kings and queens

[mark jackson]

...a few pics of the head in various stages.

[mark jackson]

Happy New Year to everyone. Yesterday (1/1/11) was one of the most exciting days in pinball restoration that I have ever had. I had been re-wiring the head that I made for Kings & Queens, and yesterday I finished, and decided to give it a run on the K & Q machine to see how I went. All worked fine, which was a bloody great shock, and a very pleasant surprise for me.

I still have 2 small problems ...1. The units reel does not activate the tens reel when it gets past 9. Units reel works fine but doesn't change the tens reel when it should. 2. The thousands light does not come on when it should. .... But apart from those two little things, the rest works just like the other K & Q head.

I couldn't believe that I actually made a whole head and that it worked!! This was always going to be the hardest part of this project, and now it's 'finished'. I'm going to tie the wiring with the waxy string (when I get some), and leave this new head on the machine for a few weeks so I can find the 2 small things that are not working as they should. Also, just to run this head in, as these parts all come from another machine, and have not been in a working state for many years, until I rounded them up for the head I made.

For some of you, this might have been easy, but for me, this was the most extensive thing I've tried to do in pinball restoration. I still can't believe that I pulled it off. As they say, ...'Luck's a fortune). Cheers, Mark

[FirePower]

What a stunning effort and a great result - I don't think too many people would attempt what you've achieved.

Sensational 

[goodolddays]

Congratulations Mark  . Just goes to show once again that perserverance and patience pay off . Your machine is looking fantastic. No doubt when you play it you will often think of your most challenging project and enjoy it even more.

Very Well Done

Cheers
Dave

[Pinprick]

Congratulations on a fine job.
Persistence, patience, inspiration, resourcefulness and a touch of mania can do wonders.

[Strangeways]

Awesome !

A tribute to your persitence and attention to detail. Very pleasing result !

[Bayview]

Congrats to you Mark.  Well done.
A huge effort indeed.
 
Cheers
Bruce

[ddstoys]

Awsome work mark.   And working first attempt how good is that and you were doipting yourself.   I knew you could do it.    Well done

[justwedgeheads]

Fantastic effort Mark.Restoration on a whole new level for anyone into em's.
                                                 Ian

[mildflame]

WOW WHAT AN EXCELLENT MACHINE! It looks amazing! BETTER THAN NEW!    It makes me want it, I kno most people would pay all sorts of $$$ for that!  #*#WELL DONE!

[Retropin]

Gotta admit.. stunning stuff Mark... Done good with only the two minor glitches. rewiring a head is not something many of us would like to take on.. me included.

Good on ya mate   

[oldpins]

A huge task and mammoth effort. You should be proud 

Greg

[faza]

Stunning looks fantastic well done

[mark jackson]

Thanks alot for your positive comments. I thought I'd mention the problems I had and what they actually were. I'm thinking of those of you new to fixin' pinballs. ... In reality there were 3 problems I encountered when I plugged in the head I made.
1. The fuse for the backbox just blew out immediately I pressed the replay button or coin switch contact. Whenever I find this problem, I take it that the machine is trying to tell me something. .... It doesn't like something a real lot, otherewise it wouldn't blow fuses right off. So, I went looking for the cause. It could have been that I wired something wrong, but I didn't think so. Whenever you use solder there is always the chance that some of it 'spills' onto a part it shouldn't. ... and of all the places to look I felt like the soldering of the wires to the lights of the screreels was the most likely place that I would have messed it up. I say this because this was the place where it was hard to manouver. When I looked I saw that some solder was touching the body of the light socket. I bent the connection point away from the light socket body (3 mm approx).... Then I hit the replay button again, and the machine lit up.
2. The unit score reel didn't change the tens reel once it went past 9. To my knowledge this is always because the contact points in the units score reel which is supposed to make contact at '9' wasn't doing this. To adjust this easily on a 60's machine I always take off the actual score-reel from the unit. Then it's easy to see and adjust the contact points so they close on '9'.  .... Problem solved.
3. The thousand light was not coming on. I gave the female socket for this wire a slight squeeze with the pliers. It then worked for a game or two, but then it didn't. This sent me straight away to the soldering iron and I resoldered where the wire joins to the female socket. When ever the connection or contact point is intermittent, it always pays to resolder that particular place. Most 'dry' solder joins look  ok, but it only takes a minute or two to resolder a connection or contact point. It fixed this last problem and the head has been raging since I fixed those small problems.

I hope this rave is useful to those who have not done much of this type of repair work. All 3 of the problems I had are typical and their solution was also typical for that problem. Cheers, Mark

[mark jackson]

Hi All, I'm back at it again, as I may have found a cabinet BUT it will have no metal parts usually found in the cabinets. I'll put a few pics up, but basically I'm looking for ALL the metal pieces, plus rails that are on a cabinet like this (mid 60's Gottlieb cab). All assistance will be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Mark