[Scott Dorsey]

Robert Stevens wrote:
I plucked all the electrolytics and ran ESR tests on all them. They all pa=
ssed. However, they are all some pretty off brand so I'm gonna put some ni=
chicon caps back in their place. Looks to me like someone recapped the unit=
at some point not that long ago. And of course, it was on of those folks =
that likes to bend the pins flush to the board making desoldering a PITA ev=
en with an electric vacuum pump tool.

All of the symptoms you describe are the sort that are frequently caused by
leaky caps. Any time I hear thumping on a gate or VCA, my first thought
is there is DC someplace where there shouldn't be.

Don't worry about the pins being bent over. Cut off the capacitors on the
board side, then the desoldering tool will just remove the pin residue
quickly and completely leaving a nice clean hole.

Why did you remove the capacitors to do an ESR test? The whole point of
the ESR tester is that you can do rough quality checks in-circuit. Once
it's removed, you might as well just replace it anyway rather than trying
to salvage the original part.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."