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Hard to tell from these pictures, but it sounds like something is causing too much power to go through that [looks like a] resistor... it's probably not the resistor itself (well, until you fried it - now it's probably fried)... with this type and age equipment, I'm going to guess a dried up capacitor causing a lower value than designed which then pushes too much power down the resistor... the culprit capacitor is probably the big black one just to the left of the resistor - it's not clear if those light parts on the wire below it is original or maybe from electrolytics leaking onto it. Of course it could also be that this item was wired for a lower voltage and does not like your [assuming] 124V 60Hz power supply. Or both. It does not look to be in too bad shape otherwise, is not completely ancient (I'm going to guess late 60's) and RCA Victor service manuals and circuit diagrams are usually available online. I think this is a project worth taking on... likely just a couple of capacitors need replacing... and that fried resistor, obviously. Just some initial thoughts - hope it helps.
Edit: On second look, some bits make me think this might be a 70's model or maybe someone partially re-wired it in the 80's... and some of the wires coming out from under the transformer look a bit burnt, so it could be a short down there... or maybe the busted capacitor(s) caused more than one component to overheat, including the transformer. If the transformer is toasted, that's not great... but I'd still take a stab at repairing it.
Thanks for taking the time to reply! I’m going into this totally ignorant of the hardware—I’m a vintage furniture lover, not an electrician by any means, so I appreciate the input from anyone who knows their way around these things. I’m glad to hear that it’s worth trying to repair though! I guess I’ll be giving a call to my coworker and taking more thorough pictures of everything to see if he could help me out. Thanks again!
No problem... if someone suggests ripping out the insides and replacing it with a WiFi or Bluetooth player... sure... but then please salvage that silver air-gap capacitor (the thing with the metal fins, top left in the first picture). Those are getting rather expensive and hard to find. That one is probably in the $35 range, but some go for $300 or more.
Oh wow, thanks for the heads up! I’m hoping I can stay the preservation route with the old school hardware, but if it is a lost cause I’ll keep that in mind. :) Especially if I end up needing some pocket money… lol.
I got this great piece from a local antique store, everything turns on and functions, but on first use we could smell smoke coming from the left side of the console. Obviously I’ve since learned that plugging up these things and turning them on before knowing what I’m dealing with is a mistake… but I popped open the back today to see if I could identify any obvious problems. You can obviously see the caked on dust from decades past, but the particular piece I circled is where we could see it visibly heating up and smoking (very lightly, not fire starting… yet). Any advice? I have an older coworker who said he could try working on it, but I wanted to turn to reddit before I make an old man climb up and down my stairs just to look at it and tell me it’s busted, lol.
Thanks for any help anybody can give me!
From the inside, it looks a lot like the console I bought to restore… 60’s RCA New Vista I haven’t started on it yet, so I have no advice for you. Just wanted to say good luck! Keep us up to date so I can follow your progress on the project!
I think mine is a different style of the New Vista! I’ll definitely update if I get any progress going with it, it’s an awesome piece and I would hate to just relegate it to pretty but nonfunctional furniture.