Cola in my 2245?

[Steven Tate]

So, got down to the last two boards to recap in this 2245. Got the AM Tuner board where I could work on it and finished it up. When I removed the MPX Decoder board under the AM board, there was thick brown gunk on the chassis. I had earlier found a small amount of the stuff on the FM Detector board and cleaned it up when I recapped it. The stuff turned out not to be soluble in alcohol, but it was in water. I think someone spilled some cola in the top of the unit and it went right between the FM Detector board and the AM Tuner/MPX Decoder boards. The unit played fine when I got it, and it sounds like a million bucks after updating every board. You just never know what you are going to find inside these units.



After cleaning


P300 back in place

 

[rBuckner]

It may have been the life force leaking out. Thank goodness it found it's way into capable hands!

 

[wlhd1610]

Ha ,that's nothing!
Years ago I had a nice Sherwood 7100 that the owner shorted out by accidentally spilling a bowl of beef stew into the top.
Big mess but Penny (in my avatar) was happy!

Bob

 

[cwh]

Corrosive sticky stuff. They say phosphoric acid is no bueno for your mouth nor your electronics.

 

[Steven Tate]

It may have been the life force leaking out. Thank goodness it found it's way into capable hands!

I’m just glad there wasn’t much on the boards. The area that had it on the Detector board was really impossible to clean without flooding it in water. I did the best I could do with Q-Tips, but there was no getting it out from around the leads going through the PC board. I’m hoping it hasn’t significantly corroded the leads - nothing was loose as far as I could tell.

 

[Osibisa]

Glad you were able to clean it. Sometimes Q-Tips just won't cut it and the shredding doesn't help either.
Lucky the coils weren't affected.
Simple Green HD/distilled water/compressed air are now my go to for extreme cleaning.

 

[Steven Tate]

Glad you were able to clean it. Sometimes Q-Tips just won't cut it and the shredding doesn't help either.
Lucky the coils weren't affected.
Simple Green HD/distilled water/compressed air are now my go to for extreme cleaning.

It’s still open. I may go back and try something like that on that P500 board to see if I can clean out better around those leads.

 

[SaturationPt]

I'd just use distilled water and air, no need to add a caustic cleaner like Simple Green, probably as bad as the carbonic acid and sugars that you're trying to remove.

Thing is, water (pure water) is not bad for most electronics if completely removed, a warm bake after will remove any residual moisture (just remember that it will leave behind any contaminants that were not rinsed away).

If you work with a wet-vac running right on/beside the board you might be able to contain the rinse enough to work with boards installed (use an edge tool if you have one to concentrate the suction).

 

[Osibisa]

My choice of Simple Green was a result of a recently restored 2270 whose interior was caked with an unknown substance that IPA did not remove.

A quick spray, brush, rinse, and blow section by section was required in order to cleanse. Circuit boards came out spotless as well.

I did not allow S/G to remain on any longer than necessary and performed a good rinse prior blowing dry.

 

[SaturationPt]

<<snip>>I did not allow S/G to remain on any longer than necessary and performed a good rinse prior blowing dry.

Definitely an important point.

 

[tmccullough]

Fortuitously I came upon this thread instead of stating my own. Last night while listening to my 2275 a half empty beer can slipped from my grasp and fell sideways onto the top. I immediately clicked off power and only spilled maybe an ounce into the unit. Unfortunately I think it spilled onto the transformer. I walked away for the evening.

Figuring I left enough time to dry and wanting to hook up a CD player I powered the unit up. I found low output on the left channel and no FM stations being tuned in. Confirmed this with a DAC hooked to Aux and also with headphones.

No smoke or burning smell so I take that as a positive. The million dollar question is, how hosed is my unit? I was going to try and blast it with DeOxit but I don't think that's gonna solve the problem here. Any advice? Gonna leave it sit until the weekend for sure.

 

[rBuckner]

Maybe it's drunk? He he! If the AM doesn't work either then I'd check the two power supply voltages, +35Vdc and +13ishVdc with respect to ground. Heck, check 'em anyway.