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
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