SpeedyCorky's Restoration thread: Race Drivin'

SpeedyCorky

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UPDATED SEPT 2011 !!!!
See the end of the thread


Well I had been looking for a Hard Drivin' or Race Drivin' machine for several months; and thanks to a fellow IAM/KLOV member who spotted this one for me - I went a picked it up last night! I am soooooooo happy I was able to source a Race Drivin' !!!! It is not in the best of shape but it is very playable and mostly fully functional. This was by far my favorite arcade game/simulator when I was a wee little lad.

This thread is dedicated to restoring and fixing this machine; with a little of your help, and a lot of work by me, and hopefully not too much money - we can do it !!!


Got her setup in the corner of my garage




Steering wheel. it needs adjustment (alignment more like it), and most all the bolts on the dashboard are a bit rusty and will be replaced



Shifter. I am going to find a nice leather shift knob to go in place of this ratty thing



a blurry shot of the ignition. again, rust bolts, disgustingness in the keyring hole of the fake key, key is rust/discolored...will fix...
 
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more initial pics, descriptions and questions

floor and pedal assembly. obviously needs new carpet or some type of mat installed. already lubed the squeeky gas pedal, and installed a rubber bump stop for the gas and the clutch. I will soon add one for the brake pedal also



gum and other gross stuff on the main floor mat..... ew... will be replaced



another shot of the side artwork. not in horrible shape, but not in great shape either. i am not going to have it repainted or anything; but i will get some yellow touch up paint to fill in where the yellow has been pealed off, and i will replace the black 'glass' sticker that is the side 'windows', as the current sticker is warped and coming off



Play counter. lotta use on this machine it seems!
 
and now we go into the machine...!

here is where the questions start....


in this pic i am holding a white/grey ribbon plug in cord thingie. i am holding the unplugged end next to the end that is plugged into what i think is the PCB. where does/should this open end be plugged into? what is/was it used for ???
UPDATE: it plugs into the steering PCB, which is located in the upper right of the cabinet; into a place on the PCB that is on its bottom right. it the place it plugs into on the steering PCB should have a red plastic surround, just like the one on the main PCB that the other end is already plugged into. i guess people unplug it if they dont want the force feedback feature. unplugging it *as shown here in the pic* will cause the steering mechanism to fail if you have the machine do the self test - but the steering will still work just fine and the game will be playable.



we are looking at basically the front middle of the access to the machine. what is that black cylinder thing hanging there (by what looks like speaker wire!!!??). it doesnt look factory. what is it used for and why might it have been installed?



just behind the monitor there is the little unit that has a plug coming out of it that is not plugged into anything. what should this plug be plugged into?



a shot of the inside of the machine. i already vacuumed out the bottom.... rat poop, cigarette buts, gum wrappers....nasty. i have since also took an air gun to the all the electronic boards in there, which got most of the dust and crud off, but a lot still remains. how can i clean this electronic stuff w/o messing it up? i've heard a paintbrush (?)



a shot of the entire upper part of the cabinet, behind the monitor. notice in the upper left of the picture there seems to be mounting for another type of electronic board or something, and a plug next to it that i presume plugged into whatever used to be there. so what used to be there !?!?
 
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more questions....

bottom center of this picture, on the main PCB, there is a square thing in the PCB that it looks like a chip of some type goes in there (?); does one?




look at this jerry-rigged crap!!! not even some electrical tape going over these connected wires. and again, why the modified electrical system?




looks like someone used some household appliance wire to rig something up here. again why would the wiring be modified?




cabinet a little cleaner after some air blastin' and vacuuming. ok, well, not that much cleaner... again, how do i clean this electronic stuff w/o messing anything up?




some kinda fuse panel. all fuses seem to be intact. am i missing something in that 2nd to left fuse bay ?
 
