The Aussie Pinball Arcade
Aussie Pinball Forums => Restorations => Topic started by: Boots on April 14, 2016, 05:47:57 PM
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Not really a restoration of this (yet) just trying to get it going
Picked this up not going cabinet is mostly sound, could do with a re-stencil but still ok.
Someone has messed around electrically with this, so I have to sort out that stuff first then get to the actual faults.
Thanks to Tony @illawarra_steelers for helping me out with some connectors that some fool decided to cut off
Firstly the voltage select connector, cables torn off the transformer lugs and cut off the connector, lucky I was able to copy the setup from another machine
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I got the machine plugged in and of course the score motor continually runs as does the player unit, there are faults there too with wires cut off.
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I think I have it setup right, it appeared as the rotating arm had been removed at some stage so hopefully it's back in the right spot now.
I lined up the home position with the two switches at the back of the unit (closest to the backglass) and then set the arm so the contacts lined up with the first set of rivets after the gap, someone correct me if this is wrong.
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Still continually running so I am at that stage now trying to find other faults AX relay etc...
Oh and here is a pic of the cut off connnector
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Ok so I have got the score motor and player unit to come to rest
Turns out the "O" relay had some of the switch blades out of their grooves and were jammed shut
Now if I manually activate the start relay the score motor turns and stops on the next home position
I am still not sure if the player unit is in the correct orientation
Can anyone tell me exactly what rivets should be contacted when the player unit is in the home position?
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Hey Chris,I got some good help from these videos when helping a friend with Wild Life
Cheers: Brettski... :)
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Hey Chris,I got some good help from these videos when helping a friend with Wild Life
Cheers: Brettski... :)
Thanks Brett
Slowly getting there, found a few more stuck switches and I can get it to reset the score reels now for some reason it just won't start a game
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I do envy you guys that can get their heads around EM repair, I really struggle! Good luck with this, love the artwork.
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Before going any further - do you have schematics ?
Have a read of the "start up sequence" in Clay's guide - http://www.pinrepair.com/em/index3.htm#start (http://www.pinrepair.com/em/index3.htm#start)
That's a starting base. Chasing things around will lead to more problems. 90% of faults on these games are within the player unit, but you need to read up on some theory.
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Before going any further - do you have schematics ?
Have a read of the "start up sequence" in Clay's guide - http://www.pinrepair.com/em/index3.htm#start (http://www.pinrepair.com/em/index3.htm#start)
That's a starting base. Chasing things around will lead to more problems. 90% of faults on these games are within the player unit, but you need to read up on some theory.
I am waiting for the schematics to arrive, Daniel ddstoys is helping me out with that.
I have found quite a few things and yes you are correct they do lead to more problems, whilst fixing the jammed switches on the O relay I knocked the AX relay this gave me a false positive
I now have got to the point where the score motor and player unit are not endlessly cycling, and the score reels reset when the replay button is pushed but for some reason the hold relay is not coming in and the game over relay is latched on
I am thinking there is a problem with the coin unit at this stage so tomorrow I am going to service that
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Small update
I've been trying to work out why the hold relay wasn't latching on.
After studying the schematics I decided to trace the wires, turns out that the hold wires loops to the coin lockout and one of the wires had fallen off.
I thought it strange that it would be done like that, anyone have a reason why?
Anyway now it is resetting, and I can start a 1,2,3 or 4 player game.
No chimes yet and some of the score reels are not carrying over to the next reel when they hit 9
I also have rebuilt the coin unit, it was really gummed up but it works smoothly now
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Hey Chris that video I shared has a bit on the score reels not going over after 9, worth checking out..
Cheers Brettski
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Small update
I've been trying to work out why the hold relay wasn't latching on.
After studying the schematics I decided to trace the wires, turns out that the hold wires loops to the coin lockout and one of the wires had fallen off.
I thought it strange that it would be done like that, anyone have a reason why?
Anyway now it is resetting, and I can start a 1,2,3 or 4 player game.
