Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Arcade Collecting => Pinball => Topic started by: Buddabing on November 08, 2005, 10:30:58 pm
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Hello,
In March of 2005 I acquired my first pinball machine, a Stargate. All the plastics, toys, wireform ramps, and all that are intact and in good condition. The cabinet is in great shape, too. Everything works 100%.
The only problem is that the playfield is shot to hell. It is in very poor condition, with duct tape in the ball drop areas and much of the artwork destroyed in several areas. Someone must have used scratched-up pinballs in the machine.
Not to fear. The collector who sold me the machine was originally planning to swap the playfield out and so he had a NOS playfield that I bought along with the machine.
Here are a couple of pictures of the playfield as it currently exists.
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After doing some research, I decided to send my NOS playfield off to be clearcoated. I sent it to the well-known playfield restorer Bill Davis.
Here are a couple of pictures of the clearcoated playfield. It looks better than this in person.
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I'm planning on doing this playfield swap in an unconventional way. I saw some plans for a playfield rotisserie online and I decided to build one.
After I explained what it was for to my wife, she suggested that I build two of them, one for the old playfield and one for the new one. That way parts can be transferred more easily. After giving this some thought, I agreed.
The second rotisserie is still under construction, once it is done I'll post pictures.
Here's a link to the post on rec.games.pinball that I got the plans from. (http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.pinball/browse_thread/thread/cfd6d1f382101746/96741aecae6f6709%2396741aecae6f6709?sa=X&oi=groupsr&start=0&num=3)
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Very cool another stargate pin owner :D if you ever need some pics of an area that you forgot how to put back together feel free to give me a shout. It was our first pin and totally spoiled us--now she hums and haws if i consider buying any pin without a minimum of 3 toys on it :P
Very cool rotiserrie as well i'm sure it will make repairs/work a ton easier for you.
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After I explained what it was for to my wife, she suggested that I build two of them
Now that's a keeper ... well done!
Cheers.
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Nice stuff... a clearcoated, NOS playfield is a beautiful thing. I'm going to follow this closely. I do not have the balls to try a playfield swap yet, nevermind on one as complex as a Stargate.
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Lots of luck to you. Like Chad, I'm not sure if I could bring myself to dismantle a playfield.
-S
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It's not the playfield itself, it's the wiring underneath that is the issue... I mean, that is a LOT of flimsy solder joints that were never meant to be undone.
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Fortunately, this playfield has been pre-punched and installed with t-nuts already.
I read somewhere that Stargate NOS playfields are among the better ones as far as being newbie-friendly.
There's diagrams and stuff too on the playfield reverse, see picture.
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You sure the wife didnt want the second one for "other uses"??
;D
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Here's a picture of the rotisseries. The second one isn't quite complete yet. It will be painted blue. I had some blue and gold spray paint lying around that I used. I like to think that the gold symbolizes the large amount of money I've spent on this project.
The second one is shorter because I was able to locate the 30" pipes for it. I used 36" pipes for the first one.
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And here's a picture of the playfield clamped to the rotisserie.
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Very nice... those rotisseries are cool.
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Today I rigged up a way to get the playfield out of the machine (and back in, eventually) without ruining my back.
I had a cheap, easy to dissassemble clothes rack lying around, so I got the idea of getting another one, suspending the playfield from those, and gradually lifting the playfield until it was clear of the cabinet.
Here are pictures of the first stage, lifting the front. This part was easy since there was a hole and two flanges convenient to tie the rope to.
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Here's the other clothes rack in action.
For this trial I loosened the wire harness but I did not undo any connectors. The wire harness has plastic guides throughout the machine to neaten up the wiring. I've removed the wires from these guides, which can be done non-destructively.
On the back side, I threaded the rope underneath the two vertical up kickers. I think the VUKs are mounted sturdily enough and they are thick enough to withstand the weight for an hour or so.
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The plan is to lift the playfield up, then scoot the cabinet out of the way towards the back of the room, then transfer the playfield over to the rotisserie.
All did not quite end well, however. One of the flippers is stuck in the up position now. I think I must have bumped something on the flipper coil which is quite close to the edge of the playfield.
The cabinet is filthy inside and it stinks in there, so my hands got really dirty from working in the machine.
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Now is the time to sand the inside of the cabinet a bit and put a fresh coat of black paint in there. That is if it needs it. It sure makes them look nice on the inside.
Good luck on your project!
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Scoot the cabinet out of the way?
Secure the two clothes racks to each other, then put them on wheels, so you can move the playfield out of the way. It is the smaller item.
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Scoot the cabinet out of the way?
Secure the two clothes racks to each other, then put them on wheels, so you can move the playfield out of the way.
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I had a high-resolution scan (300 dpi) made of the entire playfield. The image was a 13800 by 6075 TIFF. Here it is, greatly reduced, along with a selection showing some text. Text is hard to scan.
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how did the graphics come out at 300 dpi--i would think that would be plenty of resolution but the text looks pretty garbled (if thats a representative shot). Have you started into the wiring?
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In order to get an actual display-size image, the scan has to be downsampled and reduced.
This is what it looks like after changing to 72 dpi and reducing to 24%.
I diagnosed my little problem with the left flipper, the leaf switch was a bit bent.
