[Milsurplus] Is This a Nutty Idea?

[Mike Morrow]

In short...yes...it's beyond "nutty".  What you describe is a very very bad idea.

You wind up with whatever capacitive and resistive characteristics exist within the original capacitors cross-connecting to each other and their associated circuits through the now-ungrounded common case.  Plus, if one old capacitor shorts on an HV line, now the case will be at HV above the chassis.  There are other problems as well.

So...don't even begin to do what you propose!

Don't worry too much about the goop in the original capacitors if you decide to open and empty the case.  There's been way too much chicken-little nonsense about the alleged but imaginary dangers, which are essentially nonexistent unless you plan to eat the goop.

Mike / KK5F

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Several of them are three-cap units with the caps grounded through the case to the chassis. Here's my possibly crazy idea:
1. Replace the screws and nuts holding the bathtub to the chassis with nylon screws and nuts;
2. Use a nylon washer to physically isolate the bathtub from the chassis; and
3. Hang new caps on the three lugs on the bathtub and ground them at a convenient point on the chassis.