Gday Stu
The bottom right corner of the regulator also looks like it has burn marks???
Are they real or just a bit of residue from the inductors BBQ smoke???
If the surface of the regulator is really damaged, shorting the inductor as a test should probably be done using a face mask and goggles :-)
Edit
And looking at the spec sheet i see its a switchmode chip, not a simple voltage regulator.
There are several circuit diags in the datasheets but if the inductor is the one used as part of the feedback loop, vs a simple filter on the incoming voltage, then shorting it wont work.
Maybe see if you can trace the circuit around the chip to see where in the scheme of things the inductor fits
Andrew
Just remembered something
As an aid to tracing his damaged circuitry, a user recently got Synta to provide a schematic for the EQ8 board.
( Its in the files section of the Yahoo EQ8 group )
https://xa.yimg.com/df/SkywatcherEQ8...&type=download
This document has a page for the power supply and it is using the same chip, so may be similar.
The only inductor shown there is the feedback one, so its no longer a simple exercise.