I am having a combination Super Bowl/birthday party and wiring will begin after that.
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Why did you do the scan again?
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Why did you do the scan again?
For posterity, plus someone on rec.games.pinball is paying me for the scan. There are no more NOS playfields for this game.
Eventually I may make a decal out of this scan, refurbish my old playfield with it, and sell it.
Or maybe one of the virtual pinball programs will want a copy.
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One of those "while it's all stripped" things. Gotcha.
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Did you just scan it by using a flatbed scanner and laying it on the playfield and piecing all the scans together? I have an old playfield that will need extensive touch-up work and I'm much better in Photoshop than I am with paint and a brush. Picking your brain to maybe see what my options are. ;D
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Scanning and vectorizing would be good, though I would imagine true color matching in the final print would be a hella ---smurfette---.
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The playfield is so aged, I doubt I would be able to get an exact color match anyway. I could always do vector paths in Photoshop and split the colors up by layer. At least that way all the colors would match themselves. ;D
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Well, there would be two paths for this:
1) Make a full playfield decal and not worry about 100% colormatches, but then you're losing 95% original and undamaged playfield.
2) Make playfield "patch decals" and retain as much original playfield as possible, but then you have colormatch issues.
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This is an old EM machine that I'm looking at. Saying I could keep 95% original may be awful generous considering it looks like at some time there may have been water on the playfield. I'm only basing this on the bottom portion that's covered by the metal guards where the wood is starting to separate and seems discolored. To be honest, it may not even be economically feasible to create a full playfield decal for this pin.
I'm not meaning to threadjack, just was interested in the process that Budda used to scan his playfield.
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I was interested in the process that Budda used to scan his playfield.
I had it professionally done. I own a flatbed scanner, but it is a large multifunction printer. I would have had to take scans of many pieces and stitch them all together. Very difficult considering one little shift in angle can cause the stitch lines to be visible.
Considering all I paid for the scan was gas to drive about 60 miles, it was well worth it.
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I'd say so. ;D Thanks. Project is looking good, so keep it up.
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This is an old EM machine that I'm looking at.
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I did playfield swap in an Alien Poker in the mid 90's I took my time but it was worth it. The original owner used a chipped ball which killed the original playfield. Use your digi cam and take pics so you have a refence. I was lucky and at the time I had two AP's so I could do a refence check.
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I was lucky and at the time I had two AP's so I could do a refence check.
???
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If the playfield is that damaged, yeah, the full decal may be the only way to go if you want to use the original.
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The way I would do it would be to scan the playfield, vectorize it in Illustrator, clean it up, and then print it on adhesive vinyl. Then you would cover it in automotive clears so that the ball doesn't contact the decal.
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Sounds like a job for MAME Marquees. ;D Hopefully I'll be able to work on it during Christmas break and make a little headway.
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I did playfield swap in an Alien Poker in the mid 90's I took my time but it was worth it. The original owner used a chipped ball which killed the original playfield. Use your digi cam and take pics so you have a refence. I was lucky and at the time I had two AP's so I could do a refence check.
How is that game, fun wise?
I was considering bidding on an AP which is located just a few blocks from my house. It's a fixer-upper with backglass damage, one broken plastic, and it looks like cracked paint on the playfield and lots of playfield wear down to the wood. The electronics probably don't work, either. Would that be worth getting for say $80-$100?
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Alien Poker has pretty much the same PF as Laser Cue, one of which I'm restoring right now. It's a pretty good game. The fact that you have to hit the drop targets in a specific order makes it very challenging and the third lower playfield flipper adds a nice twist to how you do it.
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I was lucky and at the time I had two AP's so I could do a refence check.
???
What I ment was I always had at least one Alien poker so when I did the swap I already had one in the showroom. I used to double check things with.
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Ah, I couldn't figure out what AP was there. Alien Poker. Duh.
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The second rotisserie is complete, painted, and ready to go.
The playfield adventure is set to begin on February 5, after my combination Super Bowl and birthday party.
The Alien Poker I was looking at (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6237563176&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1) went for $213.50. It was not pretty, it would have taken a lot of money and time to refurbish.
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Man, you guys are into Pinball.
I had one I had to get rid of. It was constantally breaking down. The pop bumpers only worked when they wanted to.
It had a blue million wires and 5 bridge rectifiers and all those transistors, SCR's, Triacs, wow.
It's too complicated for my small mind to comprehend at this point. I'd have to study for weeks to figure these things out.
Give me a broken Video game and I can fix it, but these things are not for the faint of heart.
*thump - the fredster falls to the ground, limp and lifeless....
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I felt that way at first too... but once you learn the basic architecture of a pin, all SS are mostly the same and all EM are mostly the same. The concepts are the same as vids, but just on a larger scale.
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Well, the old playfield is now out of the cabinet.
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Unfortunately, one end of the playfield dropped before I could secure it. There was some damage. :'( :'( :'(
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That doesn't look too bad. Could have been worse. I've done far worse myself.
I was thinking about this the other day. The new PF you got, it was fully wired, yes? If that's the case, a PF swap is actually not that hard other than mechanically moving the thing into place. I had always thought about moving the wiring and underfield parts as part of the PF swap... if you don't need to do those things, it should be fairly straightforward remove PF1 put in PF2 and connect all the harnesses.
