Hello....I recently partially rebuilt a zenith 6S527. Partially meaning all caps including ECaps and some resistors. Have not performed alignment yet. The question is: the push button reception performance is far superior to just using the tuner. Should I expect this to be resolved with alignment or is there another probable cause? Thank you.

Suspect the push button contacts. They switch the antenna from tuner to pre-select. Clean the contacts real good. Check the antenna connections in Manuel mode. Also the tuner antenna trimmer probably needs adjustment.

Warren, thanks. You are right again. Had a loose wire connecting antenna coil to trimmer. Should be in pretty good shape after I get around to tweaking alignment.