I purchased a GE model 805 "Locomotive" at the CC-AWA Conference in Charlotte.

Missing one small inner knob - see lower right - anyone have a source?

Two screws are exposed on the front under the CRT - is something missing?

This is the first time I have messed with a GE 805 -- What am I getting into? Got any tips?







Bakelite cabinet has no cracks, it is dirty. Need to utilize Bandersen's cleaning and polishing techniques.

Carl

I believee those two screws hold the front to the case. Front is also bolted to chassis inside.
What are you getting into?
Two words come to mind.
"Good Luck!!"
After all the hair pulling is done, they play o.k., but, they ain't no Dumont!!
Bill Cahill

They are quirky and rather difficult to work on due to the very deep chassis. Resistors and caps are mostly mounted on long terminal boards which make access to some connections very hard. They also have a lot of electrolytics and physically mounting the smaller replacements that are available today requires adding terminal strips to connect them to. There are a few other problems to deal with such as the globar filament resistors inside the HV cage, and a tendency for front panel controls to fail.

The sets work OK once restored but are not among the best sets of their era. They don't compare to an Admiral or RCA for example. The collector appeal is the neat design of the cabinet, not the functionality.

I don't have a lot of "passion" to make this TV work. Might resort to "preservation" rather than "restoration" - do a lot of detailed cleaning and polishing and make it into a visual object rather than a functional object. Still undecided.

Carl

Anyone have a picture of an 805 recapped chassis?

Carl

There are 2 versions of the 805. I'm working on an early version myself. I'm at a standstill because I've sent the speaker out for reconing. The Sams is #78-7, and while it gives detailed information, it only gives a schematic for the early version which uses a 12SL7 for the Sync instead of a 6SL7, found in the later version as well as other parts changes. The Riders is online and gives detaled info about all versions.

I'll agree with Mr Detrola that some connections are very hard to get to underneath as well as a few caps and resistors are mounted on a board on top of the chasis, but the CRT and yoke makes acces difficult as well.

While waiting on the speaker, I'm restoring the cabinet with Novus.
Doug

The screws holding the front on are wrong, they should be a dark color and I think they are supposed to be Phillips head. I've never seen anything covering the holes on these.

Hmmm. Not on mine....
Who knows?
Bill Cahill

Here's mine. Restored and playing:







"You're next!!!"

Don't be afriad to restore the 805. It's a simple series set. Lots of lytics, yes, but the set does look cool.

Correct. The phillips heads version of this screw, a 10-24 thread, was impossible to find.

I used a hex head anodized black 10-24, about an inch long, I think. You need four. Two on the bottom front, and two on the front, where those silver screws in the pic reside.

Lee, you did a fabulous job on that GE 805. Hope I can get my polished like yours. Did you use Brasso or Novus to get the shine to come out on the Bakelite?

Did the red paint lettering come off when you polished the brass?

Also, are the brass pieces on the front solid brass or just plated?

Carl

Thanks Bill. Have not pulled the chassis out of mine yet -- still collecting information, do's/don'ts, hints, etc.

The phenolic terminal boards do look unusual. So how do you access the difficulty/fustration level of recapping the GE 805?

Carl

What have you found to be a substitute for those "globar filament resistors" ???

Carl

Decades ago when the globars were not available, technicians substituted two 25 watt wirewound resistors of the correct value, one in each filament string, and it seems to work just fine. You lose the slow start, but most other series string sets didn't have that anyway. When the globars were failing, it could often take several minutes for the filaments to warm up until the globar finally fell apart.

If you wanted to, you could add a CL-90 or similar in series with each string in addition to the wirewound resistor. There are also other possibilities. It's easy to calculate the correct value of wirewound resistor by adding up the filament voltages of all the tubes in each series string. I used to know what it was, but haven't worked on one of those sets in a few years.

Thew filmaent resistors are 75 ohms at 10W. I used 2 wirewound resistors of the same to replace mine. They are located inside the HV cage.

Doug

Anyone have a spare inner knob with the white dash they want to sell?
I'm missing the one on the lower right.

Carl

Carl:

Good luck with the set. I can't see your photos but I do have one of the small knobs that is excess to my needs. I'll send a PM.

Found out the issue with the images was my router was hung up. I host most of my pictures rather than upload to ARF. Pictures should work now.

Thanks for the knob. I'll look for your PM.

Carl

Things are looking up. A replacement knob on way. Still pondering if I should recap this TV or preserve it.

Out of curiosity, did anyone preserve a list of capacitors needed for a full recap? Might be nice to have resources like this available for future restorations. If not, then I will create one.

Thanks

Carl