I am finishing up my Crack, and as I had planned installed a choke and a 2.2uF cap in the filtering section of the PSU. When I had everything in place, I plugged the unit in but found the fuse blown. Here is what I did:
Because I replaced all of the screws and installed aluminum spacers for the choke I ran a complete resistance and voltage check before working on any of the parts. All was good and well within range just as before.
I then tried out the choke and the cap individually with alligator clips. I desoldered one end of the wirewound resistor that runs between 15U and 21U and plugged in the choke just to compare it to the resistor. The choke worked well, no issues. I went back and forth a few times to see if I can notice any differences. Not many, but modding is only partly about the sound.
I connected the resistor again and then bypassed the last filtering cap with the 2.2uF cap. Again, with alligator clips, no soldering. All good, no issues. Probably not much of a difference in sound but I really do like the yellow color of the cap.
Then I ran both the choke and the cap together, still no soldering. All good. Crack sounded great. I took that as a "go" and installed the choke on the spacers (choke is nicely grounded, I sanded the underside to the bare metal) and soldered in the cap. But when I plugged the unit back in, I did not hear anything coming through. Fuse was gone.
My theory: I plugged the unit in and out of the wall each time I made a change (more than 10 times), and that might have been too much, assuming that the choke despite a similar electrical resistance (it's 20 Ohms lower) might draw a little more current than the resistor. So, at one point, the fuse blew. I ordered fuses, and if I am not wrong, I could simply replace it with maybe a 1.5A or 2A fuse.
During my trial runs I noticed that when the tubes warm up, one channel leads and then the other comes up a few seconds later. I did not notice that before, might be unconnected. Otherwise, there was no smoke, no crackling, nothing.
Thoughts on how I should proceed?