Chicago Coin Super Score Repair and Partial Restoration Log

[ArcadeTechGW]

I figured that I should keep a log of everything I'm doing with this 1946 Chicago Coin Super Score.

First off, I washed the outside of the game - from the 1940's, it had a pretty good coating of dirt and nicotine. It took several different cleaners, but I got all the black goo off.

I pulled the EM stuff out of the head, and removed the backglass. I sent it to BGRESTORE for a re-do. The re-do turned out great.

While I had the EM stuff out, I cleaned up the head brackets and head locks, and then waxed them. What I mean by "cleaned up" is I used scotch brite and steel wool to remove all the tin corrosion dust, with the wax intended to help prevent it again.

I have cleaned all the Jones Plugs (pins and sockets) using a Dremel Tool and Scotch Brite.

The power cord insulation was falling off the cord, so I replaced it. This was one odd setup, and I don't have a schematic diagram. I ran the Hot (Black wire) to the white wire with black stripes which went to the fuse block, which in turn returns and goes to the transformer. I ran the neutral to the other lead on the top of the transformer, and put a ground (didn't have one before) on one of the mounting screws on the transformer. Before I apply power, I'll check my hot to neutral resistance and make sure I don't have a dead short to ground.

This is a timer system. (You have a set time to go through all 5 balls). I pulled the entire actuating lever to get to the ball tray, since it was corroded and would scar the balls and then the playfield once the balls hit it. I cleaned and polished the entire assembly, including the clips. There are 2 top clips - I applied Teflon (R) anti-chafe tape to those, to eliminate the grease. I also tried to apply wax to the Teflon - we'll see how that lasts. Otherwise, it's two screws each, strip the tape and add a little grease.

I figured out what rubber rings it needed. Fortunately, I had enough in stock to replace them all.

I have done a deep cleaning of the playfield. It's remarkably clean, apart from a few areas which have lifted.

I found an odd piece of rubber (basically a thick rubber washer) for the ball recoil stop (on more modern games, it's now a 1/2" x 1" diameter puck). I found a replacement on eBay - we'll see if that does it. I checked through my stock and came up with nothing.

Tons more to do.

 

[ArcadeTechGW]

I extracted the nickel "push in" coin mech and cleaned it up. It was pretty nasty - lots of corrosion on the outside, and 74 years of grunge on the inside. It would work when not installed, but allows the mech to just start a game without a nickel now. So somehow, I have enabled free play.

I know, not good.

I also tried to polish the screw heads, but they are too far gone. I think I'm going to pull one of each type, and make an Ace Hardware run looking for the right screw and length and shoulder.

I did finish polishing the ball shooter / lift assembly. Some of the chrome is missing from the shooter end and lift push button, but that's life. It looks much better now.

Also, the little angled clip above the ball shooter was all covered with tin corrosion, so that came out and got polished up a lot.

The rubber rings arrived, and have been installed. The game has rubber strips on the side which are held in place with small staples. I'm on the fence on whether to cut a long ring and replace them since I don't have the right staple gun.

 

[ArcadeTechGW]

I was thinking "what's in the way of me powering this up?"

Then I noticed the corroded out holes (3) on the playfield. I have cleaned up a lot of corrosion on this machine, and more popped out at me.

So I extracted the 3 outhole mechanisms - pretty easy.
1. Disconnect the two switches - I used cardboard with the original screws to keep the stacks together.
2. Remove the 4 screws from the plate
3. Carefully extract

Now it's on to the 0000 steel wool, bench wire brush, Dremel wire brush, and sandpaper when absolutely needed.

Here are the results. The first one is of the plates, before and after cleaning
The second one is of the spring washers on the plunger, before and after.
The third one is of a pre-cleaning outhole.

While I was removing these, I noted the switches that get activated by the coin mech slide were all corroded and bound up, so that's the next project.

A wiring diagram would be helpful if anyone has one.

 

[KenLayton]

A wiring diagram would be helpful if anyone has one.

Have you contacted Steve Young's Pinball Resource yet?

The Pinball Resource

Be sure to mention the brand, name, and year of the machine as sometimes the name of the machine can be used by other manufacturers.

 

[ArcadeTechGW]

Have you contacted Steve Young's Pinball Resource yet?

The Pinball Resource

Be sure to mention the brand, name, and year of the machine as sometimes the name of the machine can be used by other manufacturers.

