pin board repair

[slotparts]

0k lets see what info is out there if you had to send boards out for repair who would you pick and who have you had a bad experience with.   lets all share

[easternpinman]

the best  man is Clive Jones at :

The Coin-Op Cauldron

http://webpages.charter.net/coinopcauldron/Index.html

[pinballfixer2]

I do pinball board repairs, I know I am biased, but all my customers are happy with my service. Visit my website at
www.coinopdoc.com   
I am glad to answer any questions. Feel free to call me or post here.
I am a new member here so I got to get used to this forum.
Tom

[jay]

Tom we offer free banner adds, if you can do the recipocle thats great if not its still free.
Contact Joey at the top right hand number on the home page.

[2Moons]

These work well, http://www.allteksystems.com/ If you have a Bally or Stern. Give these a close look.
2Moons

[pinballfixer2]

   Thanks for the info. They are a good alternative if you have a board that is badly damaged with battery acid. If not , it is cheaper to fix your original, and they are still very reliable.I have fixed some of those altek boards too.
Tom

[amusement]

Been sending boards to George & his son john for 15yrs good work there....http://www.eldoradogames.com/

Dave

[stayouttadabunker]

hi pinball guys,
hey! Does anyone know if Williams Electronics Games division
is still in the business of distributing/selling parts for their older machines?
I'm looking for some board components for a 1989 wms shuffle bowler.

[Slotmaster]

They are no longer in the pin biz, the slot rights was bought by a company in AU who did nothing with it other then selling remfg parts.

www.pinball.com

A pinball fan / rich guy bought the left over parts when they closed.  The company name is IPB who still sells parts.

http://www.illinoispinball.com/oscommerce/

However you will find that most parts avail are from the 90's + era.


There are whole host of other places that sells parts so search around!

[Frank A]

I have a Hook, Diner and a Lethal Weapon 3 that some segments of the lights have stopped working and I wonder if it is the power boards or the molex connectors or both. Some backglass lights are out on all 3 machines, the sling shot lights are out on the LW3 and there is some component that is missing on the Hook board and I can't get a knocker to work on the Hook. All fuses are good.  How about fuse holder replacement on boards ? If I sent out all 3 power boards will someone do a diagnostic check and repair if necessary or what ? I remember a post here that said that a diagnostic check that showed the board to be good was done at no charge by someone.
Frank A

[Slotmaster]

I have a Hook, Diner and a Lethal Weapon 3 that some segments of the lights have stopped working and I wonder if it is the power boards or the molex connectors or both. Some backglass lights are out on all 3 machines, the sling shot lights are out on the LW3 and there is some component that is missing on the Hook board and I can't get a knocker to work on the Hook. All fuses are good.  How about fuse holder replacement on boards ? If I sent out all 3 power boards will someone do a diagnostic check and repair if necessary or what ? I remember a post here that said that a diagnostic check that showed the board to be good was done at no charge by someone.
Frank A

9 out 10 times it's the Molex connector burning up.  The pins / connector / wires get cooked overtime which raises the heat level and will finally fail (resistance).   Check for burn marks and loose wires around the GI light connectors.   It's been some time for me so I don't remember the Jxx #

[jay]

My Diner is suffering the same fate.....

Make sure you pictorizlie your repair so I can do the same.

[2Moons]

Hello PinBall People:
I have used this supplier & all of his stuff has worked well for me.
http://www.bigdaddy-enterprises.com/repairkits/bally_kits.htm#b-ps18conn1
Give him a look & good luck 2Moons

[Slotmaster]

CFH one of the NLG members also has a good info page on this issue (plus a complete repair guide)

For the DEast Games see

http://www.pinrepair.com/de/index1.htm#connect

see section 2c

For diner see

http://www.pinrepair.com/sys11/index1.htm#connect

also section 2c

Plus it might help with the other issues asked like Knocker, Matrix lights out etc. 

Complete guides

http://www.pinrepair.com/de/
http://www.pinrepair.com/sys11/

[Frank A]

Thank you to all. The Marvin repair guides are invaluable in what they can teach us. I will keep everyone informed as to my progress.

Frank

[stayouttadabunker]

They are no longer in the pin biz, the slot rights was bought by a company in AU who did nothing with it other then selling remfg parts.

www.pinball.com

A pinball fan / rich guy bought the left over parts when they closed.  The company name is IPB who still sells parts.

http://www.illinoispinball.com/oscommerce/

However you will find that most parts avail are from the 90's + era.


There are whole host of other places that sells parts so search around!

Thanks!,
I will take a look around...I found a new set of pins so far!

[stayouttadabunker]

Okay,
Picked up a 1978 Stern "Stars" pinball machine...
All lights are working, but when the kicker kicks the ball into the outlane after pushing start, the game goes into tilt.
Sometimes it tilts just pushing the start/credit button.
When in test switch light diagnostic test, all the bulbs do their slow flashing but they are very, very dim.
A power supply problem?
All the power molexes look very good actually...