Is this about right?
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No, there is no wiring on the new playfield. It is t-nutted and dimpled, however.
Most NOS playfield are sold with no parts attached.
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So you had to swap all of the wiring over? That is a hell of a job.
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I vacuumed out the cabinet, this is what it looked like before vacuuming.
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I puchased a new knocker assembly. The bracket was there but not the solenoid. I figure someone cannibalized it. Unfortunately, it did not come with a wire harness.
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I also purchased a new coin door. For some reason the plastic tub is too tall so I need to go to the Cointainer Store :) and get one the right size. Also, the wiring is different from my old coin door to the new one, so that's something else I have to wire up.
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10 plastic posts done.
There are two ways of attaching the plastic posts to the playfield. Wood screws and T-nuts. Surprisingly, the wood screw ones have been easier. All that I need to find is the dimple, which can be difficult on a black background, then apply gentle pressure straight down with the nut driver.
The T-Nuts have given me problems. Several plastic posts have been cracked or broken because of overtightening. Also, two of the screws have sheared off completely.
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20 plastic posts done.
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Holy crap that looks sweet. Shiny.
While you're out buying knockers, could you get my wife a new pair?
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I made a good bit of progress over the weekend. I moved some of the metal guides over. I cleaned them off with "Stainless Steel Magic". Also, all the plastic posts have been moved now except for the broken ones.
I also posted on RGP about how best to get some of the metal pieces ("snubber rails?") out. I think that's up next. The first method I used was to pull it out with vise grips. This left some scratches on the metal. Next I tried using a plastic putty knife underneath the wire thingy and a chisel to gently pry upwards. The putty knife protects the wood and the chisel doesn't move against the metal and thus doesn't scratch it.
All the plastics are off now. I hit a couple of snags. The first one was where one of the dome nuts that hold the plastics on was stripped. That was solved by peeling the nut apart and then prying the nut off the plastic while applying upwards pressure with vise grips. No damage was done to the top side of the plastic, but I did damage the underside of the plastic with a method that didn't work.
The other snag was where the head of a wood screw sheared off in the new playfield, when it had been screwed in, so it is impossible to remove. I think this should be okay, however.
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Looking damn good.
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That is just so sweet-looking ...
Cheers.
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Man... I could not imagine taking all the crap off one playfield and putting it on another. Just with my simple EM machine I'm would look at that as a nightmare.
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Actually, if you have both playfields side by side, it's not that hard. Take off one assembly, clean it, and put it on the other. Takes lots of digital pics in the process in case you need reference for how it is assembled.
It's when you have to take everything off one playfield, clean it all, then put it back on the same playfield that it's a real pain in the ass.
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WOW!! Looks good. Makes me what to shop my pinball.
But could you shop the unit without removing all the lower half and wiring? As I think that maybe a easier way...
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Yes, you would never remove the wiring loom and stuff to shop a pin.
Clearcoating the playfield is not part of a standard shop job.
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I pounded in the little metal pieces, which was a pain. The right way to do things was to pound in the little metal pieces before moving the red plastic posts. This way, the red posts obstructed me. Use a small piece of plywood and a plastic mallet, as shown. I originally used just the mallet, and I bent one of the metal doodads pretty badly. Then I tried using the flat edge of a chisel instead of a soft piece of plywood, that didn't work very well, I took a chip out of the playfield. :'( :'( :'( Finally, the plywood+mallet method worked okay for most of the rest of the metal pieces.
Another thing I learned was that I should have drilled all the pilot holes before sending the playfield off to be clearcoated.
So, for future reference:
1) Move the little metal doodads before the red posts.
2) Pound in the little metal pieces with a plastic mallet, using a piece of plywood to distribute the force evenly.
3) Drill the pilot holes before sending the playfield off to be clearcoated.
4) The screw keeping the rotisserie from rotating is not strong enough. Make sure the rotisserie is kept in place by another method, rope, bungee cords, or whatever.
Here's the latest picture. The next step will be ordering some replacement red plastic posts from PBR, installing rubbers, then it will be time to mount the new playfield in the second rotisserie.
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What pilot holes?
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I drilled pilot holes for all the metal guide rails. IMO it would have been better to drill pilot holes for all the plastic posts too, before clearing the playfield. When screwing in the plastic posts without pilot holes, the clear lifted slightly, causing a thin white ring around the screw. Nothing that is not covered by the plastic post, and maybe the white ring will settle eventually. But where I drilled the pilot holes for the snubber rails and the other metal bits, there was no white ring, plus I had to pound a whole lot less.
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The NOS playfield didn't have any of those holes already drilled?
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They were "dimples". Basically, it told me where the pieces should go and where to drill the holes.
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I kind of figured that was part of the CNC process... all of those holes. If you had predrilled, wouldn't the clear have just filled the holes anyway?
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Possibly. We'll find out next time. :)
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We have flipover!
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The flippers and pop bumpers are still on the old playfield. Next up is rebuilding the flippers. I figured out how to take them apart and put them together without damage.
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The new playfield looks like this now:
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Holy ---smurfing--- ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---... I know exactly what I'm looking at and that's still scary.
