[Eliot Ness]

......My burning question is if the transformer is indeed good, do I have a short somewhere else. I will start probing around the chassis to find out.

If your electrolytic capacitor keeps blowing then you either have a short or something is mis-wired.  As I mentioned before  I suspect something has been mis-wired, but you'll have to double check all wiring against the schematic to verify.

You might want to make a copy of the schematic and use highlighters or colored pencils as you verify each wire, component, and connection.

When you get the new transformer compare the resistance reading of the two, yours might be OK.