Everyone working on vintage test equipment knows these. The infamous RIFA caps.
Rifa was a Swedish electronic component manufacturer and their film capacitors were used in many test equipment as line filter X and Y capacitors. They are also notorious for becoming bad due to various effects and exploding when put under voltage.I'm not a fan of indiscriminate replacing capacitors ('recapping') in old equipment, but Rifas just have to go, they will explode nearly every time if not replaced.
Jerry Walker has an excellent video on the problem.
He also has a comprehensive analysis of the problem.
Dave Jones of EEVblog also discusses the issue.
The Emperor of test Equipment list dozens of devices where the Rifas had to be replaced.
The list goes on and on, just search for Rifa capacitor failure. The takeaway from all this is if you see these suckers, replaced them without thinking, or face the consequences of the stinky mess when they explode.
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