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It really is more intimidating than it looks. The big challenge will be cleaning it, it is filthy. I am considering the dishwasher method of cleaning the wire harness. We'll see how much desoldering/resoldering, if any, that involves.
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Eek. I'd be afraid of water getting inside of individual wires and corroding and/or just sitting there.
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never bothered to clean wires but if it was me i would use some sort of non conductive aerosol electrical cleaner and a air compressor to blast off the excess dust/grime
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No need for that... I would just use a damp sponge. There's no need for them to be pristine and there's no need to risk damaging wire in a place that would be a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch to find later.
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Hey Budda... you've got a PM.
;D
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I vote for the dishwasher method. Never had a problem with it, especially with harnesses, as they are more durable than boardsets...
As clean as that PF is going to be... it'd be a shame not to have a squeeky-clean harness and cabinet inside, too.
Wade
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I disassembled the pop bumper assemblies, cleaned them (in the kitchen sink with ordinary dishwashing soap) and reassembled them.
I've also put the pop bumper mylar down on the new playfield and moved the remaining top-side parts over to the new playfield. Then I mounted the new playfield onto the second rotisserie, upside down.
I tried putting tape on one end of every part that I've unsoldered. Unfortunately, the tape came off. So on these parts I used a Sharpie. Some of the solenoids have three terminals rather than two, so I'll use two different colored Sharpies for that.
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I've moved the light boards from the old playfield to the new playfield. The boards, like most things on the bottom of the playfield, were filthy. So I laboriously cleaned most of them with a paper towel. It was difficult because the sharp ends of the cut off resistors and other components tear the paper towel.
On the last board there was some solder flux remaining where the connector had been replaced. So I sprayed some solder flux remover spray on it and scrubbed it with an old toothbrush. The dirt came away very easily, along with the solder flux I was trying to remove. So now I will be cleaning the remainder of the boards with the solder flux remover spray. The active ingredient in the spray is acetone.
The dirt that is all over the bottom of the playfield, the wiring, boards, and parts is a fine sooty dirt. It is pretty easy to clean off, but it is all over every surface and some of the surfaces are difficult to reach.
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I vote for the dishwasher method. Never had a problem with it, especially with harnesses, as they are more durable than boardsets...
As clean as that PF is going to be... it'd be a shame not to have a squeeky-clean harness and cabinet inside, too.
Wade
I agree too. I throw a lot of pin parts in our dishwasher at home.... much to the dismay of my wife..... "You're putting that in there? It's filthy!" It's great for the subways under the machine and regular ramps too. I'm too scared to try my hand at flame polishing....
Just remember the dishwasher can take off decals/artwork and if you don't have it set to air dry it can melt plastics.... :o
Looks great sofar! It's a very rewarding experience....
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Tonight I won an auction for a set of plastics which will replace the ones I damaged and broke. Woot!
Thanks to PetitMorte for the info!
I tried taking apart my drop target assemblies for cleaning, but now I'm having problems putting them back together again.
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Out of curiosity... why would you put jet bumper mylars on a cleared playfield?
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The clear may crack with repeated impacts. Thus the mylar. I will also be putting mylar down where the ball drops onto the playfield from the ramps.
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Does mylar offer any protection from impacts? It protects against friction but not sure it gives much against banging.
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I dunno. I was told, "Put mylar around the pop bumpers and where the ball drops onto the playfield". I said, "Yes Sir!" and obeyed.
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Heh. Certainly won't hurt. I've never really thought about it as I have no cleared pins but I figured that the clearcoat would preclude mylar. Maybe I'm mistaken.
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I've reassembled the drop target assemblies after cleaning them. I haven't installed them on the new playfied yet, I haven't changed the decals yet.
Today I rebuilt the flippers. The flipper rebuild kit includes a lot of the parts of the flipper, many of which I don't need. All three flippers show small cracks. I'm thinking about putting some CA glue on the inside of the crack to reinforce them a bit.
It was nice that there were so many parts in the flipper rebuild kit, that way there is a lot less to clean.
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Here's what the two playfields look like now. There isn't too much left to move. Next step is to move the remaining solenoids and do the decals.
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With all the trouble you're going through, may as well replace the cracked bats. You know that's going to bug you once it's all together.
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I've re-decaled and installed the drop targets and kicker targets. I don't have any pictures of the process. All solenoids have been moved over and installed on the new playfield.
Next up, I need to install new ground wire for the light sockets. It involves stapling some wire into the underside of the playfield. I'm going to borrow an electric upholstery stapler from a seamstress friend of mine, a normal stapler won't work. I'm using picture hanger wire for the wire.
After that will be the sheared-off screw repair. I bought a magnetic screw finder to precisely locate the screw. I also got some needle-nose vice grips.
My new plastics have arrived. Replacements for everything I broke are included in the package. So dropping the playfield did not cause any permanent damage except to my wallet.
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The harness is in the dishwasher now, wish me luck..............
I arranged the harness so that the fuse holders and the mesh surrounding part of the wire bundle went into the top shelf of the dishwasher.
Pictures will be forthcoming.
