oh i agree in theory that shotgunning parts is a poor way of trying to diagnose a problem, since you may end up creating more problems
only one of the original rca power transistors was in the unit when i received it (because it had their part number instead of a 2n series designation, and because it appeared like it had been around the block a few more times than the others), and that was hooked up to the 602 board that wasn't even needed
i'm researching how to match output transistors because my assumption is that with all of the other bobo "repairs" done on it, i'd be willing to wager that the last guy didn't bother matching the 2n3232 output transistors
at the very least i'm hoping to learn something, which is really where the fun is in this
edit: YAY i can post without moderator approval. guess i've proven i'm not a spam bot, or at least a really sneaky spam bot