Maintenance Log

This is not complete. Nor is it regularly updated.

• did line voltage conversion (15 Feb 02)
• re-seated U9 (twice) to get CPU to boot, which it now does. Having several friends with degrees in electrical engineering is convenient. Replaced all fuses; many were bogus values. (16 Feb 02)
• repeatedly jiggled red switch matrix wires to get them to light up. IDC connectors suck; .100" connectors suck. (18 Feb 02)
• 9.4H ROM installed. Can now cheat at LITZ. Can enable buy-in without fear of losing my high scores. Cool effect for scoring hitchhiker pickups, too. Thanks, Brian! (21 Feb 02)
• Cleaned Powerball with Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish at Dave's recommendation... and supply of the polish. It's now much closer to white, and probably a hell of a lot faster, too. (21 Feb 02)
• Replaced BR2 (and BR1). Couldn't replace cap at C5 because I can't see how to get it off the board! Reset problems seem to have gone away, but introduced complete hosage at some point in messing around, unfortunately. (23 Feb 02)
• Brian Kidder came over, blessed the machine, and re-seated the connectors. Now it runs but doesn't randomly reset. In doing so at one point the DMD had vertical bars running down it and many of the sounds were just wrong. The problem was apparently that the four-plug ribbon cable got hosed somehow. Now the game is using a freak five-connector IDE cable I had sitting around but the vertical bars are gone and the sounds play normally. (27 Feb 02)
• Re-built the J133 column connector with a Molex connector I had and Trifurcon pins. This is probably overkill but all the controlled lamps work well now. (4 Mar 2002)
• Fender washer added to left slingshot; will add one to the right slingshot and replace both plastics with apparently NOS parts when I get washers to protect the mounting holes. Misc cleaning under powerfield. (10 Mar 2002)
• Left playfield was bent. Playfield maintenance was a challenge: hammered it into shape so it locks on the way out, but it doesn't unlock on the way in. Replaced with a new part from PBR, and suddenly I can imagine fixing the rest of the problems with this game--raising the playfield no longer worries me! Rocket plastic replaced with an uncracked repro. Bulb cover placed on left spiral (not quite the same color, but good enough). (11 Mar 2002)
• Shooter shaft was not the original part; the knob was chromed, not black, and smaller than what should have been there; the and the tip was a mushroomed point that wouldn't come out. The spring was way to powerful. We got the spring off and replaced it with a weaker one, but have since replaced it with the proper ultra-wimpy strength after removing the junk shaft with a hacksaw. I think I like hacksaws. For some reason it's not quite the right length, though, and I need to use a short barrel spring (one that was on there to begin with, but is discolored) instead of a full-size one or there is very little contact with the ball. (12 Mar 2002)
• Replaced fuses F601, F602 with new 3/8A fuses. One was 1/4A, the other was an old 3/8A that came with the game; now everything is the right value and also generally a new replacement. (12 Mar 2002)
• Q52, Q51 replaced, lower bumper working again. Put the powerfield back in after some cleaning. Fix wire broken off of pop bumper. Replaced slot machine 5-million target. Replaced another 5-million target that activated only occasionally (switch 67). Fire up the machine and it's resetting again; Kidder rebuilt J101, and now everything is okay. Replaced upper-left flipper coil. Old one was orange; should be green (explains why switch 67 took such abuse). New one can still get the ball up the ramp because it's nice and clean. Old coil was burnt anyway. It had a weird screw-on set of terminals soldered to it for easy removal, which I'm just going to throw out. Flipper pawl looks good but I may replace it anyway. Coil stop looks rusted, though, and I'm not sure that the bushing underneath is any good. Two bumper caps replaced: red is okay, orange substituted for amber (might have to switch to red for it); yellow is not available right now. (13 Mar 2002)
• Jet bumper ring screw sheared off on one side; metal armature bit ripped in half. This happens of course at 1AM. Drove to distributor, got new parts, fixed bumper (upper left). Also replaced coil on lower bumper, as the coil measured 3 ohms when other coils measured 10. Once again it's good to have electrical engineers as friends who can solder. (15 Mar 2002)
• Legs replaced. Back legs now mounted in proper holes (why are there three holes on the back, anyway?) so the playfield is at 6.5 degrees or so. Doing this with several people was much easier. Of course this makes the flippers seem weak. (15 Mar 2002)
• Took off the bottom arch and cleaned. Did not remove the right-side bits over the shooter (they're tough to get off) but cleaned underneath the auto-plunger bit with q-tips. Removed the ball popper, cleaned and lubricated it. Replaced the coil sleeve in the popper coil and picked a bit of gunk off the plunger (it looks like there was tape there). Problems with the balls not moving to the right side of the trough appear to be resolved.