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Here are the pictures of the wiring harness, in the dishwasher and after I took it out. In retrospect, it probably would have been better to unsolder the leaf switches and clean those off by hand. Also, it definitely would have been better to remove all the light bulbs. Water got into the larger sockets anyway. The #67 sockets had water in them after removing them from the dishwasher. The #44 sockets had what looked like dried water spots like you see on glasses. I did not use Jet-Dry in the dishwasher, maybe I should have. I ended up removing all bulbs and cleaning the sockets out with my Pinball Resource socket cleaning stick.
While I was running the dishwasher it started making some funny noises. Maybe one of the wires was obstructing one of the propellers. Oh well, the wife hates that dishwasher anyway.
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I've removed one of the two screws whose heads broke off while I was tightening them. For now I'm going to leave the other screw alone.
I first removed all metal parts around the screw in question. There were several. Next, I used a magnetic stud finder to locate the screw. Next, I drilled down on the underside of the playfield. I hit the screw on the first try. :) Finally, I gradually widened and deepened the screw hole until I could get the ends of some needle nose vise grips on the screw.
Once the screw was out, I filled the hole with wood putty. It'll have to sit for a couple of days before I can put all the parts back that I had to remove.
In the meantime, it's time to work on the cabinet body.
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This picture shows the cabinet stripped of most of the wiring. The challenge will be to clean the transformers and power supply (not shown) without breaking anything, and to get all the nasty black dirt out of the cabinet.
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That's some serious kickass work. :notworthy:
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Progress on two fronts. First, I stripped out all the wiring harnesses in the cabinet. I also took off a lot of parts from the sides of the cabinet in preparation of painting the cabinet. Then I sanded. Finally I put on three coats of black semi-gloss latex paint.
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I put the wiring harness into place. I've also repopulated all the light sockets and screwed them into place. Some of the leaf switches may have been broken by the dishwasher, we'll see if that is the case.
They say that the wiring harness has "memory" and that the sockets will naturally line up. That is mostly true. There is one tricky area which has seven sockets in a circle that I can't tell which socket goes where. Worse, these seven sockets are soldered to the ground braid. We'll see if I got them right when I start testing.
Next up I need to make sure everything is connected right. There are probably some more parts I should reorder, including those leaf switches. I also have to repopulate the fuses. Of course all the fuses look exactly the same but have different ratings.
I opened up the box of miscellaneous old parts that I got from the guy I bought the machine from, and there were some flipper bats in it.
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Wow, you learn something new every day. Dishwasher!?!
What keeps water from seeping into the wires and causing corrosion?
BTW Budda, awesome. I want to get into Pins one day.
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Well, the wires are insulated. No corrosion is possible in insulated wires.
There are two problems with the dishwasher approach. One is that some of my leaf switches got broken. The other is that water got trapped inside some of the light sockets.
If I had to do it again I would unsolder all my leaf switches. There were not that many of them.
However, I would keep the light sockets soldered on, except this time I would remove all light bulbs. The sockets should be dry after the dishwasher is run. If not, just shake them out, maybe stick a paper towel down there to get any excess moisture out, and let the harness dry for a couple of days.
WARNING: Pinball is expensive!
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Sorry to hear about the leaf switch, surely fixing that is much easier than cleaning that whole thing by hand. The water in the sockets is pretty standard. Light sockets, under chips (on PCB's), etc. usually hold some water after I dishwash them. I usually just shake them out and let them air dry a couple of days, and sometimes I blow them off with my air compressor.
Looking good!!
Wade
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I spent this weekend working mostly on the wiring.
A light bulb went on in my head and now I understand why the wires in the wiring harnesses are striped the way they are. There are patterns of stripes, one with one color and two with another color. These match codes which are given in the manual for the various signals. So, black-brown-brown is code 011, red-orange-orange is 233, etc.
This new knowledge allowed me to check the locations of all the light sockets that needed to be soldered to the ground braid. Several of them were wrong and I would have had to unsolder them, correct them, and resolder them. There are about 17 of these soldered-in light sockets. I've now soldered those onto the ground braid.
The solenoid wires have the same color scheme as the light sockets so I am now working on those. There are a whole ton of solenoids in this machine!
I've also run the cabinet wiring harnesses through the dishwasher and they are now drying for the next couple of days.
I cleaned up the transformers and installed them back into the cabinet.
I spent some time cleaning up the metal side rails. After posting on RGP, the general consensus was that sandpaper should be used, with progressively finer grit. That seemed to work okay.
I was able to piece together the two leaf switches that were broken. I may not have to replace those after all.
No pictures, nothing was really changed appearance-wise.
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The wiring is done. I've flipped the playfield over again on the rotisserie.
I moved the rotisserie so that is is right next to the cabinet. Then I tried to plug in the cables. Fortunately, there was just enough slack for all the cables to be plugged into the boards in the head. Yay!
I held my breath for the moment of truth, power-up. No magic smoke was released! The machine came up! Success!
I went through the self tests. All the lights work, my insight into the lighting codes worked out well!
Most of the coils work, but not all. Most of the switches work, but not all.
Next up is debugging the switches and coils. Then I have to put the ramps back on, they have opto switches in them.
I am very close to completion.
