Headbox Work

This is where a lot of time is spent rebuilding 20 scorereels and the important "Player Unit", which is the most important assembly of the game. Here are the assemblies as mounted in the head. The entire headbox board will be removed.





Stripped. Artwork is REALLY good for an original game.





Assembly parts are cleaned and tumbled.





The PLAYER UNIT - This stepper is responsible for routing the game through each player (1-4). It is simple in design, but it needs to be running perfectly for the game to work for each player.











Stripped, cleaned and the springs are tested for strength and then I re assemble.








The Match unit is also a stepper unit. The smallest stepper, but this is often seized. This is the unit after being rebuilt ;





Here is the most "time consuming" part of the restoration. Most of the issues with "fully shopped" EMs is in this area - the score reels. It is really EASY to simply clean the reels and be done with it. These assemblies look VERY clean already, but each one will be totally dis assembled, cleaned, checked and then re assembled. It takes around 25 minutes per score reel. So there's a day's work in this area.





The assebly will have some old lubricant which now can act as an adhesive ! I always soak the parts in degreaser, then water, then metho. The board needs to be cleaned with scotchbrite and then I use a drop of oil and smear it across the contacts ;





Parts are soaked then I use the air gun to remove any remnants of water.





Then I can re assemble





Here's what the parts look like from one of the units ;








In the picture below, the bottom row are rebuilt. There does not seem to be a huge difference, other than they are rebuilt, and should be "trouble free" for the next 20 years. That's around 5 hours work JUST on the bottom row. I always replace the coil sleeves and clean the contacts. I'll post pictures of the filthy contacts and also the coil sleeves and it become clear how these units can develop problems.





A "close up" of the rebuilt bottom row ;





The key to these GTB 4 Players is THIS step I've almost completed. The PLAYER UNIT and the SCORE REELS.