I did for a rubber ring kit. I didn't ask about the wiring diagram.

They didn't have a ring kit or ring diagram for it.

Good suggestion. I'll send them a note.

 

[ArcadeTechGW]

Corrosion, corrosion everywhere! These switch gang blocks were so corroded they were hanging up.

It was fun getting them out - they came out easy, but you have to remove the stacked switches - again, a piece of cardboard worked to keep the screws in place to hold the switch blocks together.

You can see from the before and after, some of the tin plating is just gone. Brass is showing in the base stock! Oh well.

 

[KenLayton]

Some C-L-R (mixed 10% C-L-R to 90% water) and a brass bristle wire detail brush (the kind that's always on sale at Harbor Freight Tools) will clean up those relay armatures quite nicely.

 

[ArcadeTechGW]

Thanks! I'll try that.

PBR just got back to me - they don't have anything on this game.

I guess I'll do it the hard way. Point to point.

 

[ArcadeTechGW]

Finally, the top ring bumper came in! I had to source it from eBay. The original ring was some type of rubber which was falling apart. It is on the right. It is around 1/16" smaller on the OD, and a little larger on the ID. I am going to see if I can get the rubber to stretch for the ID, and live with the bigger ID.

I can't tell what the original material is. It's spongy to some degree, but doesn't seem to be rubber. Then again, after 74 years, it may just have started to disintegrate. For now, I'm putting this one in.

For others with old Chicago Coin Machines with this odd ball arch bumper, I have 3 more - I'll sell them if you need one.

As you can see from the second image, it fits! I had to wet it a little, and removed the post and then reinstalled it, but it's installed, and looks great!

Now on to figuring out the various wiring glitches.

 

[ArcadeTechGW]

Well, This Can't Be Right.

The power to the 120 volt lamps (yes, 120 volt 10 watt lamps) in the head is odd.

Each lamp has a hot and neutral wire, as you would expect.

There are 4 lamps (2 top, 2 bottom - one on the left and one on the right).

On the left side (facing the head) there are two wires off the bottom lamp that go to the side of the head.

And they are tied together.

Hot to Neutral = Dead Short to Ground. = Smoke if no fuse (and since I don't have a wiring diagram.....)

So, here's what I'm looking for:
If anyone has a 1940's Chicago Coin pinball game, can you look at your backglass lamp wiring, and even a hand sketch, load here what the wiring looks like.

I know this can't be right. But these wires didn't just appear out of thin air - someone either added them, or they went to a lamp which is now removed. Maybe a 5th bulb in the middle. I'll go look for a missing fixture.

 

[ArcadeTechGW]

Well, I have that figured out - now what to do?

The wires I found bound together are dead shorted to ground. But that's okay - they aren't connected to anything but the lamp sockets - there is no power available.

If I follow the wiring convention (close red diagonal stripes on a white wire or HOT, close diagonal black stripes on a white wire, or Neutral) and then look, I can tie the black striped wire to the head central ground, (better check the small lamp voltage FIRST) and the red striped one looks like I could land at the red striped white wire coming into the Jones Plug.

Anyone want to dig in an old Chicago Coin head and see if they see that?

 

[ArcadeTechGW]

Okay, I got past the disconnected wires. See the thread looking for Super Score wiring diagrams (resolved!) for the details. Now putting in a power switch and the connection to the light switch with a T-Tap.

At this point, I'm ready to start burnishing all contacts in the game with a Flex File, and then after a final check with the ohmmeter looking for shorts to ground / neutral, going for power on.

I'll keep an G08 Repair Kit Fire Extinguisher (pin pulled and manned) at the ready during the initial power checks. That, and hook it to a surge suppressor / individually circuit breakered power strip for easy off.

 

[ArcadeTechGW]

I put in the power switch - basically inserting it in the circuit between the power in and the transformer. I morticed out the hole so the switch could travel. The plywood on the bottom of this game is very thin - around 3/8". I had to use washers on my shortest screws to not poke through.

At the same time, I interfaced the new Main Lighting wires into the same circuit, so when I turn the game off, they are off too.

Interesting how little is under the playfield on these early games. Very simple. (and probably b o r i n g, but we'll soon see.

It's very close to the power on smoke test. Now for the work with the Flex Files to clean and adjust contacts.

