ZPA 0.3 with fried rail caps

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Silverhorse
Posts: 159
Joined: Sat Aug 06, 2011 1:18 am

ZPA 0.3 with fried rail caps

Post by Silverhorse »

Hello forum members

Many, many years ago I bought a dead ZPA amp wanting to restore it but never got the time.
Well, now it finally happened. I started to search this forum, for many hours, and found all the needed info to complete this job. Many thanks to all the forum members who put their time and effort into explaining and helping other members with part numbers, posting detailed photos, etc... . I just took some photo's from before and after that I want to share with you.

Most of the burning spots I saw where on the leaking PSU caps. I never saw one on the rail caps. This is what happened on my ZPA. I think the cause was a copper wire that fried the rail cap. The amp is now back alive and kicking. The only thing that needs to be done is setting the bias but I don't have the right tools to do this. My next project will be an Outlaw with burnt psu caps.
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Eric D
Short Bus Driver
Posts: 4255
Joined: Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:50 am

Re: ZPA 0.3 with fried rail caps

Post by Eric D »

Looks like a nice repair job.

From your before photos there is a good chance the amp has been overheated, which can damage the rail caps and cause a fire. As you noted, loose wire strands could do that as well, depending just where they end up shorting something out at.
Got "schooled" by member shawn k on May 10th, 2011...
No longer really "in tune" with the audio industry, and probably have not been for some time.
Hands down the forum's most ignorant member...
Don't even know what Ohm's law is...
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