• Put the repro powerball in to make the game look nice. (16 Mar 2002)
• Replaced upper-right flipper coil and coil stop. I'm a little too lazy to replace the whole mechanism yet, but actually the plunger/link looks okay. The coil stop wasn't that worn (my High Speed was far worse when I got it) but the stop was rusted and I could turn the center in the bracket. (17 Mar 2002)
• Lower right flipper rebuilt. Coil is fine. Now we can backhand the right ramp all the time... not just when the machine is cold and it's perfectly timed. (18 Mar 2002)
• Lower left flipper and both upper flippers rebuilt. Swapped the coils on the upper right flippers (I had them backwards!). I think it's now not possible to hit the right ramp from the upper-right flipper, and that's probably how it should be. Put the yellow bumper cap on the outside bumper (where it belongs). (19 Mar 2002)
• Haven't done much in the past month, really. Bought plastics above the UL flipper (old one was just about garbage--the flasher had eaten a big hole in it and there was a bit of what looked like a Whitewater slingshot glued over it to cover the hole), the slot (cracked), and right-side powerfield sign (cracked in half). I installed the UL flipper plastic, but that's it. I also have posts to replace the cracked ones on the powerfield. I did buy a couple bolts for the backbox, which is now firmly attached to the rest of the game. Greg Dunlap was nice enough to send me the promo plastics. (1 May 2002)
• Jonah notices the game has started resetting (again) when both flippers hit at the same time. Jon Ferro came over Friday night and replaced cap C5. This made the game reset much more frequently. Jon came over today and put an oscilloscope on the damn thing. Voltage on the CPU board dropped to zero when we hit both flippers at the same time, but not the power driver board. Eventually the problem went completely away and we can't reproduce it at all. Perhaps the stress of trying to get cap C5 out (twisting the board and such) has caused a bad trace somewhere? Anyway C5 is jumpered, as per Clay's guide. The game is playing well. I think I want an oscilloscope. (12 May 2002)
• Jon Ferro started looking around the TZ trying to diagnose random problems, and discovered a rocker switch in between the CPU board and found a cute hack job: some enterprising operator has added a kill switch (with some tiny wire spliced in) between the coin door and the coin door interface board. The apparent idea, according to a post on rec.games.pinball that I can't find, is that if the switch is open, the Service Credits button doesn't work, and the location pinball jerk can't put credits on the game without putting coins in, because he doesn't know about the switch. Jon says it's a conversation piece. I say it's coming out. Besides, I think that was the tangle of wire that was blocking the drop-slam switch from triggering. The switch is out now. I put in a splice try and keep it together--the cut wire wasn't quite long enough. Not a great splice, but probably better than what was there. (14 May 2002)
• Right hand coin mech was unlit--no bulb, cut wire. I guess they just couldn't trust someone not to replace the bulb. The pricing slip was handwritten (on the back of a disused one) so maybe it just wasn't appropriate. The slips are kind of an odd size, or maybe it's just that I don't have the right parts, and I had to cut a generic "PUSH TO REJECT" one to get it to fit. But it's lit now. (14 May 2002)
• Bent the upper guide in the trough. Balls now reliably make it into the trough! This helps LITZ scores--drained balls come back much more quickly! (14 May 2002)
• Replaced the right-side playfield slide; it just wasn't reliable without it. Much better. Removed door light board, re-soldered header pins. There still seems to be a bad connection, so it's time to fix the connector. While I had the board off I cleaned the bulbs and the inserts. I found a sticker--black on clear plastic--from a location, I think. I took it off and threw it out, although I need to clean off the glue. I also raised the game to a proper 6.5° of level, up by a quarter of a degree. (20 May 2002)
• Spent the last week randomly fixing stuff. Swapped the left and right ramp entrance posts and screwed the bridge to the left ramp. Now the ball doesn't get thrown off the bridge. Cleaned under the ramps, cleaned the ramps, cleaned the lock. Lock rejects fewer balls now. Filled the slot 5-mil target in with matchsticks and glue; it seems to be more secure. I can't get the brace rod to fit, though. Game seems to be exhibiting random reset problems (again), but only when fairly warm. I suspect a bad connection somewhere. Cleaned the clock. If the clock is leaned backwards (i.e., playfield is forward) the hour interrupter will pop against the insert as it goes around. The insert seems slightly warped, actually, but it's not easy to fix. (28 May 2002)
• I'm sick of random reset problems and RAM lossage. I took the boards to someone to repair them. I also pulled the scoop out and am going to have that re-welded. (31 May 2002)
• This was a few months ago. I took the PDB and CPU boards to Sunnyvale Amusement Company. FACTORY SETTINGS RESTORED problem is gone (replaced the RAM). They seem to have think they fixed a reset problem but I'm still having them occasionally. George came out and replaced a flipper coil; this actually solved most of the problems (game was resetting *constantly*). Game was okay for a while, then started resetting when a couple flippers fire at the same time. Perhaps J101 is bad; perhaps it's a playfield problem with the flippers. Game is resetting infrequently or not at all now. I don't know why. The good news is I'm no longer losing settings on a regular basis. I'm looking forward to the replay score changing and staying that way. The only time it did that before was during a party--it never lasted long enough otherwise. (15 Oct 2002)
