zentih Avanti

[DaveWM]

this is the one I picked up in tampa

did nothing to it other that a degausse.

I did put a dot and cross hatch on it, it will need some convergence toucht up, really show up on the dot, they are off pretty much all over the screen. horz bars are off the most on the far right (blue separates out, bends down on the extreme right the most).

I have the base, no cracks, gel coat is in pretty good shape. I took it off to gain access to the sevice plate and make it easier to move around.

There are several under the chassis caps, nichicons, looks like some were replaced. Not sure if I should replace or leave be.

vert is a little short so guess I could check the vert board cap. I try the adj but its near the end of the range.

Horz overscan seems to much but not sure where the adj of that is.

[DaveWM]

tuner seems nice a clean, VHF and UHF very smooth and solid. UHF has no detents, which I like. I can still get a couple UHF analog OTA.

[DaveWM]

a few more pics. You can see on the FBT two orange drops, the 3rd is diff not white and not a orange drop.

pic of the front, good shape.

and I took some conv board pics in case I really goof it up.

[DaveWM]

there are a few minor dings on the wood cabinet. I am contemplating sanding filling and shooting some primer, followed up with some gloss white. Not sure if that is a good idea, as its not bad and maybe a better idea to just leave it original. its just so nice I thought it would be great to have it look like new.

comments are welcome on this...

[DaveWM]

I willl get some pics later with the service panel pulled. I did not see any white caps under the chassis around the fly, I did see some big Disk caps.

there were also a few MONSTER looking .47 600v caps that I presume were not paper. they were configured like a orange drop but IIRC were brown and had a dull finish on them.

the nichicons under the chassis were 10uf 300v axials.

I was thinking of replacing them with some axial 450v caps.

On these zenith chassis with the solder pegs, I assume you just heat the peg on the top and keep pulling on the part until it pulls out.

[zenithfan1]

You can heat them right where the lead enters from the bottom too, some do have to be heated from the top however. Good looking set. As far as painting goes, if it's only a few dings, I would try touching them up first. I have seen one of these repainted and it looked nice, I think it was Carmine's (Chris) in MI.

[sampson159]

that is a great set.i restored one of those back in the 90s for my friend.i used westleys bleachwhiteon the cabinet.it took the yellowing out and returned the the bright white finish.i have also painted on of those and it came out well also.if you paint,remember to prime and wet sand the primer.the top coat will look soo much nicer and smoother.actually rustoleum paint does a nice job.appliance white.the crt looks a little soft in pics.i ve never saw a bad zenith crt in these sets.very good find and this will look good beside that sylvania.

[DaveWM]

the pic is better than the camera shows it.

I am goning to need some help on converging, if anyone has a service manual that convers that convergence board I would appreaciate a scan of it.

[sampson159]

convergence proocedure same as your sylvania.purity first and then top,bottom red/green,left red/green.right red/green with blue screen off..adjust blue screen and toop blue,bottom blue,left side and right side.very simple and this should give you an outstanding pic.never saw an avanti with nothing less than fabulous pic!

[DaveWM]

well I got the avanti in the house, a PERFECT fit in the fire place (in FL it never gets used anyway, no idea why the house was built with one).

I hooked up the converter box, some rabbit ears and use the Tube Magnavox with some Nice Magnavox satilite speaker. I love it, the cool look of the TV and the truly wonderful stereo sound makes for a very pleasent experience.

Plug in a DVD and watched Iron man, with the console and remote speakers on you get a very theater like exp.

[DaveWM]

got a bit of a pin cushion problem (noticed it when in the letter box format).

I assume there is an adjustment for that, or could that be a cap issue (I have not touched this set).

[zenithfan1]

Is the top bent upwards or are the sides squished in? I see the top and bottom curve upwards in the corners on a lot of sets, some can be corrected, some can't. Please post a pic of it.

[DaveWM]

I will get one tonight, kids have the camera.