REACTOR amps smoking caps!

[onecrazy95civic]

Let me start by saying "Mother F@#$%" well it finally happened to me...put power on the car and very quickly start smelling smoke...yep the caps out of the XZ500 side of one of my REACTOR amplifiers start smoking and know what that mean. Well now I'm looking for help on what to do next and if I can get someone who knows how to fix it. Want to get all 3 amps fix.

[vwdude]

Oh crap! Those reactors were not recapped?

I could do it but I'm sure there's someone closer where shipping would be cheaper.

[twisted]

ouch! that sucks brutha, especially after all that hard work you put into the build!
if those boards are burnt from the caps you may have to contact eric and see if he could repair the boards......he does phenominal work

[NOT 2 OLD YET]

O man Am I sorry to see this happen to you! Hopefully you don't have forever damage on the board! There are a few guys here in the states that can do the repair, but like VW said it would be costly for shipping! Best of luck!

[Weaklink]

Man that sucks. Just an fyi I put 10,000 Mfd caps in my reactor. They fit. And just playing devils advocate but are you still running the powercore 20? May want to look into changing those as well or get a powercore 15. Hope it all works out for you.

[knightrider358]

Damn dude fuckin sux!!!! I wish i was closer i would but shipping into the us will eat u!!!

[trickyricky]

Yeah shipping is going to be a bummer, I just got three Linear Power amps to recap from Canada and owner paid nearly 100.00 canadian to have it shipped in a small wooden crate, am sure its going to be around 90.00 usd to have it shipped back to him.

Am sure someone in Canada can do the re-cap job.

[onecrazy95civic]

Well not saying money is no object...'cause it's... but I need those amps fix before any more of them burn! Got one of them that I hopefully caught in time. I need someone that nose is stuff and will do a perfect job that I can rely on. So having said that who can I trust to do this, has done it and want to do it? Maybe I'll look around at some electronic shops see if they can do it...what kind of caps should I be using? Also, why the F#c%$@ this happens?

[Weaklink]

Alster here in Portland would be recommended but that's a long way to ship.

[ttocs]

man if it ain't one thing its another. I bet you were just going to hop in and enjoy a short ride or do something small/quick right? Now taking it all apart I can only imagine how much fun that its. After recently smoothing/painting my engine bay I have started to put it together and now suddenly I am nervous as hell about smacking the shock towers or the freshly powdered valve covers while doing small jobs. Last night I went in to install the dist. Figued hell its only one bolt how hard can it be?! Well after everything else that was freshly coated/painted the stock dist looked like crap so 2 hrs after I started the "install" I left the garage to wait for the paint on the dist to cure so I can hopefully do it next time...

[vwguy3]

Isnt shawnk on the east coast? The guy from DIYMA. might help a little on the shipping. Would it help to maybe just shipping the boards to someone? You would have to know what your doing when it comes to putting them back together

Good luck
Justind

[onecrazy95civic]

@ttocs : Yes it sucks after all those years and this!!! When it's not one thing it's another but this on was really un-expected. To remove those amps yes this will sucks ass big time.

@vwguy3 : My intent is to remove all 3 boards from the casing and ship them to have the caps replace.

@vwdude : Have you done this before and where are situated?

[Weaklink]

6 boards. The 450 and 500 side are separate. Careful with the threaded standoffs they break easily. Had to replace 2 of mine.

[zeropoint0.5]

sorry to see this and once again a message for all the oldskool PG amp owners,

DONT POWER THEM UP WITH THE OLD CAPS IN THEM.......................................

cap replacement will not be enough here....there will be a little part of the board itselfs burned also

and will have to be replaced, check the pics of the burned ms2250 board that Eric D did some years ago.......

[onecrazy95civic]

Anyone in Canada that can so this? Also what kind of caps is recommended to replace the old one?

[trickyricky]

The manufacture replacement for those caps PG used are the Panasonic FC which are the same color sleeve as the originals. You can use Nichicon HE, PM and there are others that are suitable. Many stick with 16v rating to get the most capacitance available (8200uf in most cases...can't see how a 10000uf would fit there if their length is over 35mm) I would recommend 25v just to be on the safe side, but this was not the cause or reason why they leaked (the whole using a 16v instead of 25v)..

[Weaklink]

10,000 only in a reactor. The case sits higher.

[trickyricky]

Ohhh no wonder....yeah if the you have the room you can go with 10,000uf caps.

[onecrazy95civic]

Anyone can tell me what kind / model of cap I need. Found an electronic shop here that can do it...or so they say they want to see it first.

[Eric D]

How was this unexpected? You have been on here since 2007 and seen the photos, and read the stories.

All this time you figured it would not happen to you?

I took an M44 out of a box (new in box amp) and it started smoking when I connected 12V to it (no remote, no RCA, no speaker). That is when I knew that ALL of these amps are a problem. Now I don't dare connect power to ANY PG VINTAGE amp ever, which has the original caps.

Pull the batteries from your car or pull the power wires on the amps, as they will burn with no remote signal on them. Just having the 12V there is enough.

[Eric D]

Here are the caps I use, but larger (height) ones will fit in Reactors...

http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/e ... -ND/589284

If the shop you found gives you grief on the burned board, let me know, I may be able to fix it for you.

[onecrazy95civic]

How was this unexpected? You have been on here since 2007 and seen the photos, and read the stories.

All this time you figured it would not happen to you?

I took an M44 out of a box (new in box amp) and it started smoking when I connected 12V to it (no remote, no RCA, no speaker). That is when I knew that ALL of these amps are a problem. Now I don't dare connect power to ANY PG VINTAGE amp ever, which has the original caps.

Pull the batteries from your car or pull the power wires on the amps, as they will burn with no remote signal on them. Just having the 12V there is enough.

My bad...

[dwnrodeo]

As Weaklink mentioned above, your Powercore 20 is susceptible to leaking caps as well. I'd remove it when you pull your amps.

[ttocs]

its ironic that we tell anyone that comes on here that its important but with the amount of work being done and at the level it was being done at I think we all assumed that you knew this already.

[vwdude]

Haha yea I assumed these amps were already recapped.

Good luck on the repairs. You might be lucky and the black might just be char from the burned caps themselves. I've seen that before where a good wipe down of alcohol will remove all soot and it looks like new under, but I've also seen it go the other way. Yours don't look as bad as I've seen, so in some respects you are lucky.

The good news is that if a board is bad getting a replacement board shouldn't be too hard. Yes it won't have the original serial number of the board but all they are is zx450 and zx500 boards.