Hankin FJ - Help please

[Romano]

Hello everyone. I am new here and this is my first post. 

I own a Hankin FJ which has run into some grief. Fuse "F3" (which is 5 amp) on the power board keeps blowing when I switch the game on. the previous owner had a 10amp fuse in this socket and he tells me that the game DID play but intermittently. If I put a higher fuse in there, the game powers on and passes the tests and goes into game mode, however, the pop-bumpers lock down and the thing makes a terrible HUMMMMMM, as you could imagine. I only paid $100.00 for this game so no real HUGE loss if this is beyond repair.

I notice there was also another interesting alteration (and the only other one I could see as clearly everywhere else, its obvious the soldering is the original). For some reason someone had replaced a 39 Ohm resistor with two resistors soldered together in series. One was 14 Ohm the other a 12 Ohm. repalicing these with a 39 Ohm has not changed anything, still behaves as described above.

If anyone can help, that would be fabulous.

Thank you.

[MartyJ]

Hi Romano,

I love this game and for $100 you got a bargain.  What sort of condition (cosmetically) is it in?

Anyway - over fusing is very bad. 

Whereabouts are you located? (in case you want to sell?!!)

Are all the bumpers locking on or just one?  It may be a switch (left type) that is locking a coil on and causing the fuse to blow.

Do you have a manual for it?  I just had a quick look on IPDB and no schematics in manual there....I've never worked on an FJ so I don't know the board layout.

It may be as simple as a stuck switch or a transistor gone bad.  Depending on what state, you may be able to remove the driver board (if it has one) and send off for repair!

[Romano]

WOW Marty, your quick!

Cosmetically it is 10/10 for the backglass; 9/10 for the playfield, but only if you go down to within 1 cm of the playfield with a magnifying glass, otherwise 10/10 and the body scores a 7 because some clown stuck stickers on it and another clown (or maybe the same one) pulled them off and lifted the artwork.

I am in Whyalla, South Australia.

2 of the 3 bumpers are locking down; the bumpers are aranged like a triangle pointing down. The two locking are the bottom and top-right.

I have the manual with schematics.

Thanks for the help.
 

[pinballist]

Mate for $100 for any pin is a bargain but for a classic Aussie machine you're bloody laughing!!!

Sorry I don't have an answer to your question but I just want to say welcome aboard anyway :)

Ev

[MartyJ]

Romano - I would say it is fixable - so don't think about getting rid of it.

Probably by tonight a couple of the other members will have logged on and I'm sure some of them have worked on Hankins before.  We'll have a fix. 

Can you check in the manual and see what fuse F3 on powerboard is for?  This will help us track it down.. 

One of my old pins had a similar issue of fuse blowing on startup.  Swapped a transistor on the driver board (10 min fix with soldering iron) and for under $10.00 it was up and going.

If you can lift/tilt the playfield up (remove balls first!) have a look at the pop bumper which is not activating and you will see a couple of leaf switches .  Note how they are - without bumper down and observe the gap (if open) or switch closed.  Then check same on the two which are locking down and compare.  Also make sure no wires have come of any of the coils driving the bumpers too.

Do you have a digital multimeter handy too.  You may need it when the others get on to help with some diagnostics.

If you are able to maybe start another thread in the My Gamesroom area I would absolutely LOVE to see some pics of your pin.  I literally spent weeks playing it at a caravan park when I was a kid and loved it.  Some of my happiest pinball memories!!

[Romano]

Mate for $100 for any pin is a bargain but for a classic Aussie machine you're bloody laughing!!!

Sorry I don't have an answer to your question but I just want to say welcome aboard anyway :)

Ev

Thanks for the welcome Evro. I'm gonna love it here  

[illawarra_steelers]

Mate for $100 for any pin is a bargain but for a classic Aussie machine you're bloody laughing!!!

Sorry I don't have an answer to your question but I just want to say welcome aboard anyway :)

Ev

I'll second what Evro said above and would love to hear your story how and when you picked up your pin and such a fantastic price!

