Disco is not dead, there's a revival on the way

[FirePower]

Thanks Daniel, the seating looks ok and the spring has some tension, but there are some others that are gapped wider - but it all seems to function ok now 

Did some more work over the last couple of days and think I've finally sorted all the electrical issues.  It came down to a zero position contact on the bonus unit not making reliably.  It's hard to tell exactly how it should be other than as a change over pair of contacts one should be on when the other is off. The bit I'm not clear on is what position it should be zeroed on - I have made it so that zero is the lowest bonus light on - the only thing I could think is relevant is how SS machines give you the ball again if you score no points - but this machine would never have done that anyway.

More playfield cleaning and re-rubbering, it looks so much better just getting the dirt and grime off - so much more light is reflected and everything looks brighter. The plastics have come up really nicely with a polish of Novus 2.  I've got one to repair.

The chime box needs a bit of work and I've got new sleeves put into the bumpers and slings, but that's for next year.  Next year and the machine being finished are not that far away - think I'll go and have a beer to celebrate.  It's been a good year for me - bought my first and a few other pins    Have a good night all!

[FirePower]

Replaced a coil and immediately when powered up it chattered like a mad thing. I think I had two problems. First the coil wouldn't hold in, the gap was much larger than comparable coils, even though the replacement coil was exactly the same length as the original.

Even with the spring disconnected it would not latch in, to test I stuck an extra washer at the other end of the coil, this brought the gap down from 2mm to 1mm, which is the same as the other coils of this type. The picture shows the coil before adding the washer. After adding the washer the coil latches - sadly all the time which is why the first one burnt out.That's the second problem, but I'm chasing down the reason.

A question - should I be bending slightly the bass finger to hold the plate in closer tot eh coil - this will increase the spring tension, whereas putting in a washer does not change the spring tension.  Any advise or comments appreciated. Thanks.

Also does anyone have any tips - the pun is intentional - on what to use as the nylon bits in the end of chime box plungers - mine have melted!

[dj10555]

Just a couple of ideas. Did you use brass screw and washer to secure the coil? Is the coil the exact replacement for the faulty unit? If you move the coil a bit closer with a washer and it latches permanently, try switching off the power and see if the relay stays latched.

[FirePower]

Thanks dj,

yep I used a brass screw and washer. The new coil was specified from the parts manual, which agreed with the little bit of cardboard (you can just see in the picture) stapled on the location of the coil in the headbox. It used a smaller attachment screw, which was inconvenient, but the coil was physically the same size.  Electrically it measured the same as the other functional units of this type in the game, 10 ohms coil resistance.

I have now tracked the fault down to a relay contact not operating properly due to poor adjustment and this explains the failed coil in the machine as I purchased it.  It was right up the back of the cab and hard to see, so I removed the pf and did a bit of cleaning vacuuming and went through and cleaned / checked / adjusted all contacts.

Now just about everything on the game is working and it's quite a fun player. I'll post some final pics when it is all set up.

[FirePower]

One of the great things to me about EMs is the racket they make when being played, so a functioning chime box is essential.

This afternoon's job was to strip, rebulid and install Disco's. There had been some sort of major trauma so a couple of coils had burnt out - so burnt that the nylon tips in the plungers had melted, way beyond being being usable in fact to being unrecognisable.

I stripped the chime box down and couldn't resist giving the striker plates a bit of a polish and they do look a lot better. I had bought replacement coils from PBR but stupidly forgot to include sleeves and plungers or tips. The exact parts aren't available locally as far as I can work out. PSP had some sleeves which whilst not quite as long as the originals looked like they'd do but I couldn't find replacement
plungers or nylon inserts locally.  I wandered aimlessly around Bunnings looking for anything about the right size and made of nylon but couldn't find anything so I ended up using a cut down rawl plug.  The plungers have an internal step machined into them and the blue plugs are a pretty tight fit.  I ended up putting a small chamfer on the end going into the plunger and used a hammer to tap them into position. You can feel when they seat on the internal lip - I then tightened the small self tapper screw that I had started prior to installing the plug. This seemed to lock it all in place.

Soldered the new coils in, cleaned and reassembled everything and installed and was greeted with glorious sounds in the test game - not sure if the neighbours will be quite as enthusiastic.

[FirePower]

The finished unit.

[ajlaird]

Very ingenious work-around there!

Well done, and you are right, pinball machines just aren't the same without the sound.

[FirePower]

more pics

[FirePower]

Just saw the bump on Bossninja's Sunday questionnaire thread and the picture of him frocked up in front of the Disco machine made me think I'd never posted the finished pics of my Disco project.  It came up really well and has been running for months now and it's a pretty good game. Fairly generous with extra balls and replays and an ok rule set for an EM.  Plenty to shoot for and fun to whack the ball through the two spinners.

Here's the pics.

[Mr Pinbologist]

Wow that came up nice.. well done 

[deadlydave]

Great read FP, has come up nice. 

Cheers
Dave

[ddstoys]

That's come up really well thanks for the pics

[goodolddays]

Very very well done Dave