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Epiphone® Electar Zephyr 3:  Filter Capacitors
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Here you see the Zephyr's amplifier circuitry as it looked upon arrival at the repair shop.

Two electrolytic filter capacitors in the Zephyr's power supply were in obvious need of replacement.

So too was the AC power cord.

Inside the Zephyr chassis

Taped wire splices hooked up this old filter cap.

It's a dual capacitor, containing two separate 10 μF, 450 V sections.

Dual 10μF 450V Cap

This photo shows the positive end of the dual cap.  One lead is broken.

Broken cap lead

This photo shows the negative end of the dual cap.  It too has a broken lead.




Also visible in this photo is the second filter cap needing replacement.

It's an Aerovox ‘Dandee’ 20 μF, 450 V electrolytic cap that tested bad.

ALT

Here, we've discarded the bad capacitors and are installing mounting clamps for two new capacitors that will replace the discarded dual cap.

Capacitor Clamps

We're replacing each of the original capacitor's 10 μF sections with a 16 μF 450 V Mallory electrolytic capacitor.

Mallory Capacitor

Here, both of the Mallory caps are safely secured and wired into the circuitry.

Dual-cap Replacement

Next, we replaced the old Aerovox 20 μF 450 V cap with a Sprague 20 μF 500 V cap, as shown here.  High-temperature RTV silicone affixes the capacitor to the metal chassis.

It's the "primary" filter cap—the first one to receive electric charge from the rectifier.  It also connects to a pin of the adjacent speaker jack.

That pin goes to one end of the speaker's field coil, which doubles as the amp's filter choke (an inductance that helps impede 60-cycle hum).

The other end of the field coil connects back to one of the Mallory caps, the "secondary" filter cap.

The secondary cap's voltage connects to the 6L6 screen grids and to a 10 kΩ resistor that feeds the other Mallory cap, supplying voltage to the plates of the preamp tubes.

Completed filtering

Epiphone® Electar Zephyr
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