"CFoley1064" wrote in message
...
Subject: Removal of motherboard electrolytic caps
From: "David Sewell"
Date: 10/22/2004 1:59 PM Central Daylight Time
Message-id:

I have a motherboard that has three electrolytic caps that are bulging.
I
have a 40watt iron with a chisel shaped bit that is just wide enough to
cover both wires of each capacitor at the same time. Would this rating
be
enough to safely remove these by just heating and pulling them or am I
likely to cause damage by insufficient power. Each capacitor is
330uf/25v.
Hope that's enough info...

Thanks,
David

Hi, Dave. A heads-up here -- motherboards are multi-layer, and yanking
the
leads out can result in tearing the connections between layers.

It's far better to cut off the top of the cap and gently heating each hole
individually. Very gentle here -- don't pull. It should practically come
out
on its own.

Also, a 40 watt iron is a little heavy for PCB repair. Most people use
around
a 25 watt iron for PCB repairs.

One other thing - don't just use any electrolytic cap here. You need an
aluminum electrolytic with low ESR, or it may be as bad or worse than
nothing.

Good luck
Chris

Thanks for that Chris,
I recall servicing GEC brand tv's many years ago, and they had double-sided
print, and they were a bit of a pain. That was a cinch compared to a
motherboard!! What made me think of a high power iron was because of
something I read in a forum about the solder on a motherboard being of a
higher melting point than normal. I had already tried an ordinary Antex
25watt iron and braid but it did not seem to be melting the solder - then
again the thing is so small my old eyes may have been deceiving me! Never
thought of cutting the cap itself. What sort of tool do you recommend and
do you mean the part of the cap as close as possible to the wire end?
Many thanks,
David