Repair & Maintenance Log
09/14/07: Acquired game.
09/27/07: Replaced one of the PIA 6821 chips. I only got about two days of play out of the game before the MPU board decided it wanted a new PIA. Otherwise it only took a few new bulbs and a shooter rod cleaning to get the game up and going.
PIA chips (U10 & U11).
02/23/08: Okay, well I actually had two electrical gremlins with this game. Sometimes the game would not start at all. And sometimes the game would randomly restart for no reason. The 6821 chip fixed the first problem. After a few months I finally got off my butt to look for the second problem. Predictably the big C23 +5 volt filter cap was bad. As usual, thanks go Clay's repair guides at marvin3m.com.
New C23, before (left) and after.
While I had the regulator board out of the game I decided to make the ground modifications outlined in Clay's repair guide. My board looks to be in pretty good shape. One of the traces under the flipper enable relay was blown out and bypassed. Otherwise there was little sign of previous repair.
Blown out trace under the relay.
03/18/09: I'm tired of farting around with intermittent bulb sockets so I decided to solder them shut. First I used a mini wire wheel in a Dremel to shine up a spot between the socket body and the mounting bracket (supply voltage). Next I placed a dab of paste flux on the spot. Then I bridged the body and bracket with a solder blob using a 40 watt iron and a wide tip. Despite my efforts at cleaning the spot and adding flux, the metal doesn't seem to tin very well. The end result is ugly, but it seems to work and it's easier than replacing sockets. I tested all the sockets for shorts before turning the game back on.
Socket shined up (left) and soldered shut (right).
If the socket continues to be cantankerous, I pull the ground lead off the tab and solder it right to the spring thingie in the middle.
I also adjusted all the stationary target switches and replaced any missing switch capacitors. I used .047 micro farad caps. What a difference in switch sensitivity! Despite what some may say, bad switch capacitors should be replaced, not simply removed.
While I was at it, I also did a mini-shop job. I replaced all the bad bulbs, cleaned or replaced all the rubber and cleaned and waxed the playfield.
03/20/09: Fabricated new ball guide plastic. The mid-level clear plastic at the top of the "Time Warp" lane was missing its hook. Balls shot up the Time Warp lane were not smoothly hooked down the shooter lane and would occasionally bounce back into play. I believe the broken plastic was caused by a misaligned top arch rail. The end of the arch rail was protruding into the shooter lane and plunged balls would sometimes ricochet into the tip of the plastic. After fixing the arch rail, it was time to replace the plastic.
Broken plastic.
First I bought a sheet of Lexan at Home Depot. Home Depot sells small inexpensive sheets of just the right thickness. I used the old mid-level plastic to trace a pattern on a piece of heavy paper. I used the upper level plastic to trace in the missing hook. Without removing the protective film from the Lexan, I sprayed some spray adhesive to my pattern and stuck it on the Lexan sheet. Next I cut out the Lexan with a coping saw. A power band saw or scroll saw would have been nice. The hand saw was tedious and slow going, but it worked. Instead of trying to make perfect cuts, I just went back and cleaned up all the edges with a small drum sander in a Dremel.
Paper pattern glued onto the Lexan sheet.
Drilling the new mounting holes was also tedious. I started with a small drill bit and slowly worked my way up through progressively larger bits. The larger bits wanted to catch on the Lexan so I ran the drill backwards and melted rather than cut my way trough. I used a soldering iron to pop the metal standoffs from the old plastic. Unfortunately some of my new mounting holes had drifted. So I used a small reamer in the Dremel to elongate some of the holes. But the end result was pretty nice looking if I do say so myself. Before installing my new plastic, I peeled off all the protective film and lightly flame polished all the edges.
Finished plastic back in the game.
The playfield has two green inserts associated with the 2x multiplier. Even with #44 bulbs I thought the green inserts looked dim compared to those of other colors. So I decided to pop in a pair of green Ablaze LEDs (www.pinballlife.com). The effect was just what I was looking for. Sort of... Unfortunately the LEDs don't provide enough load to operate the Bally lamp driver circuits. The lower 2x green LED worked because it's tied to the upper 3x insert. Thus the bulb in the upper 3x insert provided proper loading to the driver circuit. However, the upper 2x green LED did not work because it's on its own circuit with no additional load. So I got the upper 2x green LED to work by tacking a 1k ohm resistor across the socket as shown below.
Green Ablaze LED with an extra 1k ohm load.
04/03/10: New playfield glass.