Diner is in the house! Order up!

Silverunicorn

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Donor 2011-2012
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With the help of EagleTG, I was able to get the Diner I bought a few weeks ago into it's new home. He did all the lifting since I am not suppoesed to since the surgery. I can't thank him enough for his help!!!

Anyway, here are some photos. We just set it up. I have not cleaned anything on it yet, but it will certainly need a proper shop job. Other than being dirty, I think it's in pretty nice shape for a Diner. Excited to have this in the collection.

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I will post before and after pics once I get it cleaned up, which may be a while. In the meantime, it will be played! Alot!

Chris
 
Damn! That's in great shape! I've only played Diner a few times (at PAPA) but it looks so freaking cool. I like the concept. Seems like it can hold a candle to Taxi.
 
Thanks!

Diner and Taxi have similar objectives, but at least to me, they play very differently. I had a Taxi and while it is a great game, I always liked Diner more. I think Diner "looks" like there's more going on. I found Taxi to be a little simplistic, but that's not a bad thing necessarily.

Will have to get some real time on the Diner. I too only played it a handful of times, but I was always enamored by the art on the game.

Chris
 
Diner recent experience

Make sure to take a look at your GI connector (right side of the PC board for the lighting and power distribution). The typical burn is in the middle of the connector - they get so bad that the connector falls apart when you try to remove it, and can melt pins out of the board.

If you haven't already done it, check and replace the CPU batteries.
 
Make sure to take a look at your GI connector (right side of the PC board for the lighting and power distribution). The typical burn is in the middle of the connector - they get so bad that the connector falls apart when you try to remove it, and can melt pins out of the board.

If you haven't already done it, check and replace the CPU batteries.

Already replaced the batteries :)

Looks as though the GI connector has been replaced already. Nice and clean, and there was obviously re-soldering on the board from what I can see.

I know what you mean about the connectors though,. My BK2K had a connector that was just toasted! And the Riverboat Gambler is about due for a change as well.

Apprecite your heads-up thought!

Thanks,
Chris
 
some progress despite locktite :)

So I started to strip the playfield so I could clean this Diner machine properly. You may have seen my rant about Loc-Tite :)

Got some of the stuff off the lower playfield. Went to slide out the playfield to work on the back stuff, and guess what.....This series do not slide! Well, at least Diner doesn't. All it has are pivot points. So thins means I need to REMOVE the playfield to get to the stuff in the back. UGH!

I don;t have a playfield torisserie, so I was not sure what to do. There's no rails on the bottom of the playfield, and components stick down everywhere :(

Then I had an idea I'm kinda proud of.......I had this old junky broken foosball table that I have been using to keep the spare Pinball 2000 playfield on. So i took that, removed the rods and "play area" leaving basically an open feame.....which happens to be almost exactly the right size for a playfield!!!

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With the playfield out, I can really get down to business now! First thing....vacuum the nasty cabinet out!

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The non sliding playfield sucks. I had the same issue with earthshaker. Its not too bad pulling these out though. Nice to see this getting a proper restore. You going to clear the playfield? Any mylar on it?
 
That is a nice one. Glad you're keeping busy. :) Cool idea with the table!

Have fun and prayers and thoughts are with you. Looks great!
 
Got most of the playfield stripped now so cleaning can begin.

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Did the right drop targets today.

Before:

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After:

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More as things progress :)

Chris
 
Your playfield is in above average condition for a Diner playfield. Most of them have a ton of insert issues.

Thanks! It's not the worst I have seen. I have been looking for a Diner for a long time and probably overpaid for this one, but I think I will be happy with it when it's back together.

Chris
 
Don't know if anyone cares, but got some more done. LOL

Got most of the PF stripped now. The pop bumpers actually look pretty recently rebuilt. I am still on the fence about rebuilding them.

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Yuck! This will need some attention!

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Got the red targets done:

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MMMMMM!!!!! New parts porn! LOL :)

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More as things progress.

Chris
 
This was the only pinball machine we had on my college campus.

Great game.

Ittttt's Dinetime!
 
A little progress

Started the re-assembly process. I still need to get more T-Nuts (grrrr, locktite) but put some things back together :)

Thanks to the great collectors that have sent me pics since my memory card took a poop and I lost many of the tear down photos. I could not have been doing this without you!

Anyway, here is where it sits this morning. I am not a restorer, just a guy who loves pinball and tries to make his games look decent :) :

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Wow is that coffee cup decal crooked :(

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Chris
 
Last edited:
Started the re-assembly process. I still need to get more T-Nuts (grrrr, locktite) but put some things back together :)

Thanks to the great collectors that have sent me pics since my memory card took a poop and I lost many of the tear down photos. I could not have been doing this without you!

Anyway, here is where it sits this morning. I am not a restorer, just a guy who loves pinball and tries to make his games look decent :) :

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Wow is that coffee cup decal cooked :(

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Chris

Coming 'round great! Yours really is nice. When I went to pick up my FH, the person had a Diner that wasn't so great he was selling too. He knew it but the PF was worn badly to the wood all over the middle of the playfield. I mean really bad!

If you need some T nuts quick, I have about a dozen I can send you. Heck, I work in Collegeville, so if you head that direction, I can meet you and give them to you.
 
Thanks for the offer Nutty, It is appreciated. I should have mine on Friday with a bunch of stuff I ordered. The playfield is not perfect, but is is better than many I have seen.

I get little bits of time to work on stuff, so everything I get done is like a mini victory :)

Tonight's victory: Rebuilding the right slingshot and reassembling. Gotta love NOS plastics :):

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