What is a good way to remove these vintage tantalum caps? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / repair

author: highcap
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2025, 12:18:30 pm
content: The work area is relatively small and there are 4 pins on each capacitor. Also the board is multilayered and the capacitor connections seems to be at the middle.I have a regular solder gun and a manual air sucking pump, but I don't think they are the best fit...Thank you all for your input!

author: Haenk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2025, 12:48:11 pm
content: Are you sure these are dead (shorted)? Otherwise I would leave them alone.These multilayer boards are - in my opinion - wicked to work on. Solder sucker does not do a good job on these boards.Maybe try low melt solder (a lot), then heat up the pins. Might be enough to pull it out.Or try a hot air gun, covering the rest of the PCB.

author: indeterminate
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2025, 01:12:03 pm
content: I use a 300w iron that has a 12mm diameter tip that is about 100mm long bent at right angels with a chisel tip.heat it up until the solder melts quickly but does not burn the flux.turn it offuse the edge of the chissel tip to contact all the pins at oncethe component will pull out in a couple of seconds.tidy up with solder wick

author: Jeroen3
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2025, 01:17:46 pm
content: If you drown the pins in a blob of leaded solder it will fall out.

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2025, 01:18:08 pm
content: Since they are TH, I have seen advice to put a heavier copper wire across are four stubs. Extra solder and flux helps. Then heat the wire to melt the solder at each pin simultaneously.You can do it, but that doesn't mean you should.

author: highcap
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2025, 03:04:59 pm
content: Quote from: Haenk on May 07, 2025, 12:48:11 pmThey are not shorted but the board is 35-37 years old. I heard these caps are having a high failure rate after that much time.The issue is the computer throws hardware error whenever these memory boards are plugged in, and will work fine without them, this makes me think the caps aren't doing their job.Some people swapped them (in other type of computer boards) with common ceramic filter caps, I was said.Not sure what to do.

author: DaJMasta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2025, 03:32:56 pm
content: If they're not shorted, you could bodge in some capacitance onto the power rails and see if fixes your issue to see if you need to remove them at all.An all in one desolder gun is going to be your best bet, but if you've got a hot air gun or a preheater, you could try preheating the area at a lower temperature (maybe 150C) and then letting the iron do the actual melting before using your existing solder sucker (or some solder braid.) Wetting the joints with some new solder can help get things flowing as well. You could also at least temporarily forget about the sucker, preheat, then directly heat, and apply gentle pressure to the pins on the backside until you see the base of the cap lift away from the board. Should be much easier to continue after you get it moving, and you could use the sucker or gently pull from the opposite side while heating.