Can you help me fix this Zenith?

[Carmine]

For a while now, I've had this partially operational Zenith Emperor in my living room. I would really like to get it up and running for the holidays, as I think it would be fun to load some Christmas DVD/CD/Albums and play them through both the TV and the stereo for holiday entertaining.



If you recall, the CRT's blue gun dies occasionally (as it is here). It seems to come back if I zap it, but is dead again within a few days. For this reason, I've never bothered to really dial in the convergence or any of the other TV issues. (Sound doesn't tune well with pic, etc.)






When I go it, one of the stereo channels was DOA... In fact, some of the amp output transistors were just plain missing. I brought the amp chassis to Capt' Moody, along with a Magnavox "parts" stereo chassis. I re-installed it and it worked for a few hours over the course of some days. However, one day I turned it on and it immediately "popped" and shut down entirely.





I just pulled out the chassis again, and there is a 3 amp fuse that blew straight to hell. I am willing to document this thing step-by-step with pictures if others on here are willing to guide me on diagnosis/repair.



Here are the pros/cons...

Pro:

• Better than average electronic knowledge
• Fairly good at soldering
• Access to some parts
• money to buy parts

Con:

• No schematic
• Have only replaced one capacitor in my life
• a zillion other things compete for my time

Can I test capacitors with a VOM for shorts? If your instructions are just to shotgun the whole thing, it will never get done. But I can give meter readings, etc. Can this be done, and where would you start?