Jetspin Fixup

[Strangeways]

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..

[Boots]

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:

[Boots]

And after:

[Boots]

Obviously all parts are stripped and cleaned, metal parts are polished
Before and after:

[Boots]

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.

[Boots]

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.

[Boots]

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.

[DSB]

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?

[Boots]

I use a scotchbrite wheel on a 150mm bench grinder.
One of the most used tools I have, very handy

[Brettski]

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... :)

[Boots]

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.

[Boots]

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:

[Boots]

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:

[Boots]

After:

[Boots]

Obviously the spindle was removed and degreased, cleaned and re-assembled