Chris F. wrote:
This '91 model TV/VCR combo is driving me up the wall. After replacing the
bad belts and idler tire, the unit appears to work nicely - then I notice a
thin line of distortion in the tape playback. It's just above the center of
the screen and runs all the way across - not snow, just distortion (almost
like pixellation). I've ruled out head alignment, dirty heads, backtension,
and tracking problems. At this point I suspect some capacitors are up in
ESR, which isn't good because I don't have an ESR meter. I'm willing to try
replacing a few caps at random, but there are too many to just guess on -
anybody know of any specific caps to try?
This thing is hardly worth repairing when you consider I'll only make
about $30 profit from it, if it will even sell. But at the same time I hate
to junk it because $30 is well, $30. That's how bad business is these days.
So bad I can't even justify buying an ESR meter, because it would literally
take months (if not years) to pay for itself.
Thanks for any advice.

Hi Chris...

Dunno how much help (if any) this will be, but...

I'm an old guy. Back in the olden days, you know, just after dirt
was invented, just before they invented sunshine, we didn't know
what ESR was. Didn't know any of the fancy words that today's young
pups use. Think they invented them just to confuse us old guys

So, we didn't have esr problems. None at all. Or maybe we did and
just didn't know it

What we _did_ have was what we called weak caps. Plenty of them.
And we fixed them in one of two ways, with no esr meter.

Here's how. In circuit we just paralleled them with a good one.
Didn't even solder them, just held one in your fingers and held it
in place while the device was powered up.

Out of circuit - which may be more acceptable in today's world - we
used a plain old analog ohmeter. Set it on its R1 scale, zero it
shorted. Discharge your suspect cap just in case. Then "measure
the resistance" of your cap. Watch carefully how "shorted" the
meter goes, how quickly, and how quickly it charges so as to read
open. After it's finished (open) reverse your probes and do it again
the wrong way 'round.

Try this a few times (or was it a few thousand? with a few new
caps and a few known to be not good ones and you'll see a very great
difference.

And that's how we found "weak" caps, or to the younger folks, high
esr caps. I'm sure you can do the same

Having said all that, though, I'm pretty sure that the prob in your
vcr is going to turn out to be alignment. Particularly so if the
line isn't walking.

Take care.

Ken