williams united's thunderbird bowling arcade

thunderchim

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I can buy this game that looks good , lights up , but doesn't register that the puck knocked down any pins. Does anyone know about this game/ getting parts for it / or how hard it would be to repair? Does anyone know value of this game or a good price for me to offer to buy it ? Does anyone need it for parts to repair their game if this can't be restored? I want to restore for my game room if it can be done. Thanks for any info./help on this.

Thanks,
Mitch
 
This is an EM machine. There could be a thousand things that would cause this. But, first things first.

It lights up. This means it's getting power, and nothing else. The light bulbs are all connected to the transformer and are not controlled by anything.

When you coin it up, you should hear a clunk as the credit unit steps. Does it? Does it cycle? When you put a coin in, and press the start button, the machine should reset. All the score reels should reset back to zero, and you should hear a fair amount of clicking and chugging. If it doesn't do anything, then you need to start finding out why.

This should give you a background in EM games:
http://www.pinrepair.com/em/

Problems with EM machines are usually easy to fix, you don't need any special tools or anything. Problems range from bad switch contacts, bad wiring, faulty/bound up solenoids, and jammed/gummed up score reels. A very common problem is stepper units and score reels getting stuck from the decades old grease solidifying. If the score reels won't reset to zero, and the various stepper units won't reset, then the game will never start, and it won't do much of anything.

Also, this should probably be over in the mechanical arcade section, since it's not a video game.

-Ian
 
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