Here we are today with a new G90 step by step procedure : the toasted tubes(s) replacement with new bare(s) tube(s).

Original Sony stock tubes refs are P19LQF type. New bare tubes are usually P19LUG type (normal or 'HR' type) but this could be P19LPB reference (used on Barco PJs) as well.
You can order P19LUG-HR bare tubes from Greg Eisemann and P19LUG from VDC or from tubularoutlet.com vendors. Greg's sells 'HR' rated P19LUG tubes about $1200, VDC wants $1600 and Tubularoutlet about $990.

Since I made this job twice on my G90 units, I've took some pictures of the task process and post them in here to share this information with everyone. Be aware that this procedure is much more complex than the one I've posted about G70 projector two years ago. You need to have serious handy skills to proceed this successfully... Also, you will need to be patient (there is 50 steps to follow!).


First part is to remove the old (toasty) tube and its LC housing from the G90 unit :

1- Remove the unit dark grey top cover. Unscrew the four mounting screws of the LC housing with proper tubular key :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/C_Element/Step1.jpg

2- Open the G90 chassis top cover and unscrew the four relevant CG block screws from chassis :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/C_Element/Step2.jpg

3- Twist CG block upside down on back of the unit - remove white and red flat pairs - disassemble the original tube's C board at the tube ends neck by twisting the board to the right/left alternately to unplug it completely :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/C_Element/Step3.jpg

4- Disconnect al the coil's incoming wires connectors, including DY earthing lead :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/C_Element/Step4.jpg

5- Locate and disconnect the tube's relevant HV lead rubber cap from the HV splitter block located between green and blue tubes. :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/C_Element/Step5.jpg

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6- first remove the silicon grey cap from the block and then press down and 90° rotate the thick red wire to remove it :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/C_Element/Step6.jpg

7- Now, disassemble the relevant lens from the LC housing using a 300mm long neck Philips screwdriver. Unscrew the four lens screws from bottom to top. Take care to hold the lens with left hand while removing the last screw and gently remove the lens away along the same tube center axis to avoid lens damage from the C-element's sharp circular edges ! Place it in a clean from dust area (bag):
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/C_Element/Step7.jpg

8- Carefully slide out the complete assembly with one hand on the LC housing and the other on the tube neck end. Ensure that you do not stress any wires/connectors/coils during the operation :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/C_Element/Step8.jpg

9- Place the assembly facing down on a flat and clean bench as follows :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step1.jpg

10- Unscrew all DY/Sub-DY/MG and 2p/4P coils assemblies screws around the tube neck and store them in the same order/orientation in a safe area (don't forget to carefully remove the plastic wedge located between Sub-DY and MG coils).

11- Remove glycol tank screw :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/C_Element/Step9.jpg

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12- Place a CLEAN and DRY 250ml glass above the Glycol hole access this way :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step2.jpg
With a fast (but safe) movement, turn the assembly upside-down while holding the glass in the same position above the glycol chamber hole. Then press the glycol chamber rubber expansion part with one finger to force the glycol to fall out from the hole inside the glass :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step3.jpg
Stop the process when the glass is close to be fulfilled by simply restoring the assembly initial orientation on the bench. Replace the glycol tank's screw back in place and close the glass full of glycol with a cup to avoid dust entry and store it in a safe area too.

At this stage, you must check that the retreived glycol aspect is fully transparent. If it's not the case, then all the glycol contained inside the LC chamber must be replaced with new glycol.

Also, be very carefull to not spill any glycol as it is very corrosive to just about everything (including human skin!). The use medical gloves is a must.

13- After had removed all the four screws located by the yellow arrow, use a large flat screwdriver to tilt-up the tube and its aluminium belt/holder away from the rest of the LC chamber :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step4.jpg

14- After separation of the tube and its aluminium belt/holder from the rest of the LC chamber, store this last part within a clean and hole free platic bag (beware of the glycol movements within the chamber during transportation!) :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step5.jpg
Close the bag this way so no dust can enter it:
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step6.jpg

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15- Now, we can remove the HV grey silicon cup from the old tube. Simply cut the circulat outer edge of the HV silicon cup with a sharp cutter/blade (use Exacto blade or equivalent). Then using a small flat screwdriver, gently pry up the cup border from the white silicon. Once been able to catch the cup by finger continue to pry up the silicon cup with fingers. Do it VERY slowly so that most of the white silicon remains on the glass :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G70/Tube_replacement/Step10.jpg

16- Continue to slowly pry up the cup all around the center hole :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G70/Tube_replacement/Step11.jpg

17- Using a pair of needle nose pliers, squeeze the metal leads together in order to remove the HV cup from the glass hole :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G70/Tube_replacement/Step12.jpg
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G70/Tube_replacement/Step13.jpg