No chimes yet and some of the score reels are not carrying over to the next reel when they hit 9
I also have rebuilt the coin unit, it was really gummed up but it works smoothly now
The hold relay is energised from the moment the machine is turned on. In the home environment, owners bypass the hold relay to eliminate the hum, and the noise it produces. They may have removed the power to the coil and adjusted the leaf switches to be NC (normally closed) - thus bypassing the need for the coil.
Next phase of testing - Test the game in one player only. Adding more players will introduce new issues and add confusion. The player unit on these games is where most of the problems will reside. So you need to test game functionality - or at least having a working 5 ball game - with 1 player only.
If you want to be cheeky - tighten all the switch stacks on the player unit. Make sure the coil and sleeve work correctly. Don't dismantle the player unit YET. It is another stepper unit, but it is a lot more complicated !
All chimes not working ?
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The hold relay is energised from the moment the machine is turned on. In the home environment, owners bypass the hold relay to eliminate the hum, and the noise it produces. They may have removed the power to the coil and adjusted the leaf switches to be NC (normally closed) - thus bypassing the need for the coil.
Next phase of testing - Test the game in one player only. Adding more players will introduce new issues and add confusion. The player unit on these games is where most of the problems will reside. So you need to test game functionality - or at least having a working 5 ball game - with 1 player only.
If you want to be cheeky - tighten all the switch stacks on the player unit. Make sure the coil and sleeve work correctly. Don't dismantle the player unit YET. It is another stepper unit, but it is a lot more complicated !
All chimes not working ?
It's hard to tell what the reasoning was behind a lot of the issues on this machine, wires cut or ripped off, wires swapped around, mechs taken apart and put back together wrong.
Whoever had this before me was a real clown.
I have gone just about as far as I can for the moment with testing as I am waiting for a replacement jones plug in the mail for the playfield.
So for the moment I have started cleaning the light board and servicing and cleaning the score reels.
I have done a quick service on the player unit and it appears to be working ok for now, I had to do some work on it as it had been partially dismantled and put back together incorrect.
Just tonight I resolved hopefully the last hack where the three coin adjust plugs had been swapped around, for what reason who knows.
No chimes at all currently, I haven't really looked into this yet.
I must say that although a completely different beast to the SS and DMD's I am used to, it is satisfying to see it starting to work, the first time the score reels started up was really good.
These things are a mechanical marvel.
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Hey Chris that video I shared has a bit on the score reels not going over after 9, worth checking out..
Cheers Brettski
Thanks Brett will do
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EMs are exactly that - mechanical marvels. Every collector that I have pushed into owning ONE EM has said similar.
Wait for the day you see a Bally Bingo..
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Ok so I have been busy working on the score reels, very time consuming on a 4 player EM
Been learning as I go and I have them a little over half done now, probably the hardest part is the 9.
After stripping and cleaning the reels will easily cycle through 0-8 but the extra tension on the switches when it gets to the number 9 really slows it down and quite often it wont quite latch.
The only way I have found to fix it is the adjust the tension on the 0, overrun and 9 switches.
This can take a bit of time but I am slowly getting better at it.
Here is a photo of one of the score reels before:
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And after:
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Obviously all parts are stripped and cleaned, metal parts are polished
Before and after:
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The part I was most concerned about was the score reel itself.
These are plastic with screen printed numbers and I was concerned that by cleaning them the numbering would be damaged.
In the end I carefully tried hand soap and water with a toothbrush, this worked very well with no damage to the numbering at all.
The score reels on each end have a circuit board attached to them that I believe is for the match feature??
These were cleaned up with fine steel wool and the wipers cleaned with white spirits.
I had to take note of the re-assemble position of the wipers as it was obvious this did matter.
You can see a small locator on the reel that matches with a notch on the wiper but it is so small that it might be possible to assemble it incorrectly.
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Once assembled I tested each score reel by starting a game.
Checking they reset properly and score properly including advancing the adjacent reel once passing through the "9".
One of the reels did have one of these issues and although it would reset ok it would not score.
This turned out to be the eos switch on the coil not opening properly when the coil was activated.
