WAD Kit88 rebuild - help needed.

[edhill]

Originally Posted by Richard

For caps use good commercial quality from a recognised brand and supplier. you can use a higher voltage ie 25V instead of 16V and higher temp may last longer ie 105c instead of 85c.

thanks for the links.

I've removed all of the electrolytic caps from the pcb now and have taken measurements for the lead spacing from the board.

I'm looking to get caps at the correct capacitance as per the spec sheet, but buying ones rated for higher voltage, am I correct in thinking that a higher ripple current is better (slightly cooler running and longer lasting potentially?)

Looking at the circuit diagrams in the destructions, the board I have has jumper wires all over it, and I damaged 1 pcb trace that I need to repair. It looks like the previous builder thought the board was cracked somewhere, but I've spent a long time looking at it under my microscope and the pcb generally looks in good nick. I can't see any cracks or corroded traces, it had a lot of dust and dirt on it, but it cleaned up well.

I'm not sure about the valve bases, I looked at them carefully for signs of corrosion/damage, but there's nothing obvious, I'm not really sure what I'm looking for and replacing them looks like a real PITA so I'll leave them be for now. If it starts throwing intermittent faults at me later I'll look to change them out then.

As this was built by my partners late husband I am going to try to leave it as is as much as I can. If I can get it working well but keep it as 'original' as possible then so much the better.

Will post more progress updates (and no doubt more questions) once the new bits arrive.