Saga on Restoration of RCA Victor tv stillgoing strong.

With the hv now arcing wildly in the cage, the new Japanese vertical output tube John Folsom had installed failed. Had to replace it. Found a good one today. Will work on it more tommorrow.
Bill Cahill

O.K., guys, you've been waiting for this...Here it is... Can you handle this???
The TV Had A Picture Tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I still must have a short, because I was getting a popping sound in spkr., and, something under chassis, and, sync wasn't stable.
When I tried turning variac higher, popping got louder, and, picture, and, sound would rapidly cut in, and, out.
Must be another short somewhere I missed.
BUT, the good news is I have hv, picture, and, sound, including reception.

Bill Cahill

Bill,
Now pay your cable bill so the picture stays.
Congrats!

Dave

Yes the Saga continues

love it its a great thing




post copied from arf forum member who was so kind to do this for Bill Cahill
sincerely
bill shenette

Alot has happenned on this set. For awhile several months back, I had a watchable picture. Not great, but, watchable.
At first, major sound problems. To repair latest problems after shipping from John Folsoms' house to here two years ago, I had to do following:
Parts replacement.
Tuner.
4th vid. I F
Aud. Det. Trans.

1st video I F.
Both vertical hold, and, horizontal hold controls.
They both openned up.
Vol., and, tone controls.
Vol. openned, and, tone already had been dammaged by a shorted paper cap.
B+ had gotten into control long ago...
Arcing in hv cage was caused by several small problems, except in beginning, when flyback failed.
Then, late last year, my horiz.. size problem came back, and, I started with a new vertical problem.
Short at bottome, and, vert. was rolling, and, couldn't be stopped.

Took set apart this year.
Found 4 bad resistors.
Two of them were in video circuit.
Other two fed horizontal oscilator, and, horiz. output.
Finally was able to fire it up last night.
Have better hv. For all intents, and, purposes, No Vertical deflection at all.
Just a 1" tall horizontal white line.
Hey, but, I have better contrast, and, brightness!!
Set's back apart, and, back on bench.
When will it all end????
Bill Cahill

Well, I found video problem, and, solved it.
I had put in the wrong value of replacement resistor. I mis read one color.
Then, upon trying, my old intermittent short on horizontal output socket resumed.
After examination, two of us found the culprits.
Un cut excess leads from original factory installed resistors.
As It stands now, I'm nearly ready to try it again.
Bill Cahill

LOTS PATIENTS BILL. GIT ER DONE AND HAVE FUN.

Update....
Tried set several days ago. Short in horizontal output stage had returned. Took several people with extremely bright light, but, problems were found, and, fixed.
They were all un cut excess leads hanging out that were intermittently shorting. These were definately factory defects. They were on original half watt resistors.
Leads are cut, no more shorts there.
I had set playing for over 3 hours last night. Sorry, no pix yet.
I was doing considerable adjusting.

Set is now where it was last year before it broke down again. Except full vertical, good vertical hold, and, no fold over.
However horizontal is short on both sides. It never was very good there. Maybe a filter is crapping out.
I had a test pattern on it.
Same old egg shaped circles, I think because of the short horizontal.
I have some sound ringing in pix., as well....
One thing at a time....
More when I know more.
Bill Cahill

And, here is the moment we've all been waiting for!
Except for minor adjustments, the set is finally finnished, and, working great!
Final things needed:
5U4 rect. New old stock tube wasn't putting out enough B+.
6BG6 Horizontal Output. New old stock GTE Sylvania wasn't filling out picture.
Many adjustments later, here are the end results.
Sorry. Still haven't figured out how to shut off flash on camera.










Bill Cahill

Something seems to happen to these mechanical focus assemblies, and, the adjustment freezes.
They may be made of pot metal, or, aluminum. Not sure which.
The one on set now is not adjusting well.
I found another, and, it's in much better shape, so, I'll eventually install that, and, hopefully get focus a little sharper.
Other than that, set is crittical on line voltage, but, no great surprise there.
Works best at 120 volts ac.
Set isn't perfect, and, I want to do minor tweaking, some of it with another pair of better seeing eyes.
As a whole, though, I'm very happy with the way it has come out....

This set has come through alot in it's existence.
I'm just very happy that it's fixed....
Bill Cahill :yes:

Here are more pics I took with a different camera...






