bad girls pinball repair

A non-working Gottlieb Sys 80b as your first challenge? :) Congrats on the machine and it looks like you'll gain a lot of experience getting it back where it should be.

I think I would start with getting all the wiring and connectors corrected first. Use the manual and schematic. Most will probably need to be repinned. If you don't have a manual, call Steve Young at The Pinball Resource for one. He probably has many Gottlieb parts you might need also.
pbresource.com/

I would not recommend you tackle the Gottlieb board work unless you have experience with it. In my opinion, the best source for board work "done right the first time" is Clive at Coin Op Cauldron.
http://webpages.charter.net/coinopcauldron/Index.html

Good luck! Post the progress on the game, it'll be great to see it working again.

- Don
 
Thanks a lot for the links. I am trying to repair the board myself. I have basic understanding of all of this but am not very experienced. Any ideas how to remove corrosion from the board?
 
You see that little board that's piggybacked on the MPU board. Try pressing it down and see if any changes occur....
 
You see that little board that's piggybacked on the MPU board. Try pressing it down and see if any changes occur....

Sorry you need to tell me what the MPU board is. I am new to all this and I am learning as I go. Not exactly sure what MPU board is. It may not be necessary to mess with the MPU board though now as I just made some great progress. I just got done making a video which is uploading now and will be posted as soon as it is available.

I ran some wire to make up for the broken traces on the board. I desoldered the old battery that was on there. I cleaned all the connections with an eraser. There is one or two connections I am going to run some wire because they are questionable as where the trace is broken or not. Unfortunately, I don't have a continuity tester on my multi meter.

The good news is, I put the pcb back in the game as a quick test. The game now displays correctly and is fully functional except that the solenoids that kick the balls up into the ramp (where they wait for another solenoid to open to release them into the ramp) Neither of these solenoids are working. If I manually place the ball in the ramp and play it, everything else seems to be working good! Video incoming.

I need help now trouble shooting the solenoids. Also anyone know what I can use to clean (chemical wise) the corrosion off the pcb. I just used a regular brush and that removed some of it, but I need some kind of cleaner that will be safe for the board and electronics.

Thanks so much for the help so far. I am sorry that I am not sure on all the terms and everything so if you could please describe where they are and what they look like when talking about something. Thanks to the kindness of someone, I now have a owners manual for the game and its terminology upkicker, knocker assembly ect are only confusing me.
 
Best pinball backglass EVER!!! Sorry, I am of no use with Gottlieb repair help though :(

I love the boyish looks on the girls on the playfield as well. LOL. One of the reasons I also got this game was not only because it was cheap but because I get a laugh looking at the "chicks" Plus it takes me back to the 80's when everything was right with the world.
 
There is a transistor that drives that solenoid in the trough. Check that - I believe is should right be under the playfield: about the same area.

As far as the vari-target goes.. it is suppose to return when hit. Sometimes they just need adjustments. You can also use a *little* teflon lube on the contact swipes to make it easier to return...
 
First thing is first, you're not removing any connectors or anything while it's on, are you? A BIG no, no!

That little board up top (The one not connected) is the reset board - useless in home use.

Did you try pressing the board on the mpu in? It's the one you removed the game rom from. Did you reseat the rom back in right? I see you got the flashing light on the sound board which is a good thing. Try to reseat the connectors again.

If all else fails, you must do the ground mods.... some bizarre things happen when these boards don't share the same ground w/ the cabinet - like your instance...
 
First thing is first, you're not removing any connectors or anything while it's on, are you? A BIG no, no!

That little board up top (The one not connected) is the reset board - useless in home use.

Did you try pressing the board on the mpu in? It's the one you removed the game rom from. Did you reseat the rom back in right? I see you got the flashing light on the sound board which is a good thing. Try to reseat the connectors again.

If all else fails, you must do the ground mods.... some bizarre things happen when these boards don't share the same ground w/ the cabinet - like your instance...

Yea I tried pushing on the roms and the board while it was on. When I pressed around one of the roms the flashing x's on the screen turned to 0's. It stayed that way and I could not recreate it again. I reseated the roms and they are all in good. Nothing I did poking around with all the wiring seemed to have any effect. I will try soldering a wire onto the pcb and running it down into below the playfield somewhere where I can find a ground and see if that does anything. I guess it is acting like there is a missing ground or something.
 
You picked it up? Awesome!

I'm no help in the repair department yet, just wanted to say congrats on the pickup.

Thanks. Yea I am hoping I am able to get it fixed. I was so happy when I got it working earlier and than it stopped working. That was pretty disappointing. Thanks again. I saw the Eldorado while I was there. It is in rough shape but I think a good cleaning would do it a lot of good. The back box picture needs replaced but it seems to play good.
 

Thanks looks like a lot of helpful information. I will read over all of it tomorrow. From 8;00 saturday morning til 1:30 sunday morning I was working on my arcades. I messed around with the pinball for half the day, and spent the other half replacing capacitors in two of my shooting games. I am pretty tired. I will be back at the pinball machine in the morning. I hope I can get it working.
 
Wired a ground wire to the cpu board as shown in the Kens link. I also triple checked all my solder connections and wires. Still doing the same thing. I attempted to test for voltage at the J1 connection but it doesn't show up on my multi meter for some reason.
 
Back
Top Bottom