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This afternoon I attempted to resolve why some of my coils are not firing. There was no voltage between one of the coil leads and ground. There was, however, resistance between the two coil leads. Marvin3m.com says to check the fuses. Sure enough, three fuses were burned out. I don't know how they burned out yet. It's possible that I wired something wrong and the first time I powered up the machine it caused the fuses to blow. I'll swap the fuse with a known good one of the same amperage and I'll see if those coils start to work.
To aid in testing, I made some extenders for my voltmeter out of some alligator clips and wire. I should have used white and black wire, oh well.
Also, here is a picture of how the playfield connects with the cabinet.
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Marvin (http://www.marvin3m.com/fix.htm) has a nice trick for testing coils.
With the power on, clip one end of your 'gators to the side-rail. Then touch the other end to the lug of the diode that is on the NON banded side of the diode. The solenoid should fire. This tests if the solenoid is getting power.
Don't touch the Banded side, as that will short and blow the solenoid fuse.
Then touch the gator to the metal back of the transistor that controls the solenoid. The solenoid should fire. If it does, then the solenoid is getting power AND the wiring between the driver board and the solenoid is fine.
w00t!
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Some progress has been made.
First, I hooked up my new Pinball Pro subwoofer. I was disappointed. I expected the bass to have a lot more punch in it. It just sounds like a third speaker.
I was able to diagnose one major coil problem. I had soldered one of the coils with the wires reversed. This caused the fuse to blow. I reversed the wires and that coil works now. So now I'm short a few fuses, no big deal.
Today I also hooked up the remaining optical switches that are on the ramps, and the motor that controls the glidercraft. They work fine.
So now there are two coils that don't work, one switch that doesn't work, and one coil that may or may not work. All other switches appear to work.
Next up I'm going to change the bats on the flippers, clean up the new bats, and re-rubber them.
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The two non-working coils are the "left kicking rubber" and the "left kicking target". Both coils have the correct resistance across the terminals, and neither coil has voltage across it.
I ran a wire continuity check. For the left kicking rubber, there is good continuity from the coil to the fuse, and from the coil to the controller board.
For the left kicking target, there is good continuity from the coil to the fuse, but there is no connection between the coil and the controller board. So somewhere there is a severed wire in the wire harness. Ugh.
I don't know what to do about the left kicking rubber. The solder connection seems sound, maybe I'll try to reflow it.
Suggestions welcome, I'm going to post on RGP.
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This weekend I installed the flippers. There is a special allen wrench that is used to tighten two screws that clamp the flipper. I tightened them too tight at first and they barely moved. I loosened them up and they flip better now, but still too slowly. I was expecting the flippers (freshly rebuilt) to be a lot more lively.
It is also tricky to get them exactly in the right position so that the flipper goes in the correct arc.
I have attached two pictures, a bit blurry unfortunately, one shows the old cracked bats and the other showing nice clean intact bats.
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It turns out that the left kicking target does indeed have wire continuity to the driver board. So I guess I need to test the power MOSFETs to the two non-working coils.
I had one coil soldered wrong, it is bad now. It didn't release any magic smoke but it shows an open circuit now across its terminals.
I'll probably go ahead and order three replacement coils.
I need to hook up the coin door. The coin door that was previously on there had a totally different connector to what is on there now. So I need to remove a whole bunch of small Molex connectors, preferably without damaging them. Does anyone have a good method for removing these? The Molex extractor tool I have is way too big, it was designed for power supply Molex connectors.
There is still one switch that won't register. I need to test that sucker with an ohmmeter to see if it actually closes when it appears closed.
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After looking at the wiring, it looks like I had those two coils wired wrong. So I swapped the wires and they still didn't work. Then I swapped out the known good coil from my brand new knocker assembly for the coil in the left kicking target, which is the same type of coil. Still no joy. So I tested the power MOSFETs. They are bad.
So, if PBR carries these MOSFETs, I'll get a couple plus some replacement fuses.
On the bright side, I was able to fix the switch that wouldn't register.
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Too bad about the coils wired backwards..... been there before.....
Ed at Greatplains would probably stock the mosfets needed as an alternate source for you.
http://www.greatplainselectronics.com/ (http://www.greatplainselectronics.com/)
Ed's a good guy.
Good luck with your repair!
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While I'm waiting for my order (coils, coil sleeves, and MOSFETs) to arrive from Pinball Resource, there are a couple of things I can work on.
Tonight I attached the slam switch to the coin door. For some reason there was nowhere to put the slam switch, so I took two 4-40 by 1" machine screws, cut off the heads, and JB Welded the screws to the coin door.
I am also working on wiring up the coin door. The old coin door took vastly different connections from the new one. So, tomorrow, I'm going to go purchase a molex extractor at my favorite electronics shop.
One problem is that I don't have the wire or connectors to hook up my knocker or coin meter. It was suggested that I just use T-Taps and plain hookup wire to connect them up. Blasphemy! Instead, there's a guy on Ebay who parted out a Stargate who didn't sell the wire harness. I'll have him cut off the appropriate connectors (with wire) and send them to me. Then, all I need is the female molex connectors and pins.
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Okay, I've ordered some Molex connectors and pins for the knocker and coin meter, as well as pin extractors.
