If you learn nothing else from this seminar, this is the most important! 75% of the boards I repair have been blown up this way! The coils run at nominal voltages as high as 70V.D.C!!! One careless slip of a screwdriver sends this voltage up a switch or lamp line right to the control board!! I've seen the tops blown right off chips!! It takes only seconds to flip the on-off switch, saving hours of needless board repairs!!
- A missing shooter tip will ruin a ball! Always replace!
- 1 1/16" grade 25 steel bearing- any big city bearing supply, under a buck!
I don't care what your uncle told you! I don't care that the label says "Safe- leaves no residue"! They are false! This is a lazy fools fix! it is a chemical solution to a mechanical problem! 95% of the dirt can be removed by wiping with a soft cloth! This is all you should do to a digital games gold plated heads! Electro-Mechanical games and all flipper switches are made of silver or a hard alloy! These should be filed flat and smooth! While fileing, if the head is loose, replace the whole blade! After both contacts are clean and/or filed, adjust for self cleaning by having the 2 overwipe on contact! This lack of overwhiping is why the contacts got dirty in the first place! A properly adjusted contact should never get dirty! Also, bakelight spacers dry out, leaving loose switch stacks! Tighten both screws before adjusting! Forward screws 1st!
It pulls the paint or chrome off! Old rubber rings are O.K. for short term storage! I use scrap wire from old harnesses! Gottlieb legs look like new with "No 7." brand chrome polish from any auto store! Rinse well, towel dry! New footies are a must! All the parts houses have 'em! Dab greese into the threads to prevent rust before you screw em in! I also polish the front leg bolts (see Item #2) to a mirror finish! Slick! Check the legbolt mounting plates on the inside of the cabinet! They are held in place only with nails! If they are loose, replace with screws! If the holes are stripped, don't mess around-- just shitcan and replace with new ones!
It will break drop targets, bumper caps and wear a deep groove in the top arch! Be a high-class hauler! Pop the ball into a bag with the leg bolts and stash securely in the cash box!
If you get a game in with no keys, pick it open! Most locksmith shops sell pick sets! If not this, drill out the lock! A good bit goes right up the middle of most extruded brass (Ace) or Bi-metal (Fort, TuffGuard) and out the other end! Back doors on EM games can be popped open with a quick stroke of a large screwdriver without much damage! Reach thru hole in bottom of head with a dime and undo screw!
Gottlieb "Decagon" units (1967-1979) have a spring-steel blade as a detent pawl (hold in on forward stroke) that will become bent back and useless if you force plastic dial backwards during routine cleaning! Clean with one hand, brace with the other! This is also a good habit to get into with bally, Will, etc dials, all of which were designed not to be forced in this way! To work fast and true, these units had to be designed with tolerances of only 1-2 grams! Be gentle! I have always used creamy car wax on score dials, and never had ink come off! Water will! Chicago coin dials with translucent plastic reels will be wiped off with car wax! If cleaning a Chi-Coin game, test a small spot first and work carefully! Whien I'm rebuilding a high mileage game, I like to rotate the highly worn parts from 1 and 10 dials to 100 and 1000 dials! On digital games, I reccomend stocking up now on gas discharge tubes! They will someday stop making them! Mazzco has 6 digit tubes for $6.00!
Lamp sockets are two pieces, a socket and a bracket that are pressfit together! As air works into press fit surfaces over the years, they corrode! A drop of solder should be melted between the 2! This is easy and quick if you first prep the metal with liquid solder flux or a small file! (5% hydrocloric acid) this fixes 90% of dim bulbs! The other 10% is dirty inner socket surface! Clean with Dremel tool or Steve Youngs cleaning sticks! If the problem is in the bulb, I clean the bulb base with a green pad and or solder a new tit onto the bottom of the bulb! Finally, wipe the oil from your fingers off the bulb top, heat will build up there!
