Old RCA CRT Console TV Repair

[zander21510]

Hello, I'm currently trying to restore an old RCA console television to use with my retro game consoles. My uncle found it for me in excellent cosmetic condition, and was apparently used up until a few years ago, taken care of in an old woman's house till she passed away. Sticker on the back says manufactured in 1986, it's a RCA Colortrak 2000- very high end for the day.

So the problem it's having, from the research I've done, seems to be consistent with some bad capacitors. There are some lines on the top of the screen, and it will lose power randomly before coming back on. I would say it works fine 60% of the time, the other 40% the screen goes out for a few minutes, and comes back on intermittently.

I'm fairly comfortable with soldering & I want to try to replace the capacitors, problem is, there are SO MANY and I'm not sure where to start. From my research, I should be looking for bulged or leaking capacitors, but I haven't found any except for just one that seems like it's slightly bulged on the top.

The nice thing about this TV though, is it has a bunch of reference stickers on the inside of the cabinet, that look like diagrams. Over my head for sure, but hopefully someone can make something out of it?

I've attached pictures of the main board inside the cabinet, along with the reference stickers on the side, and circled the one capacitor that seems bulged. If someone could help me pick out a few capacitors to start with to replace, it would help me not pick ones that won't make a difference and reduce the possibility of me messing something up. Let me know if you need more/better pictures or want to see the other boards. Thanks!

Full Cabinet:
Diagrams

Right side of main board (has a smaller board stacked on top)
Closer look underneath right side of main board
Middle view of main board
Left view of main board

Circled capacitor is slightly bulged, view of left side of main board

Circled capacitor is slightly bulged, top view of main board.

 

[Harald Kapp]

I want to try to replace the capacitors, problem is, there are SO MANY and I'm not sure where to start.

It's typically the electrolytic capacitors that fail after a few years due to loss of electrolyte. That narrows down the number of caps you have to inspect and change. An electrolytic capacitor is the type you circled in one of your images and a bulge is a sure sign of loss of electrolyte due to outgassing. Identify these capacitors, specially in the power supply section and replace them. The important parameters are capacity and voltage. Match capacity exactly. For the voltage rating you can use ones with a higher rating, never with a lower rating. Note the polarity (usually indicated by a white bar with '-' signs in it on the side of the capacitor)a nd make sure the repalcements are soldered in the same orientation (there may even be marks on the PCB to help putting in the capacitors in the right orientation - if not make your own marks).
Note that modern electrolytic capacitors may be noticeably smaller at the same capacity/voltage rating as the older ones due to improved technology. This is no problem, only you may have to bend the pins a bit.

For your safety: Make sure all capacitors are fully discharged before working on them. Disconnect the TV from mains power and let it sit for some time (preferably over night) - some capacitors may store charge at high voltages for quite some time. The efffect can be at the least unpleasant if not worse.

 

[shrtrnd]

Harald Kapp pretty-much covered the first things to do.
My added input is to stay away from the red 'anode' cable that plugs in the back top of the picture tube itself and
runs down to the flyback transformer. The picture tube acts as it's own high voltage 'capacitor'. Even when the
TV is unplugged and turned-off, it stores a charge of several thousand volts, and you don't want to get hit by
that discharge voltage.