Taito Double Dragon restore AKA- How to stuff a cab in a Jeep Cherokee...*ALIVE*

[Mauzy]

So I've been away for a while, college and all...
A few nights ago I was off campus and through a series of uneventful events, I was given a beat up but complete (kinda) Taito Double Dragon cabinet. It currently has KLAX installed in it, but it was really clean conversion. I haven't had a chance to plug it in yet but I was told it was not working. The monitor (K7000) is original to the machine with both DD and Klax burn-in.

The game is pretty ridiculously wedged into my Jeep. If it were ANY bigger it would not have fit. I had to take out my back seat which will be staying in my dorm room over winter break. The marquee is sitting where I generally put my right elbow when I drive. I got the cab on Saturday night, and I will be driving two and a half hours back home on Thursday after finals. Hopefully I can have this thing running by the time winter break is over.

I will have more thorough pics Thursday or Friday...

[Spyridon]

What are your plans for this?  Restore it back to Double Dragon?  Keep it as Klax?

These make the best Jamma cabs as the monitor rotates fairly easily allowing you to play both vertical and horizontal games.  Plus the button layout for DD works well for most jamma games.

[Mauzy]

Honestly, I'm not sure. I have very, very little money and what money I have I really shouldn't be spending on this thing (poor college student  ). My current plan is to make it sturdy and make it run. It will be Klax if I can bring it back to life, but I would like to eventually replace the original side art and turn it back into a factory Double Dragon. But honestly I change plans constantly so who knows!

[RayB]

Looks like it already has the original Taito DD side art.

[smalltownguy]

Looks like it already has the original Taito DD side art.

Yeah, I think he knows that. I believe his statement was directed more towards replacing the art with new (repro) to make it look better.

[Mauzy]

Looks like it already has the original Taito DD side art.

Yeah, I think he knows that. I believe his statement was directed more towards replacing the art with new (repro) to make it look better.

Exactly. The other side is missing a big chunk at the control panel and theres many scrapes and gouges in the vinyl.;.

[smalltownguy]

Nice grab. If you ever get a hankerin' for converting it back, let me know. I may have a spare DD board I can get you. It's working 90% -- a random punch or kick sound plays every now and then. Other than that it works great. I'll let it go cheap.

[Mauzy]

Nice, i'll keep that in mind!

[venkman]

will be good to see it out of the jeep! 

[Mauzy]

will be good to see it out of the jeep! 

Careful what you ask for!

Worked on this beast for about 4 hours last night after getting home and clearing 6 or so inches of snow from the drive. There has been mice in the board drawer, the cardboard shroud was pretty gross around the edges but it cleaned up nice.

Plugged everything in, flipped the switch and nothing. After a quick glance around I see that there is a second safety interlock switch in the board drawer and I had the drawer out. Pulled that switch out and got the monitor to kick on. After reattaching a wire on the neck card, I got steady power to the monitor, but nothing from the game board. Took the board and tested it in a JAMMA cab I have in the basement and lo and behold it works great! Still has the high scores from being on location and everything on it. Headed back to the garage and pulled out a multimeter. Luckily the mice left all of the wiring alone when they nested, everything was still stock. The wiring checked out, checked the voltages on the SMPS. 2 volts on the +5, 2.5 on the -5, 4 on the 12. Went and grabbed a spare power supply and it runs fine! The monitor is in need of a cap kit (turns out its a 7601, found the label in the bottom) but luckily I ordered that a couple days ago assuming it would be needed.

I'm going to try to fix the original power supply. By "spare" I meant I grabbed the one from the most convenient to dismantle cabinet in my basement 

Not bad for a free cabinet!


EDIT 2017: Pics removed because they were in a ten year old Photobucket album. PM if needed.

[Mauzy]

Did a tube swap yesterday. Picture is ridiculously sharp but I now have no green signal! The green drive and cutoff will make the screen entirely green when adjusted accordingly, but somewhere along the line the signal is getting lost. I connected the monitor to a different board, no change. Connected the monitor via entirely different cabinet and wiring, no change. Hopefully something just got knocked loose during the swap and it will get found during or fixed by the new cap kit.

Also stripped all of the vinyl off the cab. One side of the sideart came off in two large pieces so reproduction should be pretty simple. No heat was even required to remove it. The front was a different story. Took about an hour and a half under ridiculous heat but it all eventually slid off.

[WhereEaglesDare]

What did you do to get the Green fixed?  What model monitor is it?

[Mauzy]

The monitor is a 19K7601. Apparently somewhere down the line the video amp was damaged. I replaced it to get green back.

The Cab is finished for the time being (running KLAX), forgot to get the pics onto my laptop before I came back to campus. I should be able to get them this weekend!