"Chuck" wrote in message
...
The receiver tech was flummoxed by one of those large 1970s Pioneer
receivers. It had a problem none of us had seen before and we were a
high volume audio chain. There was slight audio distortion on both
channels, only on FM. We all worked commission only so I was the only
one to volunteer to help him out. To cut to the chase, the receiver
had an over designed mute circuit that was 3 or 4 stages deep, At the
deepest stage there was one of the Sanyo electrolytics that became a
common failure item many years later which was slightly leaky.


Many electronic devices will have a common problem. It may take a while to
find it,but once found, the first thing to look for.

I worked for a large company and we had a new building built and equipment
installed. All was fine for a while, the some heaters for the process got
where they would not come on if cut off. I was the first one to get a call
about this. Took about 2 or 3 hours to troubleshoot this as it was the
first time anyone had worked on it. Found a bad plug in time delay relay
was bad. After that a simple one point voltage check would usually tell the
relay was bad. Next time it only took seconds to change out the relay and
was usually done any time they would not come on. 99.9% of the time that
was the problem. As that place operated 24 hours a day, the peopel in
production was told about it and told the electrician that showed up to
change it out if they did not know what the problem might be. Saved lots of
late night phone calls.