Croft Series V C blowing power supply fuses

[Rob Muggleton]

Has anyone had this problem - I have a Croft Series V C power amp which has two fuses on the back (one labelled 3A and the other 0.3A), so I assume the 300mA one is for the power supply. This latter fuse has had a tendency to blow since I bought the amp in 2002. I sent the amp back to Glen Croft about 6 years ago and he rewired large sections of it and put a 500mA Slow-blow fuse in. Subsequently (3 years ago) he also replaced that fuse when the amp went back because it had started popping again. I've recently to South West France and that fuse just won't hold - keeps blowing, though I've been replacing it with 500mA slow blows. Any ideas? The voltage here is a bit variable but is mostly around 235 volts. Defective valve, perhaps? I'd send it back to Glen Croft, but it's prohibitively expensive to post stuff from here. Thanks for your interest. Rob

[Firebottle]

I'll reiterate my offer of looking at this for you Rob, if you are willing to travel up to Indre.

My guess is the paper in oil capacitors have probably now gone leaky and the output stage is drawing too much current.

If you have any means of testing the PIO coupling caps with a high voltage tester, that is where to start.

[Rob Muggleton]

Thanks for your offer and suggestion. You're about 3 hours away from me, so I might wait till next I'm driving back to the UK, drop it off with you and pick it up on the way back? That could be July - if so, could I PM you nearer the time and see if you're around? In the meantime, I'm actually rather enjoying the Quad 303 - in its own funny way! Cheers. Rob

[Firebottle]

No problems Rob, sounds like a bit of a plan.