Sony KV-1320U (Japanese market) Trinitron restoration

[cj_reha]

I've been taking a break from some other longer-term TV restoration projects, and this set came up in my regular Japanese auction site searches. I have a soft spot for early Trinitrons, and this set was cheap, so I decided to spring for it. It arrived the other day, and I have to say, I am amazed!



It is in nearly immaculate condition. The plastic and cardboard knob protectors are intact and there are basically no dings or scratches anywhere. I honestly think it is one of the nicest sets I've ever owned.





One problem: the CRT is stone dead! It's always the nice ones! At first it tested so poorly I genuinely thought something might have happened to my CRT tester - the needle did not move at all. After a few minutes I saw it move a millimeter or so, and sanity checks revealed my tester was fine - it really is just gone. I let it bake overnight at a slightly elevated filament voltage and managed to get about a quarter inch of deflection, but nowhere near what could even be considered "usable."



I took the back off and did some basic checks to ensure the crucial parts weren't blown up, and a slow power-up produced a very dim, green picture. The good news is I now know most of the set is basically working, and I hope I won't have to go too far into the rabbit hole of early Trinitron troubleshooting. But I need a source for a 330AB22 CRT - not an easy ask these days!



Here's my plan. I have a less nice, standard US market KV-1203, one of the later "Econoquick" sets, that works and has a decent 330AB22. As much as it pains me to do so, I think I am going to use it as a CRT donor as nondestructively as possible. None of the early Sonys are particularly common, but I personally like the 1320U more, it's rarer, and think its exceptional condition makes it worthy of a full restoration. I will keep all the parts together for the 1203, though, in case I someday find another CRT.



I am very curious to see how this set differs from its American counterpart, the KV-1220U. At a cursory glance I see a few things I can elaborate on in a later post, but the bulk of the parts seem to be the same (good news - the American service manual is wonderfully verbose and helpful!)

More to come very soon!