Lancia Beta Forum

On Thursday morning I was watching telly with my little girl, she as usual is sitting about two feet from the screen.

All of a sudden there's a loud bang, an arcing noise and acrid smoke billowing out of the top of my amp. There was also a little girl running into the kitchen saying 'it wasn't me, it wasn't me'  :-\

Anyway I calmed her down, swithced everything off, pulled out the amp, took off the lid and this is what I see.

(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b178/HFStuart/IMG00006-20120614-0730-1.jpg)

One of the main power caps has blown up. It had got hot enough to rupture the copper case - hence the loud bang. The amp is a NAD C372, the current equivalent is just shy of £1,000. Bugger.

My CD appears to have packed up to  - further invesigation required here. Not the best of weeks TBH.

So you could say you are at present "not so High Fidelity" Stuart?
Sorry!
(By the way, is that a tasty toriodal transformer I see on the right, hummm)!
bad luck, still I'm glad your daughter wasn't hurt, those capacitors are like bullets when they go!
Best,
Chas, ;)

Time to get the soldering iron out
Should be easy enough to change
the blown capacitor.

You'd think so wouldn't you?

Sadly it's bonded to the board with pcb tracks running underneath it. There's a very good chance that removing the cap with break the tracks. Also having done a bit of research the most likeley cause is one or more dry joints where the power rails are connect.

The 'good' news is that I've found a Hi-Fi repair place that will strip and rebuild the board and replace all the capacitors (not just the four big ones) for around £300. I reckon that's my way ahead, I wish I new why the CD has packed up though - nothing obvious at all.

CD's are way too modern for me, that why we have a Mitchell Gyrodeck bronze to play our musical frisbees!
Sounds quite nice and confuses young people at the same time!
Chas. ;D

At the risk of going all Fast Show on you  - Nice....

BTW After your previous comment I spoke with Lucifer and he confirmed there is indeed a special place in Hell for people like you  ;)

I've tried those cd things but the needle on
the gramaphone just skips across them.

(the dvd's won't work in the betamax either)

And the Alfa has packed up this morning.....FFS..

Dear Buddy of Lucifer,
1) At the risk of going all Bryn (of Gavin & Stacey Fame) on you......... "thank you very much"!

2) Thank you for your kind concern. It is good to know that people "are looking out for me".
(Strange, but I have heard that other people do as well...... Funny that).

3) Condolenses about the Alfa. Is it bad?

best,
The "other Alfa supporter"
Chas ;)

The EGR valve was shot so not too bad.

Of more concern was the garage noticed the cambelt was busy cutting it's way through the belt cover and was hanging off the camwheels by a good 8mm. He suspects (and I agree) that the water pump is on the way out and it's causing the bet to walk. Good that it was caught now as there were bits of cover hanging off just ready to go round with the belt. Bad in that it's extra £££.

On the bright side I get to take my fathers Sport Ka into work - and I've wanted a play in that for a while.

Dear Stuart (minus the HF)
a wise sage once said to me, "nothing handles quite so well as someone else's car". Pity it's a close relative!

Best,
Oh by the way I've almost finished putting together my attempt at a list of surviving UK HPE's. Shall I pm it to you for you to fill in any info gaps that you know of?
very best,
Chas. ;D

Yes - Please do.

Have you had a look at the bottom of the board? I very much doubt the caps are bonded on, sometimes there's like a silicone glue type stuff put on the boards for protection but I can't see any in your pic. Do you have a multimeter and soldering iron? I'd guess the capacitor legs poke through the pcb, so should be easily swapped out for a surrogate cap. I'd be inclined to try before parting with 300 big ones.

Dan

Dan,

Trust me - they're bonded in place with something like brown araldite - the contacts are soldered as well.

BTW what a great car the SportKa is. Steering response and handling better than almost anything else I've driven. Even sharper than my old Puma. Could do with a 6th gear and a bit more poke though. 93bhp means you have to rag it everywhere. (Hope dad isn't reading this!!)

Dear Stuart,
I was wondering if you got the database that I sent you via pm last week refering to the total number of surviving HPE's? If so any luck with updating it further?
best,
Chas. :)

Chas,

I got it but my spare time has mainly been taken up with getting the engine back in the Spider and running again ahead of the Silverstone Classic. I'm sure I'll have a butchers at it soon.

No problem. I hope you have your "high fidelity" back now. Regarding Silverstone, lets hope for better weather!
Best,
Chas. :)

Have you sorted the amp yet? If not have a word with this guy http://www.castletronics.co.uk/ (http://www.castletronics.co.uk/) Ian is a really knowledgeable bloke if anyone can repair it or help i reckon he probably can

Alan

Amazingly the insurance company came up with the goods so I've now got a Roksan Kandy K2, Marantz CD6004 and a pair of Monitor Audio speakers which I'm hoping will run in to sound a little sharper soon. They're great ahigh volume but a little muffled sounding at lower levels.

Dear Stuart, Firstly I hope you have got you amp finally sorted after all this time, and secondly, I wonder if you have a chance to take a look at that HPE Register of Owners in the UK, that I have started? It would be great if you can add anything to what I already know?
Best,
Chas and Anne. :)