18- Still using the sharp cutter/blade, clean the remaining white silicon from the inside of the cup. For small silicon spots, you can use acetone liquid cleanerto help :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G70/Tube_replacement/Step14.jpg

19- The inside must be clean and look like this when you're done :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G70/Tube_replacement/Step15.jpg

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20- Now disassemble the tube glass itself from its aluminium beld/holder. This is the most difficult part of the job, so take your time!
Use a long and thin cutter/blade and insert it between the tube front face and the black silicon join. Leave the blade position as close as possible to the tube face while slowly cutting the silicon join all around the tube. Beware that there is four steel pits in the middle of each borders and the cutter must avoid them during the cutting operation. After the job is done, your should be able to get this :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step7.jpg
Retreive the four steel pits and store them in a safe area

21- Now take the aluminium belt/holder in hands and SLOWLY pry up the remaining silicon join from the aluminium part. Do it slowly will ensure that NO silicon spots will remain on the metal part:
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step8.jpg

22- When the job is well done, you should get this:
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step9.jpg

23- Now it's time to retreive the new P19 bare tube close to the bench:
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step10.jpg
If the new bare tube is missing the Lead X-ray thick belt tape around it, recover it from the older tube.

Before starting the next operation, take care to place it in the correct orientation versus the cleaned aluminium belt/holder so the HV cup entry will be located on the right border of the LC assembly :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step11.jpg

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24- Now prepare the Silicon Cartridge (from GE for example) with the proper tool:
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step12.jpg

25- Place the four steel pits pieces back in place inside the relevant four holes :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step13.jpg

26- slowly put a CONTINUOUS fresh silicon paste all around the aluminium tube belt/holder piece (better more than less enough!) :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step14.jpg
Especially in the corners :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step15.jpg
Beware to NOT remove the four steel pits from their location during this Silicon deposit !

27- After checking that silicon deposit is OK all around the tube, place the bare tube within the aluminium tube belt/holder piece and press it so the tube face will be stopped by the four steel pits :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step16.jpg
IMPORTANT : Check that the tube is well centered within the aluminium piece and is not rotated versus its borders.
Do not move the assembly and leave it that way in dry place for one day first.

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28- After 24 hours of wait, clean the glass around the HV hole with acetone liquid and retreive the cleaned HV cup :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step17.jpg

29- slowly put a CONTINUOUS fresh silicon paste all around the HV hole on the bare tube :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step18.jpg

30- Now press the HV cup ankors within the HV hole so the silicon paste is moving all arount the HV cup circular edge :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step19.jpg
Take care: the HV lead wire output must be in the same orientation as the original tube assembly had !

31- Use some large adhesive tape to fix the HV lead in stable position and let the assembly to dry for a complete WEEK :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step20.jpg

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32- After a week of wait, turn the assembly upside down and cut the silicon excess on the tube face using a cutter :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step21.jpg
Cut the surrounding excess two times : one with cutter aside the tube face, second time with cutter perpandicular to the tube face (using the aluminium belt/holder as a ruler).

33- Once done, remove the silicon cord this way :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step22.jpg

34- Once done, clean the tube face from silicon trace using acetone liquid :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step23.jpg
The tube face should look this clean :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step24.jpg

35- Then you can continue with the other tubes of the set (if any !) :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step25.jpg

36- At the end of the set, you should got three brand new tubes ready to be assembled to their respectives LC tank/housing :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step26.jpg

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37- Reassemble the tube hearting system :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step27.jpg

38- Now, you need to add adhesive tissue tape on the tube's necks. First buy this special (medical) adhesive tissue tape :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G70/Tube_replacement/Step25.jpg

39- Place two stripes of this adhesive tissue tape on each tubes neck facing each other :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G70/Tube_replacement/Step27.jpg

40- Reassemble the tube/aluminium assembly to its relative LC/tank housing. FIRST clean the new tube front face with acetone then alcohol so there is no remaining dust/traces on the optical active area. Once done, place the tube face on the LC tank as fast as possible to avoid any dust imput inside the glycol tank. Place back in place the four Philips screws and screw them in cross axis order.
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step28.jpg

41- Using a syringue, Fill back in tank the 250ml stored glycol :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step29.jpg
At each 50/60ml step, gently tilt the tube to let the air bubles exit the C-lement chamber via the tank's hole (this allows you to continue to fill the tank with glycol).

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42- Now put back in place the colour relevant DY/Sub DY coils and press it against the tube before 'lightly' screwing its circular neck screw. 'Light' screwing is a must to be able to adjust the generated image rotation during mechanical adjustments.

43- Don't forget to carefully put back in place the plastic wedge located between Sub-DY and MG coils!

44- Put back in place the colour relevant MG focus coils and press it against the DY coil wedge before screwing its circular neck screw.