Today I tried to figure out why my flippers are so weak. I figured it out, the end-of-stroke switches were wired up wrong. I fixed it and now the flippers are nice and strong. The problem is that they don't stay put. If I tighten the allen screws holding the flipper bat, then the flipper won't return to resting position. If I loosen them up, the flipper returns okay, but after a few flips the flipper works loose from the shaft and quits flipping.
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Raise the flippers up on the shaft a little bit, sounds like they are rubbing on the playfield.
Later,
dabone
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Raise the flippers up on the shaft a little bit, sounds like they are rubbing on the playfield.
Here's how I've been trained to do this: lower them all the way, align them where they're supposed to go, then raise them about the height of a dime.
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I figured out the flipper issue.
The flippers were not rubbing on the playfield. Rather, imagine the coil and the metal thingy that goes in it as like a piston and cylinder. If the piston does not go exactly aligned into the cylinder, it will bind up and not move freely.
So the solution was to loosen the screws and let the cylinder fall naturally into the correct alignment. Screws tightened, problem solved.
I am now waiting on two orders: one from PB Resource for the coils, sleeves, fuses, and MOSFETs, and one from a place online that has the mini-fit Molex connectors, pins, and extractor tools I need for the coin door.
My 2-bank and 3-bank drop targets aren't dropping very well, I need to revisit those. Then I should figure out where some of the leftover pieces go.
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I received my coil sleeves, extra coils, and MOSFETs today. I replaced the two MOSFETs in question and powered up the machine. Everything works except one coil now. I'm really close. I haven't replaced the coil in question, that is next.
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First of all, awesome job.
Here's my question. I have been known to do some classic car restoration work. After doing two thorough projects, my father and I determined that it would be cheaper, although less rewarding, to find a car that has already been built to a high level of qualty. Case in point, he recently bought a '56 Chevy that was going through a divorce for $32K when the guy had over $60K in receipts for the car. The obvious downside is that you don't get to personalize the car and make it your own. Of course, you get to buy more cars! LOL
Does this phenomenon equate to pinball? Not couting your hours in the project, which I will assume you found to be fun/educational, would you have been better off to spend more money on a pristine Stargate rather than do this yourself?
Just curious. I am planning on buying a pin soon and wanted to know your opinion.
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I think the analogy of classic cars to pinball is extremely apt.
For the time and money I have spent on this project, I definitely could have bought a machine in better condition to start with. But where would the learning experience be?
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While I was on vacation I received the extra wiring harness and connectors that I had ordered. I wired up the knocker and it works. I also wired up the connector for the coin meter. Before I know if that works I'll need to wire up the coin door.
One of the reasons I bought a spare wiring harness is because I wanted the colors of wire to match the original. It would have been easy but sloppy to use T-taps to wire up the knocker instead of the correct Molex connectors like the original used.
One problem I have is that my coin door connector only has one coin slot wire, the others are not in the connector. To fix this I wanted to pull the two missing pins from the corresponding connector on the spare wiring harness. Unfortunately, I have been unable to extract the pins from this molex connector. I'm probably going to dremel the connector apart.
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Tonight I extracted the pins from the spare wiring harness by dremelling the molex connector apart. Sloppy, but effective. Now my connector has wires for both coin slots.
After I got the pins into the connector, I tried to find my insulated quick disconnects I got from Peale. I couldn't find them! :angry: All I could find was non-insulated.
Next up is to find the QDs and attach them. I think I will solder and heat shrink the light sockets because the connections are too small for QDs. Oh yeah, I'll also need to change the light socket wiring because the old coin door had only one light.
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Reattaching the ramps was somewhat difficult. This is because there were no screw holes for the screws that attach the bottom of the ramp to the playfield. So I took some cardboard and made a template for the existing screw holes on my old playfield. Then I screwed in the screws in the same relative locations on the new playfield. It worked out okay. I've had to take the right ramp off again because there's a plastic that can only be put on if the ramp is off.
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In these two pictures, the routed-out areas are where the ramps attach. One picture is on the old playfield and one is on the new playfield.
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I have NOS ramps. I will probably just use one because the decal on the other one is messed up. I have new decals, so I may install the other ramp later.
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The playfield is back in the machine!
I want to reinstall the plastics after the playfield is in the machine to avoid the risk of dropping the stupid thing again. So I unplugged all the cables from the head and basically reversed the process of taking the playfield out of the machine.
There are a couple of rubber rings still in the bag, I don't know where they go. Oh well.
Next up is reinstalling plastics, ramps, and wireforms.
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99% done.
I've installed the wireforms and all the plastic except the ones over the kicking targets. I want to get protective plastic washers for those.
I also installed my new translite.
Usually you have extra screws left over when a project like this is complete, but I am missing several screws.
To do list:
1. Get missing screws at hardware store and install them.
2. Get clear washers and install them with the kicking target plastics.
3. Adjust the flippers again. They don't stay in the down position right, something's wrong with the adjustment.
4. Install protective mylar on the playfield at the sites where the ball drops onto it.
5. Get a new coin meter that starts from zero.
6. Get a new coin box pan that fits the machine, or trim the one that came with my coin door.
7. The coin door wiring is somewhat sloppy, fix and tie-wrap it so that the coin door will open correctly.
7. Clean the exterior of the cabinet.
8. Find out where the extra rubber rings go.
9. Replace coil sleeves that have not already been replaced.
10. Install backbox locking plate. I don't know what screws it used.
11. Diagnose 1 new non-working coil and 2 non-working switches.
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Two problems cropped up. One is that the glidercraft doesn't work right. The diagnostics and test functions work right, but it doesn't work right in game.
