TAF pickup

elfyhead

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picked up my TAF tonight, the one i was discussing in the diamondplate thread. it's in good cosmetic shape, needs some mechanical/electrical fixes (to be enumerated in a subsequent post).

first set of pics attached, of the cabinet and translite. in very good shape, IMHO.
 

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second set of pics, of the playfield. really minor wear. normal wear around the chair hole.

note the "fix" by the owner in picture 4, with a piece of clear packing tape blocking the outlane. nice...
 

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final set of pics. inside the backbox and cabinet, showing two electrical problems: 1 - one of the magnets is disconnected (don't know why); 2 - one of the fuses is a hack job.

overall, though, the boards look to be in pretty good shape. no battery damage (in fact, no batteries even in there!), no burns on the GI connectors, etc.

as i mentioned in the diamondplate thread, the biggest problem is that the DMD is not working at all. when i power it on, it's clear that there is a test report that it wants addressed, but since the DMD is out, i have no idea which one it is. but if i exit out of that, i can start up the game, and i can actually play it, and the sound works, all the features seem to work, etc.

so, known problems:
1 - DMD
2 - one magnet disconnected, not sure why
3 - fuse hacked
4 - major playfield glass scratch - will have to be replaced
5 - other minor cosmetics: coin door lock; backglass/translite lock missing, very minor cabinet and backbox knicks

overall, i'm very happy with my acquisition :).

ETA: one other problem - right slingshot plastic needs replacing; white pop bumper cover needs replacing.
 

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Looks pretty nice to me. I can't see much of anything wrong with the playfield, and that has become my most important aspect when looking at a machine.

I've played TAF several times in the past, and it's a good game. The Thing hand, etc. are interesting features. Even so, it escapes me how it sold as many as it did, and is a "top 10" game. I guess I don't get it. :)
 
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Looks like a nice game overall! TAF is one of my favorites, I'd like to buy one someday.
 
Not a TAF expert by any means but typically a B/W game BONGS when a switch hasn't been activated after so many games. Take the glass off, start a game and manually trigger EVERY switch. Then shut it off and turn it back on and see if the error persists.

Nice pickup - I have a lot of love for that game!
 
ahh - you may be right. but i wouldn't be surprised to find a bad switch or coil in there either. getting the DMD fixed is obviously the first order of business, so that i can see what's going on!

played two full games last night though - everything works as far as i can tell :)...
 
ahh - you may be right. but i wouldn't be surprised to find a bad switch or coil in there either. getting the DMD fixed is obviously the first order of business, so that i can see what's going on!

played two full games last night though - everything works as far as i can tell :)...

Mine bongs every time I turn it on because I haven't set the time and date.

Phil
 
Looks like it will be a nice game cleaned up. I like the "extra" coils in the cabinet!

I picked one up a few years back and it was my winter project to fix up. Mine had a coin door that someone cut the cab to install. I ended up making a new cabinet front to fix it properly. That was the worse detail on mine and everything else cleaned up great.


Coin door from Hell~


Before & After:

vaultdoor.jpg


IMG_0921-1.jpg


IMG_0922.jpg


IMG_0924.jpg
 
Looks like it will be a nice game cleaned up. I like the "extra" coils in the cabinet!

yeah, those were nice - along with the old flipper rubbers, some cut springs, and inside the coin box, two quarters, a token, and a bunch of lamp bulbs :)...

nice work on the front panel replacement - that started out as one ugly beast! the coin door on mine is by far the worst part cosmetically...
 
yeah, those were nice - along with the old flipper rubbers, some cut springs, and inside the coin box, two quarters, a token, and a bunch of lamp bulbs :)...

nice work on the front panel replacement - that started out as one ugly beast! the coin door on mine is by far the worst part cosmetically...



Believe me I did not plan it the way it went. I am in Ohio and the TAF was in PA. I had a few pics of the game and I was most concerned with getting a nice PF as about everything else can be replaced. I agreed to buy it. Drove 2.5 hours to get it. When I walked in and saw that big honking coin door I really wanted to puke. Once past that the rest of the game was all there and actually pretty nice but DIRTY! I did not plan on doing any cabinet work but if its needed its needed. I had a few guys try to talk me into gluing a strip of wood there and forget it. I cant do that. If it needs fixed I will fix it right. It took a while to get it patched up correctly then find a front cab decal. Once finished THEN I got to shop the rest of it. Take your time, do it right and enjoy what your doing.

Its always a great indicator when you tip your "new" game on end to move it and hear an avalanche inside!
 
Believe me I did not plan it the way it went. I am in Ohio and the TAF was in PA. I had a few pics of the game and I was most concerned with getting a nice PF as about everything else can be replaced. I agreed to buy it. Drove 2.5 hours to get it. When I walked in and saw that big honking coin door I really wanted to puke. Once past that the rest of the game was all there and actually pretty nice but DIRTY! I did not plan on doing any cabinet work but if its needed its needed. I had a few guys try to talk me into gluing a strip of wood there and forget it. I cant do that. If it needs fixed I will fix it right. It took a while to get it patched up correctly then find a front cab decal. Once finished THEN I got to shop the rest of it. Take your time, do it right and enjoy what your doing.

Its always a great indicator when you tip your "new" game on end to move it and hear an avalanche inside!

You did a really awesome job on replacing the front of that cab!!
 
OK - so i measured the voltages on the DMD tonight. as a reminder, i power on the game, and the DMD is blank. absolutely blank.

pin 1 - -119
pin 2 - -103
pin 6 - +5
pin 7 - +6.5
pin 8 - +66

so, it looks like pin 7 is the culprit, which is supposed to be +12. these voltages are present both with the original board, and a brand new vishay one (though with the new one, pin 7 goes up to about +7.8).

is there a particular thing to look for with the +12 being so low like this, or should i just look at doing the HV circuit rework?

EDIT: actually, is the difference between pin 1 and pin 2 also too large? pinrepair.com says it should be 12V, and it's 16V...
 
OK - so i measured the voltages on the DMD tonight. as a reminder, i power on the game, and the DMD is blank. absolutely blank.

pin 1 - -119
pin 2 - -103
pin 6 - +5
pin 7 - +6.5
pin 8 - +66

so, it looks like pin 7 is the culprit, which is supposed to be +12. these voltages are present both with the original board, and a brand new vishay one (though with the new one, pin 7 goes up to about +7.8).

is there a particular thing to look for with the +12 being so low like this, or should i just look at doing the HV circuit rework?

EDIT: actually, is the difference between pin 1 and pin 2 also too large? pinrepair.com says it should be 12V, and it's 16V...


Get this for $5-

http://www.greatplainselectronics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=WPC-HVP-KIT


I would just re-build the display board now and be done with it. I do it to all of my games when I get them. Also order a few bridge rectifiers and filter caps and replace those also while your in there. (Unless the board already looks like it was replaced prior).

You could try the display on another game but the cheap re-build kit is worth doing.
 
You did a really awesome job on replacing the front of that cab!!

Thanks you sir.
Believe me I think I would have passed on the game had I known but it worked out. My original plan was to drag it home and have it shopped in a couple weeks and slide it in my line up. It turned out it was my winter project but still came out very nice.

I did add the newer style WPC corner brackets to the front / inside cabinet. They are a lot stronger and support the cabinet better than the original flat ones. This was one of those repairs that was cheap in cost (Wood $10, cab decal $50) and a lot of labor Vs. expensive part and quick fix.
 
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