With the first spare drive fixed up, good as new, we move along to the second spare drive. I can’t remember if I bought these as a combo deal or not. Either way I ended up with three separate drives which are all TeraDrive compatible! Lucky!

I’ve got three WDL-330P hard drives to work through, and we’re now onto the second one. Time to correct a few more of my earlier capacitor repairs!

As you might remember, I originally replaced the surface-mount electrolytic capacitors with ordinary radial types. They got me through the immediate repair, but I’ve never been terribly happy about having those great big capacitors standing off the circuit board on their little legs.

The new Panasonic surface-mount replacements are much closer to what should have been installed in the first place. I’ve got 47 uF and 100 uF values to sort through, along with a selection of different voltage ratings. I’d better make sure I pick the right ones before I start soldering!

These little things have their own interesting markings, and I’m still getting accustomed to reading them. Some of the capacitors are also physically larger than others, which makes fitting everything neatly onto the original pads a little more entertaining.

First comes the desoldering. I’ve got a new tip for the Hakko and a generous supply of solder braid, so it’s time to get those old radial capacitors off the board and tidy up the solder pads.

There’s still something rather satisfying about using the soldering iron to remove the old components and prepare the board for the replacements. I’m getting a bit more confident with surface-mount work, although that doesn’t mean every capacitor lands exactly where I’d like it to.

One goes down a little crooked. Another needs more solder. Then there’s the usual entertainment of trying to hold everything still while the iron heats the connection. I suspect the people assembling these in a factory had a considerably easier time!

I’m fitting the new capacitors by securing one side first, checking the position and then soldering the opposite terminal. It’s a simple enough technique, but it takes a little practice to get everything lined up properly.

I’ve also got to keep an eye out for solder where it shouldn’t be. A blob of solder on the wrong part of the board could make a considerably bigger mess than the original leaky capacitors ever did.

Eventually the replacements are installed, and the second drive looks much better than it did at the beginning of the video. That’s two hard drives recapped, with one still to go.

I haven’t tested this drive properly in the TeraDrive yet. There’s still work to do on the computer itself, including the power supply, and I want to get the third hard drive sorted before moving on to the floppy drives.

At least the capacitor work is progressing. Now I just need to get the last one finished and see whether all these old IBM drives still have some life left in them!