CHANGE your CAPS!!!!!!!! RIP ZPA inside...

[Eric D]

I don't think that repair job was really all that crappy. Using a wire to span a missing area is a pretty normal thing.

As for the main damage here, the caps don't have to burn up for the caps to be the problem.

Fluid likely leaked all over the general area of the caps. It eventually bridged the area between the B+ and B- connections. At this point if you removed the caps, but did not clean the board, you would still have a problem. When power was applied, a short was formed between the B+ and B-, but with a somewhat high resistance. This cooked the area to the point the resin in the PCB caught fire, and there you go, big mess.

[smgreen20]

Sorry to hear about that STOKED.

ZPA's/ZX'x came out at the same time ~'97, so the only reason the ZPA's were "out" by 95 was that they weren't even out YET.
ZX's had internal fusing, ZPA's had no fusing what so ever.

Valeks1, we thank you for your thoughts, but it has been well documented that the caps in the older PG amps suffer from this.

Later this summer, I'll have to replace ALL of the caps in my non PG amps, just for this very reason and for their life. I have 5 Clarion amps, the newest one being 10 yrs old, and 2 OS LANZAR Opti amps (160/150) that I need to get to.

[Eric D]

I have not seen any other brands have this same cap problem. That does not mean they don't, just I have not seen it. I have some VERY old other brand amps, none of which have any cap problems.

[ttocs]

I thought that most capps tended to dry out after time? interesting.... Wonder if its just the amount of work they are made to do or the temps they are exposed to?