[T3] Going to Hell in a handcart

Keith Park topnotch at nycap.rr.com
Thu Jan 24 16:21:40 PST 2013


All surface mount electrolytic capacitors have a very finite service life,
between 2 and 7 years, less if they get hot.  They are why nothing lasts
very long anymore...  they showed up on the consumer electronic market in
about 1992 and instantly  stuff that would last 20-40 years would last 5 to
10. Im SO glad I bought all my electronics and appliances, TV's, Phones,
VCR's etc. before this happened and I still have them all!

As they say, they don't make 'em like they used to!

Keith



Top Notch Restorations
topnotch at nycap.rr.com 
http://www.a383ina68.addr.com/radiorest/main.htm
71 Squareback "Hothe"
65 Notchback "El Baja Rojo"
65 Squareback "Eggcrate"
87 golf "Winterat"
93 RX7 "Redstur"


-----Original Message-----
From: type3-vwtype3.org-bounces at lists.vwtype3.org
[mailto:type3-vwtype3.org-bounces at lists.vwtype3.org] On Behalf Of Jim Adney
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2013 11:25 AM
To: type3 at vwtype3.org
Subject: Re: [T3] Going to Hell in a handcart

I have now replaced all the obviously failed capacitors on both of 
our PCs, and they are both back to working perfectly. It took exactly 
32 days for me to get this all fully resolved, but it seems to have 
turned out well. It took me a couple of weeks to figure out what to 
do and to get the parts ($16 per PC, with free shipping from Hong 
Kong.) The actual replacement took about 6 hours per PC, and was 
actually quite difficult because of the thickness of the board and 
the location of these particular capacitors on the board.

Now I just have to hope that we don't have OTHER capacitors that were 
on the verge of failure. At least if that happens I have spares, the 
others are all in MUCH easier places to service than these were, AND 
I now know the good way to do this work.

You may recall that we were also having trouble with our Internet 
connection, so we have now upgraded to AT&T Uverse at 10x the speed 
and about the same price. That upgrade came with both upsides and 
downsides, so it's not clear how much of an improvement it will be.

Happy winter everyone. We've now been below zero F, which may be the 
coldest it's been here in the last couple of years. It's been single 
digits for a couple days, but today is supposed to get up into the 
teens. Woo-hoo!  

I'm slowly cleaning up the backlog here and should be able to catch 
up on my Type 3 work. Those of you who have items in my queue can be 
reassured that I will get to them soon.

-- 
*******************************
Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
*******************************

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