This was caused by the end stop for the switch being to tight on the switch and the tension to high on the other side of the switch.
I had noticed the stop bent away (you can see this in my before photo) while dismantling the reel so I straightened it, turns out I straightened it too much.
A small adjustment and it worked immediately. There was one concern with this and that was that because the switch did not open at the eos then coil remained on, causing it to get hot, luckily no damage was done.
One of the reels was not advancing the adjacent reel, there are two switches that perform this function the "9" switch and the N/O switch that is activated but the reel actuator.
In this case it ended up being a dirty "9" switch that was easily recitifed by running some cardboard through it.
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So currently the machine will start a game and Player 2 and Player 4 score reels are fully cleaned and functioning.
I also have the chimes working now, after deciding to take a quick break from working on the reels.
To fault find the chimes I started a game and activated the switch on the "L", "M", and "N" relays that controls each chime.
I could hear the chime coil buzzing so I figured they were ok.
Turns out the coil sleeves just had some grit in them that was prevent the plungers from dropping back down.
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Obviously all parts are stripped and cleaned, metal parts are polished
Great job your doing Boots! What's your method for polishing the metal parts, especially the spring?
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I use a scotchbrite wheel on a 150mm bench grinder.
One of the most used tools I have, very handy
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Good work buddy!!
I haven't seen the 150 mm Scotch Brite wheels, are these something from Bunnings?
Sounds like what I need.
Love your attention to detail, you gotta love shiny metal bits and clean plastic!! :)
Cheers: Brettski... :)
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Good work buddy!!
I haven't seen the 150 mm Scotch Brite wheels, are these something from Bunnings?
Sounds like what I need.
Love your attention to detail, you gotta love shiny metal bits and clean plastic!! :)
Cheers: Brettski... :)
I was lucky enough to get the wheel off a mate so I am not sure where it came from.
I think a engineering tool shop like Blackwoods or any 3M stockist would be able to source them.
It is a solid wheel, green in colour and mostly used for commercial polishing of stainless steel I think.
It works great on pinball bits, I would use it every day.
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The headbox is all complete now
I gave the 0-90 match unit a quick cleanup and adjust and it's working fine now
I've been through all the bulbs and replaced blown or missing ones
The back door needed a bit of work but that's all straightened out and a lock fitted now
So the next step is under the playfield
Basically just stripping and cleaning of the vari-target, the bonus unit and the roto-target unit
The vari target was pretty simple one screw missing on the coil and the contacts out of adjustment but all good now
The bonus unit was pretty gummed up but after cleaning it works great
Now the roto-target unit hmmm that's a real beast of a thing and the targets seem pretty flimsy so I was concerned about damage
I managed to remove it ok I just had to cut the coil wires to be able to turn it over to sit on the board I had resting on the cabinet
I started to strip it and found this:
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Just what I didn't want, a broken target
You can see someone has tried to repair it with a pk screw
Besides the targets, the contact plate needed a good cleanup
Before:
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After:
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Obviously the spindle was removed and degreased, cleaned and re-assembled
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Now to work out a way to repair the target(s)
The 300 point target is partially broken, so I am going to repair that one at the same time.
I don't suppose anyone has a spare 100 and 300 target laying around for this?
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I'm afraid PBR will be your only option for the target.
Great to see your progress on this machine. Hopefully it will encourage others to look at an EM restoration in the future. A LOT of work goes into these games to have them working after being idle for so long. But the reward is always a fun game that you have the satisfaction of saying that you restored it.
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I worked out a fix for the broken targets on the roto-target unit.
In the end I had three of the targets to repair and the fix involved using thin steel (0.20mm) to create a new blade.
First I drilled out the old rivets that hold the target on:
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Then I cut a piece of the steel the same width as the original blade.
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Then I drilled the attaching holes in the new blade, cut it to length and fit it to the target by squeezing it between the original blade and the back of the target.
Then the new blade gets fixed in place with a rivet.
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After attaching the targets with pop-rivets and a quick polish with Novus, it is ready to fit back to the assembly.