Do not belive it is a safe proven product! Work in a well ventilated room! Do not eat while soldering! Do not smoke! Do not leave beverages near job site! Do not touch your face while soldering! Even if you are very hungry, do not pick your nose! Wash your hands as soon as you are done! Do not use a high heat (over 700) Iron! Lead builds up over time in your body! Be careful! To protect your eyes, wear glasses!
I can always recomend "Kester" or other American made 60-40 rosin solder! Radio shack is another good bet! Avoid "Otey" or any solder from the orient or in an unmarked container! Expect to pay $6-$10 per lb! Buy 18 A.W.G. for big jobs, and 22 A.W.G. for board work!
Luan or Cheap-o thin plywood could save your backglass! Large rubber bands or cloth straps will hold in place, don't use tape, it will take the paint off the cabinet when you pull it off! Use plastic steelband to hold head and body to shipping pallet! Get to know a carpet guy! He will give you all the scraps you want! Pad everything! If you have to ship or store a playfield, go to a bicycle store and get free bicycle boxes, perfect size! When moving heads in the cold, remember the #1 killer of backglass paint, rapid Temp. Change! Move outside in stages, inside, porch, outside, truck! Always wait an hour before turning on a cold from the outside game!
Drill #5 hole (1/8 bit) countersink!Polish flipper shaft to reduce friction! (see #2)
Steve Young has 'em Wilco, Mayfair, Mazzco! Even if your old style bushings look ok, shitcan 'em! New style has a slight buildup which keeps flipper up away from wood! Don't screw 'em in, bolt them thru!
Old Feet ruins floors & Carpets! Steal them out of Pac Man machines! All parts houses have 'em! Coat the threads with a greese to prevent rust! Bally Lube-In-A-Tube (Moly Greese) Lithium Greese (Sears).
I use Super Glue a lot! The only one worth a shit is Bordens Crazy Glue in the tube! The pen is worthless! Cyanide glue will hurt your eyes! One time, 2 frat boys passed out on the back stairs of the arcade! We took off their shoes and superglued their hands to feet! Much funny! Same goes for tape! Scotch # 33 or 35 is the only kind to use!
Mazzco sells it for $8.00 a sheet (You pick up, Chicago) Plate Glass is not very strong and breaks very sharp! On any glass, remember the 10" rule! Lift to your feet, then the floor! Go to Builders Square and get foam weatherstrip & Beer seal! Look for Glass mfg. seal or "Float marks" or ping edge of glass with finger and listen.
If you leave your machines sitting up on end in a basement, garage, or store-it, you must put them up on pallets! Many pinheads have tales of sudden broken pipes or freek floods that left the backs of their games swelled up and useless! Go out behind autoparts stores, drug store, or supermarkets and get free pallets! Then it can flood up to 3" and your games stay dry! While out on pallet runs, also look for old store displays and shelving they are throwing out! All my parts are stored on old copper-tone displays and movie store shelves!
New Locks come with 2 keys! Grab a #6 X 1/4" wood screw and mount the spare to the bottom of the game! I also screw into the cashbox area, the spare back door key!
Pinball cabinets are made with a low quality organic glue! After about 20 years, at random, some cabinets just come apart! I love to buy games cheap with sprung cabinets, it's such an easy fix! All the mitred joints still line up, just smear Elmer's Yellow Wood Glue in the joint, Pipe Clamp together, wipe exess glue off, and wait overnight! Good as new! The 2 easiest cab panels to replace just happen to be the 2 easiest to remake! Bottom light ply sheet and back panel!
The wires between flipper End-of-stroke switch and coil are not big enough. 95% of Williams games from 60's and 70's use dinky 22 A.W.G. jump wires! Remember, for each 4 wire gauges you go up or down, you double or cut in half wire diameter! So if you have some old 18 gauge heavy duty zip cord around, use that! Also check the wire going from transformer lug to coil foltage fuse! I always replace it with double strand of 18 A.W.G (14 A.W.G.) zip cord! Also replace any Bally Fuse clip they made themselves (mounted on flimsy bakelite) with nice Little-fuse or Buss fuse holder!
