Today I just did my first cap job on a M100

[jammin]

Here is some pics for the work I done today on this M100. Its my first cap job and it took about 30 min to do. I went and picked the caps up at Audio Lab of Ga so yall know they ship orders too. I have the number here if anyone needs some its 770-455-0571. The factory caps was 18v and they sayed the 35v audio caps was a good upgrade to last longer and can handle high tems they was 2.95 each for what thats worth I sayd get me some. I didnt change the big ones yet cause they had to order them and sayed for 8 bucks each and 3 bucks shipping they would send them to me. The covers are sent off to the body shop and will have some more pics when its all done.

[Eric D]

No offense, but those caps are pretty ugly looking.

Plus, it makes no sense to use 35V caps with a uF of 2,200 when you could use 16V caps with a much larger uF value. The only reason PG went with 2,200uF was that it was all you could buy at the time in the physical size they chose for the board.

One could argue that a 2,200uF cap would have a faster response than a larger cap, but my guess is a larger cap purchased in 2012 will be faster than a 2,200uF cap from 1995 or so anyway.

[jammin]

Ya I thought they was kinda skinny and tall but what do you think is the best to use? I just got what they sayed was good to use but they just sell parts so let me know and I will change them over thanks..

[Eric D]

They will work fine as is, so it would not be worth the effort to change them again. Also, enough stress is put on the board solder pads by changing the caps the first time, so I don't think the risk is worth it.

I suggest using something different going forward with other amps.

Take a look at this if you get a chance...

http://www.soundbuggy.com/Eric/Car%20Au ... index.html

I cover the ones I use on there. There are other choices just as good or better than the caps I use, I just try to use the most OEM style caps as I can.

[jammin]

My wife was looking at your response from the skinny caps and she sayed your avatar of the short bus wimpy too lol Thanks allot for the heads up and my 2 mps 2500s are next do you think the same caps you sayed for them too?

[Eric D]

I use those same caps on all older PG amps. MS, MPS, ZX, ZPA, and M series.

The only amp I have used different ones on is the Reactor, which I typically use the exact same cap version, but 10,000uF instead of 5,600uF (the Reactor has more space for taller caps).

As for my avatar, other members of the forum chose the short bus for me, so I did not have a lot of input on that decision...

[jammin]

[quote="Eric D"]I use those same caps on all older PG amps. MS, MPS, ZX, ZPA, and M series.

Thanks I just bought 50 of them 60.70 pls 3.64 ship. How about the big blue caps audio labs charged me 8 bucks for each of them and they sayed they had to order them and they was going to be the same make as the original that I was taking out. One more question? What would you get to replace them with?

[Eric D]

I very seldom replace the big capacitors, as they don't go bad from normal use. If I come across ones which are damaged, I usually replace them with Panasonic capacitors series HA.

Also, it seems about 90% of people damage their amplifier when replacing the big capacitors. Over the past few years, at least 50% of the repair work I was doing was fixing amplifiers damaged from people attempting to replace their large rail capacitors.

If you don't get it right when replacing the big caps, typically several components in the output section of the amplifier will fail.

[valeks1]

You need use caps which specifically design for the switching power supply circuits.. If this caps design for audio circuits they will get really hot when PS will work in full blast.

[zeropoint0.5]

When i do a recap,

I always check conductivity of the via's before i put in the new caps.....

how clean the desolder job looks, it is always posslble one is damaged....

So you can repair it if nescessairy before you solder in the new cap.....

Talking just about the powersupply caps here..... also there via's can get damaged....

After i solder in the caps, i check conductivity again..... and for at least 5 seconds a time , cause

a disloading cap can give you also conductivity a few seconds.......

[jammin]

Live and learn.. This totally stinks the dang fresh painted top cover is touching the caps. "Iam sayin some bad words right now".

[LowandLoud]

You beat me to it. I was going to say the new caps look awfully tall on that board.

LL

[trickyricky]

Pg usually used the tallest caps that could fit in their amps, so you usually want to stick to the stock height of the caps when ordering new ones. I use mouser because their search engine is nice and i can pick up the parts since their only 20min away.

[jammin]

The caps came in today! Thats good service thanks for the heads up.. I just put them in what do you think this time?

[Eric D]

That looks better.

[trickyricky]

Much better. You could of gotten away with 25v caps in the b+ side, but 16v should be fine.