Replaced the 9v snap and now my Crybaby won't work!

[Noplasticrobots]

Ok, I can use ANY help at all with this one. I discovered an intermittent in my +9v battery snap wire in my Crybaby.

I replaced the snap with a heavier duty one. I soldered the red wire to where it came from (DC jack) and I took the crimp off the old negative lead and recrimped it onto the new one, put a tiny blob of solder on there to hold it better and stuck it back in it's hole. My wah doesn't work at all now.

I thought maybe I plugged it back into the wrong strip so I put it in the next open one (right next to it) and it still didn't work! Being that the wah worked literally 10 seconds before I replaced the snap, there has to be something wrong with the snap-but I used  the snap the other day on a breadboard and it worked perfect! What gives?

[LyleCaldwell]

Solder the negative lead to the ring lug on the input jack and see if that works.

[Noplasticrobots]

Well, it works now, but after fiddling with this thing I've realized that the problem isn't (and never was) the +9V wire. It's the DC jack! If the wah doesn't work, I have to tap the DC jack and then the wah works. However when I put the coverplate on it, I never seem to have this problem. Still, it's annoying. Can't I just take out the DC jack?

[LyleCaldwell]

You can, but you shouldn't have to.  Looking at the lugs on the jack, are you connecting the + battery lead to the lug next to the negative lug or one over?

[Noplasticrobots]

I know it's connected right because I desoldered the old one and put the new one on right away. I didn't have any other wires off any lugs so I couldn't have placed it in the wrong spot.

This whole DC jack thing didn't start until after I replaced the 33k resistor, but I know that couldn't have done it.

I don't even have to tap the actual wires to get it to come on, just the plastic part of the jack. It's really strange.

I posted this in a topic earlier this weekend: if the wire is in the wrong place when I cover the bottom, the volume will fade away until the notes are severly gated and poppy. I just installed a buffer too, but it works fine, it's just that damn jack.

[formerMember1]

bad jack then,.. try replacing it and see what happens....

is it the pcmounted one?

[Paul Marossy]

I've had bad DC jacks give all kinds of grief. A lot of the time, it was just due to some corrosion between the contacts in the jack.

[Noplasticrobots]

No, it's not a PC board jack. In fact, my board doesn't even have a revision number on it. Is there any way to clean the corrosion in the jack? If I can clean it that'd be good, otherwise I'm opting for removing the jack altogether. I've never used the adapter and never plan to. Plus, I want to add a switch to toggle between volume and wah and that's one less hole to drill. Is it easy to bypass the DC jack?

[Paul Marossy]

Is it easy to bypass the DC jack?

Yes. Just take it out of the power supply and connect your battery clip as you would any typical stompbox. 

[Noplasticrobots]

So basically just take the positive wire and connect it directly to the board?

Is the wire that leaves the DC jack and goes to the pc board plug (what's that thing called?) a continuation of the +9v (I've never worked with DC jacks...)? In other words can I pull the red wire out from the PCB plug, recrimp the terminal onto the wire leaving the actual battery clip and just plug it back into it's hole? I hope that made sese!

[Paul Marossy]

So basically just take the positive wire and connect it directly to the board?

Yep. All the DC jack does is interrupt the positive lead to the PCB when you plug a cord into it.