It all started when I asked my buddy for a non-specific driving game for my collection over 20 months ago. He soon offered me a sit-down Night Driver from 1976...a game that is two years older than I am! He had just saved two from becoming MAME drivers, both were almost equally in the same shape: completely trashed and left out in the rain to rot.
Night Driver sat in a corner of the garage for over a year, other projects took priority, until I put a ton of work into it over the past week. I felt if I didn't do it now, it would never get done.
The harness PCB connector has been replaced and successfully rewired. An order from Mouser got the PCB recapped. Games this old take the voltage straight from the ISO as AC current and generate it on the board so these were critically needed. The edge connector was nearly burned off and required the Bob Robert's edge connector repair method. See the pic.
I found a new RF cage for the PCB, it was simply screwed into the back door when I got it. The pinouts for the connector on the internet were awful, so I had to take a chance at just running with my work as-is. Seems to be fine.
The monitor also got a complete cap-kit. One of the caps had literally exploded it's guts onto the board earlier in it's life. Some of the components are rusty, but amazingly, they all work including the pots. Very complex underside of this monitor. Nothing that needed service, but if anything ever goes wrong, I don't know enough about black and white monitors to do much good. Right now it is 100% operational, so I'm not going to worry about it until it breaks in the future. I've heard black and whites can almost take a bullet and still work. After this, I believe it! See the pic.
The shifter was given a lot of new parts including micro-switches, screws, nuts, etc. I decided to go ahead and run with the bearing that was pitted and rusty that I had extracted some time ago. It still works well enough. New lube and some WD40 helped a lot. The final shifting action is very smooth. The newer micro-switches are slightly smaller than the ones from '76 so they also required new custom actuators courtesy of a nail cutter and my 6 penny nails. I also zip tied it together. Look carefully at the pic and you can see where I spliced a new connector in the harness.
I also gave it a new power cord. I did not go through the power brick section, maybe I'll clean the 1976 era fuses just to say I did. The cab got a complete vacuuming too.
The fallen board that should be attached to the bottom of the seat is being held in place by my car jack and liquid nails at the moment. I'll see how good the adhesive works in a couple of days when I remove it.
I still have some things to do on it, some new washers and my friend is going to help with the very soft sound effects. I cranked the on-board pot to the maximum level. Still, I feel it is good enough to show off a little.
Night Driver sat in a corner of the garage for over a year, other projects took priority, until I put a ton of work into it over the past week. I felt if I didn't do it now, it would never get done.
The harness PCB connector has been replaced and successfully rewired. An order from Mouser got the PCB recapped. Games this old take the voltage straight from the ISO as AC current and generate it on the board so these were critically needed. The edge connector was nearly burned off and required the Bob Robert's edge connector repair method. See the pic.
I found a new RF cage for the PCB, it was simply screwed into the back door when I got it. The pinouts for the connector on the internet were awful, so I had to take a chance at just running with my work as-is. Seems to be fine.
The monitor also got a complete cap-kit. One of the caps had literally exploded it's guts onto the board earlier in it's life. Some of the components are rusty, but amazingly, they all work including the pots. Very complex underside of this monitor. Nothing that needed service, but if anything ever goes wrong, I don't know enough about black and white monitors to do much good. Right now it is 100% operational, so I'm not going to worry about it until it breaks in the future. I've heard black and whites can almost take a bullet and still work. After this, I believe it! See the pic.
The shifter was given a lot of new parts including micro-switches, screws, nuts, etc. I decided to go ahead and run with the bearing that was pitted and rusty that I had extracted some time ago. It still works well enough. New lube and some WD40 helped a lot. The final shifting action is very smooth. The newer micro-switches are slightly smaller than the ones from '76 so they also required new custom actuators courtesy of a nail cutter and my 6 penny nails. I also zip tied it together. Look carefully at the pic and you can see where I spliced a new connector in the harness.
I also gave it a new power cord. I did not go through the power brick section, maybe I'll clean the 1976 era fuses just to say I did. The cab got a complete vacuuming too.
The fallen board that should be attached to the bottom of the seat is being held in place by my car jack and liquid nails at the moment. I'll see how good the adhesive works in a couple of days when I remove it.
I still have some things to do on it, some new washers and my friend is going to help with the very soft sound effects. I cranked the on-board pot to the maximum level. Still, I feel it is good enough to show off a little.