Bill Cahill

How nice is that. going to have to get me one.
I seen one in old house pedestial type was stainless case.
should have gotten it. You can teach me

Well, the story has a happy ending.
Officially, in August, 2010, set is back together, and, playing.
My friend Huggy bear from ARF, and, visiting with gifts from Michigan, saw it play, and, was impressed.
It still has a couple of minor issues, but, has a good picture.
It's been a long 3 year restoration. If you want to read the entire story, join at ARF, go to television repair, and, look for the thread RCA Victor 6T74 finally finnished!.
This set needed everything!
Well, I'm glad that except for the minor bugs it is done. It's truely a success story.
I wish to thank all my supporters, and, helpers on this set.
Here is the actual list of what it needed replaced....
Power cord.
Picture tube.
Tuner.
Yoke.
Flyback.
All tubes.
1st video I F transformer.
4Th Video I F transformer.
Audio detector transformer.
Speaker.
Cabinet light harness, and, socket.
Both light bulbs.
Screws.
One dooor upper knob. Original was missing.
HV cage. Original was a mess.
Picture tube socket.
About 30 resistors.
All paper capacitors.
Most mica capacitors.
Height control.
Width control.
Fuse.
Vertical, and, horizontal hold controls.
Volume, and, tone controls.
Did considerable cleaning of chassis, and, cleaned controls, and, all tube sockets.
Replaced hv wire going to socket on top of cage. Old one was arcing.
HV cap. Old one failed.
Yikes, that set needed alot!
Bill Cahill

I forgot. I also replaced focus magnet assembly, as the magents had gotten weak, and, weren't focussing picture correctly.
Bill Cahill

Wow! That is a story you could make a book out of that post. That is really a lot of work whew! But you did it.
Proud of you . Now it is time for you to start on another . This time do it here.

Last fall set broke down. I pulled all tubes. Two had gotten weak, and, one very shorted.
I haven't had time to try it yet, but, may this coming week.
Been cleaning shop...
Have all tubes back in it.
When it's finnished, I will enjoy it.
What's next?
How about what you guys think?

16" comb. Admiral, 16" round Stromberg Carlson, 12" comb. Dumont, Or??????
Bill Cahill

Glad too see you finished it Bill been a long time you spent working on it..Sprman : )

Not surprisingly, that set broke down again, last year. I found I had dammage on yoke socket, and, it was arcing from poor connections.
When I tried to replace dammaged pins new ones kept falling out because of heat dammage on socket,
I ended up putting in, actually, forcing in better quality pins. That fixed that.
I will be soon getting set back on bench, and, doing some other work on it.
Then, I can try it again.
If it succeeds, I'll put it back together.
Wish me luck, guys.
Bill Cahill

Working on my Bendix right now. When finnished, hope to get this one on bench to finnish. Fixed yoke socket.
Bill Cahill

Hi, Guys. At this stage I am working on the cabinet of my latest project.
My RCA Victor 6T74 television. I will be restoring this set back to health.
I recently took delivery from friend Huggy Bear. It came from N Carolina.
See photos.
Still having cabinet issues, but, here is the latest. A picture of the restored emblem on my tv. I re-gilded it yesterday.


Bill Cahill

I'm back on the tv!

Tommorrow I start replacing electrolytics in the chassis. It will take time to properly do this. I'll show completed picture. Next step will be to bring it up on the variac on a first try..... That's not for awhile, yet. Wish me good luck.....

Bill Cahill

Well, amazingly, I got quite a bit of work done today. I have over half of the electrolytics replaced, and a small storm, and my soldering gun tip breaking are the only things that stopped me for the day....I'm really making good headway!!

Bill Cahill

Good luck Bill, I know you can do it!

T minus several days, and counting. I'm now wating for a package fof a few parts I needed to finnish electrolytic job to arrive from our friend Crosley.

When that is finnished, I'll post a finnished under the chassis job, and, then, it's to the variac I go....
First, I'll check power tranny on ac voltages, and such.
Next, I'll disable hv, connect spkr., and, plug in youke. These sets have a jumper on yoke plug, If you un plug it, it disconects the 5U4 output from the rest of the set, disabling tv.

Then, all bets are offf......

Wish me good luck!
Bill Cahill

O.k. Due to family problems, etc..., I haven't plugged it in yet. I'd hoping to do that tommorrow. I took another brief look at back of hv cage tonight, and, put back cover back on.. I'll triple check tommorrow, and, gasp, plug it into the variac.
First, let's see condition of the power transformer. If that checks out, plug in yoke, spkr., and 5U4 for the first big test. I think I'll disable hv. I don't have a pix. tube on it at this time.

If those pan out, I'll either connect my hv probe, or just hook it up to it's own pix. tube. This will, of course, depend entirely what the set does......
Bill Cahill