[etech]

Today finished re-stuffing all the bakelites.

When I replaced the last one, number 8, the one with 250 Ohm resistor and 0.05uF cap, all started sounding quite a bit better.

The cap was giving me a weird reading - it would start with 0.06uF on on polarity, then, if re-polarized, would read 0.370uF and when put back to the first polarity, read 0.13uF. If disconnected from the meter and given time to discharge, it would fall back to 0.06uF.

I had two caps acting in this way out of five of them. I am not sure of the electrical mechanism behind it, and it is not important. Just interesting.

This is called leakage. Probably all of the caps you replaced were at least somewhat leaky. When the caps are as bad as the ones you have described above, you can actually measure the leakage on an analogue vtvm or vom on the highest ohms scale. On the paper caps that are not as bad, you will still be able to measure the leakage on a good cap checker, like a Sprague Tel-Ohmike and others.

Ed