Deathcap X2

[Lonely Raven]

So I'm cleaning up some of the hack wiring that someone did to the Alamo amp I just picked up. Looks like someone touched up some solder points with some thick sorta cheap assed solder...probably not even electrical solder.

Anywho, this thing has a cap going from the black line on the power switch to ground, but also has a cap going from the white line to ground.

I'm figuring it's a good idea to remove both of these "death caps", yes?

 

[SatelliteAmps]

If you are going to remove them, make sure you wire up a proper three prong cord.

 

[Lonely Raven]

If you are going to remove them, make sure you wire up a proper three prong cord.

Thanks. I'm seeing that's it's an either-or situation. I can remove them, but I really need a 3 prong cord. Or I can replace them (to be sure they are good), and just leave the 2 prong cord and all it's mojo in place.

 

[AdmiralB]

If you are going to remove them, make sure you wire up a proper three prong cord.

What do the two have to do with each other?

Suppression caps have absolutely nothing to do with grounding, a grounded cable is smart regardless of what he does with the caps.

 

[SatelliteAmps]

What do the two have to do with each other?

The original reason for the death caps is to AC ground in old amps is to prevent the chassis from becoming hot. Failure of either of those caps, with a two prong cord could lead to a possibly dangerous situation. Putting a three prong cord on it should prevent it from happening.

Suppression caps on the other hand were for preventing noise, specifically high frequency oscillation. Swapping a three prong into the amp won't help much with that.

 

[SatelliteAmps]

My bad. Seen a few old radios that used two caps as "death caps" like that. If they are purely for noise suppression, then that is a whole different story.