Found a 1972 Zenith portable color set

[drh4683]

I picked this set up at an estate sale last weekend in my subdivision. It's a 1972 Zenith 16" portable color set using the 14CC16 chassis, model C3722W. This one was in pretty good shape but somewhat neglected and unused for a long time. It was in the kitchen dining room, sitting on top of a cabinet covered in dust, rabbit ears extended and still plugged in but not being used since long before the digital transition. The house was built by the same builder as mine in 1964, sharing the same basic architecture and had similar light fixtures throughout including the same red and blue MOE light over the kitchen table which was nice to see. Hopefully whoever buys the house will preserve it.

Anyway, the set looks like it got used pretty well over the years, but it wasn't beat up. It never got serviced either. This thing gave years of dependable service it looks like. I pulled the back off and saw all of the original tubes still in the chassis and no evidence of old repairs. The CRT is still strong and the set still works! I checked all the tubes and the 15MF8 is the only one that needed to be replaced.

Unfortunately, the original VHF tuning knob was gone and they had one on there from other set. Since they used the wrong knob, the plastic insulated "D" shaft on the VHF tuner got gouged up, so the knob doesn't fit very well now. So I'll have to find a replacement tuning shaft and knob. The good news is, the plastic shaft presses over the existing metal tuning shaft, so all I need is a donor tuner with and carefully remove the plastic portion. The whole idea of that plastic insulated shaft was because of a UL regulation because this is a series string set. Manufacturers were not aloud to have any metal part of the set potentially exposed thus creating a shock hazard.

I also need to find a correct matching VHF tuning knob (original VHF knob p/n is 46-8146). I'm borrowing one off another set in the interim. And last but not least, the original carry handle was broken and missing. But other than those issues, it's a nice set and I don't hold those issues against it since these are almost impossible to find now. It's always fun to spot one of these since they're a cheap thrill and easy to move. I took the set apart this weekend and cleaned it all up and it looks really nice again. I had to re-glue all of the labels and tags which were all just about ready to fall off. I'm amazed they weren't already missing. Typical Chicago area color TV though as it has the "Certified Television Service" tag on it and the date it was delivered which I always liked seeing. That tag was dog eared pretty bad and was able to piece it back together before that one totally fell apart and got lost too. This set was most likely bought at one of the Polk Brothers department stores which used to be huge here back before they all folded around 1992. When the sets got delivered, they had the either Certified or Central service take care of set up and maintenance. I have those yellow tags with the set up dates on many of my sets I've found over the years.

The RUN number on the chassis shows that the set was built on the 35th week of 1971, so sometime in late August. It just turned 44, but age still doesn't affect the ability of these sets to produce that nice bright chromacolor picture!


1972 Zenith C3722W by drh4683, on Flickr

1972 Zenith C3722W by drh4683, on Flickr

1972 Zenith C3722W by drh4683, on Flickr

1972 Zenith C3722W by drh4683, on Flickr

How it looked when I first took the back off:
1972 Zenith C3722W by drh4683, on Flickr

Another "Before" photo
1972 Zenith C3722W by drh4683, on Flickr

How it looks "After":
1972 Zenith C3722W by drh4683, on Flickr

1972 Zenith C3722W by drh4683, on Flickr

1972 Zenith C3722W by drh4683, on Flickr

1972 Zenith C3722W by drh4683, on Flickr

1972 Zenith C3722W by drh4683, on Flickr

1972 Zenith C3722W by drh4683, on Flickr

1972 Zenith C3722W by drh4683, on Flickr

1972 Zenith C3722W by drh4683, on Flickr

1972 Zenith C3722W by drh4683, on Flickr