Arcade Collecting > Pinball
Pinball mechanical problems
Chris:
Well, guess I'm not as done as I thought.
I decided to look into the credit system and coin switches. After some work, I managed to get the coin wireforms and switches bent back into shape; they at least trigger the score motor when a coin drops through, but no credits register. Starting a game doesn't decrement the credits either. So it's time to look into just how this machine is set to "free play".
Looks like a previous owner took the direct approach to the problem:
Yup, he just cut the wire to the coil that reduces the credit count. Okay, seems easy enough. A little solder and heat shrink tubing later and it's happily decrementing credits. Except it zeroes out at 14 credits. Hmm. Is the wheel on backwards? Nope. There are stops on the wheel to trigger switches that indicate whether credits are available and they're not where they're supposed to be. A little adjustment later and I have a credit stepper that counts down to zero properly. But it's a one way trip.
I checked out the coil that advances the wheel and it would barely move in its sleeve. I had to remove the whole stepper assembly to get at the screws holding the coil stop so I could replace the coil sleeve.
Now things are getting weird:
* Putting in a quarter sometimes adds two credits, sometimes one credit, usually no credits. But it always activates the score motor.
* Putting in a dime doesn't add a credit... it acts as if the game start button was pushed!
* Match always displays "20"... but it doesn't always actually match a 20. When it does, the knocker activates but no credit is added.
* No credits are awarded for hitting the high score levels.So I'm back in troubleshooting mode again.
StephenH:
* Putting in a quarter sometimes adds two credits, sometimes one credit, usually no credits. But it always activates the score motor.
I wonder if it was supposed to add THREE credits, given that a dime was the lowest price coin, and 2 1/2 would be odd in those days. This could be a problem with the credit stepper.
* Putting in a dime doesn't add a credit... it acts as if the game start button was pushed!
Check the dime coin switch, and see if it is registering. The switch could be bad possibly.
* Match always displays "20"... but it doesn't always actually match a 20. When it does, the knocker activates but no credit is added.
I wonder if this function was disabled with the "Free Play" because in EM, it is possible for "overflow" to cause things to reset to zero sometimes. This would disable free play. Check the wiring between credits and scoring.
* No credits are awarded for hitting the high score levels.
See Above
So I'm back in troubleshooting mode again.
Chris:
--- Quote from: StephenH on October 14, 2007, 02:29:44 am ---I wonder if it was supposed to add THREE credits, given that a dime was the lowest price coin, and 2 1/2 would be odd in those days. This could be a problem with the credit stepper.
--- End quote ---
The machine is set for two games for a quarter... it can go up to 7 per quarter.
--- Quote ---I wonder if this function was disabled with the "Free Play" because in EM, it is possible for "overflow" to cause things to reset to zero sometimes. This would disable free play. Check the wiring between credits and scoring.
--- End quote ---
Possible... the match step-up coil isn't firing, and based on the state of the plunger and coil sleeve I'd say it hadn't fired for quite some time. Not sure if it's another cut wire; the signal comes from the 10-point relay but all the switches there look correct. I thought the coil might be burned out, seeing as the stepper was so gummed up the solenoid would have never moved it (works great after cleaning though), but the coil measures 12 ohms so I think it's probably good.
Chris:
Just a quick update...
Not long after posting my last update, I started getting glaring looks from the wife about all the parts and supplies strewn about, so it was time to button it back up. I never did repair the match or credit circuits, so when the machine runs out of credits I reach inside and gently turn the credit wheel back to maximum. I'm tempted to go back and cut the wire to the credit solenoid again. What I really need to do is put a switch in there, or better yet find one of the ancient jumper connectors that are in ther now.
I did do one last mechanical repair. The lowest-pitch chime never worked and the other two barely worked. I thought the coil on the non-working chime was broken, but when I started to tear it apart I realized that someone had oiled the coil sleeves! The oil has soaked into the "beer seal" that was across the bottom of the assembly for the plungers to rest on, and one of them had essentially been "glued" in place by the old oil. So it was time to take it all apart and clean it, and to avoid upsetting my wife I did all the work through the coin door rather than take the glass off again. Wow, that was a pain...
I ordered new coil sleeves and chime grommets from http://marcospec.com. The original grommets had melted and hardened ages ago, and as a repair someone had used small post rubbers in their place which had also worn and melted onto the chime bars. So I scraped all the old rubber off the chime bars, cleaned the plungers with alcohol, replaced the beer seal and the coil sleeves, and started to put it back together.
I ran into trouble with the grommets. I had two issues: with the grommets in place there was no way the chimes would fit back over their mounting posts, and for some reason I stupidly bought three grommets instead of six. I solved this by cutting each grommet in half horizontally and placing the grommet halves over the posts rather than inserting them into the chime bars.
Now, the chimes all worked... too well. Hitting a target would ring a loud, clear chime tone that would hang in the air for 10-15 seconds. Playing the machine for even a few minutes had my wife looking for a sledgehammer. So I went back in and cut some squares of leftover beerseal, cut holes in the middle, and applied these to the top side of the chime bars to dampen the vibrations a bit. That seemed to work well, muffling the tones enough to be playable without driving everyone crazy.
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