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I have had several RCA tube-type sets which worked fine when first tested but then bad electrolytics showed up after a little while. Unless it is about 40 years old or newer I don't even test it on the original caps. If it has the maroon mylar caps I replace the electrolytics and then test it out, as usually these won't cause destructive failures but can sometimes be bad.
Anything that is old enough to have wax paper caps or black beauties, etc. I don't even plug it in till all the caps are replaced.
The first thing I would do, even if you don't replace the electrolytics right away is remove any line bypass capacitors and put a fuse on the power line to help give some protection. Many times there is a paper cap right across the cheater cord terminals for noise suppression and I have seen these short right across the power line. Also I always replace old silicon diodes in the power supply as I have had a lot of trouble with them.
Like Red Raster said marginal capacitors can cause infuriating weird troubleshooting problems even if not major damage.
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12-13-2011, 06:25 PM
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