Hi All,

I am writing to you because I recently purchased an RCA Victor TV and was looking to refurbish it for a live TV serial that I will be doing in July. It is missing a back plate, so the insides are a little dusty. Im sure I can make a back plate, is it necessary to match the wood on the preexisting cabinet? The chassis appears to be ok, as I don't have much expertise in the process I cant be certain, I can't even pull a product number off of it. I'm sure there are manuals and tubes that I can purchase online, but I wouldn't even know where to begin. I've worked on jukeboxes and old pinball machines so I'm familiar with it, but still a novice eager to learn. I'd love to be able to get this working for my project and was hoping for some of your opinions. Is it worth it, or is this a fool's errand? I will be picking up the set this week so there is still time to get my money back. I appreciate your time and thank you. I've attached pictures (unfortunately low quality due to your forums stipulations)

Best
Patrick Flynn

The original back would have been "natural colored" pressed wood. You could get a piece of pegboard from a lumberyard, which would already have the holes for ventilation punched in it. Another option is to find somebody throwing away a later model console (from the 80s or 90s) and modify the back from it, they will be the same type of material. In once case I did that and painted the back a neutral color to cover up the writing that was on it. Biggest issue is probably fashioning a crt cap to cover where the picture tube neck extends outward. A quick search on the web should find you some pictures of what the back typically looks like on a set like this.

The back is just one part, I believe the guy I bought it from said it shorted a circuit breaker when he tried starting it, so it could be a bad plug, a bad connector, anything. I was hoping someone here can tell me what the model could be (even a list of possible ones) and then how to go about restoring it so its functioning and usable again. What are the steps, based on the looks of it "innards" is it worth refurbishing? But I like that idea of taking a back off another later model.

All of these TVs will need to have almost all of the capacitors replaced to make them functional again. It is a time-consuming job even for those who have done it before. This should be done before the TV is powered up again. To make sure this effort is not a waste of time the CRT needs to be tested; this requires a CRT tube tester. If you don't plan of doing this for a hobby, buying a tube tester would be a waste of money.

You may want to find someone locally who can test the CRT for you, then go from there.

If you haven't restored tube radios or TVs before, that TV is not an appropriate beginner's project. High voltage, lots of electronic complexity.

Paying someone else to restore the electronics -- a labor-intensive task -- would likely cost you more than that TV is worth (even after restoration). Although that set looks cool, in the TV collecting world it is not rare or historically interesting, and hence not worth a heck of a lot.

I don't know what your TV serial is about, but possibly you could just clean up this TV and use it as a display piece?

If you want to investigate hiring someone to restore the electronics, you could contact an area radio/TV collector club and ask for a repairman recommendation near you. Here's a list of clubs in the USA:

http://www.antiqueradio.com/clublist.html

Regards,

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

Looks to me to be a 1956 RCA Super or Deluxe Series set with a 21" picture tube. Look for a stamp on the chassis with "KCS-xxx" that will provide the chassis identification. Should also be a model number tag "21-D-6xx" or "21-S-6xx" on bottom side of cabinet.

I agree with the other replies to your inquiry...restoring this set will be time consuming, even if you have prior experience.

Your set looks very similar to mine.

You can see mine on a previous thread
http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/vie ... 3&t=191142

I gutted mine and now have a cool looking, reliable vintage set.

It's funny, some seemed mad that I had gutted a vintage set but everyone seems to say these sets aren't worth restoring. Can't keep everyone happy!

Of course I would not advocate gutting any rare or historically significant set, but DO WHAT YOU WANT with it! Sell it, Restore it, donate it, or heaven forbid, Gut it!

If it tripped a breaker then another big issue could be a ruined power transformer. If the power cord looks good then there is a 50-50 chance that the power transformer is bad (if it is not bad then shorted filter caps and or seleneum(misspelled) rectifiers could potentially have caused the overload). Getting a replacement power transformer is often quite difficult so I'd be hesitant to put much in to it if you can't test the transformer.

Looks like I own the set now, so I will be refurbishing it. How would I check the power transformers? Also how to go about getting a CRT Tube Tester? I do enjoy this so I plan collecting more, so this seems like a good a set as any to try and get on its legs. So, where to go from here?

You should advertise for a CRT tester in the Classifieds; somebody here should have one for sale.

To check the power transformer you need an ohmmeter first of all. The primary should measure about 5 or 6 ohms, or in that range, no lower. If this is OK, then you may well have a excessive load on the transformer, or a shorted secondary (not too likely). Could also be many components in the TV that have gone bad; this is a step-by-step process.

We really need to find out what model this is; are there any numbers or letters stamped on the chassis, or labels pasted on the inside of the cabinet?

Note: if you measure low resistance on the power cord, the short could be before the transformer (like a bad power cord, or shorted caps on the AC line).

Looks like the same chassis as the one advertized in Austin. The cabinet has the readable tags inside. Actually looking at the tags, you might be able to print that one off as a replacement tag.
The cabinet has a few minor differences, but the chassis looks very similar.

http://austin.craigslist.org/atq/2950966506.html

I have 3 sets that read lower, they are fine. Use a variac, don't assume it's bad.

It looks like this set uses a tube rectifier (such as a 5U4). If so, you can remove all of the load on the power transformer by pulling all of the tubes. Keep track of where each tube came from, sometimes the type numbers on the tubes are faint or missing. If there are any AC line bypass capacitors you can just cut them out for now. While a short in the wiring connected to the secondaries of the transformer is possible, it is unlikely. After removing all of the load on the transformer, you could try plugging the set in again. If no circuit breakers pop and the transformer stays cool, you are good to proceed with the restoration. If you want to be safer you could bring the set up using a metered variac or make a dim bulb tester. A dim bulb tester is just an extension cord with one wire cut and a light bulb socket wired in. You then put something like a 100 watt light bulb in the socket. Plug the set in through the tester. If the transformer is good then the light bulb will glow dimly to very dimly. If it lights up near full brightness then you have something shorted in the set. You can also run the set with all the tubes installed through the dim bulb tester, but you would need a higher wattage bulb and the set will not work quite correctly while connected through the tester.

OK, so the Serial number on the chassis (and by chassis I am presuming the picture tube) FX-2722

There is another serial number on the side (stamped onto a piece connected to several tubes) which reads KRK22M, with another # KRK38M a little above it. There is a faint number on the inside of the cabinet: RDK(or H)6314

Does any of this help?

I'd start with radios before attempting anything as complex as TV's. Past repairmen went to school for a few years to learn TV repair. High voltage in the K's is nothing to take with a grain of salt, even though the amperage is low. JMO