I'm getting a Zenith Hybrid!

[andy]

...

[Electronic M]

Might want to check your H out tube if that black bar is horizontal underscan, and not pillar boxing (if it is pillar boxing I hope you don't regularly watch it like that).

[TUD1]

Thanks, everybody. I'll definitely try some different tubes in it. Electronic M, that commercial just happened to be on when I took the picture. It isn't normally like that.

[zeno]

Originally Posted by TUD1

Thanks, everybody. I'll definitely try some different tubes in it. Electronic M, that commercial just happened to be on when I took the picture. It isn't normally like that.

Not sure on this one but Zeniths need the right damper/ hv reg
tube pair. Check the tags on the HV cage & the layout chart !
There is also a VDR that was a COMMON fail. NOS ones go bad
on the shelf but Doug did great engineering to find a modern sub.

73 Zeno

[TUD1]

Finally got around to fixing the bottom of the set. When we loaded the set into the van back in June, the fallaparticle board fell apart, and there was no way to secure one of the legs. We poured some Durham's Rock Hard Water Putty into the busted area, so now the leg holder can be screwed in.

[sampson159]

back in the very early 80s,my friend had a used furniture store.on the floor was a zenith hybrid console.dark wood,contemporary style.the absolute most memorable picture i had seen.people would sit around his shop just to watch tv.especially cartoons and wrestling.crystal clear with stunning colors.that set sold and was replaced with a sylvania gt matic.looked good but people would asked what happened to the zenith?i rank that zenith right up there with the first color set i saw,the first zenith roundie and the coming of the great sylvanias.this may be the best picture i ever saw in my lifetime.hope yours is every bit as good

[TUD1]

I got this set installed in my bedroom (that makes eight TV's in here now, four consoles, four table sets) and checked the hi voltage. Oh boy. With the briteness all the way up, it read about 14.5 KV. On top of that, The UHF tuner is extremely touchy. I'll have to go in there and clean some connections.

[Electronic M]

Amazing it even makes a picture at 14KV! It should be more like 22-25KV for a console like that. You should test the HV rect, try the HV adjustments, and look at any other things that could be dragging down the HV.

[TUD1]

I tried the hi voltage adjustment, and I got it to about 21 KV. But that's with the brightness turned down. Turn it up to a watchable level, and it goes back down to 15 KV, and the focus goes out the window.

[Electronic M]

Something is wrong. you should not see it dip below 21KV, and it's max should be over 27KV.
Either your set is not making enough HV (have you checked or subbed the HV rect yet?), or something is loading it down.

[TUD1]

The first thing I'm going to try is a new 6JD5 regulator tube. I pulled it out, and the HV jumped to 30 KV. I was told that the varistors could be bad.

[old_coot88]

To repeat what was sed in post# 15, sub the regulator tube. Back in the day, in Zeniths, that exact problem was always caused by the HV reg. tube. (Of course today, varistors may have gone bad also.) But in any case I would still sub the tube as the first order of business.

Zenith's pulse regulator system throttles the input side of the flyback, unlike the older system (using 6BK4 etc) which puts a shunt load on the output side of the HV supply.

[TUD1]

Just got through checking the 6JD5 regulator, and its companion, the 6DN3. Both tested very strong. Still weak HV.

[old_coot88]

That tube may test 'good' on a tester, yet fail in operation. Again, the only true test is to sub with a known good one.

[TUD1]

Well shucks. I didn't bother testing the new one since the tubes tested indentical.