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x68000:advanced_floppy_driver_repair

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This guide will show you how to replace capacitors in ACE HD floppy drives.

Due to time and age the original capacitors tend to dry up and thus electronics which depend on stable and fluid power supply tend to work faulty or not work at all. Try my other tutorial on floppy drive repair before doing this.

Only low profile capacitors are used in the drive so make sure that you buy the smallest you can get. If in doubt, take one sample to your local radio shack when purchasing. Soldering wick will come in handy in removing the old capacitors and cleaning solder from holes where capacitor legs used to be soldered. I used an 8W 12V micro soldering iron just to be on the safe side. When replacing capacitors be extremely careful in observing the polarity.

Here's the list:

10uf 16V x5

100uf 16v x3

22uf 16v x1

1uf 50v BP x1

On to the fun part now. Let's take it apart ;)

Unscrew the four circled screws.

Do the same here.

Remove the signal cables by pulling them in straight direction away from the socket. Use tweezers to gently disconnect the big brown signal cables and use extreme caution when disconnection the signal cable which goes to the step motor. Grab its wires tight at the base of the plastic so that they are not loose and gently jiggle the plug out of the socket. Unscrew the eight circled screws. Please note that by unscrewing the four screws from the rotating disk assembly allows better access to capacitors and makes replacing them a bit easier.

Remove the two circled signal wires.

While holding the controller PCB in this position gently grab with your fingers the plastic base of signal wire and gently jiggle it out of the socket. Do the same with the other signal wire.

Replace the four 10uf 16V capacitors

Replace the two 100uf 16v capacitors

Replace the three capacitors:

Left: 10uf 16v

Middle: 22uf 16v

Right: 1uf 50v BP

Use tweezers to get them in position. This task is rather tricky.

Replace the last 100uf 16v capacitor. This one is the trickiest of them all.

When everything is done carefully reassemble the drive.

Keep the scene alive !

Eidis

x68000/advanced_floppy_driver_repair.1269808909.txt.gz · Last modified: 2019/08/27 20:44 (external edit)