Down to my last electrolytic,
and it shows a negative symbol
but no arrow to indicate which end is negative?
Anyone know? Thanks!

Magnavox300

Pic?

Sorry forgot photo!

What isn't visible from that angle is either end. The one with an insulating disc surrounding the lead is positive.

Generally, on an axial electrolytic, the negative is the lead that connects to the metal can. The positive lead goes into the crimped rubber seal (the left side of your photo).

It looks like the manufacturer used the same shrink wrap on the axial as they use on the radial cans. No arrow to indicate polarity.

Stupid Rubycons, they aren't very good caps anyway.

The end with the crimp is probably positive.

What was stated before is true: the exposed aluminum end of the can is negative, the insulated disc end is positive. Always.

Thanks everyone, I will know from now on!

Magnavox300

By the way, I have read a few articles that say;
"don't buy expensive capacitors, they won't work any better than cheap ones will."
Is that true? I bought Mallory or JJ capacitors along with these electrolytic ones,
and I have to say that I felt bad putting them in because they looked so cheap!
The ink was coming off some and the paper was pealing on a few just after lightly handling them. I know you don't see the inside once the TV is redone, but It would feel better to me knowing there were at least decent looking caps in there. I bought all these from antique electronics supply.
This is my first time recapping anything, and I'd rather not use these caps again!

Magnavox300

Generally when you hear someone say that cheap caps work as well as expensive ones they are referring to the Audiophile crowd.

There are specialty capacitors sold for that purpose that can be crazy expensive, like $10 for one small value capacitor as opposed to the ones that cost .50 cents that we use in our TV's.

Some will swear that they make a difference in the sound of an Amp, others will insist that there is no difference and that all caps work the same.

We won't get into that discussion here but rest assured the cheap looking Yellow Polyester or Mylar caps you get from Justradios, or Mark Oppat or AES are just fine for TV use.

Use the 630 volt ones for everything that was 630 volts or lower, they don't cost more than the lower volt caps (sometimes less) and you only have to stock one voltage. Higher voltage in a small value cap is always OK, Electrolytic's are a bit more fussy but you can generally run anything that's higher voltage within reason, say 25-50% or so.

Sometimes you will run into caps in a TV that are higher voltage than 630 volts, 1200-1600 usually, then you have to go looking for what you can find, usually those will be Orange Dips or Orange Drops. Justraios carries those but you have to wait for them to come from Canada.

One way to tell polarity of an electrolytic capacitor is to apply a small voltage, say one-tenth of rating, and measure leakage current. The leakage will be lower when you apply correct polarity.