Zenith Space Command 3 intermittant tuning

[MisterFishey]

Hey folks, new to the TV forums, but a regular poster in the audio section. Glad to be down here!

Anyway, I have a Zenith Space Command 3 TV circa 1985 that I snagged off a friend for free with an odd problem. The tuner is very intermittent. Usually when I turn on the TV, the signal is halfway there, a good picture but staticy. It stays like that for a random amount of time, then either instantly switches to a good picture and sound, or just snow. Again, this is not consistent at all. Sometimes I turn the set on and it is just snow. Sometimes it's a good picture right off the bat! I assume some capacitors must be going up somewhere (since it is intermittent), but I figured I should check down here before wrecking it. What is going on? Thanks!

[andy]

000

[MisterFishey]

Originally Posted by andy

The first thing I would do is re-solder all the ground shield connections in the tuner. I saw a lot of mid 80's Zeniths with this problem, even 10 years ago.

I assume the tuner is the big shielded box the cable line runs directly in to? I tried to remove it earlier today, but I couldn't see... guess I'll have to rig something up. I'll resolder every ground connection I can find and report back. Thanks!

[MisterFishey]

Yep, I resoldered all the ground connections that looked dubious... and some that weren't even soldered on! The pads were there, the shielding was next to it, but no solder there! Now my TV works perfectly. Thank you very much!

[zenith2134]

Ya got lucky! Nice!