The second problem is that I messed up something during testing yesterday and now the GI doesn't work. I think I shorted something on the coin door.
I've posted on RGP and KLOV for help on the glidercraft issue, I'll probably have to replace a fuse or two to fix the GI.
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With the aid of someone from KLOV, I think I figured out what's wrong with the glidercraft. There are three switches associated with the glidercraft, two microswitches and one leaf switch. I believe that the leaf switch, which looks like an EOS for the pyramid flap, is not being closed correctly.
I have not yet looked at the GI.
I've also decided, after doing some research, to wax the playfield with a couple coats of carnauba wax. I did a couple of drop tests when I was placing the mylar on the ball drop areas and airballs are likely to cause small dents in the clearcoat. I think waxing the playfield will help protect it. So, all the plastics, wireforms and ramps have to come off again. Luckily, I know how it works now.
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One coat of wax is done. I don't really see much difference between the parts of the playfield that were waxed and the ones that weren't. They're both super-shiny and beautiful.
I'll probably do two more coats and call it quits.
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2nd coat of wax done. I see zero difference between the waxed and unwaxed surfaces. It's possible that the clearcoat is so smooth that wax will not stick. So I'm done waxing.
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The pyramid is now fixed!
So I reassembled everything and played a test game. The pyramid worked correctly. There were four flaky light sockets which would work if you wiggled the light bulb in them but over time would quit working. So I replaced those from my spare wiring harness.
The slam switch was wired wrong, fixed.
The pendulum tilt switch was not wired, fixed.
During my test game, the VUKs would not kick the ball up correctly. The ball would hit the bottom of the ball guide and bounce down back into the VUK. I adjusted the left VUK and it works correctly now. The right VUK still doesn't kick the ball out about half the time.
The left slingshot kicker sometimes kicks two or three times when a ball hits one of the two switches on it. I've adjusted that switch multiple times, but eventually it still goes back to the semi-machine gunning. It may be time to replace that switch.
The Sarcophagus has an unusual semi-rollover switch. The ball shouldn't roll all the way over the switch, the end of the switch sticks up in the air instead of going back under the playfield. If the switch is not bent at the correct angle, the ball will either roll over the switch, causing it to be blocked between the sarcophagus kicker and the switch, or else will rest against the switch out of range of the kicker. So I've been trying to get that wire bent at exactly the right angle.
Waxing the playfield may have been a mistake. There is wax in some of the hard to reach areas now which will be difficult to get out. My mirror glazed pinballs have wax on them now which makes them not perfectly round. I have two sets of those pinballs, so once the wax is cleaned up I'll use those.
The biggest problem with the machine now is the playfield GI. I was hoping the problem was just the fuse, but the fuse is good. The "T" relay which can also cause the GI to fail is also good. Today I'm going to do some more testing.
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The GI works now!!!!
I stupidly checked the GI fuse in-game instead of removing it. When in-game, it checked out, but when out of the game, it failed. The ohmmeter registered maybe 500 ohms, which is small enough to pass a continuity test.
I replaced it (7.5 amps) with an automotive 10 amp fuse temporarily.
I have not worked on the VUKs yet.
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The right VUK works perfectly now. There was a wire obstructing it.
The left VUK works part of the time, which can be annoying.
Now that the right VUK works, the game is playable. So I put on the glass and played a real game for the first time since February.
The left flipper still won't stay adjusted. I tightened that thing up pretty good but it won't stay. I'll try again, this time adding more force.
The outhole switch seems to be bouncing. Sometimes, when I have three balls in play and one drains, it'll go back to one-ball mode. Or I'll have two in play, one drains, and I'll get end-of-ball. This doesn't happen all the time. So the outhole switch may need some adjusting.
I also bought some 7.5 amp automotive fuses and installed one instead of the temporary 10 amp fuse.
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The left VUK is fixed now. I put in some washers to shim it up a little bit.
What's happening to the outhole is that the outhole kicker is sometimes causing the ball to bounce back. There's a one-way gate that the ball goes through. That gate is not closing fast enough sometimes, and the ball occasionally will get through back through the entrance to the gate. This causes what appears to be multiple drains from one actual ball drain.
For some reason, the game doesn't launch the fourth ball when in multiball mode.
The 40M switch isn't working.
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I got the 40M switch working. I haven't solved the bounceback problem yet.
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Seeing as how I need to do a complete swap on my Swords of Fury pin (thankfully I have a sweet NOS playfield, fully populated and original!) I have a general question...
How did you go about learning most of what you did? I haven't had much chance to research all the mechanics, so I dont know what does what on a lot of my pin. I know RGP would help me out (when they're not having flame wars with certain Australian business owners), but did you go anywhere else for info? I'm always looking for good, dedicated pinball websites, but I've never stumbled on a very active board like BYOAC or anything similar.
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I searched for playfield swap web sites and asked questions on RGP, but a lot of stuff I had to learn via trial and error.
Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions.