Burnt pinball machine repairs

[KenLayton]

As I've mentioned before, the machine owner is very fond of this game and wants it to live again. He already has a set of legs on the way.

Connectors showed up yesterday and I've already started replacing the pins in the connector housings. Power supply components will be arriving this week from Jameco Electronics.

I started soaking the metal parts in C-L-R today and they are cleaning up very nicely.

The playfield is in great shape. All switches are fine. I will be cleaning the cabinet stainless steel side rails with Brasso in the near future.

 

[KenLayton]

The rebuilt backbox and the new front door panel have come back from the wood shop. We primed and painted the backbox with white primer and semigloss white paint.

The bottom of the cabinet (which had fallen out) under the coin box has now been repaired (glued & screwed).

The cabinet is standing on end. First picture is the front of cabinet with the damaged part gone. Second picture is inside the coin box area now repaired. Third picture is the bottom panel now repaired. Fourth picture is the new front piece just laying there on the cabinet waiting to be ready for glue & clamping.

I've cleaned up all the score displays. The front and rear of the display circuit boards were covered in soot. A combination of 99% isopropyl rubbing alcohol and a toothbrush scrubbed most of the soot and corrosion off. Then I followed that with a spray down with Mean Green cleaner, scrub again with toothbrush, and a final rinsing in lukewarm water.

I've reinstalled all the metal parts in the backbox and circuit boards (CPU and driver). I'm still working on the power supply board and hope to finish it tomorrow.

 

[KenLayton]

UPDATES:

I've been busy working on this machine.

Yesterday we drilled new leg bolt holes in the new front panel and installed the leg bolt threaded plates. Installed a better set of legs and stood the main cabinet back in it's normal position. I installed the rebuilt power supply assembly in the backbox. Re-pinned a bunch of edge connectors in preperation for reattaching the backbox.

Today, repinned a bunch more connectors and ran out of terminals. Had to order more of them from Mouser Electronics. I only have 60 more connector pins to replace and they are in the connectors for players 2, 3, and 4 score displays. We set the backbox up on the cabinet and pulled all the cables up through the hole so I could reattached them to the boards. Got the backbox all securely bolted back down. This cabinet is now rock-solid like it should be and the newly painted backbox looks good.

I got everything plugged back in (except the players 2, 3, and 4 score displays since I don't have the connector pins yet) and did not yet plug in the power supply output cable to the cpu board. I wanted to measure the output voltages from the power supply before connecting it to any boards just to be on the safe side. Anyway, with voltmeter attached to the output connectors, I powered it up and good luck! All voltages were solid and right on the money! Turned off the machine and plugged in the output cables and fired up the machine again. CPU board booted up fine and machine came up like it should. I had good displays on player 1 and on the match/credit display. Plus the Ni-Wumpf board played it's power up tune on the chimes.

Success! This machine is back from the dead! Lot's of minor things to do still but so far so good.

 

[HmoonArcade]

So...Will he be within his electrical budget when you are finished?

 

[KenLayton]

NO! It's already taken much longer than anticipated, plus I had to purchase more components locally to repair the power supply board. We've already talked to the machine owner and he's ok with the cost over-run.

Today I have some lamp sockets to repair on it. I'll need to resolder the shell of the socket as I'm losing contact intermittently on several GI bulbs not only in the backbox, but on the playfield too.

 

[HmoonArcade]

I'm sure you have your work cut out for you. Nice job, the machine is looking great!!

 

[KenLayton]

I've taken all the pop bumpers apart to clean them and polish the plungers. Had to clean the old hardened grease out of the pop bumper spoon switches too.

Cleaned all the playfield switches.

This game had a ton of bad lamp sockets. I must have resoldered at least 30 sockets! Got four more to resolder as well as check for a bad lamp driver transistor.

I performed all the ground modifications to the power supply, MPU board, and driver board. All the score displays (despite being in a fire and sitting for ten years without being touched) cleaned up nicely. All score displays are working and so is the match/credit display.

The machine is basically up and running now and I've played several games on it.

Just a few minor things to do like the lamp sockets and a bad driver transistor for one of the bonus lamps.

I think in the next couple of days we will call the machine owner and tell him it's ready!

I've got to remember to bring the camera and get more pictures of this machine.

 

[KenLayton]

Pictures of the nearly completed machine (from left to right).

New side veneer was installed on this side of headbox. Sanded and painted painted headbox (was previously charred).

A new top piece of the headbox was fabricated and vent slots cut in it.

Backbox metal vents which were very rusted were sanded down, primed, and painted with chrome paint.

The soot on the aluminum panels cleaned up nicely with lacquer thinner first followed by a scrubbing with Mean Green and washing in hot water.

The rear of the light insert panel was sooted up badly. Some sanding, priming, and a quick spray of paint helped.

 

[KenLayton]

More pictures.

Interior of the backbox completely reassembled. All connectors have been re-pinned. All boards now have the Gottlieb ground modifications.

Power supply has been rebuilt.

One display board did not power up after cleaning & scrubbing the soot & corrosion off. I found the far left pin on the glass display had broken so I soldered a jumper wire to it to restore the connection. Display works perfectly now.

 

[KenLayton]

More pictures of the cabinet exterior.

Entire new front piece of wood was fabricated to hold the coin door. The original piece was severely rotted. A new ball shooter assembly was installed as the original was too badly rusted.

Machine is fully operational. We were playing the heck out of it today.

 

[beerorkid]

Amazing job. Once that backglass shows up it should shine.

 

[GORDONFAN]

Ken please tell me your going to restencil it.

Glennon

 

[Burt6666]

Looking good !!!!!

 

[KenLayton]

The machine owner will be restenciling it.

 

[metahugh]

As I've mentioned before, the machine owner is very fond of this game and wants it to live again. He already has a set of legs on the way.

Connectors showed up yesterday and I've already started replacing the pins in the connector housings. Power supply components will be arriving this week from Jameco Electronics.

I started soaking the metal parts in C-L-R today and they are cleaning up very nicely.

The playfield is in great shape. All switches are fine. I will be cleaning the cabinet stainless steel side rails with Brasso in the near future.

Brasso is one of the best cleaners in the world!!!

 

[Angry_Radish]

As a fan of repairing fire-damaged pins, I thank you for all the pics!
Great to see it come back to life!

 

[Half Life]

Should nickname this machine Phoenix. Definitely brought back from the flames.

Nice work Ken! Thanks for sharing the pics and story.

Phil

 

[KenLayton]

I got the lamp sockets all completely done.

There was a problem with the driver board not lighting up the red drop target bonus lamp. At first I thought it was transistor Q10 (for lamp # 10), but it tested ok. The problem turned out to be a flaky integrated circuit Z3 (74175). Once I replaced that chip (which I had to go out to the local parts jobber and buy) the lamp functioned properly.

I have the right hand coin switch to adjust still (it's gapped too wide) and the right flipper plastic top is loose.

 

[ZEN]

Ken, you are a technical wizard, bless you for helping another machine live again....

 

[KenLayton]

I painted the rusted laminations of both power transformers today with semi-gloss black Krylon paint and finished one last 15 pin connector repinning going to the coin door. I installed a new 9 pin Molex .093 connector to the playfield. Someone at one time chopped off the connector and hardwired the playfield to the bottom panel making it impossible to remove the playfield from the machine.

The machine is finished. We called the owner today and he's coming to get it on Wednesday.