Removing Top Skater Skateboard Brake

DogP

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Just wanted to make a quick post about this... when I got my Top Skater years ago, the steel peg out the bottom of the skateboard (connected to the gear) was cracked. I welded it and put everything back together... but at one of my parties recently, I noticed it was broken again.

Maybe I didn't weld it very well (I'm not very good at it)... but the reason for it breaking in the first (and second) place is that people get on the skateboard and rock it back and forth while the brake mechanism has the gears locked. The skateboard ends up acting as a lever and is able to put a lot of force on the small peg. IIRC, Sega put out a tech bulletin telling operators to make sure people don't swing the skateboard back and forth while it's locked (yeah right).

Anyway, I repaired the peg again, but to (hopefully) prevent myself from having to fix this ever again, I wanted to disable the brake. Without the brake, the skateboard moves freely whether the game is playing or not, which I don't really see being a problem (particularly in my home arcade). By moving freely, there's very little stress on the peg, gears, etc.

Looking at it from the bottom, I thought I could remove the gear to the brake, but it was really hard to access. I figured maybe I could disassemble the brake mechanism itself from the top. After disassembling it and removing the friction pad, I noticed it was better, but still dragged. Then I noticed the obvious 4 bolt solution. :)

To get to it, remove the panel on the back of the skateboard base (behind the coin door area) and slide the subwoofer out. Then you'll see 4 bolts holding the brake assembly to the larger bracket (don't remove the large bolts holding the large bracket to the cabinet). Once you remove those bolts and disconnect the connector to the brake, the whole brake assembly will simply pull out, and the skateboard will be permanently unlocked. See attached pics.

I hope this helps someone in the future.

DogP
 

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After the first 20 or so of these units broke the shafts we came up with a retrofit with new shaft and fitting that went to gear. It would not break. Guess you had original splined type.

Breaking lose the brake will work but it makes for another issue. Kids jump on board and it slides out from under them. I think you are better off welding it like it needs to stand up to godzilla and leaving brake as original. Just my input.
 
After the first 20 or so of these units broke the shafts we came up with a retrofit with new shaft and fitting that went to gear. It would not break. Guess you had original splined type.

Breaking lose the brake will work but it makes for another issue. Kids jump on board and it slides out from under them. I think you are better off welding it like it needs to stand up to godzilla and leaving brake as original. Just my input.
Yeah, mine was a splined shaft that came out the bottom of the skateboard. I'm curious though... how did a retrofit work? From what I could tell, the shaft was part of the skateboard assembly, and there was really no way to replace it without replacing the whole skateboard.

I fixed mine by drilling the center out, tapping it for M10x1.5 (same as the bolt that attached the gear), made a notch in the stub left and drilled a hole in a grade 10.9 bolt and pounded a roll pin through it (so the bolt is the new shaft). Then I put the rest of the spline back on the bolt (so the gear could reattach) and tightened everything back on with a lock nut (and loctite on all the threads).

I assumed the brake was to keep it from moving when kids jumped on it, though it's in my basement, so I'm not really worried about it. The skateboard doesn't really move very far, and it's not the smoothest moving board anyway... and since it unlocks during gameplay, I guess it's only designed to protect non-paying kids? ;)

Thanks,
DogP
 
Mod included new skateboard base with shaft, new plate/bushing and a bolt I beleive. Shaft had flat cuts on each side where plate mated up to it. Pretty much break proof. Most of the time, these only broke when bolt started to come loose. Like on splined steering shafts, when bolt or nut comes loose, the shaft would shear shortly after.
 
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