leaky cap
Thu, 09/27/2012 - 00:05
Howzit Skip, i was checking out the electric components in my old pa head (1953) the other day and noticed that one of the red tiny chief capacitors looked wet, looked like when you dip a piece of cardboard in water. does this mean the cap is on the way out and going to explode? last time i took it to the tech he replaced all of the out of speck stuff, there are 2 more tiny chief caps should i just replace those too before those start sweating also?
Hello Brian- The Sangamo Tiny Chief caps are a paper-and-oil cap and that shiny stuff IS oil leaking out. You guys know that I don't change parts just "because", but I would never leave a Tiny Chief cap in an old PA head except (possibly) in a tone circuit.....and it better read pretty close to the proper capacitance! Using old paper caps as coupling caps is risky. To me, a "leaking" cap actually means that the cap is leaking DC voltage, not oil. Leaking DC voltage through the cap will upset the bias of the next stage, and that cap has GOT to go.
Skip Simmons