It does look like a challenge, but I know I would enjoy every bit of it. Just thinking about the original owner/builder in the 1960s, doing their best to follow the instructions and then maybe some local TV shop doing quick-and-dirty repairs to make it work.

I would look at every suspicious wire and part (plus the loose ones) and trace them to find the most-likely matching points on the schematic, then see what was done compared to how it should have been done. Look at RCA schematics, perhaps, to see if any changes were made to match one of those for whatever reason.

Yes what I found so far is a lot of the wires just pulled away from the Boards.
I spent some time today replacing and Re-Routing wires that were Burned, (Under Chassis ) I even had some original Type of Wires.
and Replaced the thermistor and .047 across the AC line with the proper X-Z cap.

that large 6.8k Resistor was open I found, but in Circuit it measured within spec, of course I don't have one and this is the part I hate is ordering and waiting
and there are a ton of Connections like this below, this is why I should have parted it out, so its on the bench now, not Far I should go but since I am into it haha

Thank you!

Terry

Those "Imp" capacitors with the yellow print are going to be leaky.

oh yes! I know that and they will get Replaced, I am going Blind on this set and hope for the best after all is Done and Power up.

That looks a lot like rca ctc 15 or 16 basically. The 16 had automatic degausing thermistor and vdr in the power suply input to the bridge rectifier. When I worked for a tv shop here I was the one who got heathkit sets on my bench as the others didnt want to do them. Actually they were easier to move around in by virtue of the layout.

Terry, if you decide you want to get that set off your hands, I'm interested and close enough to pick it up.

GR-53
OK lets play a little Game of "Can you spot the Errors on the Chroma Board"

Hint : tint control has no effect and no R-y and no B-y
I am using my CTC-11 as a test jig since its right by my Upstairs workbench, the rest of the set is way downstairs.
the Convergence board is not plugged in so the size is Small.
I try to pick away at this thing an hour or 2 a day

oh and Clark if your Reading I still have those Boxes LOL just been busy

I see two errors: 1.) The 33K 1W resistor and the adjacent ceramic cap each have one lead in a hole meant for the other part. 2). The leftmost ceramic cap has one of its leads in a hole not marked for it.

Hi Terry! No worries, just give me a call when you have the time.

Wow, those errors are pretty bad! I think it's safe to conclude that that set never did work right

Good luck, it looks like you're getting close!

-Clark

HA ! Tom your Correct, also he stuffed a 2W 3.9k Resistor into a spot that was suppose to be a 1/2W next to the above Errors, I found the cooked 3.9k 1/2W resistor that was suppose to be a 2 W under the chassis.

I had been ironing out stuff under the chassis and Replacing Caps, I just happened to sit the chassis flat and look closer and found those Errors.
the set had a snowy and Blurry Raster at power up, I also found the Selenium Focus Rectifier bad, Replaced that and a Bunch of other Stuff and Wires.

now Focus will adjust and now the AGC Works so the Tuner works well.
the Video itself seems pretty Well, just the Chroma stuff is Screwed up, I will Take care of those Errors when I Replace all the Caps on the Chroma Board.
Gee I hope I am sort of safe Running the chassis 10 mins at a time with the HV cage Removed, I won't be having Babies anyways
the Paper Schematic has notes all over about His Green problem.
the person who picked up the Set told me that he was told that the owner was never able to get the set to work correctly but he used it like it was.
Guess as long as the Packer games looked Green it was ok

COLORAMA ! on the Heathkit GR-53A
too many errors yet, Convergence connector plugged in , but I didn't place the Convergence assy on the neck yet
so it's badly misconverged
this has a S Hum in Video that Rolls thru, its not Capacitors and not in Audio, more like a Heater leakage, the 12GN7 Tests goofy so I ordered one
or it could be that the power Choke is not wired Correctly.
I also had a confusing problem last night with this chassis, it was the first time I played it for over 5 mins, then I heard something like Bacon Frying, the Cathode current of the H-Out stayed at 162 MA and HV was Exactly 25KV, I unplugged it and I kept hearing the Sizzle, Reached inside the HV Cage and the Core and smaller windings on the Flyback were very Hot to touch.
I left it sit to cool overnight and left it run today and it never happened again, I am wondering if it has moisture in the Wax and Windings and was "Baking out" ?
all caps and Resistors in deflection have been replaced and the Lin Coil was peaked for lowest Dip.
this set has not been run for prob 30 or more years, it still stays at 162MA and 25KV and runs cool as can be.

I took a day off to work on this thing

I do wonder how the builder could not see those errors. Even with no knowledge of electronics I would expect anyone would be able to see that the leads were in the wrong holes.

they did advertise this as a set "anyone can Build" the Builder must have been disappointed.

I still have a Ways to go, it will never look like a pro builder unless it is stripped apart, sitting in a Damp Basement for 30 + years does not help

Thank you

Terry

Very nice progress, I am glad that you decided to fix this Heahkit, Terry.

Nice job, Terry! I knew you'd be able to get it going. That is weird about the flyback. Hopefully it was just residual moisture and it will never happen again.

That's a pretty good picture considering the convergence assembly is off the neck of the CRT. It's probably the first full-color images that it's ever displayed!

-Clark

The set is looking really good. I too am kind of perplexed about those two components being placed wrongly in their circuit board holes, seems way to obvious to have been done by even an inexperienced builder. Makes me wonder if this set was possibly being used for training students to recognize fault modes? I know we had an instructor at school that like to do such teaching exercises.

the paper work and warranty Card matches the Serial numbers, and the address matches way out in the country where it was picked up
the owner passed away in 2012
so I don't think it was used for instructional purposes, he was not a Teacher, I just think it was new in the day project .
also I found all his old notes on various problems he was trying to fix, and they match the problems I found and fixed so far on the set

if you zoom in on pictures you can see

Clark:
the sets convergence board is plugged in but not in the neck of the tube, I didn't want to disturb all that on my ctc-11 test jig, so only static convergence is used, the ctc11 convergence board is a little different so I didn't want to plug it in, I can wait for full set up once the original tube and frame are back together

I remember my dad getting those Heathkit catalogs in the 1960's with advertisements for those color tv's. I used to drool over them because all we had was a B&W. Boy, if the original buyer had a wife, I can just imagine how pissd off she was when he couldn't get it to work right. Just been lurking - and hoping you could get it going.

it is Operation now but still needs more Work, I was not even going to go this far.
because of Christmas and New years in a couple of weeks I have to Clean up and put all my "Toys" away
to make room for some visiting family sleeping arrangments, so I will not be back at this large project will after New Years.

at least I have a much smaller project to work on if I get bored of Family Visits

Thank you
Terry

When I was in college and grad school I and my friends made numerous Heathkits,
including several color TVs, never a roundie however. All of them worked fine and
very reliably.

The built-in convergence generator was the cat's meow.