Pole Position... You knew it was coming.

Iggy

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Okay, this is partially to keep record on what I'm doing, and partially to accept any advice offered.

I've given the outside a good scrub down, but the steering wheel is still a little sticky.

It's got a Wells Gardner monitor, s/n 498829. Neck looks intact. Shroud is torn a bit, but fixable. About to remove marque and bezel for cleaning. CPO cleaned up nicely, but is wrinkled.

Monitor has mild burn in. Shroud has been taped prior, but I still have hope for it.

Needed to use some liquid wrench on marque screws. Only burned through six magic erasers on the outside.
 
here's what I plan on doing with our PP and PP2:

1) rebuild AR2s (skip Bob Roberts and buy the like 7 parts total from GPE, since you know you'll have caps made in the last 20 years)
2) eliminate Sense, you won't need it anymore after step 3
3) test point mod, just be finished with the edge connector power

I had to wash the steering board with Simple Green and a toothbrush, it was caked in some sinister gunk.
 
Definitely doing the test point mod. It just makes sense. I'll need to secure parts of the bottom of the cab, but that should be easy. The bottom inside is filthy, and there were definitely mice living there at some point. When we pulled it out of the garage, I let it sit for a while, to give any possible residents time to move. Doesn't look like any wires were chewed, though. That's a plus.

I'm taking before and after pics, but won't post them just yet.

There appears to be two big blues in there. Locks have to be changed, can't find the key. Coin box is missing. Coin mechs need cleaning, and there are a few loose wires in the coin door.

Overall, though, it's in better shape than it first looked to be. For that, I'm pleasantly surprised. :D
 
oh yeah, forgot the big blue nonsense. GPE apparently carries replacements for those too.

the second PP I cobbled together (ironically with a PP2 back door sheet) with a PP2 board I fixed happens to have a ton of dirt in the bottom. I'll get around to that another day. I'm just celebrating having a working PP and PP2 at this juncture. and I ran them for awhile and they didn't self destruct.
 
He is, I'm not. I'm keeping this baby as original as possible. Tomorrow I start pulling mechanics and giving them a good cleaning. Then pull the pcb and check for battery damage, and start the hack.

Unless I need to order parts, I should have this baby going by the weekend.
 
here's what I plan on doing with our PP and PP2:

1) rebuild AR2s (skip Bob Roberts and buy the like 7 parts total from GPE, since you know you'll have caps made in the last 20 years)
2) eliminate Sense, you won't need it anymore after step 3
3) test point mod, just be finished with the edge connector power

I had to wash the steering board with Simple Green and a toothbrush, it was caked in some sinister gunk.

Missed this question last night, but what/who is GPE?

The toothbrush idea is a good one, I think I'll have a go that way, since the stickiness is tearing up magic erasers pretty bad. It IS better than it was, though. Even Clorox wipes aren't handling it well.

I'm just waking up(was up until 4:00am working on this thing), and I've got a few things to do first before I can get started on PP.

What is the type of wood product the cabinet is made out of called? My cats won't stop trying to get inside the thing, so having the top open like that isn't helping. I mostly want to make sure they don't get hurt from any residual power in the monitor. But I also don't want them to cause any damage.
 
The big blue is used to filter the rectified 10.3vdc coming from the transformer assembly. If it starts to fail, I.e. its resistance goes up and capacitance goes down the amount of inrush current can go up and blow fuses. Also if the cap is so bad that it drops below 7V you will have regulation problems from the AR's.

To date I still haven't found an out of spec AR2 capacitor. The nichicon TVX series caps are monstrous workhorses and I personally wouldn't bother replacing them until they blow up. The 2N3055 is always the failure point (or the Lm305 sometimes)
 
Ed at Great Plains Electronics
https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/

As knowledgeable and friendly/helpful as they get.

Looking around their site, it looks like they have mostly post '85 stuff. I did see a few things of interest, though. Including a possible replacement relay for Paddle Battle. Prices are quite reasonable, too. Definitely bookmarking them.
 
here's what I plan on doing with our PP and PP2:

1) rebuild AR2s (skip Bob Roberts and buy the like 7 parts total from GPE, since you know you'll have caps made in the last 20 years)
2) eliminate Sense, you won't need it anymore after step 3
3) test point mod, just be finished with the edge connector power

I had to wash the steering board with Simple Green and a toothbrush, it was caked in some sinister gunk.

funny i have not had a bad experience with bob roberts and his parts yet. he is probably the quickest to return emails too. even if its just an inquiry and im not buying anything. Ed has been an excellent resource as well.
thanks
blake
 
I've had bad caps from Bob. I hate to beef on the dude but there's other suppliers out there too.
 
I've had bad caps from Bob. I hate to beef on the dude but there's other suppliers out there too.

fair enough. certainly a great community of knowledge out there to network with. i think i appreciate bobs approach at making the purchase and installation of every part idiot proof. i tend to find myself stumbling for info before purchasing the correct parts from other suppliers. some forum members you can just flat out rely on getting you exactly what you need to fix the problem(buffet), and thats even better.
thanks
blake
 
Didn't get a chance to mess with it yesterday, but got back to it today. It's about 98% clean, so I thought I'd skip on along to the next step....

Okay..... you caught me.... I wasn't going to plug it in yet, but I had to know something. So I took a chance and did. Monitor comes up, there is neck glow...

PHfr34l.jpg


Marquee light is out... but I should have another one around here. I'll get to that later, though. For the moment, I'm trying to figure out how to get the PCBs out of the metal cage they are in. Harness connection seems nice and tight(which is quite surprising, all things considered)...
 
both cabs by me the boards just slide out. unless of course you still have the filter boards.. that's a different story LOL

my god I can only imagine how much worse Sense and dirty edges and shitty power could be with the filter boards still on.
 
This is where a hardcopy of the manual would come in handy........

ON6AGPa.jpg


Remember, this baby hasn't been worked on for over 30 years..... I literally just got it from the original owners.
 
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