You never know what may show up at a yard sale...

KidVidiot

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Well kinda at least. It popped up on craigslist but it took me a few hours to notice, so I assumed it was long gone. The guy was cleaning out his father-in-law's storage unit and found it and had it out in his YARD SALE on saturday!

I called him immediately and actually got through. He said he had had a few calls about it and some low ball offers so I flat out said I would take it for his asking price. He wasn't sure if it worked but said all the boards were there and it lit up and seemed to coin up when plugged in. I couldn't make it out there until today so I sent him a deposit via paypal and happily there was no funny business between then and today.

Got it home and looked it over and it's actually in really nice shape - side art is fully intact on both sides, glass has very minimal flaking in a couple spots, and the cpo is decent although I will probably replace.

So I opened up the back to start to see if I could eyeball anything that was wrong before plugging it in. All the boards and everything else looked practically brand new, all the wiring looked nice...and then I notice - no belts! I find the remnants of the belts scattered along the bottom of the cabinet. Hoping that this is the only problem, I turn the game on, and sure enough, all the lights come on, the scoreboard display comes on, and even better, both motors start going.

So I guess I still don't know for sure if there are any pcb issues, as (assuming because no belts) it wouldn't cycle into the start of a new game, but I'm pretty happy with my purchase. Just a few days ago I was seriously considering biting the bullet and paying for an expensive one on ebay and having it shipped...but now so glad I didn't.

Also I find it kind of hilarious that some people could have stopped by this guy's yard sale and browsed through his stuff like "Hmm...shoes, baby clothes, board games, Ice Cold Beer, ...."
 

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Since the motors started up, that's a good sign- the board starts the motors at power on, then looks for a limit switch closure at the end of the rod travel.

I bet with a set of belts and some cleaning, you'll have a perfectly working game. For replacements, I like the thinner wiper arm tubing instead of the regular vacuum tubing. Then I use a section of all thread from a cut off machine screw as a joiner, and position it under the horizontal traveling bar clamp. That way it never goes over a pulley.

Clean off any grease on the vertical rods and use some silicone spray so everything slides smoothly for the best gameplay. Here's my 12 yr old playing our Zeke's Peak:

 
Nice score! I've never gotten to play one of those, but they look so cool!

I've had some good luck at yard/rummage sales. I scored a Pinbot from one, and my jukebox, Junkyard claw game, and Aloha pin in a package deal from another one (he threw in the Aloha for free...SCORE!). The second one was a local guy who restores stuff, mostly jukes, and has a sale once a year getting rid of the stuff he doesn't want to mess with. There's always fun stuff there.

Usually though, when they list a pinball in the rummage sale ad, you get there and it's a table top or cheap kids standup one. Oh well...it's worth the stop since you never know!
 
Since the motors started up, that's a good sign- the board starts the motors at power on, then looks for a limit switch closure at the end of the rod travel.

I bet with a set of belts and some cleaning, you'll have a perfectly working game. For replacements, I like the thinner wiper arm tubing instead of the regular vacuum tubing. Then I use a section of all thread from a cut off machine screw as a joiner, and position it under the horizontal traveling bar clamp. That way it never goes over a pulley.

Clean off any grease on the vertical rods and use some silicone spray so everything slides smoothly for the best gameplay. Here's my 12 yr old playing our Zeke's Peak:
Ok cool, good to know. I assume it couldn't find the limit switch closure, as the motors just kept going and going after power on. I did notice a bunch of grease on the vertical rods so will clean that up, and need to go grab some silicone spray

And yes, pole position cockpit and an Atari Football (for sale!) peeking out back there
 
Ok cool, good to know. I assume it couldn't find the limit switch closure, as the motors just kept going and going after power on. I did notice a bunch of grease on the vertical rods so will clean that up, and need to go grab some silicone spray

And yes, pole position cockpit and an Atari Football (for sale!) peeking out back there

I also disassemble the telescoping center rod and clean it using a combination of solvent and rifle cleaning patches. The lubricate that with silicone spray too. The key is to get everything moving very smoothly so you can focus on playing instead of being frustrated that the movement isn't smooth.
 
Where do you get silicone spray from? I'm going to be doing this as well soon I hope. And what about that tubing you were talking about? I love hearing these tips!
 
Where do you get silicone spray from? I'm going to be doing this as well soon I hope. And what about that tubing you were talking about? I love hearing these tips!


The best stuff I have found is call SuperLube (go ahead and quote hack, you knw you want to :) ). I get it from a sports equipment store. They sell it for lubricating the treadmill mats (actually the surface under the treadmill mats). It is a dry spray and it won't damage the rubber surfaces.

Alternatively, you can get a wet silicone spray (it is food safe) from dive shops. You use it to lubricate regulator parts on the scuba gear. That is mostly rubber safe. Certain kinds of rubber do react to it, but the liquid medium is pretty inert to most surfaces, including most paints (important if you overspray ad get the side art).

Also you can get a silicone grease from most dive shops and apply it just as you would any petroleum based grease.

Disclaimer: I don't have a Zeke's Peak or Ice Cold Beer [small sobbing cry :(] so I do not have personal experience with using these lubricants on those machines, but I have used them with other games and they work quite well.

ken
 
A week or so ago I saw one listed on the IE craigslist, I wonder if that is the same one?
 
So two belts and one fuse later...SHE LIVES!

Everything works great, looks great, played a bunch of games with no problem. 3200 on the coin counter. Very addicting...I love it
 
That was sweet. Your son played awesome! To bad the game isn't out on location anymore, you could win a lot of bar bets with him.

Thanks, he figured that game out by himself, he had to- I'm horrible at it.

Getting everything running smoothly makes the gameplay so much better, the silicone lubricant I used is called "Blaster" and I think it's in most auto parts stores and possibly Wal-Mart. The key is cleaning the parts prior to lubricating them, I used chrome polish on the rods and then removed the wax residue from the polish with solvent prior to applying the silicone.

Instead of spraying the silicone, you can apply it to a paper towel and wipe it on, you definitely don't want it floating around and settling on other parts because it can be a real bear to remove if you intend to paint.
 
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