Quote Originally Posted by westend9 View Post
An easy way to access the quality of the ground plane (lugs to plate) is to put a meter across varoius points and measure resistance. From the pictures, I think everything looks secure and no oxidation between metals. I have been known to give contact points like these a very quick squirt of Deoxit Gold or any other deoxidizing spray that is at my disposal.

I think you're being a little too apprehensive about desoldering the caps, it is very easy. There are lots of online soldering/desoldering tutorials but I could sum it up in a few words: Place soldering wick on soldered connection, place tip of iron on top of wick, watch solder flow onto wick. You might need to flow the solder a couple of times into the wick, I usually have a cutter on hand to trim the wick that contains the solder off of the roll. Lacking the courage to do this, and considering future replacement with the originals, you could cut the leads and twist together. It's your gear but if you want it done right, you should take the old caps off the boards and solder in the new ones. Maybe practice on a piece of something that has little value, even a piece of solder.

As I posted, my call would be to replace the 470uf electrolytic. There is no sense in keeping an aged cap in the circuit when I have an iron heated and the cost of a replacement is less than a dollar. I believe the cap is in the protection circuit so is not going to alter the sound, it is just a ticking time bomb.
I ordered all the parts for all 6 speakers today, locally. They told me to expect a phone call in about 5 days when the capacitors, etc. come in. It added up to about $160.00 for all 6 speakers but I figure that's only about $50 a pair so I'm happy. As soon as they call I'll pick up the caps and solder them into the first speaker for testing (A/B comparisons) the same day. I didn't even know that the 470 uF was an electrolytic cap. I'm glad you said something. I just called and had them add two 470 uF 100v electrolytic capacitors to my order. The ones in there now are 50 volt, I assume there's no problem switching to 100 volt is there? They are 470 uF, same value as the ones that are in there now....

So, the lugs/rivets are ground lugs/rivets? Should I solder a wire between all seven rivets just to be sure I've got a good common ground (similar to what I'll be doing with my Model 19's)? Or is this not necessary with these crossovers?