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more questions and pics..........

what is this box? i assume power related(?) and what does this adjustment thingie do?
UPDATE: the black box is the power voltage regular. put a voltmeter with the black wire on the ground, the measure the voltage on the 5v and 12v respective screws. the volts should be adjusted to a bit over 5 volts (like maybe 5.05 or 5.15ish) at the 5v screw, and the 12v voltage will change accordingly. the 12volt screw might read in the high 12's when you are done (12.7 or 12.9). adjust the voltage by the little black turn knob. the light on the black box will illuminate yellow if there is not enough voltage, and green when there is enough. so in theory, if you didnt have a voltmeter, you could just turn the knob down until the light turns yellow, then turn it up VERY VERY VERY slowly juuuust until the light turns green - and you're golden!




inner guts of the front of the machine, behind the coin insert.




and finally, seems the screen is discolored both in the right lower corner, and in the upper left corner. possible fix? do i need a new screen? if so, where would i get one?
UPDATE: well thankfully i figured this one out myself... there is a little adjuster PCB about 2 inches by 5 inches, that has all the monitor controls for contrast, horozontal and vertial adjustmet and such... well it also has a momentary switch on it, which is a degaussing button. pressed it once or twice and the monitor discoloration was gone :)




aaaaaaaaaand thats about it for now folks!

please help by answering some of my questions if you are able to!
I will continually update this thread with progress, and i will go back and edit in answer to the questions i ask, so that people can use this thread for reference if they want to fix/adjust/restore their Race Drivin' or Hard Drivin' machine!
 
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try to answer a few..

your monitor has been replaced. The game normally has a wells medium rez in it (u5000?). As may plays as yours had, it probably was worn out and replaced. the sharp image proabbly had a universal mount frame that would not work, so they tossed it and used the old wells frame.

the black box is your power supply for the pcb. The adjustment is +5v. You need a meter to check it, so dont move the adjust knob.

as for missing chips and fuses. not all parts are used. if there is no wires to the fuse, then it was just an extra. When chips are missing and the board works, it could have been something not needed. Some boards from race drivin are similar/same to other atari games. Steel talons, stunn runner and even airborne proto uses same/similar boards.
 
thanx for the info!

so is the monitor that was put in there similar, the same, better, worse, than the original monitor? *excuse my ignorance on 1980's monitor tech lolz*
is it also a "medium resolution" ?

what kinda meter do i need to check the black box power supply?
I have a Ohm meter/reader thing cuz i'm a car mechanic. will that work?
where do i want to measure it, and what value do i want to adjust it to?


so what can i clean the PCB's with? do i need any special type of *anti static* paint brush? if so, would a place like Fry's carry one?
OK to use electronic parts spray cleaner on the PCB's ?
 
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you need a meter with a dc voltage test. it should be a little over +5. Someting like +5.05 is fine. The adjust only changes the +5v.

if you can't clean the board with compressed air, don't mess with it. your going to do more harm than good.

yes, its a medium rez monitor. Different brand than the orignal but will work the same.
 
yea, i'd really hate to go spend 2 hours cleaning the PCB's, only to reinstall them and have something not work....... maybe leave 'em


OK further updates (and more questions haha) !!!!


cleaned up the abort button and seat control button panel. new bolts, and cleaned the dash artwork really well




cleaned the ignition key and panel, new bolts also. lubed and adjusted the key turn assembly.




small beans, but new bolts that hold the steering wheel motor to the dash board




found 2 old arcade gaming tokens under the floorboard !!! cleaned 'em up a bit with a wire wheel.
i was really hoping to find some coins from an arcade that this machine was stationed !!!!!! i'm super duper happy about this find!
 
OK so the seat lock doesnt work....hence why i pulled up the floorboard ...

the seat does not lock into position.
with the floorboard removed, i found the big magnet totally (looked like purposely) disconnected from the assembly. so i suspect when/if it broke originally, the previous owner just disabled the entire system by cutting the wires and removing the magnet all together. thankfully they left the magnet in the floorboard, so at least i have something to work with... kinda....the magnet looks like it has seen waaaaaay better days.... any way to test the magnet itself ???


here is the troubleshooting schematic from the manual for the machine:




this is how i found it... the bracket that attaches the magnet to the assembly was broken, twisted, pretty fubar...
this pic was taken AFTER i bent the bracket back into the basic shape it looked like it was originally.




i do a lot of car and motorcycle custom work, so my garage is pretty setup for such things... busted out the welder and make this thing stronger than it was from the factory
once it get it all working, i will paint the bracket before it put it all back together; but its fine for now for troubleshooting




i THINK this is how the magnet is installed onto the assembly...this seems to be the way it is in the instruction manual picture
but notice the 2 inner arc scrape marks. they dont line up with the magnet (or anything else), which is odd. granted the bracket that held the magnet was seriously bent up, so it might have been rubbing the floor metal in the wrong place for quite some time before someone disabled it... thoughts?
 
