there was a continious fizzing sound from the EHT cap on the tube, the kind of sound you get if you turn the EHT up too high. I turned the set off but wasn't able to pull the connector off so put a good layer of plain silicone sealer under the rubber cap. There were traces of old sealer under it anyway; no servicing has been done on this set so I guess it was there from new.

For years there has occasionally been a few loud 'cracks' from the back, but after about 5 minutes they stop. I've just left it; maybe it was caused by damp? I've left the sealing on the EHT cap overnight to give it a chance to fully cure. If the fizzing has gone do you reckon this is OK? If I could find the EHT voltage adjuster I'd back it down a bit; better a slightly softer picture than anything arcing over; I had this with an old tube color TV and it's not funny........