Hi Chris,
That looks great now it's back in the cabinet! The CRT looks pretty good and even the subtitles are perfectly readable in your last picture!
I think some in depth reading & research will be really helpful: I don't think you will get much further without more understanding. TV's, as you've found, are amazingly complex- the technology of the time was pushed to it's limits and often beyond! The amount of stuff crammed into a TV signal is amazing- all the picture information, sound, horizontal & vertical sync pulses, equalisation pulses and then later, colour subcarrier, colour burst, teletext and finally stereo sound! (Did the US get stereo sound?)
The biggest single threat for an old TV is the LOPT. The CRT will stand many ,many hours of use (unless you are very unlucky) as will all the other components.
It would be worth measuring the LOPT temperature after the set has been on for 1/2 hr or so. Turn the set OFF and stick your finger on it (it will bite you otherwise
) The ideal is mildly warm but more likely it will be uncomfortable to keep your finger on it. If it burns your finger, its too hot!!
If it does run hot, you can mount a small fan to blow air over it- I've found that makes a big difference. My GEC 2000 LOPT settles at 56 Centigrade which is hotter than I would like but it doesn't seem to mind!
Apart from that, you don't even have a big mains dropper belching heat (as here in the UK) as you have a mains transformer. We have to get rid of 30-40 Watts of heat which makes everything else run hot! so your reliability should be good.
In my view, these TV's were designed to be used and its great to watch vintage programs on them regularly.
Last year there was a vintage TV day at the Museum where quite a few TV's, some pre- war, were run continuously all day. To my knowledge, there were no failures but I bet the rooms were hot by the end!!
So sit back and enjoy!!
Well done
Cheers
Nick