Gorgar!!

Nerbflong

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Just picked up a G (lol) and need help! Got it for a good price, bought it non working as its missing parts.

Missing the glass, the back glass (sigh) and a few solenoids, some parts of the drop target assembly I think and a few switches.

Surprisingly enough, the main PCB seems to be untouched by acid damage at all and it working from what I can tell. The driver board on the other hand has a black burned section and some of the solenoids that are there do not fire. It looks like just one small transistor and the bigger one below it became carbon 14.


Sound works, and while I can hear the speech pushing the sound pcb's test button, I never hear any speech when playing the game. Odd. Any ideas?

For a 1979-80's pin, I'm amazed. Williams did a great job or Gorgar.


Now the question is, do I go all the way and restore it, or part it out? I cant fathom paying 300 for a new back glass for it. Thats just crazy.

Thoughts? Anyone need gorgar parts? lol
 
Gorgar's a great game. Backglasses do show up for sale from time to time, I know that Mayfair had them at some point, but don't know if they still do.

I'd restore it, if the playfield and cabinet are in good shape. But it all depends on the condition and budget. You can easily go crazy and spend a fortune restoring a pin.

-Hans
 
Thanks for the input! I'll look into restoring it then. The Cabinet is in okay shape, the playfield has little wear at all, just the usual cracking :(

Just gotta find a new driver board and misc parts now.
 
Thanks for the input! I'll look into restoring it then. The Cabinet is in okay shape, the playfield has little wear at all, just the usual cracking :(

Just gotta find a new driver board and misc parts now.

How about getting the driver board repaired? Would likely be cheaper. How bad is "Burned"?
Send me some photos, could still be repairable. Particularly closeups of the burned area, use the macros setting on your camera, the one with the little flower indicator.

-Hans
 
But I like to take upclose out of focus pictures!! My Nikon D80 is great at it!! (lol)

I think the tip transistor exploded in a small fire of pinball madness and vanished.

Several coils are not firing in the game. 1 pop bumper, the magnet I think, the kick out for the game start, the 2 drop targets and the other kick out hole in the playfield.


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Ahhh, finally somebody that knows how to take macro photos! (Nice camera by the way)

Any way to get a good shot of the backside, same area? Doesn't look like any holes through the board, and the traces are on the other side. Looks like it's still mounted in the cabinet,

Looks to be one other transistor was starting to burn up a touch, top-right of the photo.... and two down from that one looks cracked. If I were to venture a guess, you've got an oversized fuse for the solenoids on the power supply and at least a pair of shorted coils.

How good are you at board repairs? Or if you want, I can take a look at it here. All depends on what the board looks like under the carbon, isopropyl alchohol is great for cleaning that stuff off.

-Hans
 
I'm pretty sure Classic Playfield Reproductions is doing a Gorgar PF in the near future...They've already done a plastics sets and let me tell you-its beautiful! I picked up a set even though I don't own a Gorgar (yet). I'm looking for the right one with a blown-out PF for obvious reasons...
Jay
 
I'm not all that good at soldering. Cap kits are about the extent of what I'm willing to do, this board looks toasted and not fun to work on. I'd probably want to get it properly repaired and tested.

I'll take it out this weekend and post a pic of the backside. I'm curious to see how badly its burned there as well.

And whats wrong with putting in a over-sized fuse? Aren't you supposed to keep on putting bigger ones in till it stops blowing? That way you can see the black smoke of components and traces as they go up in flames! :001_ssuprised:

And yes, most certainly some coils have to be shorted. I saw a few that were blackish. :(
 
Yep, black coils are usually shorted. Throw an ohmmeter across the lugs and if it's less than 3ohms, it's a dead coil. Dollars to Donuts says that they match up with the fried transistors too.....

But yeah, definitely need to see the backside of those transistors to determine if it's repairable or not. From the topside, it's a close thing, but I can't really tell for sure if the fiberglass has started burning away or not. But it all really depends on the traces. If you see anything else funky on the back, take a picture of that too.... the 6821 for the switch matrix (top-right of the board) tends to get heat damaged over time, and I've seen some shoddy repairs in that area in the past.

-Hans
 
Here's hires photos of the PCB

Make sure to click on the medium sized picture to get the full 3400x2400 or so pic.

Found a nice 15 amp fuse where its supposed to be a 2.5 on the solenoids.

Do you check the solenoids with the diodes? The 2 missing coils must have been the 2 burnt ones. The ones left are showing over 3 ohms just like the working ones.

I did find 2 coils that had some fun heat issues. One the sleeve is slightly bubbled. The other? Wow, full of melted plastic goo.

I do appreciate the help Hans, thanks again.