Operators don't! Check both where hinge mounts into wood with #8 X 3/8" wood screw and where door shell mounts to hinge with machine screw! Williams games with Tiwan Coin doors (Taxi & Forward) are always loose!
See #12.
If -12 Voltage stops, all the coils in the whole game pull in! Boom! Instant fried board! The jive ass heat sink arrangement should be replace with the +5 pass transistor being moved to a small remote heat sink! The -12 reg. legs shoudl be checked for insulation and all solder joints on headers need to be refloated! Extra Hint! Gottlieb System 80 Bumper driver boards need a new cap! 90% of "Flapping" Bumpers, coil burnouts, blown fuses, can be traced to this 47 mfd Cap!
When rebuilding playfields, I run #6" Studs through the playfield from the bottom! Then I put the post and plastic on top of that and firmly nut each! Now I can endlessly take it apart to change rubber or bulbs and never wear out hole! Start with a hand held screwdriver with a #5 bit (1/8)! Drill a #5 hole from the Top Down where the original hole was! Do not use a high speed twist drill, it will burst out the bottom and chew up a wire bundle! Then use same hand held screwdriver to feed into #5 hole a 2" #6 bolt from the bottom up! Place the post on the stud, nut it with an ordinary #6 nut, put the rollover guide apron or plastic screen card on top, and elastic nut in place! If you encounter a relay or step unit in the way of your hole, just use a panhead bolt and countersink so it lays flush with the wood! Try it on one game and you'll never go back! Buy large quantities of hardware from "Fastener Supplys" in Yellow Pages or from Electronic Surplus in Dayton for $1.25 a pound!6-32 X 2 Newark P.N. 31F2195 $5.76 per 100
6-32 nut Newark P.N. 31F2209 $4.45 per 100
6-32 Acorn nut Newark P.N. 50N^486 $16.95 per 100
Magnet coils on em games contain a brass or copper cladding that retains the magnetic field thru the 0 cycle of the A.C. Wave! If this comes loose or wears out, relay will start to hum! Replace coil! A Phone call to Steve Young or myself can cross 95% of all coils! D.C. Coils contain no such copper slug, but do have a diode across the winding! As the magnetic field collapses, a "spike" of reverse voltage comes out of the coil! The diode suppresses this! Don't ignore this! On most relays, there is a brass or copper washer between the coil and the relay frame! This, along with the brass screw keeps the frame isolated magnetically! Important! As relays on Gottlieb games need only to have coil removed, cleaned, de-magged and the strike plate wear spot covered with mylar! Do not attempt to take stepping part of relay apart!
Solid state games have batt-trees to hold in memory overnight! Left alone for long periods they will leak and corrode! Pop 'em out or break them off and take them to be recycled or hold them, do not throw batteries in garbage! I use AA Nicads to replace High priced "Data Sentry" or long Bally Batt-trees!
when working on playfields, don't use the prop stick! Pull the game to a solid service position! Playfield flex causes paint cracking!
He is a god in Vegas! If we find you doing this, we will kick your ass!
Solenoid coils must have a ferrous plunger inside them or they draw 2-3 times the current! Magnetic field is produced at 20-100% of siation! If plunger is worn, replace! Plated plungers shed less carbon! Polished plungers have less friction! New sleeves (nylon) even less!
Bally-Williams and Chi-coil coils all have the wire gauge and # of turns on the wrapper! Gottlieb coils only have drawing # but can be crossed with chart in newer parts manuals! For more power, smaller A.W.G. or less turns! Most coils are measured with Ohms, but keep in mind that this is for comparison only, inductance is not measured in Ohms and Ohms law can not be used to figure inductive loads! The simplest thing to do is lop off 20%, no more, of the wire, bare paint off the end, and resolder to lug!
Flipper links are made of bakelite, a soft, cheap, low grade plastic! The factories claimed they used it due to it's high resistance to heat, but the real reason is was it's low coast! I buy sheet nylong from a plastic house or use old prop sticks as steel stock! Shep on bench grinder, coat holes with cyanide glue! Heat plunger, knock out roll pin with a punch, cradled in a vice! Warning! Steel links have a different feel than plastic! For true original, use plastic!
