Atari - Hoop It Up -Replacing Basketballs

Outkast1972

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I need to replace the 'half' basketballs on my Atari Hoop It Up. These are the main 2 on the outside of the cabinet, the ones used to push the ping pong balls on the inside. The current ones have dried out, cracked and no longer push in.

Can you use one of those small Basketballs to replace them? I am wondering if I can buy a small kids size basketball and cut it in half and use that? The ones on my cabinet don't look original as they are black.

I have search around for new ones on ebay but have only seen one for sale and it was $35 for one half! And it didn't look like a genuine part to me, it looked like someone had simply cut a small basketball in half! (Which gave me the idea!).

Thanks,

Outkast
 
Yes you can use a basketball cut in half. I used them on the Hoop it up I used to have. You want to use the basketball that is on there now as a template. I think that it is slightly more than half of the ball is used. The hard part is finding the right size basketball. They are a size that used to be popular but is difficult to find anymore.
 
Cool, thanks for the tips, I will see what I can find. Good tip about using more then half the ball, it would be annouying to cut a ball in half to work out it is slighty too short!
 
Thanks Encom

That is a pretty good price. I still haven't had a chance to go to the shops to look for suitable mini basketballs so I am gonna go have a look at that link! I doubt any suitable balls I'd find in the shops would be much cheaper then that anyway! And as you said I'd have to go to the trouble of cutting them and hope they fit ok!

I hope they send to Australia and don't charge the earth for postage!
 
I can't believe it's nearly 2 years since I first posted about this and I haven't replaced the basketballs yet!!

Ok, I have removed the old balls, it looks like they were silicone into place on the metal frame. Can someone who has replaced them before tell me how they went about this part? Did you use any particular silicone? Just go around the outside with a silicone gun and smooth it over with your finger?

Hopefully I will have this machine up and running soon, it must have been sitting in my garage for over 2 years unused now!
 
C'mon! Someone must have replaced these balls before?! I wouldn't mind hearing from someone who has before doing it myself! I don't wanna stuff them up!

Thanks in advance! :)
 
Can anyone help?

Our machine has about 4 hose clamps connected end to end to end to end, if you get my meaning. To make one huge hose clamp. The ball is a 7" basketball, so (is it pi d?) you need like 22" so 4 x 6" hose clamps?

This kind of hose clamp:
clamp1b.jpg


Big clamp goes around the bottom of the halved ball, over bottom where it fits over metal plate. Then tightened. No silicone. I have replaced ours a couple of times now. The foam inside was getting kind of wrecked, I bought some foam mattress type foam from Walmart and carved some pieces to go inside of them.
 
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Awesome, thanks for that. Yeah mine has the same clamps but it was silicone down as well. You can see it in the photo below the clamps where it meets the plate. I am not sure why the previous owner did that, maybe as an extra measure to make sure it is air tight I guess. I will give it ago without any silicone.

Always pays to check before going ahead I say! Thanks again for going to the trouble of posting the photo and info, much appreciated!
 

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I used to work for a guy who had some out on route, when ours got old he just cut a mini basketball in half and replaced them with that. Not sure of the specifics, but he was able to do 1 machine with 1 ball cut in half, for both sides. He used local team balls too, looked awesome.
 
Yeah I read that on here I think before buying them. I had a look around the shops but couldn't find any. I have seen them around in the past but maybe they don't stock them anymore in Australia. Anyway I got 4 of the originals from Happ and they were pretty cheap, $40 something for 4, thought I'd get a few spares for next time.
 
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