Theoretically that might work, but it is a lot harder to do than you might think. It will require a lot of high power circuitry and fine tuning to get it to work. It is much easier (and cheaper) to just buy a new dimmer. Disconnecting the capacitor shouldn't have done anything to cause the problem, unless you allowed it to short somewhere. I've used this circuit on many occasions and it has worked great. I suggest you buy another dimmer (they're quite cheap, so it's no huge loss) and wire it up carefully, as per the diagram, and do not turn the switch all the way up. It should work towards the very bottom of the dimmer range, and will not work above, say, 10%. Also, try raising your capacitor value to .5uF, or even 1uF. I wouldn't recommend going much higher than 10 though, for safety reasons. The higher the value, the less touchy the dimmer switch will be, and the better the output.
Another thing, make sure your capacitor is NON-POLARIZED! Polarized capacitors can and will EXPLODE if you try putting AC through them!!!