Recap guide

How to recap, step by step

The same steps work for every machine. Find your machine for its capacitor list and guides, then come back here for the order of work, the tools and the safety rules.

Step by step

1. Photograph both sides of the board before you touch anything. Zoom in on every capacitor. The photo is your map when you are three hours in.
2. Unplug it, take out the batteries and let it sit. Old power supplies and CRT parts can hold a charge. If your machine has a tube, leave the tube and its board to a professional.
3. Open it up and keep the screws sorted. A muffin tin or an egg carton works. Different screws go in different holes, and the holes never forgive you.
4. Look for leaks. Clean any sticky residue off with isopropyl alcohol and a soft brush. A leaked capacitor leaves brown crust and can eat copper traces. Look at the traces under it, not only the part itself.
5. Mark the polarity of every capacitor on the photo before it comes off. On an electrolytic, the stripe marks the negative leg. The board usually shows a half-shaded circle or a bar for the same spot.
6. Remove the old capacitors one at a time. Surface mount: add fresh solder to both ends and rock the part off, or use flux and a low-melt alloy. Through-hole: heat one leg at a time and clear the hole with wick or a pump.
7. Clean the pads and check for lifted pads or damaged traces. Clean flux off with isopropyl. A bad pad needs a jumper wire, not hope.
8. Fit and solder the new capacitor, matching polarity. Same capacity, same or higher voltage, and it has to physically fit. Work from the smallest parts up.
9. Clean the flux off and look at every joint. A good joint is shiny and shaped like a tiny volcano. A dull blob or a ball is a cold joint: reflow it.
10. With a multimeter, check for shorts across the power rails before you power it on. Use the continuity or resistance setting. A reading near zero means stop and look for a solder bridge.
11. Power it up and test everything: video, sound, controls, the lot. If something is wrong, check polarity first. It is the most common mistake and the easiest fix.

Tools

• Temperature-controlled soldering station. Steady heat so you do not cook pads. Most recaps are done between 320 and 350 C. Top: Hakko FX-951 · Mid: Hakko FX-888D · Budget: Pinecil
• Good solder. Rosin-core 63/37 flows and looks right. It is cheap and it matters. Kester 44 63/37
• Flux. Flux is what makes old joints let go and new joints flow. MG Chemicals flux pen · Chip Quik flux syringe
• Low-melt alloy (for surface mount). Melts old solder on both ends of a surface mount part at once, so it lifts off cleanly. Chip Quik SMD1
• Desoldering tool. Clears the old solder out of through-hole pads. Top: Hakko FR-301 · Mid: Engineer SS-02 pump · Budget: Solder wick
• Fine tweezers. For holding small surface mount parts exactly where you want them. ESD-safe tweezers
• Board holder. A third hand for the board, so both of yours are free. PanaVise circuit board holder
• Magnification. You cannot fix what you cannot see. Surface mount parts are tiny. Top: Stereo microscope · Mid: Head visor · Budget: Lighted magnifier
• Multimeter. Continuity, shorts and rail voltages. The one test that saves boards. Top: Fluke 117 · Mid: Fluke 101 · Budget: AstroAI
• ESR and capacitor tester. Checks old capacitors and your new ones before they go in. Top: Peak Atlas ESR70 · Budget: LCR-T7
• Isopropyl alcohol (99%) and a brush. For cleaning leaked goo and flux. Use the high-percentage kind. MG Chemicals 99.9% isopropyl
• Brass tip cleaner. A clean tip transfers heat. A dirty one does not. Hakko 599B
• Fume extractor. Pulls the smoke away from your face. Hakko FA-400 · Budget: Small bench fan
• Precision screwdrivers. Most old gear uses a mix of Phillips, Torx and security bits. iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit
• Kapton tape. Heat-proof tape to protect parts that sit close to the one you are changing. Kapton tape

Safety

• Good airflow, or a fume fan. Solder smoke is not for breathing.
• Safety glasses on. Solder spits and clipped legs fly.
• Iron in its stand when you are not holding it. Know where the cord is.
• Touch bare metal first, or use a wrist strap. Static kills old chips.
• No tube, no mains power supply. Leave those to a professional.
• Wash your hands after, especially if you used leaded solder.

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A recap involves hot tools and, on some machines, dangerous voltages. You do it at your own risk.

More

• All recap guides
• The interactive Recap Bench