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Assembled and adjusted ready to install
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After installing and a few fine adjustments the roto-target unit is working great.
Next step, the playfield connectors arrived in the post today (thanks to @illawarra_steelers) after that I should be able to play a game
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Good work Chris! I love the improvisation to get things working, well done!
I am looking forward to getting an EM. They look like fun ^&^
Cheers: Brettski... :)
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Well I soldered on the new plugs last night and finally go to play a game.
The ball trough switch needed cleaning but everything else worked fine
I must say I like the roto-target, I think it's a cool feature.
I still need to service the flippers and give the playfield the usual service but other than that it played great and some of the shots are not that easy.
For my first EM I think I have been luck and fully tuned it will be a fun game.
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I used to love Jetspin so I am in envy of you at the moment Chris.
I really want to do an EM next and enjoying watching the work you are doing, I think we have similar tastes in machines.. :)
Well done, looking forward to the final pics.. :)
Cheers: Brettski... :)
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Onto the playfield now and the first things I notice are the plastics and the apron.
The apron is badly worn with some scratches and a lot of the art worn off.
Both sling plastics are broken and after some thought I decided to go with new plastics from Pinballrescue.
Lee did me a great deal on the apron/shooter decals and the plastics so I went for that.
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Well I've been busy with various things the last few weeks but I have managed to put some work into the playfield
To start with it wasn't too bad but there was some planking between the upper lane guides and there was the usual wear spot in front of the kick out hole and of course around the pops
After some touchups and a coat of clear it looks a lot better
Here are some pics
Before:
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After:
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Now that is done the reassembly starts
Side rails on, and targets and switches reinstalled
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That is looking brilliant Chris.. your colour matching looks superb!
I would love to drop by and play it when done, it's one of my all time favourites.. :)
Brettski... :)
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Another small update
The apron and the shooter gauge were badly faded and worn so when I bought the plastics set from Pinballrescue I got the decals aswell.
I painted the apron and shooter gauge a few weeks ago in preparation, so I figured the paint was well and truly dry enough to apply the decals today.
Here they are before the decals:
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And here they are with decals applied and score and instruction cards in place:
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I used the wet method as per the included instructions, water with some detergent and it all went well.
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Good job on the Apron Chris, it's a good feeling when it comes together and looks good.
What else do you have left to do.. :)
Brettski... :)
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Good job on the Apron Chris, it's a good feeling when it comes together and looks good.
What else do you have left to do.. :)
Brettski... :)
Not much now, for the playfield I have to fit the new plastics set, the apron and the shooter gauge.
There is some house paint on the side of the headbox that I am going to try and strip and then just a few cleanups on the cabinet.
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Looks great Chris. A small tip - use a mist coat of clear over the decals, then apply THIN coats and it will add depth and durability to the Apron. I like to also place a thin piece of mylar where the ball contacts the apron.
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Anyway I have the machine inside now, new plastics fitted and all running.
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There was a small hickup with the running of the machine, I got it all up and running before I cleaned up the playfield but when I moved it inside it wasn't resetting properly, the score motor was running.
Back out with the schematics and putting my brain into EM mode.
The machine would reset the Player1 and Player2 scores but after that the score motor just kept running and running.
Looking at the schematics below I worked it out that the Player1 and Player2 scores are reset and then there is an electrical path to Motor switch 1A through the Player1 and Player2 score reel zero switches (Z1 NC switch is open because Z1 is energised), Player3 and Player4 scores are then reset.
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But this was just not happening, so I started testing the path from Player2 10's zero switch to Z2 and it looked OK, this had me stumped for a little while then I realised that because the machine was turned off when I was testing this meant that Z1 was de-energised and obviously the NC switch was closed giving me a false positive. I then pressed Z1 in and of course I lost continuity.
Long story short it ended up being the Player1 10,000's zero position swith was slightly open, I adjusted that an presto, it reset normally.
Only a few things to do now like clean up the legs, install a coin door lock and install the backglass and the machine is complete
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EM repair and maintenance is a cool string to the pinball bow. Well done Chris #*#