• This bit was months ago now: Took the scoop off to see about having it fixed. Took the flipper buttom boards off to examine them. The screws for the flipper boards are longer than the ones for the scoop. Guess which ones I ran through the playfield (!). Damage is definite but minor. Some of it is under mylar; I'm afraid when I pull the mylar off I'll take paint with it. I lost interest in getting the game going for a while, in part due to this. Scoop is still not re-welded. (15 Oct 2002)
• With the above incident, the net positive is that the left-side flipper opto board has been changed to a Pinball Lizard board, so the left side flippers work really good. The right side got a new plastic interrupter (For Amusement Only had them) and so it works better, too, even though the right side board is some bootleg thing. (29 Oct 2002)
• Spliced in a connector for the speaker wires so that I can take the whole header panel off. Replaced J101 on power driver board. J101 had already been rebuilt a few months ago. I'm hoping the connector is new enough. Replaced most of the apparently bad pins in J120; connector housing still marginal since I don't have a good 11 pin housing to replace it. Replaced header pins at J120. Replace LM339 at U6 since the GI doesn't dim. GI still doesn't dim; Clay's guide says U1, 74LS374 gets abuse next. Plugged DMD power output into one of the plugs on the bottom of the PDB. Blew out a fuse, maybe abused some coils. Game seems no worse for wear. Labeled DMD power connector like I should have six months ago. (13 Nov 2002)
• Right flipper was sticking; moved it up. The bushing appeared to have lots of top on it. Put toothpicks and glue in slot 5-million target, since it's been loose. Replaced the Clock target, which was so worn you can kind of splay the parts apart, with a PBR enhanced target. Replaced missing screws in pop bumper caps (the ones that I had when I got the game were generally junk and I left them off). Replaced broken ground wire on the prop rod (I suppose I didn't really need to do that). Replaced a missing screw somewhere, too. (17 Nov 2002)
• At some point in the last several months I shelled out the bucks to fix the DMD hoping it would fix the reset problems; besides I've seen the earliest signs of outgassing on the original DMD. Didn't help much but it sure looks nice. (29 Mar 2003)
• A few months back Dave lent me a power driver board (his poor, neglected Doctor Who was using it, but no one was using his poor, negleceted Doctor Who). Everything ran fine for like a month (which is to say, I kept the board too long). Then it reset. I'm now convinced that there's something wrong with regards to the game in general, but it's just marginally wrong, and on TZ that's more than enough. Since I moved earlier this month I never put the power board back in, and I haven't re-installed it. (29 Mar 2003)
• Replaced power driver board after socketing and replacing U1 to make the GI work better. Before, it wouldn't dim. Now, it won't dim and a string is out. (2 Apr 2003)
• Slam switch was making contact with the coin door causing a ground short! Switch matrix problem solved. No resets since rebuilding J101's header and 9VAC pins. (2 Apr 2003)
• Scoop re-welded by Ray at Action Pinball. Now if I would only re-install it. (23 Apr 2003)
• Chris Kuntz resurrected the game. First, he re-seated U9. Then he replaced BR2 (AGAIN) and cleaned up the work on the power driver board. The inter-board splice connector appears to have been dirty. Chris re-seated it... and no more resets! (Yet!) (29 Apr 2005)

Problems

• Magna-flip plastic cracked in half. I'm not installing the new one until I convince myself I'm not going to have future airball problems. Some posts on the Power field need to be replaced, too (fortunately I've got spares).
• Haven't replaced coil sleeves on upper right bumper or slingshots.
• Miscellaneous mostly repairable cabinet damage (some certificate mounting thing on the right side).
• Spiral magnets have grooves from wear. I'm not sure how to fix them (not sure how to get the part apart).
• Very weird screws for both lower flipper mounts; did someone have something against the #6 hex screws that Williams shipped the game with?
• I still get airballs off the slot 5-million target. It's the reinforced Pinball Resource design but it's not braced yet. I can't get the brace to fit and I probably need to cut it down a little bit.
• Airballs, apparently off the right ramp post (no screw on top of this post--it was sheared off).
• Bridge doesn't seem to be exactly feeding the ball to the mini playfield.
• Game is generally beat up. Rust on certain metal parts; most above-playfield screws look like they've lost metal plating. Cabinet artwork is messed up near the legs.
• Right side flipper board is some mutant thing. Someone removed the original "type 1" metal interrupter and replaced it with a single-sided homemade looking opto board and a type 2 plastic interrputer. The only reason I can think of is that according to Joel Cook and Fred Kemper, they wired the type 2 boards backwards so they aren't exactly compatible, and someone was out of type 1 parts--so some enterprising individual made a board for themselves. But hey, it says "BALLY" on it, it must be original--right? I could replace this with a PBLiz Flipper Opto Board (which I have) and a metal interrupter plate (which I don't).
• GI doesn't dim. U1, U6 replaced; will try replacing both at the same time, I guess.
• Right playfield GI is out. Bad connector J120. J120 housing burned. Will replace housing and switch GI to #159 bulbs.
• Clock lens cracked. Have uninstalled replacement.