Back to the workshop!

 

[ArcadeTechGW]

POWER ON!

No Smoke! (G08 Repair Kit was at the ready, just in case).

The lights in the head all work. I have some problems with the score relay - time to get out the contact tool and try to adjust for better contact.

Also, one of the relays under the playfield is a little sketchy - making inconsistent buzzing sounds.

The score relay / motor - that seems to be the center of most of the issues, so I'll start with that first.

Not having a schematic is making this more challenging.

 

[ArcadeTechGW]

Argh.

So I went through the bumpers, and found some with closed switches. So I cleared the closed switches.

Power on, and I'm getting scores of 5000 (ding ding ding ding ding pause repeat) constantly.

I have made a list of the switches and will now go through them on the playfield with my ohm meter looking for a stuck or shorted switch.

If it's not there, it's fiddling with the score motor.

I did one more search on the web and found Pinball Mike. I looked for schematics on his site from Super Score and Spellbound (two Chicago Coin games from 1946). File not found. Dang.

With that said, it seems like he is the best option for Chicago Coin drawings, having the most by far.

 

[ArcadeTechGW]

DONE.

I had some Jones Plug problems. Worked on cleaning those up (again).

The 5000 was a stuck switch on the outhole. Common system (stick one, all go 0 ohms) so I had to check every single 5K switch, and it was one of the last ones. Figures.

Since the 5000 switch was stuck, it then overworked the 10,000 score bank, so that had to be taken apart and cleaned. Probably for the best - the coil sleeves were gummy with some type of ancient oil - I guess they thought you had to oil a brass sleeve with a steel solenoid core?

Everything is now working thankfully, so tomorrow I'll hit the playfield with Millwax and then clean the top glass, install it and I'm done. Push it into the line up, and move on to the other games in need of maintenance (too many of them do - time to work it down!)

 

[ArcadeTechGW]

Finally, the top ring bumper came in! I had to source it from eBay. The original ring was some type of rubber which was falling apart. It is on the right. It is around 1/16" smaller on the OD, and a little larger on the ID. I am going to see if I can get the rubber to stretch for the ID, and live with the bigger ID.

I can't tell what the original material is. It's spongy to some degree, but doesn't seem to be rubber. Then again, after 74 years, it may just have started to disintegrate. For now, I'm putting this one in.

For others with old Chicago Coin Machines with this odd ball arch bumper, I have 3 more - I'll sell them if you need one.

As you can see from the second image, it fits! I had to wet it a little, and removed the post and then reinstalled it, but it's installed, and looks great!

Now on to figuring out the various wiring glitches.

I don't think this bumper is the best for the job. It fills the space, but when balls hit it, it doesn't have much rebound. I'm back on the hunt for something better. I might carve down a normal bumper and drill it out to fit.

Now to figure out how to do that and not look terrible.

 

[mk3u2012]

Great work troubleshooting all the problems without the schematics. Like you said, it makes it much more interesting of a job. Did you end up replacing the side rubber? There is a gentleman who reproduced the half circle rubber that works pretty well. Not quite as much bounce and black in color but for most, a giant step in the right direction for folks who are restoring these old machines. More pics of you're Super Score please Or maybe I'm not seeing them for some reason? Did you post any of the PF or cab?

 

[ArcadeTechGW]

 

[ArcadeTechGW]

Great work troubleshooting all the problems without the schematics. Like you said, it makes it much more interesting of a job. Did you end up replacing the side rubber? There is a gentleman who reproduced the half circle rubber that works pretty well. Not quite as much bounce and black in color but for most, a giant step in the right direction for folks who are restoring these old machines. More pics of you're Super Score please Or maybe I'm not seeing them for some reason? Did you post any of the PF or cab?

The side rubbers I didn't touch - mostly for lack of the right tool to reinstall them. I was thinking I could just cut up a large rubber ring to get it to work, but stopped short since they still bounce, and in reality, with no powered bumpers on the game (everything is passive score except for the outhole ejectors) there is nothing to get the ball there except chance. With the most pitch I can put on the game, it's still very slow.

I replaced all 5 balls with Silverballs - probably overkill, but after I polished all the metal work which would be in contact with the balls, it seemed prudent to spend the extra few dollars.

I just played two games - it works. My wife watched and said "Wow - is that it?" Yep.