45- Ending, put back in place the colour relevant 2P/4P coils and press it against the MG focus coil before screwing its circular neck screw.

WARNING: Do not over tighten the neck screws against the tube neck or glass may brake! refer to the Sony service manual (tightening torque force is 80-120N.cm or 8.16 to 12.24kgF.cm).

46- All these coils placements must be done in the same way they were located on their original 'toasted' tube. You can take pictures of the original assembly to remind their positions / orientation :
http://johnhwman.free.fr/G90/Tube_replacement/Step30.jpg

47- Then you can carefully slide in the complete assembly within the G90 unit, with one hand on the LC housing and the other on the tube neck end to prevent damage. Check that every wire/connector is NOT stressed during this operation (doing this operation with a friend can be usefull). Ensure that the HV lead comes in the right holder bracket. Then reconnect the C board to the tube neck. Ensure that the pins are fully inserted within the C block tube's socket.

48- Reconnect all the relevant cols wires/connectors. Do not forget to re-attach the DY hearting black wire and the HV lead end to the HV block (press down the wire then rotate 90° and release : check if the wire is secured by pulling it. If Ok, replace the grey silicon cap above the tube).

49- Screw back in place the tube LC housing to the relative brackets then put back the lens and screw it on.

50- Fire-up the unit and start the necessary mechanical adjustments descibed in the G90 service manual (after tube replacement). Don't forget to redo the D65 colorimetry (even for one single tube replacement !).

!!! Important : do not mix-up the lens neither the coils between tubes !!!! Always put a R/G or B coloured round stickers on the colour relative parts to ensure that mixing could NOT occur !!

That's all.

Enjoy the new tube(s) on the G90 !

John

P.S. Please note that Terry helped me with some explanations on the critical part of this job (carefull cutting of the silicon join between the old tube face and the tube holder mechanic). So thanks to him : he's the best/smart techy guy on Sony CRT projectors and you can always count on him!

AMAZING!!! Great job!

Thx :)

These pictures were taken about two years ago but I never found enough time to write the complete procedure and post it in here :rolleyes:... This was a very long job (took me five hours to manage the writting and pictures process :eek:).

Sorry for the remaining english grammar mistakes, feel free to correct these.

I think that people can find this quite usefull for the G90 CRT projecteur servicing ;)

John

I think that people can find this quite usefull for the G90 CRT projecteur servicing ;)

John

John,

You've been an excellent contributor to the community. Great Job! :D

Cliff

Great instructions as always. Thanks!

John,
Thankyou for taking the time to wright these critical tube replacement procedures for the G90/G70 they are truly invaluable to us sony G series owners to help keep our CRT's alive, we all appreciate you sharing this with us.
If some people did not have the confidence in changing out the old tubes in there G90's and wanted to pay to have an expert like you do it would you or Terry be willing to perform this bare tube replacement procedure??....

If some people did not have the confidence in changing out the old tubes in there G90's and wanted to pay to have an expert like you do it would you or Terry be willing to perform this bare tube replacement procedure??.... Yes, this could be done on my side but since I'm located in France, for European G90 owners (I assume).
I think that Terry already did it for US owners ;) but I'm not sure (Terry :confused:).

John

Wonderful write up, John!

Yesterday I spoke to Greg Eisemann about the P19LUG "high resolution" tubes he uses. He advised he gets them from Boeing and they are "simulation grade" with a 0.0022 dot pitch. Apparently the tubes have been further tested and approved for the Boeing flight simulators.

The other issue that may concern other G90 owners is the time it takes for these procedures. Since a new tube with the LC housing directly from Sony is almost $4000, it certainly pays to reuse the original housings. But since this procedure takes over a week just for silicon drying time, this means the projector is out of service for at least this long.

I was hoping to find someone that could supply a new tube already with another LC housing mounted to immediately install in the projector. Then it is a one day job instead of much longer. But the hardware is hard to come by, because there are no junked G90s around. So this is a dilemma to resolve.

Thank you again for posting such a detailed and professional procedure! :)

Excellent post! Great detailed pictures too.

So given A choice of the best replacment tubes to use in A G90, there are
1, Sony OEM P19LQf complete tubes
2, P19Lug.. bare tubes
3, P19Lug-HR (high resolution) bare tubes with A dot pitch of 0.0022

Would you get the best(noticable) results from using P19Lug-HR bare tubes?
especially when paired with the upcoming Mike Parker G90 mods "larger Bandwidth"
would the P19Lug-HR be your best choice??....