[Romano]

If you are able to maybe start another thread in the My Gamesroom area I would absolutely LOVE to see some pics of your pin.  I literally spent weeks playing it at a caravan park when I was a kid and loved it.  Some of my happiest pinball memories!!

OK, just arrived here today so thanks for pointing out the "My Gamesroom" section. Happy to post pictures for you. In the meantime, my collection goes like this: FJ, Evel Kneivel; Hot Hand; Cleopatra; Sinbad; High Hand; Expressway; Space Lab; Drop-A-Card; New World; Time Zone; Bowl-O; Big Deal

I have all the items you listed, plus some, as my restoration workshop is stocked with all the items one needs  so looking forward to hearing from others later.

Thanks again Mate.

[MartyJ]

If you are able to maybe start another thread in the My Gamesroom area I would absolutely LOVE to see some pics of your pin.  I literally spent weeks playing it at a caravan park when I was a kid and loved it.  Some of my happiest pinball memories!!

OK, just arrived here today so thanks for pointing out the "My Gamesroom" section. Happy to post pictures for you. In the meantime, my collection goes like this: FJ, Evel Kneivel; Hot Hand; Cleopatra; Sinbad; High Hand; Expressway; Space Lab; Drop-A-Card; New World; Time Zone; Bowl-O; Big Deal

I have all the items you listed, plus some, as my restoration workshop is stocked with all the items one needs  so looking forward to hearing from others later.

Thanks again Mate.

Awesome collection.  Photos please!!!!

[Extra Ball]

another lucky Drop a Card owner. 

[MartyJ]

Expressway - wow.  I've never seen or heard of one of these before.  Looks like they are quite rare!  Another car theme too!

[Marty Machine]

For $100, i'd be just as happy to have it 'not work' and sit in the corner looking good 

With everyone here to jump in, it should be running upto spec in no time 

You may want to quickly de-solder the wires off the bumper coils, which will give you more time to measure voltages and so on, without blowing fuses.

I guess the Trannies (as MartyJ said) will be suspect, otherwise the bumpers are damgaged (or well on their way).
I'd also be feeling how easily the plunger moves within the bumper coil-sleeve etc etc..

MM.

[ddstoys]

  Romano
                  im speachless you got an FJ for $100 i thing you have just taken my title of bargain of the century as said above it will be either transistors or switches locking on the coils.      If you lift the playfield and visually check the switches to activate the pop bumpers should quickly rule out the the switches.
  And nice collection of pins is your Big deal the williams one by any chance????   

[Romano]

  And nice collection of pins is your Big deal the williams one by any chance????   

Greetings ddstoys,

Yes it is the Williams and 4 player.

Thanks for the tip, Im going to check the switches tomorrow. I do think this is going to end up being trasistors as when I got this home it DID work for a little while (as mentioned in original post, previous owner said it was intermittent), hope to get this sorted and working; it will be virtual cigars all round! 

[Romano]

Can you check in the manual and see what fuse F3 on powerboard is for?  This will help us track it down.. 

OK. The schematic shows that fuse F3 takes 25V AC from the transformer and puts it through what looks like a bridge rectifier (please confirm, on the schematic it is drawn as an array of diodes in a square with a 22 Ohm resistor in the middle). it then is fed through to the playfield as 2 things: SOLENOIDE SUPPLY and SOLENOID SUPPLY [BOOSTED]. The testpoint for this path is T.P.3. Looking at this schematic, and funny how this circuit is playing up, I wonder if a previous owner knew, or thought they knew what they were doing; someone has written on the schematic and the resistor in the abovementioned array has a '-' at one end and a '+' written on the other end. The same pen then wrote 'R2+' at the SOLENOIDE SUPPLY [BOOSTED] end and 'R1-' at the SOLENOIDE SUPPLY end. I dont know if any of that is significant.

Also, I have checked the switches and all are OK. The only glaring thing I noticed is that the coil which fires the right sling-shot will not allow the pin to move down it. On close inspection, taking the coil out, the coil sleeve has melted and imploded into the cavity, hence the pin CANNOT go anywhere.

Phew, hope this is helping you guys, and THANKS, the response has been overwhelming and I really appreciate it.