Oh, any thoughts why my Gorgar doesn't speak to me? The test mode button cycles through all the sounds and speech, just no speech in game :(
 
Here's hires photos of the PCB

Make sure to click on the medium sized picture to get the full 3400x2400 or so pic.

Found a nice 15 amp fuse where its supposed to be a 2.5 on the solenoids.

Do you check the solenoids with the diodes? The 2 missing coils must have been the 2 burnt ones. The ones left are showing over 3 ohms just like the working ones.

I did find 2 coils that had some fun heat issues. One the sleeve is slightly bubbled. The other? Wow, full of melted plastic goo.

I do appreciate the help Hans, thanks again.

Oh, any thoughts why my Gorgar doesn't speak to me? The test mode button cycles through all the sounds and speech, just no speech in game :(

Looking over the photos now. The next thing I'd say to do is get a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a soft toothbrush, to clean that carbon off. Just be VERY gentle, becaus it looks like the traces might still be intact. Seems to be enough meat on the board too. I'd honestly want to replace or re-do at least a half dozen of those transistor pairs and their associated 7408's..... but I'm feeling better about the board being repairable. If it looks like what I think it will after the carbon is cleaned off, I'd be willing to give it a try if you're interested. Don't worry about scrubbing it all off, just the loose stuff that will come off easily.

There is a chance that the transistor problems are also causing your speech problems, as the solenoid section of the driver board is what triggers the sound/speech on a system 6. However, also try adjusting the potentiometer on the speech board..... it doesn't control volume at all, but instead controls the sound/speech balance. Spin it from stop to stop about a half dozen times, then put it around half way, see if that helps. Only the pot in the lower cabinet controls volume.

You can check the ohms on the solenoids with the diodes, that's fine. The diodes themselves usually fall apart when they fail, so give them a gentle tug at the diode body. If you have a reason to suspect a bad diode, just replace it, as you have to desolder one side to test it anyway. They're cheap diodes, just grab a bulk roll on e-bay. The coil full of goo will definitely need to be replaced, the bubbled one all depends on how smoothly the plunger moves through it, but might just need a sleeve or even just a cleaning.

-Hans
 
I've updated the gallery with 2 picks of the cleaned board and the damaged area. It didnt help much to be honest.

I'm just going to replace all the coils that look suspect. I did find the knocker coil to be completely frozen in place and black lol. Ouch

If you think the board is repairable I'd probably send it your way. Any idea on costs?

Before tearing the machine apart more, I had played with the pot on the speech board and didnt realize it was not the volume but rather the balance for speech and sound. I'll look into that when I get a fixed driver board going. And replaced coils lol
 
Not as good as I had hoped on that transistor, but still workable. Will need a some epoxy to build the board layers back up, a few eyelets, and some replacement trace material or jumper wires. Do-able, just not as easy as I had hoped......

Too tired at the moment to think about it too much, just got back from a wedding. I'll PM you tomorrow when I've had more time for lucid though.

-Hans
 
Not as good as I had hoped on that transistor, but still workable. Will need a some epoxy to build the board layers back up, a few eyelets, and some replacement trace material or jumper wires. Do-able, just not as easy as I had hoped......

Too tired at the moment to think about it too much, just got back from a wedding. I'll PM you tomorrow when I've had more time for lucid though.

-Hans


Hans, I got an untested driver board from gsrogers and installed it today. So far, I believe everything is working on it. Replaced all the burnt coils and have a mostly working Gorgar! Now waiting on the replacement rubber rings as the old ones all pretty much eroded away lol.

Speech is working, along with the heartbeat too. yay!!

Now I just need to fix the snakepit magnet area. The plunger there is all busted up :(

A quick question, what should this resistor be?

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Not sure what happened.. Its connected to the flashes for the snakepit and they do currently work. Should it be replaced?
 
That's the warmup resistor for the flasher bulbs, it helps their longevity, but as you can see..... it's a bit too small of a resistor with only a 2 watt rating..

I can't find a wiring diagram online to tell you the resistance value for sure..... was it one or two flash lamps connected to it? If it's two lamps in series, use a 300ohm 5watt resistor. If it's a different number of lamps I don't have the info at hand for it.

Looks like you're also missing a fuse there, correct?

Good to hear it about the new board, it's always a great feeling to get these old games back up and running well. It's just a shame that they were allowed to get into such bad condition in the first place.

-Hans
 
You're good! lol, I yanked that fuse in my testing.. And saw it was a 20 amp! Figured that was a bit high for the magnet.

Thanks for the resister value. Its 2 flasher lamps in the circuit.
 
Just saw this thread. If anyone has any info on a Gorgar playfiewld repro I'd love to hear about it.
Mine has the usual wear and I'd love to get it replaced!!!
 
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