SE/30 recap disaster

[LazarusNine]

So, I got myself into a bit of a bind. Everything was going perfectly well with the recap of my SE/30's logic board until I got to the axial caps. A combination of tight fits and too much heat has led to a non-functional motherboard. The symptoms are that the computer boots, but there's no startup chime and nothing appears on screen. I've taken a few pictures of potential issues and could use some advice (if not offers of logic board replacements!).

Some of the vias have been exposed due to my soldering iron heating up their covering. Also, the metal sleeve that sits within one of the holes for the axial cap has gone missing - you can see my attempt to reconnect the cap to a via in the first two images.

Essentially, the purpose in posting this is to A) ask for advice as to how to go about both testing each of these potential areas for faults, B ) try to develop a solution for repair and C) publicly shame myself for messing up so royally.

 

[Macdrone]

multimeter the vias point to point to make sure they are ok.  then multimeter to make sure it doesn't connect on bottom side to the radials (unless one of th bias go to it of course normally then it doesn't matter).  other than that it may look ugly but it should work just fine.

As for radials, here is my suggestion, fingernail clippers, clip it off both sides set new one on and solder to the leads rather than the board.

 

[unity]

Axial are the easiest. Your solder temp was probably too high. If too high it can actually make soldering difficult. Also the solder you are using has rosin in it based on how it looks. I used rosin free without issue. Also consider priming each side with fresh solder. So for an axial I solder coast the long leads. When heated up to solder, it takes only a second. I do the same for surface stuff too actually.

 

[techknight]

The other problem is, it looks like you crossed over to near-by traces with the axial caps. If you did, thats bad. one of those two caps has 12V on it. and if you hit a logical 5V bus line with 12v, well.. its the end of the world for that SE/30 board as it will knock out a few chips, but which ones? nobody knows! and will likely never know.... 

Thats assuming worse case scenario. Best case scenario is you simply broke a trace. 

And yes, your soldering iron is WAY TOO hot.... If your using one of those plug in the wall single temp radioshack cheapies, throw it in the garbage and never look back.

Easiest thing to do is warm the board up with a heatgun on low, dont scorch it. Then use a regular ADJUSTABLE soldering station iron and it will come right out with no damage. 

also when you mentioned you lost the metal "sleeve" the capacitor lead sits in, Well you actually pulled the plating out of the board from jerking on it with too much heat, or too little heat and that actually breaks that pins connection to the inner-plane and thats that. dead. You will have to get a known good board and figure out the connection, and meter it against yours, if there's a break, fix it with a patch wire. Thats assuming the plating connected to the inner plane. I cant remember, but thats what happens. 

the 12V also supplies the Sony chips which act as a reset management controller. if you lost the 12V at those chips, the system wont boot. 

 

[LazarusNine]

Well, that's all extremely informative. Many thanks for the detailed responses. It was a hard, expensive and ultimately destructive lesson to learn. I'm intrigued by Macdrone's suggestion to simply snip the axials and solder new caps onto the existing leads. That seems the safest route in my book. I'll also be getting a new soldering iron on techknight's advice. This one cost me about £20 and is indeed a single-temperature device.

I have a hot air gun, which I used initially, but I should have used it in tandem with the soldering iron. Here's a question: With the axials, do you only tend to work with one side of the board (i.e. underneath) when working the cap out or do you also heat up the entry points on top? I think part of my problems with exposing vias was due to using the soldering iron up top to try to heat up the entry points of the axials. Also, what's the best way to clear out the hole once it fills with solder? Is it simply enough to heat up the solder to drop the new lead in? Do you come at that from the top or bottom? Many thanks!

 

[unity]

Yes, snipping the leads words great, done it my self to cheat.

Heat on the side you are pulling from. So from the top is fine. This way if the bottom is not molten enough you are pulling the trace against the board. Damage is not likely. If you heat from the bottom and pull from the top and the top trace is not free you will pull it from the board.