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reguardless if the magnet is positioned correctly, i'd figure it should still at least work, or kinda work, with how it is in now... but it doesnt. following the troubleshooting schematic....

seat locks in seat magnet test?: NO

so i am supposed to:
measure voltage at magnetic while you do seat magnet test: voltage seemed to be 1.19~
it measures the same at the magnet and at the place i got the volt meter in this picture



so the voltage is supposed to be at least 3 volts according to the manual...... so now according to the manual, i must:
"check the seat magnet control transistor on the APU PCB mounted on the power supply"

so uh, yea...um... how do i find/identify this transistor? and how to i test if it works?

here is a picture of what i think/assume is the "APU PCB mounted on the power supply" (it is labeled as such on the left side)


so where is that pesky transistor? and how do i check it?


thanx in advance folks !!!! :)
 
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FYI - someone on eBay is selling a magnet assembly for Hard Drivin'. Don't know if it's what you need or if it even fits Race Drivin', but figured I'd give you a heads up. Btw, I am not the one selling it.

Edit: Looks just like an old Kohler engine ignition coil actually, but bigger.
 
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thanx for the heads up on the magnet... wow, seeing one in good condition compared to the piece of crap that i got...... hahhaha .... i got a bid going for it..... knowing my luck, someone on here will see that i want it, and will out bid me, then PM me to try and sell it to me for double hahaha
 
serviced the shifter mechanism today

cleaned all joints and threads really well, and lubed 'em up for smooth operation.

i also took it upon myself to upgrade my shifter knob... the stock one on Race Drivin' is held in by a pin, which you hammer thru the shift knob, the shift rod shaft, then back thru the knob again. makes it hard to remove the knob, and seriously limits your options as to what type of knob you can put on...... we'll have none of that!

I had an spare shift knob laying around, so i went and sourced a bolt that would thread into it. i welded the bolt to the shift rod shaft, and ground it down to acceptably smooth. now the shift knob just screws right on and off in seconds - and i can put virtually any type of shift knob on there! woot !!!!




all back together again. new stainless bolts n' all - she works real nice now
 
did some more work on the machine today

my solution to the broken seat stay magnet hahaha




new main floor carpeting being glued on




replaced the monitor protection glass





HEY LOOK !!!
i beat Phantom Photon on the original track!!! i was so excited, i forgot to enter my name!
**** Phantom Photon's time is 1:33.00 ****

lolz lolz lolz hahahahaha
 
Fuses?

Just noticed in the pic with the Fuses that those are time delayed fuses.

And this raises an excellent question for me. Should time delayed fuses be used in arcade cabinets or just normal electronic fast blowing fuses? Or does it vary by cabinet and game?
 
Awesome, I was a teenager when hard driving came out, I remember an operator saying that it cost him $25k! I wonder if that is true.

Sent from my android phone
 
i dunno about the fuse thing, hopefully someone else can chime in..


$25k!~~~ no way! back in ~1990 that was like SERIOUS money





OK i got another issue/problem, should be an easy one. i've seen a fix/solution on this message forum/board before, but after several searches, i cant seem to find it again:

my game WILL remember high scores, but it wont remember best lap times. get a good lap time, and shut the game off, and your lap time has gone away and back to the factory best lap times that "phantom Photon" set etc etc .

i think it was i gotta replace some kinda battery or ROM chip or something like that

HELLLLLLLLLLLP !!!
aside from the seat not locking, that is the only thing left that keeps this from being a FULLY functional machine!!
 
wowzers!

scored 212,000 points!!!

which according to some Google searches, is REALLY, REALLY good. highest reported high scores in the 100k to 150k range were all i could find...

video proof:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEEOwInc4BM


:D

i did some more restoration work on it too; i'll post up pictures when i get the floorboard carpet done
 
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Awesome job on the resto so far. This game (and cabinet style) is on my want-list, somewhere around having a basement large enough to fit a Race Drivin' ;)
 
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