[galahad]

The first then I would check with the tilt problem would be to check out the tilt sw, and the slam sw. Both should be normally open. A closed sw will put you in a tilt mode. Make sure contacts aren't to close together, and the vibration is closing them!

[stayouttadabunker]

I see that there are 4 tilt switches on this Stern pinball machine.
1). The hanging bob (no bob - just a plain wire hanging down)
2). The slam switch under the behind the coin door (Contacts spread wide apart)
3). The table tilt switch. ( Also spread wide apart)
4). The ball in tray level tilt. ( There's no ball in it to ground as to cause a tilt)

Basically, the machine is already set up so it cannot tilt...
With that in mind, and the dim lights during lite diagnostics -
Because of this symptom, I am still suspecting a failing power supply.

Does the Stern MPU 100 board need a battery to run?
It looks like it fell off sometime ago...
( there's no real perceptible acidic damage to the board as far as I can see using a desktop lighted magnifier )
Maybe I need to make a "remote" battery back-up pack?
I am of understanding that the only reason for the MPU to have a battery
is only for high score memory retention, certain settings back-ups,etc... right?
Not having a battery would cause the machine to tilt immediately after ejecting a ball into the shooter lane?
If this battery pack , or single battery is needed - what type of battery is needed?

 

[galahad]

Sounds like your sw's are tilt free. With the problem you said about slow, dimming lites sounds more of a power supply problem or connectors. There should of been a battery (soldered on) on the bottom of the mpu board. Best to replace with a remote battery pack (3 "aa" batteries w/ diode), the same as with a slot. All voltages should be present, the 5 volt, 12 volt and 48 volt. If you have a manual it should show the voltage test points. I had the game years ago and will check if I still have a manual. Capacitors of the era game are also a major problem. I will look for manual today!

Check this:  http://www.pinrepair.com/bally/index1.htm#tp

[stayouttadabunker]

wow, that site has a lot of good stuff...thanks
I'll be working on this pinball machine forever...lol
Basically, I think i need to start checking coil resistances.
Then check the power supply output voltages...whew!
This isn't gonna be easy...lol
from the reading I've been doing, it looks like the marvin repair site guide,
provided by CFH, is a pretty darn good source of information to start with. 

[StatFreak]

Stout, pinrepair.com is Clay's site, and Clay maintains Marvin's site.

[stayouttadabunker]

It's working!!!!!
A bad molex on the power supply board...Changed one burned out trifurcon pinto get everything working perfectly!
I think it's amazing that's all it was...

Now I'm just-a-shinin' it all up and replacing the old scratched up glass.
A little touch up here and there and it should be just like new!
 

[2Moons]

You can ease the load on that ageing power supply by relamping.
#44 lamps = 250ma #47 lamps = 150ma #47 Led's =  15ma x how ever many lamps are in your machine.
Most of the machines of that era have about 100 lamps. you do the math. I have used the products from Cris on
Ebay & they work well.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Pinball-LED-BULBS-44-47-and-555-styles-quantity-100_W0QQitemZ140338360011QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item20acd16ecb&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
2Moons

[stayouttadabunker]

Not working today...hmm...crazy game.
I checked the 5 "TP" test points on the recifier power board.
Seems like all TP's are way below 10%...
Now I know it's the power supply...has the machine acting funny.
These are the nutty symptoms:
1).Even though I have it set to accept a quarter as 1 credit...it gives me 15...lol
2).After the 15 credits come on, the lights go out when I push the credit button.
3).When it comes back on, I push the credit button again but it does the same thing.
4).I pull the ball out manually and press the credit button then it works, but...
5).When the ball comes down the playfield and hits a center rollover switch...the game tilts...lol
6).I removed the + wire to these 2 rollovers but it still tilts when the ball goes into the drop hole.
7).I get a single red flash on the MPU board, a slight pause, then it blinks 6 times afterwards
and then the game somewhat comes on.
8).All the dip settings from yesterday (when it was working right) are "lost". Even though, I didn't change any dips today.
9). Sometimes when I drop a coin, I hear 1 single ding but no credit registered. The coin just falls into the box.
10). I can get the same effect grounding out the two wires going to the coin in switch...
it's either 1 ding (with no credit) or 15 credits...lol
Basically, it seems that because there's no battery, all the CMOS remembers is nothing.
When I checked to see with the test switch what what saved in the memory,
someone must have played it during the night about 14,000 games, or
There's like 184 credits in it when the board doesn't have a setting any higher than 40 credit tops....lol
It's almost as if the chip is corrupted because the left outside lane switch acts as my creidt switch sometimes...lol
I don't get it....Argghhh!!