All fixed up! Zenith 20Y1C48 lookin good!!

[drh4683]

This is the set that carmine had that we were attempting to fix a while back over the net. I went up to detroit area last weekend and traded him a set for this one. Luckily the set was a simple fix. Turns out it had a shorted vertical output tube. That wasnt enough though, had a shorted cap in the vertical section causing the pincusion circuit to seriously effect the picture. the UHF tuner needed to be rebuilt and aligned too.
The horizontal output was arcing internally, so I put in a new 6LF6, adjusted the slug and brought the current down to 183ma!!! The fly runs as cool as if it were not even on! An extensive convergnece procedure brought the picture to a razor sharp focus, and focus is centered on the pot nice and sharp. All in all, this set has an outstanding picture and this is one of my most liked zenith cabinet styles for 1968.

[drh4683]

The pic really stands out nice on this set, thanks to a good rca colorama. The dull grey lens tube was dated 2-79, so this set got some good use, but really doesnt show it.

[Eric C]

Hi. I really can't tell from the photo (my monitor is dying), but is that set a table model. If not, did Zenith use the same set up for the front controls on all of their sets from 1968? The reason I ask is that I remember we had a set with a front identical to that one with a 22 inch screen that we got at Christmas, 1968. As I remember correctly, we had major problems with the set after a couple of years with regards to picture quality (sharpness and focus). Some channels were almost unwatchable, and this was with cable. We finally got rid of the set in the mid seventies. Did these sets have a known weak picture tube, or was there some other problem with them as a whole, or did we just get a lemon.

Also, prior to reading this forum (I am interested in old sets, but hae never restored one). I had always thought that the prime symptom of a bad picture tube was diminished brightness.

[Rob]

Doug,

Damn Man you are getting good at this! I should hire you to come restore my vintage color sets. I just don't have any time to spend on them.

[captainmoody]

Great job Doug! That Zenith looks like new!
Sounds like carmine had subbed the vert tube with another bad one, As I remember him saying he had already tried that. I am going to look around my shop and try to get a tube tester together for him!

[Carmine]

Why do I always have such good luck?:dammit:

I tried more than one Vert. output tube in that thing, including one that came from a known good set! Never changed a damn thing!:dammit: :dammit: :dammit:

...and this just in:worried:


The set that Doug traded me let out a big electrical KAPOW as a way of thanking me for placing it in my living room and daring to watch it! This after doing some grayscale touch-ups. :dammit: However, it might have just been some cornea, as it was very damp here yesterday after the huge rain. Nothing seemed to happen to the picture, but I still shut it off. Today I'll open it up and clean it a bit (it's pretty dusty).

It's important to note that I don't blame any of this on Doug!!! I'm sure we all know the nature of the beast when it comes to old TVs (They all seem to hate me). For the record, Doug is an honest person and a great guy... I practically begged him to do the trade.

Excuse me, I have some dust to clean.:dammit:

[drh4683]

Hey chris, remember, it wasnt just a new vertical output that did the trick. It did help out. Heres a pic of what the set looked like before I spotted down the bad cap. The pincushion was so bad that the trace wasnt even filling the whole screen, this threw convergence way off too.
BTW, that pop you heard, that wasnt from the line cord was it? I remember the cheater cord barely fitting into that set directly from the back when we plugged it in. May have arced from intermittent contact, but then again, wouldnt be really loud. Just a thought.

[Jeffhs]

Eric,

That set was not really intended as a table model, although it could be used as such as I will explain. Your monitor may not let you see it, but there are four legs under the cabinet, so this TV is what used to be called a "consolette", not a console, but not a table model either. (In the '70s I had an RCA-built Silvertone with threaded holes in the base for consolette legs, but I didn't have them, so used the set as a table model in my bedroom for two years--until the video-output tube socket broke out of the signal-circuit PC board.) This type of cabinet design was popular with Zenith and several other TV manufacturers from the 1950s through the '70s. Actually, this type of design allowed a consolette set to be used as a table model as well, as the legs were detachable from the base. However, seeing how big that 20Y1C48 is, I think it was intended to be used as a consolette only. I am by no means certain, but the set itself looks as if it must weigh a ton (!) and might cave in anything but a very sturdily built table or stand.

Kind regards,

[Eric C]

Thanks for the info. The set in this post reminded me of the one we had because of the front layout of the controls. In thinking back, ours also had a "flip down" panel on the front which hid a lot of other controls such as the horizontal and vertical hold, etc. We got the set at Christmas, 1968, so it might have been a 1969 model. From what I recall (I was 8 when we got it) it was a metal frame with simulated wood grain on the sides and top. I remember that we got to know our local tv repairman quite well while we had that set as it seemed to be breaking down on a fairly frequent basis (but it got a lot of use).
It's weird, but at the time, I thought that having a color tv (it was our first, and we were about the second or third house on the block to get a color set--I remember a fair number of our neighbours coming over to watch the Appollo 11 moon landing in color with us), but now, I'd love to get an old (but working as I am not really a techie) b&w console to have as my daily watcher