The Good News is it's in nice cosmetic condition - important, as blondes are high-maintinence.

It's also complete, and all the hardware, screen bezel, back, knobs, pencil box, etc are all nice. Chassis, a 21F1, is copper plated with a thin layer of dust. No corrosion anywhere.

The Bad News is the CRT, a 17BP4, is dead. I (barely) woke it up with a gun cleaning via a B&K 470, but the emissions is poor. So I need a CRT.

I saw your request in the For Sale section. I may have one... Let me look, test and get back to you.

OK, thanks.

Quote: "important, as blondes are high-maintinence"

Been there, done that....

I'm recapping the chassis, and it's up and running. Has some horizontal hold issues, etc.

Anybody have a Chassis Maunal for this Admiral? It's stamped 21F1. I don't have it.

Thanks In Advance

Is it on the ETF schematic section yet? There are some Admirals that are very confusing even when you are using the factory schematics because there were so many production changes. Pretty sure this was one of those. They do work well though.

The Wallace Telaide I have for Admiral has a long list of production changes and some updated schematics. If you don't have one I can try to scan the relevant sections on one of the bigger scanners at work this week.

Also - I checked the one spare 17BP4 I have and it is testing weak, but I am letting it cook at normal filament voltage to see if it comes back.

Nope. 21F1 is not on the ETF site. Mine has "F2" stamped in large black letters on the front of the chassis. Large enough for me to think it's a production lot or version.

There sure were a lot of production runs on these 21 series sets. I think The 21B1 had over 20!
The run # is usually stamped right next to the chassis identifier.




Be sure to check out Rider TV Manufacturers' Receiver Trouble Cures - Volume 1. Kindly scanned and uploaded by 'mbear2k'. It has a modification to suppress retrace lines along with other great tips.

He has lots of other great material on his website too: http://oldtubes.net/library/free_manuals/

Did a recap (tubulars and a couple of electrolytics) and replaced the 12AU7 Synch Seperator & Clipper and presto, a nice stable pic.

I have a problem with the Focus Control having a burn spot where peak focus is located. I'm wondering whether reversing the poles would relocate peak focus to another spot on the wire wound control.

That was easy. Once again, an early Admiral has bounced back without any undue drama. Hell, the thing almost worked when it came thru the door. If I replaced the 12AU7 alone it would have worked. All the tubes that came with the set seem to work just fine.

No wonder Bob Anderson loves these things...

I have always recommended Admirals as first TV restoration projects for exactly that reason. Unless someone else has really been into it, they are usually pretty easy to get working again.

I swapped outer poles on the Focus Control. and now the TV is performing - beautifully. Nice and sharp. Sounds good, too.

I can't understand why this CRT looks sooo good. It tests weak (high in the red zone) yet looks fine. I can only imagine what it would look like with a good CRT.

I have seen plenty of CRT's that check in the 100-200 microamp range on the tester, yet look good in the set with decent brightness and contrast. Some of them really fool you when you see the picture compared to how they test. I'd be inclined to use it like that until it gets worse, or even throw a brightener on it since you already know it is not likely to be able to be rejuvenated any further. There isn't an unlimited supply of them like there once was. Used to get "cheap" rebuilts from the local Olson's electronics that were good for a few years or more at the giveaway price of $9.99.

I have also seen plenty of others (usually color types) that check 600 yet look terrible.

Here she is...up and running.



Chassis is very clean.





Cabinet cosmetics are exceptional.





All I have to do now is assemble it into the cabinet. It's pretty much done. I might swap out the CRT if I come up with one.

Awesome, as usual.............

Thank You.

This is the latest TV Set I have restored. According to an inspection stamp, it was mfd June 26, 1951.

It was, by far, the easiest TV I have ever restored. It's amazing, in two or three short years, how advanced Television receivers became. This Admiral is easy to understand, fix, and troubleshoot. The circuitry is quite simple, compared to TVs from 1946 through 1949. It's also a stellar performer, even with a marginal CRT. So much for Mad Man Muntz...

It didn't take much. I replaced all the tubulars, one of the axial electrolytics (in the IF section), swapped out about 6 tubes, and tweaked front and back controls to achieve peak performance.

I didn't replace the canned electrolytics. Maybe I'm getting lazy, but they are running cool as cucumbers, so I'm leaving them be. Think I should?

The first feature-length film I played was, of course, "The Day The Earth Stood Still" from 1951.












Maybe this guy can resusitate my 17BP4...

I have Admirals of around that vintage still running fine on the original electrolytics. But I don't use them a lot. One of my friends is running a 12" with all the original electrolytics still in it and uses it several times a week.

If they run cool and you continue to monitor can temperature (and maybe line wattage as well) they could run for quite a while yet. On the other hand, it bothers me to know those parts are over 60 years old and if I were using it a lot, then I would be inclined to replace the electrolytics now with new Nichicons mounted under the chassis on terminal strips, since there's probably only $12 or $15 worth of them in the set.

Strange, because you probably won't find an RCA (or most other brands) where the electrolytics weren't bad a long time ago. I haven't seen many in the past 20 years or so that passed the test or ran cool to the touch. And the same handful of vendors built all of the electrolytics for most of the manufacturers. You would reasonably expect all of them to be just as bad.

Wow that picture looks great. I would be inclined to leave the caps be, if they are working well and not overheating. Perhaps install a B+ fuse ahead of the caps, that way if they ever did short, the fuse would blow sooner than just the regular power transformer circuit breaker or fuse if it has one. I too am suprised those caps are still good, Most of my mid 60's era caps test good but not early 50's.

Very nice! That picture is about as sharp as it could be.

There is a fuse in the HV Cage. I assume that's enough to protect the set. Or, is it...?

I ran it for three hours straight. The Canned 'Lytics got only slightly warm to the touch. I'm only going to run the TV for an hour or so a few times a week. I'll monitor it from time to time.

Now, it's back to the Andrea T-VK12. It quit on me a week or so ago. God, that beast is heavy. Complex, too...