Yesterday I spoke to Greg Eisemann about the P19LUG "high resolution" tubes he uses. He advised he gets them from Boeing and they are "simulation grade" with a 0.0022 dot pitch. Apparently the tubes have been further tested and approved for the Boeing flight simulators. Panasonic/Matsushita are probably using a thiner particles size phosphore powder for these 'HR' grade...I was hoping to find someone that could supply a new tube already with another LC housing mounted to immediately install in the projector. Then it is a one day job instead of much longer. But the hardware is hard to come by, because there are no junked G90s around. So this is a dilemma to resolve. I may be able to get some standalone G90 LC housing, I'll check. Also ask Terry, he may have some available as well ;)
would the P19LUG-HR be your best choice??.... Yes, especially for the Green one (the only HR grade tubes I've mounted) : the benefit was visible on image sharpness (at 1080p) :) For red or even blue tube, I assume that it is more or less pointless ;)

John

Kawal,

Terry does exactly that! He can send you a tube already in the housing so it is ready for install. He does take a deposit on the housing but it gets returned once he gets your old housing back.

Doc

That sounds like the best idea for re tubing A CRT when some one is not confident in doing it themselves, just get pre assembled tube's complete with LC off Terry or John and send them back your old set....

Kawal,

Terry does exactly that! He can send you a tube already in the housing so it is ready for install. He does take a deposit on the housing but it gets returned once he gets your old housing back.

Doc

Thank you, Doc. Yesterday Terry and I have already discussed this, and that is what I will be doing - ordering a tube and C element and having them shipped to Terry. Then it will be a relatively quick exchange to pull my tube and replace it with the new one and send mine back to Terry. After checking around, I don't know of anyone besides Terry who has this hardware because the G90s are still fairly rare. So this should work out great, since we all know Terry's capabilities.

I am still doing some research on this "high resolution" tube. So far no one in the industry except for Greg Eisemann seems to know about this special tube.

Ray

This is quite the process! I have to still think that you held your breath when you fired it up for the first time after reinstalling the new tubes. I can't imagine trying this as I struggled with the @$# Dallas chip. See earlier post. But happily everything seems to be working now. In the end, I just lost my tube hour count - I think. Like so many things doing it the first time is often very difficult. The second time you do the same task in less than half the time. Unfortunately, when you make a mistake with the g90 the stakes are high. No one in the yellow pages for crt repairs. With this said, Terry is no doubt one of the most knowledgeable posters on the g90 and if my tubes start to go I would not hesitate to work with him to get them replaced. As my tubes have a little over 1250 hrs I'm not thinking this will be for awhile. In fact, I somehow suspect that something else is going to go before the tubes. Time will tell. Thanks again for the excellent post.

Jean.. you really are a nice guy and a credit to this community.

Kudos to you mate.

I was about to order a new P19LUG green tube from tubularoutlet.com, but I was speaking to Gina at VDC who suggested I hold off for a day or so. VDC is about to announce a $695 price for a brand new tube with Panasonic components that is supposedly equal in quality to the Panasonic branded tubes. They sell the c elements for $150 as well.

I spoke to Charlie Acurio at their tube factory and he confirmed that these new tubes will have the same components and quality as any P19LUG.

Sounds pretty good. I'll wait until I hear from Gina to confirm the price, then have one shipped to Terry for mounting.

Ray

VDC is about to announce a $695 price for a brand new tube with Panasonic components that is supposedly equal in quality to the Panasonic branded tubes. That's a pretty cheap tube Ray. Please review this tube quality as soon as you've got this tube inside your G90 ;)They sell the c elements for $150 as well. Yes, go on for the green C element mod. in the same time : I did it as well on all my green tubes mount on all my four G90. :)
John

Here it is two months later and I have a new green tube installed!!! :)

I ended up buying the new bare tube from Tubular Outlet because VDC never came through with the new prices (maybe they have by now - I don't know). I bought the new P19LUG tube for about $1000 and decided to buy a new darker green C element upon advice from John and Terry Ferentinos.

Since Terry had the extra tube hardware, I had the tube and C element sent to him, and he expertly mounted it for me. I got it about a month ago but had to make a trip to California before I could install it.

Just today I installed the new tube, and I couldn't believe how EASY it was!! :eek: Having the new mounted tube in hand, it took me a couple of hours, but the second time around I'm sure I could do it in 30 minutes! About all you need is a screwdriver.

Since my projector was already ceiling mounted, I had my brother come over when I was actually pulling the tube out of the chassis. It's simple to do, but having an extra person is really handy when you're both on ladders.

I used a very slightly different procedure than John since the projector was hanging. To show those details, I posted a website with lots of pictures and explanations:

http://www.kawal.net/G90%20tube.htm

I would encourage anyone who has the ability to focus and set up the registration on his projector to install their own tube if it needs replacing. It is surprisingly simple due to Sony's excellent design.

Thanks to John and Terry for their expertise. It made the job easy! :)