tempus fugit
Still alive and kicking John, lol.

The "death cap" I assume is the one that is connected
from the live to the chassis? I'm not sure that there even is one in this
unit,

Yes, there is often a .05 or so cap from live to chassis on
transformerless tube gear. It's main purpose is to turn the chassis
into a sheild to keep radio interference.from being detected by the
device. It's secondary function is to shock the @@#$ out of you when it
shorts, (although they are rated at 600v and don't carry much current,
so failures are usually due to moisture and disuse).
If you have small kids, keep them away from the thing. After it is
fixed, install an isolation transformer for $30. Yuo can even build
your own by connecting 2 12V trannys back-to-back. This isolates the
voltages in the chassis from those in your house = no more shocks.
Cheers.

JK