I’ve done a few of these by removing the bottom with a lathe, removing the guts, and installing new condensers. The bottom can be soldered back on. One lead goes up along side the post for the screw, and gets soldered to the post on the outside. The other terminal goes through a hole in the bottom and is soldered in place after the bottom is soldered back on.
They work really well in a Martin 20, 75, and 200.
Tom
That’s of great interest to me Tom; I’ve got a few motors with those WICO points and have puzzled over how to make the modern caps work. Do you have pictures? I’m particularly curious as to how the post is connected inside the can. Certainly it must be a rather sturdy design because the retaining screw at the top needs to be strong and accurately positioned.
solder to the bottom of the post then drill small hole in the bottom of the can push the wire thru the bottom of the can solder to the bottom when it is fully assembled.
Does anyone have or know of a video of this being done? I have a K-39 that I believe might have a bad condenser and I might get brave enough to try putting a capacitor in the condenser shell if I saw it done. I checked youtube and didn’t come up with anything.
When using condensers like the ones from Digi-key (which will perform fine), do not mount them so the leadwires are subject to flexing as the motor vibrates. Small solid core wire will eventually break when flexed. These were made for electronic circuit applications.
Dave