Digital Gottlieb games were the worst! The grounds all terminated on a strip in the bottom of the game! Clip off press lugs and solder them on! Strap the ground of the Gottlieb power supplies to the metal liner of the cabinet! On all digital games, connect all grounds at all times! Screw in place all boards! Floating grounds cause many "phantom" problems that drive you crazy!
Williams posts from late 70's early 80's with deep horizontal ruts and Gottlieb metal posts of mid 60's are a snap to clean with an old toothbrush! Polish 'em up- see #2!
As a kid, I lived for the sound of the free play knocker! But now, when I get a game in, it isn't as loud as I remembered! What has happened, the knocker is no longer being held tightly to the side of the cabinet! Tighten the screws, or even better yet: Bold it thru! Lop off 20% of the wire (see numbers #30) and it sounds like Detroit on a Saturday night!
Use a Sharpie or super sharpie!
Go to Home Base and buy several widths and thicknesses of weather stripping and seal out beverages!
When you rebuild a game, check the motor! If it has no giver gears, drop some light machine oil on all exposed gears, but not on the armature of the motor! If at any time you have motor failure, don't waste your time trying to fix it! Take the model # stamped on the frame and call the mighty motor men at Multi-Products! In 3 days, for $28.00, you will have an exactreplacement made new! Total Coolness!
Are not needed! Remove them and all the linkage parts on the door! Do not open a common and carefully tape off!
Voltage rating on fuses is the highest Voltage fuse will "spring apart" and open! 32 volt fuses are cheaper but may not spring apart! They might melt into a puddle in the bottom of the fuse and continue to conduct!
R.M.S. Voltages true peak voltages are 25-40% higher than indicated! Use 1N4007 not 1n 4004 . Use 200 P.I.V. 35 or 50 Amp bridges, not 50 or 100 P.I.V.
IMPORTANT!! Zener Diodes do not apply to above!!! Buy only listed voltage Zeners!
Turn chime over to avoid wear! Clean black carbon goo off all metal parts! Replace grommets with new from electronics store! Wrap old flipper around plunger frame to replace cheep-o foam!
#44 Bulb life at 6.3 VAC= 4000 hrs. At 7Vots= 500 hrs. at 5.8= 1000 hrs. Go to radio shack! Get a 35 amp bridge rectifier! Use 18 AWG wire to jump + to - and AC to AC! Like Elton John, you are now Bi-Conducting! Little electrons march into bridge, bounce around, march out about 1 volt lower! Extra volt is dissipated as heat, so be sure to mount bridge to heatsink or metal plate!
New Williams flippers (Firepower and up) Gottlieb flippers with slim bat (Bone Busters and up) should have all new parts installed when you get these games! As these parts wear, the link will get too close to the metal bracket holding flipper coil and will bash! use a bench grinder to cut a 5mm notch allowing more clearance!
Many times Gottlieb "Blue" displays will get dim! On schematic find which pins of the glass tube provide filiment voltage! Look it up every time! There were several suppliers of these tubes! It will say "4.2 VAC" (Less on small displays) Do not confuse with offset voltage that is D.C.! Get 2 jump wires! Remove display from game! Take coin chute lights voltage 6.3 VAC on front door and jump to filament voltage on tube! Turn game on! Wait about 5 minutes for crud to be burned off filiment! Reinstall in game!
Most pinballs feature "Fort" locks! Take the cylinder out of the lock and with a small file, take metal off each pin until it is flush with the cylinder! The original key will still work if you ever sell the game! Move non fort locks to head key locks!
On every EM score motor is an O. contact that runs the motor back to the "home" position! The relay that started the motor drops out before the end of each cycle, leaving the motor "home" switch to handle the extreme voltage spike of the motor's magnetic field collapsing! It is easy to find, it's the dirty pitted one! If it's really bad, replace it! Clean only with a small file!