FIRE! 1961 Zenith

[NoPegs]

Originally Posted by user181

Why was the set run at 137VAC?

Live neutral issue for the building, according to the power company tech who came out to fix it. 137v might not be the highest it saw, actually.

[user181]

Have they since resolved that? That's a major issue.

Was the problem isolated to being within the building, or is it coming from the power company? If the former, then the building owner/landlord must have it corrected. If the latter, then it should be taken up with your state's public utilities commission.

[wa2ise]

The set's power transformer's core would start to magnetically saturate at around 137VAC. When that happens, the transformer primary starts drawing lots more current, acting like a coil of wire without the transformer lams. That could make a marginal cheater cord connection fail spectacularly. And the transformer will be unhappy as well, and it may be luck that the connector opened up vs the transformer burning out. Temporary excessive B+ won't be kind to some of the TV circuits either.

Bad neutrals are bad news to everything in the house.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by wa2ise

The set's power transformer's core would start to magnetically saturate at around 137VAC. When that happens, the transformer primary starts drawing lots more current, acting like a coil of wire without the transformer lams. That could make a marginal cheater cord connection fail spectacularly. And the transformer will be unhappy as well, and it may be luck that the connector opened up vs the transformer burning out. Temporary excessive B+ won't be kind to some of the TV circuits either.

Bad neutrals are bad news to everything in the house.

The excessively high B+ is what probably distroyed the power supply electrolytics. The B+, really went to the sky when the set was first turned on and the rest of the circuits weren't drawing any current.
I thought that model had a three amp line fuse in it. It's a slo-blo and it would survive the inrush.

[bigaudioal]

This was a home I believe. The power company did come out and fix his issue. However the set did have some run time at minimum 137VAC and maybe more. I believe the home was reading over 200VAC somewhere in the basement. I would guess that the issues the set is having now stem from the run time at these higher voltages.

[NoPegs]

Originally Posted by bigaudioal

This was a home I believe. The power company did come out and fix his issue. However the set did have some run time at minimum 137VAC and maybe more. I believe the home was reading over 200VAC somewhere in the basement. I would guess that the issues the set is having now stem from the run time at these higher voltages.

If it managed to kill the fridge, I'm surprised the TV actually put up with it for as long as it did, and only "failed" after the line voltage was corrected...

[Coshi]

Aside from the warranty on the refrigerator being voided, The tv is good as new!
It was the vertical linearity pot. the wire that was wound up inside had poped out and went everywhere. as well as a few caps in the power went so I replace all that. And took a pot from the RCA and it works perfectly now. Thanks again for your help guys!

[Coshi]

Damn I thought it was fixed now its doing this,
What the hell could it be now??

[NoPegs]

You've lost vertical, don't run it like that much or you'll burn a line in the middle of the tube. (Turn the brightness control down while troubleshooting.)

[Jeffhs]

I'd check the vertical osc/output tube first, then the vertical output transformer. The most likely suspect is the tube, as eight out of every ten failures in older tube-powered televisions are due to defective tubes. Also, the vertical hold control may be open, as could the vertical height and/or linearity controls.

[Kamakiri]

I have a new in box VOT for that set if you need one.

[Coshi]

Ok, So the Potentiometer I replaced? Yea replacing it with one from 1949.. Not good idea. So I replaced it again with a brand new one! works like new and it has full control now I'm so happy. Also Whats a VOT?

[Kamakiri]

Vertical output transformer....