Muntz Combo!

Originally posted by kc8adu
you could watch the worms at work!

This thread has progressively gotten sicker and sicker....I like it! Here's my contribution:

If Philo T were alive right now do you know what he'd be doing?




Wait for it




Screaming to get out of his coffin!

Anthony

[Jeffhs]

polaraman,

If by "jumbled" you mean your set's picture is slanting lines up or down the screen, I'd check the horizontal circuits (tubes first). Either the oscillator or AFC tube is bad or something is haywire in the control circuitry itself (resistors off value, etc). If the lines are slanting downward, your horizontal oscillator is running too fast; if upward, too slow. A good way to remember this is by the following: One can always run faster downhill than uphill. (I read this in an old TV repair book some years ago.) Also, the number of slanting lines on the screen will give you a rough idea of how far off frequency your horizontal oscillator is. If you have only a few lines, you are very close to 15,750, and all that's likely needed is a slight adjustment of the horizontal hold control. However, if you have more slanting lines on your screen than you can count, the oscillator is way off frequency. This can happen if someone has been fiddling with the horizontal oscillator coil slug and has screwed it too far out of the coil, or removed it from the coil altogether. Reinserting the slug in the coil and readjusting it should bring your picture back; if not, check the tube and the circuits I mentioned, in that order.

Note that if your horizontal oscillator is off frequency by any great amount, it can affect the high voltage.

Note also that if your horizontal sync is out of whack, but not enough to destroy your monochrome picture, the color will go out of sync at this time as well.

Do not operate the TV for any length of time with the horizontal oscillator or output tubes out of their sockets, or if the horizontal oscillator or output tubes are not lit or not conducting for any reason. Tube-powered transformer-operated TVs, monochrome and color, are designed so that the horizontal circuits operate on grid leak bias. The drive signal from the horizontal oscillator keeps the plate current of the output tube from going sky-high. If the drive signal is not present, there is in turn no bias on the grid of the output tube, which causes the tube to draw more plate current than it should. This will, of course, cause the circuit to overload the power supply; if the PS is not fused, this can and often does lead to eventual destruction of the low-voltage rectifier tube and/or power transformer (more likely the latter).

BTW, I like that cabinet. Very stylish. Madman Muntz must have had a good eye for cabinet styling, or else he got his cabinets from a cabinet maker who did.

Ninety-nine cents at the Goodwill for that entire set? That's a great score. Get the TV working and you'll have a set to be proud of. I like old TV sets and nice furniture myself. If my apartment weren't so small, I'd try to find a set like yours (or one of those nice big RCA three-ways as I saw a pic of on another post here). Those old 3-way sets were good (I had a great-uncle who had an RCA like that; he liked it and had it for years--in fact, when the TV eventually gave up, he just put another set in the opening left by the old chassis and made a frame around it; I had another great-uncle who did the same thing with his RCA three-way when the TV quit), but as the other poster said, they are very long and can take up an entire wall in one's living room. They are nice to have if you have the space, though.

[polaraman]

The Muntz combo is up and running!!! Final straw was replacing the that damn diode thing! I could not get it to lock. I still have to set the color and center the picture. Pretty awesome set for a dollar at Goodwill!!! I am very happy to have it running!!

polaraman

[Sandy G]

Not too bad of a picture, either really, especially considering this guy's "humble" roots......Excellent score !!! -Sandy G.

[bgadow]

Man, there can't be many color Muntz's still going!

They just opened up a Goodwill about 20 minutes from here (previously the closest was nearly an hour) but thats still 20 minutes in the wrong direction. I wonder if I sent them a letter, with some sample photos, of the type of things I would be interested in? Suppose they would hold on to it and call me from time to time? I did ride by there and they had an 80s console sitting out back on the trash pile.

[polaraman]

The awesome Goodwill to have is a 99 cent store. This is the place that they sell things that could not normally sell at a Goodwill store. Non working electronics is what I go for. I have found 5 vintage Tv sets at them. It is real fun to go look through the bins that they place things in. It is a real treasure hunt. The store is a last chance before they toss things out. I get sick every time I drive by the Salvation Army store and see the dumpster full of stuff. I have got a few working tube portables at thrift stores. It helps to keep going back often, because you never know. I got a Magnavox color roundie at one last year. Paid $40 for the non working set. Have yet to get to it.

I have the color working better on the Muntz. I have to adjust it some more. It is getting to be a very good picture. Watched the car races on it this afternoon. Great color!!

polaraman

[polaraman]

Refined the picture on the Muntz. Looks way better now. I will say again, got a great set for a dollar.

polaraman

[Charlie]

Man, that is a great picture! Dollar or not, that picture is worth alot! Great job!

Now, the question is... where are ya gonna put this beast?

[captainmoody]

I had to build several free standing shelves heavy enough to support two entertainment centers (one on top of the other) and at least 72" long. I got sick of putting blankets on top of one then setting the other set on top. That way didn't well and I was never able to get to get to the radio/phono/controls on the bottom one.
What I have now works great and reduces clutter in the shop as well as makes the sets visible to the curious few friends of mine that like to see this stuff working.
I would go that way if space is limited.

In the early days of the color TV "boom" (1961-66), the only companies which were making color sets were RCA and Zenith. Everyone but Zenith used an RCA type chassis; usually a version of the CTC11, CTC12, CTC15, or CTC16. RCA made most of the early sets; apparently their design was then licensed out to other companies. Eventually most manufacturers developed their own designs, but some brands (Silvertone, Muntz, Curtis Mathes, to name a few) used the RCA design for several years. I serviced lots of them in the old days.

[Chad Hauris]

It seems like some of the other manufacturers that licensed the RCA CTC-11-16 design "souped it up" with additional features such as a color temperature control, color indicator lamp, 6BQ5 audio output, replacing the 6JU8 with silicon diodes, etc.

[bgadow]

I just picked up a box of service literature, mostly Admiral from the late 50s/early 60s. One of the color tv factory manuals has a chassis pic and you can clearly see the RCA logo on the power xsfmr, the tubes, etc. Other than that, though, they seemed to try to hide it. Notice that they even recommended you use an Admiral brand color dot/bar generator. Anyway, the chassis looked like an 11 or 12.