She worked for 3 days and then went quiet.

Quick picture of the car stereo prepped for surgery. Is the faceplate part any good for this work, or can I throw it out with the rest of the case stuff?
 

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Hmmmm this is a bit to modern but it will teach you precision ( due to smaller componentss ) most of the main board bits are surface mount..

The front panel is a keeper to you can remove small switches, pots, etc. remove the plastic bits off the front...

The will also be a great model for how much heat will it take to lift a trace...

NOW... if the solder doesn't melt straight away ( under 5 seconds ) it could be silver solder which will be USELESS on teaching you the skills you need.
 
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Hmmmm this is a bit to modern but it will teach you precision ( due to smaller componentss ) most of the main board bits are surface mount..

The front panel is a keeper to you can remove small switches, pots, etc. remove the plastic bits off the front...

The will also be a great model for how much heat will it take to lift a trace...

NOW... if the solder doesn't melt straight away ( under 5 seconds ) it could be silver solder which will be USELESS on teaching you the skills you need.

I'll give it a go tomorrow. Here is what the thing is: Came out of a Toyota, but it is made by Fujitsu. Probably quite modern yes. (though it did have a cassette player along with CD).
 
Finally got to RS. I decided to get what they call a starter kit: Includes a 20w iron, Desoldering Vacuum Pump Desoldering Braid, Cleaning sponges, Iron Holder. I got an angled cutters, small pliers, and a flux pen as well. Should that be everything or did I forget tinning material?
 
The solder is what you " tin " melt on the tip....
So it's tin (just a bit of solder on tip ) , wipe, tin, put braid down on pad you want remove solder and put iron on top of the braid you where to remove solder ( you will see it wick up into the braid ) no more than 2-3 seconds on connection, remove iron & wick... inspect how much solder has been removed...
OR
tin, wipe, tin, put iron on area you where to remove solder, let it get molten.. No more than 2-3 seconds on connection,use vac pump to remove solder... inspect how much solder has been removed...
 
Got in a bit of practice on the car radio. The iron works nicely, the braiding wick seems to be OK. But the weird desoldering vacuum pump is a piece of junk. It spring loads/cocks then a release trigger sucks it up in one gulp. But I have yet to get any molten solder up into it. And the cheap plastic tip easily melts of course.

And all I'm really doing is melting bits on the board. Nothing is really coming off, nor am I reattaching anything back to it.

It is all very tiny. Hard to even see the stuff.
 
On the pump the " trick" get the sucker nozzle right over the area.. roll the tip of iron out of the way and JAM the tip of the sucker and trigger on there as QUICK as possible 1 second is to long and the solder will cool.. the more heat , the more time you have to pull the trigger in milliseconds...Now that being said might want to try your 30 watt iron ( just to get a sense of the difference ). More heat , solder will stay molten a tad longer...If the tip of your old weller won't take a tin take a small file and make a new point..
The melted tip. for the sucker. that's normal.. It's got a LOT of suction ( depending on what you got ) The whole idea is to experiment … use the Weller …pull the trigger… burn a trace or 3… get a FEEL of what it takes…
Yeah there's a whole ZEN to soldering.

I think MAYBE the car stereo is to new for you to train on.. maybe a 70's clock radio.

Does the solder melt within a second or two on the radio? It might be silver solder which you will need a LOT more heat … like 450C !
 
On the pump the " trick" get the sucker nozzle right over the area.. roll the tip of iron out of the way and JAM the tip of the sucker and trigger on there as QUICK as possible 1 second is to long and the solder will cool.. the more heat , the more time you have to pull the trigger in milliseconds...Now that being said might want to try your 30 watt iron ( just to get a sense of the difference ). More heat , solder will stay molten a tad longer...If the tip of your old weller won't take a tin take a small file and make a new point..
The melted tip. for the sucker. that's normal.. It's got a LOT of suction ( depending on what you got ) The whole idea is to experiment … use the Weller …pull the trigger… burn a trace or 3… get a FEEL of what it takes…
Yeah there's a whole ZEN to soldering.

I think MAYBE the car stereo is to new for you to train on.. maybe a 70's clock radio.

Does the solder melt within a second or two on the radio? It might be silver solder which you will need a LOT more heat … like 450C !

The solder melts quite quickly actually.

I'll play around a bit with the big gun to see the difference.
 
So an update:

I let a bit of time go by after practicing soldering on the car radio and while waiting to see if that tech guy was going to follow through with me. I think I also just needed to get the problem out of my mind for a bit.

He finally got the needed parts and came by here on Friday. We worked together on the amp. We removed and replaced four capacitors and the one bad resistor (glue goo one). Even though he did the actual soldering, he was very easy to work along side. He encouraged my looking at everything he was doing, especially with the soldering work. After practicing and then seeing what was actually done, I'm confident I could have done it myself...or for next time. (I am not certain we have eliminated everything however. I'm not sure we really know what the real source of the problem was, and if it will return.)

He did bring along two replacement filter caps to swap out as well, but even though they were the right specs, the size was a bit different. The new ones were tall and thin and wouldn't quite fit in the space. So he's going to see if he can source out a better fitting set. (any ideas where a good replacement might be found?)

I lived with the amp back in the system all weekend and everything seems fine. It images very nicely. However it does seem to lack a bit of punch or low end resonance. That could be the big filter caps of course. We'll see. I was living with a Harmon Kardon HK 340 while the Sansui was being worked on this past month or so. The HK does have a nice velvety sound. The Sansui is more 'clinical' I guess. Perhaps I just like a bit of warmth. We'll see when all's said and done.

But for now I'm pretty happy. Certainly happy that it all ended well (at least for now).

Again, thanks to all here who gave so much help along the way. Awesome group here!!

Glenn
 
COOL glad your back "UP"...
1) Are you SURE your speakers are in Phase?
2) If yes to one, the filter caps will REALLY help... made a WORLD of difference in a AU-6600 I recently did.

I assume you set Bias & DC offset??
 
COOL glad your back "UP"...
1) Are you SURE your speakers are in Phase?
2) If yes to one, the filter caps will REALLY help... made a WORLD of difference in a AU-6600 I recently did.

I assume you set Bias & DC offset??

1) No, I'm not sure about that nor how to test really.

Yes, both of those were set very slowly and carefully.

I'm still ever-so-slightly skeptical of the sound I'm getting. Wondering if I'm expecting too much. Or if the filter caps are going to be a big help. I'm finding I get the best sound when switching ON the bass and treble boost. I think I'm wanting it to sound punchier and stronger on the flat/neutral setting. Maybe I'm crazy. Or perhaps, the speakers aren't a good match with the amp. Who knows.

Hoping the guy gets the caps sooner than later, but I told him no huge hurry. He's going to charge me for the caps but not the labor since it was he who ordered the parts wrongly. (though I'm sure I'll give him something for his time/help.) Then hopefully it'll be done and I'll be off to finding another promising goody. But I have to get a true bargain next time if I'm going to rehab her. I had no business buying this stuff at the full prices I paid, but kind of got tired waiting for that perfect find.
 
Put the unit in mono, play some music ( more bass in track better ) turn balance to the left and SLOWLY pan to center... if a speaker is out of phase the bass will subtract ( sound thinner ) as you move twds center... if it's correct the bass will add...

If it's out, just flip 1 set of speaker leads ( Plus and Minus ) on back panel connector.

Usually the speaker lines have some form of ID to tell 1 wire from the other in a pair.
This also assumes no one has dorked with the speaker itself...
 
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