Big 23" Zenith steel cabinet B&W - Videokarma.org TV - Video

radiotvnut · #1 10-29-2010, 01:02 AM

Another recent find, a circa '64 23" Zenith steel cabinet B&W TV. Even the back cover is made of steel. When tested, the circuit breaker trips after a second; so, probably a shorted filter cap somewhere. I've been wanting one of these sets for a while and I hope to get it going one day. I think the last Zenith steel cabinet B&W that I owned was in the mid '90's.

bgadow · #2 10-30-2010, 10:45 PM

Memories...18 years ago I went to a big auction of a shop that had been in business since the Victrola days. They had everything, and even with my meager budget I loaded the truck to overflowing. Anyway, in a back room they had about a half-dozen of these Zeniths. I probably could have bought the whole stack for a dollar! I guess they got junked, I didn't have room. Those have got to be a super reliable set.

radiotvnut · #3 07-09-2011, 12:38 AM

I finally dug back into this one and quickly found out what was tripping the circuit breaker, a leaky 80uf, 200volt electrolytic cap in a voltage doubler circuit. The old one was getting very warm to the touch, even for the few seconds the TV was on before the breaker tripped. I have a modern 100uf, 250V cap that I will install in place of the old can.

This set does not have the removable service plate on the bottom. Instead, the chassis must be removed. In this set, you remove four bolts that hold the chassis to the bottom of the cabinet and some screws that hold the picture tube mounting frame to the cabinet front. Then, after removing the knobs, two screws are removed to free the tuner and two more screws are used to hold the volume control. After unplugging the speaker, the whole chassis and CRT slides out the back.

As far as other suspect caps, there is one bumblebee and one ceramic cased white tubular cap. The rest are either early orange drops, brown drops, or ceramic disc. Of course, it's very possible that those early orange/brown drops are bad by now. I'll start off by replacing the known bad electrolytic and go from there.

Of course, the chassis is handwired (no PC boards) and the cabinet, including the back, is all metal.

Sandy G · #4 07-09-2011, 08:02 AM

That looks suspiciously like the TVs they installed in my elementary school c. 1965-66.

ctc17 · #5 07-09-2011, 10:37 AM

Kinda fireproof. I have one Eric gave me. I love it. I also that the console version somewhere around here.

Mal Fuller · #6 07-09-2011, 01:39 PM

Like every shop of the era, I had a lot of customers with one of these big metal Zeniths. I had one customer, the long deceased Mr. Allen, who I don't think I ever saw sober.
He dropped off one of these sets at my shop for service. It had a dull & soft picture tube and he authorized its replacement. About $75.00 parts & labor if I remember correctly.
He picked it up when I was out on service calls. He paid my wife, walked out the door and fumbled the Zenith. Of course, the big CRT shattered.
He left it with instructions to put another picture tube in it.
He took it like a man!

radiotvnut · #7 07-09-2011, 02:06 PM

I now have a raster and a hiss from the speaker; but, no audio or video wihen fed with a signal. And, the raster is shrunk up from the bottom; so, I've got more digging to do.

radiotvnut · #8 07-09-2011, 04:16 PM

OK, I found a near dead 6JT8 and someone replaced the 6EA8 in the tuner with a 6GH8A. I'll get that taken care of and go from there.

radiotvnut · #9 07-09-2011, 06:19 PM

When I replaced the original 6JT8 in it's socket, I got a picture. I discovered that it was a dirty socket that was killing the video. Then, I wiggled the audio output tube and got sound. The next order of business will be to clean all tube sockets, tube pins, the tuner, and other controls. Then, I'll fix the vertical sweep issue. I will put the correct 6EA8 in the tuner and I will replace the 6JT8, since it checks very bad.