Clarion amp, tell me what's wrong, gut shots.

[smgreen20]

I got this Clarion APA4320 amp that I was informed worked intermittently. So when I got home this morning from work, I opened her up. This is what I see.











I don't know if that brown looking stuff is the capacitance fluid or just something Clarion puts at the bottom of the caps on the board. Here's why I'm confused. See pic below.



The 2 brown coated spots here covered the speaker level inputs. The plug ends were broke, so I just cut them off at the base of the board. So I'm wondering if the brown stuff in that pic is the same stuff around/under the caps.

Again, the guy I got the amp from stated that it will power up and intermittently shut down, the display lights would fade out too when it did so. I have yet to put any power to it as I'm unsure of the caps. To me it seems that the issue is just a case of the caps needing replaced, partially because of the looks, but also in how it sometimes works and how it looses power when it decides to cut out.

Your help, thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

[ttocs]

first off, STOP POWERING THE AMP........

[smgreen20]

In the middle of my last paragraph, I stated that I have "yet to put power to it". So all good there.

[denim]

Humm, not sure. Hope you can get it working properly.

[kg1961]

did you go to amp guts to see if they have it?

[smgreen20]

You know, I forgot all about looking there. after going to the site , I see that the caps on my amp are bad . So I guess it's off to the electronic store to buy some replacement caps . Hopefully thats all it is.

[smgreen20]

Ok guys, one last question... What do I need to remove the residue from the board? I'm going to remove the caps tomorrow and if our electronics store is open, I will get the new caps too.

[eulogious]

Electronics alcohol in the spray can. Should be 99%. Then spray it on, and scrub it off softly with something like a tooth brush. That should take off anything that's on there. Something like this:

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/T ... P-/20-2135

As for the brown stuff, almost looks like old flux that got hot. That's my guess at what the brown stuff is.

[smgreen20]

I lied, another Q. Our local electronics store will have special order the caps o need and it'll take roughly 2 wks. I'm not going to wait that long so I went to digikey but I'm unsure what type of cap I need under the CAPs section. They have, film, aluminum..... and so on. So, where do I go?

I need 4:
1000 uf
50 vdc
-40/+105 c

I need 3:
6800 uf
16 vdc
-40/+105 c

Thanks again.

[eulogious]

On digikey they are under aluminum...

[smgreen20]

Thanks.

That's what o thought too, but it would show no results for my search. Sheets no reference number on the caps, that I can see, to cross reference with.

[eulogious]

General rule is you can up the voltage and capacitance, not down. I start by upping the voltage, and if that doesn't work, up the capacitance. That's just my preference though. Following those rules I haven't had a problem yet!

[smgreen20]

A few more photos to add.

Swollen caps, and possible leakage.



These are what was underneath the caps.





The dark brown parts are flaky, the lighter browns are rubbery.

[nutxo]

acetone and a soft brush or qtips is what I used on my M amps.

[Eric D]

Those caps look pretty bad. They might be around the same age as the whole computer motherboard bad cap problem some time ago. I had a motherboard with those bad caps back then and it failed on me.

[smgreen20]

The amp was manufactured in '04. Is that close to the computer problem times?

[Eric D]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

[smgreen20]

Thanks for the link Eric. I clicked on the symptoms tab and it showed what seem to he the same brand as the one pictured above. Everything I read there tells me that at least the 3 input caps were bad.



Now, how does one go about removing the solder from the terminals that the previous owner did? My iron dint get hot enough. I'm thinking about filling it solid and taping new threads/holes.

[eulogious]

Not to sound too snarky, but get a different iron? I picked up an adjustable one for cheap that gets HOT if I need it to.

Did you try soldering wick/bread to remove the solder, might help. But if you can't get the solder hot enough with your iron to melt it, it's going to be hard to remove it.

I would strongly recommend against tapping/drilling new holes into the board. You might damage a circuit that you didn't know what there. Sometimes the boards are double or triple layered, so tapping a new hole could be bad. The solder should come out when heated up properly, so I would try to remove the old stuff before making new holes. In fact if I had to start drilling holes into the board, I would just toss it and find another amp IMHO. Or take it to the pros and let them figure it out...

[smgreen20]

I wasn't going to tap into the board, just the terminal block. I can mount it firmly enough to not cause any bendage where the terminal is mounted to the board. I would like to get a better iron, but I'm taking vacation, what little it will be, next week, and we're still waiting my ex's support order to take effect. So a new iron will have to wait. So will my spree of Clarion items. The iron I'm eyeballing is $45. We'll see.

[ttocs]

for de-soldering, I always use my de-soldering iron. It is just an iron with an open hole in the middle and a rubber ball on the end of it. You just touch it to the solder for a few seconds while holding the rubber ball and release the ball when it melts. They send less heat into the board and cause fewer troubles to heat sensative componants while taking much less time. Radio shack has them for $20 is where I got mine I thnk.

[smgreen20]

Thanks

I've thought about those, just might have to bite the bullet and get one.

[ttocs]

seriously if you do any repair work it is a must-have in my book. Saved loads of time and is also better for your boards. If money is an issue you can get just the ball and use it but in my book the one attached is better. They can probably be found online for cheaper if you look and are not in a hurry.

[smgreen20]

So, I've got the 7 caps and 4 resistor needed to fix the amp, my newest question us now this;

On the amp board, what symbol is the + and what is the -? Alike, the cap, that "stripe" that runs down the side of the cap, is it + or -?

I want to make sure I put these in correctly.

Thank you much.