Classic II: To recap or not to recap?

[bom.cabedal]

Dear all,

I am on the brink of buying a Classic II off someone. As this was the first new Mac model I ever bought with my own money (I had a used SE before) I'd been looking for one for a while and this one is a very good specimen.

From what I can gather from photos, the motherboard looks pristine and it is totally original. As no leakage has occurred during the past 25 years, would you recommend doing a recap on it regardless? The money's not the issue, but my wish to leave it as original as I can get away with while still being able to use it, is. 

 

[MJ313]

Yes, recap it- sometimes it's hard to detect the ooze from the caps- it could be there, just not easily visible. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure; if you can avoid trace damage from leaky caps down the road, you should.

 

[mraroid]

Many (most?) would go along with MJ313- Yes, re cap your board.
 
You have two choices....

1) Ship your boards off and have someone do it for you.  They will wash/clean your board.  Then they will re cap and test and ship it back to you.  Then you re assemble. Quick and easy.  Not very expensive.
 
2) Do it your self:
 
You can learn about soldering - buy a soldering iron, solder sucker, wick, flux, etc.  Learn how to read values of capacitors.  Buy a packet of caps from someone selling a kit for your Mac, or buy each cap your self from a vendor.   Learn how to wash/clean your board.  Remove the old components and install the new ones. Install and enjoy. 
 
Values of capacitors drift over time (as do other components).  So even if a cap looks perfect, if you measure the value, it is probably off.  Back in the day, when your Mac came off the assembly line, a capacitor was probably plus or minus 10 to 20% of it's rated value.  They are probably much further off today.
 
Your board may work perfect if you do nothing.  But it will fail.  Do some preventive maintenance now, and you will not have to worry about in the future.
 
JMHS
 
jack

 

[bibilit]

I agree a 100%, you can even go the Original look way and use the same capacitors as when it left the factory, but i will go for tantalum for longevity.

Analog boards are also a problem nowadays, do it at the same time.

 

[uniserver]

yeah the ab and the mb... sometimes you don't even see the leak until you remove the caps.

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[max1zzz]

Yep, recap it.

Of the 10 - 15 boards I have recapped, only one had no cap leakage at all. however maybe 50% of them had no visible leakage until the cans where removed.

If you want it to look original just use new SMD 'lytics (Just make sure you use decent quality ones, no point in recapping with cheap ones only to have them fail again.)

 

[bom.cabedal]

Hi people, thanks for the advice. Knowing my soldering skills, I'm just going to find a competent outside party to do the recap for me.

 

[uniserver]

yup , i don't see many classic II's around any more.. i haven't check in a while but, its worth taking care of, that way you know the main board will be around for a good long time.  I like to replace those tin cans with caps that will never leak again.

 

[bom.cabedal]

By the way, if anyone has a suggestion who to entrust with this task in the Netherlands, Belgium or Germany, I'm grateful for it. It's not something I would do myself.