Ah, I had forgotten we were talking about the SE/30, one of the first compact mostly surface-mount boards. I tend to view it in relation to my old 68 Mustang (appropriate don't you think): I could repair almost anything on it without hesitation. My 90's Jeep was on the boarder, some things I could fix others I wouldn't touch. But when it comes to my late model car, I really want nothing to do with what's under that hood, save refilling the washer reservoir.

Glad someone has experience with those pesky SMDs! Those caps certainly cannot be clipped, but a brief visual inspection confirms that. Truth is, even on the early Mac boards, only the axial mounted caps can be clipped, most of the radial are mounted tight against the board (some with spacers) and additionally glued, making them even difficult to pry up enough to slip cutters under them. But again, mine was a general comment to call attention to the obvious which some of us overlook. I was de-soldering an axial cap once, when I though: "why am I doing this? I can just clip it off".

FYI, radial and axial caps are interchangeable (leads permitting). Someone more knowledgeable than I may know if this is preferred, or the rational for using one or the other. As for myself, replacing radial with axial caps would make replacing them in the future much easier, though for those caps affected by operating frequencies vibrations, harder to dampen thus risking more solder cracks and subsequent failures.

Now, at the risk of sounding like a broken record on this forum or being unduly "matronly" or harsh ... people really should do a search before posting. I was looking for some unrelated info last night and stumbled across this:

http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=677

Actually I'm surprised JDW didn't link to it in this thread.

Good luck!