Pinball machine

Dr.Jass

Dr.Jass

Pastor of Muppets
OK, if anyone on this board lives within 300 miles of Kingsford, MI, here's the deal:

I will pay for your gas,
I will feed you,
I will provide accomodations,
I will get you drunk (along with Stretch),
I will pay you green cash money, and
I will allow you to videotape me having vaginal sex with a toaster...

... if you can fix my 1970 Gottlieb "Home Run" pinball machine.

If you bring a manual for the damned thing, pay for your own gas. I was gonna exclude the toaster, but I'm lonely.
 
I've always wanted to work on pinball and slot machines. I have a screwdriver on my pocket knife.
 
I'm on my way...not so much for fixing the pinball machine, I want a crack at that vagina equipped toaster. :)
 
I was gonna volunteer till the whole toaster bit...:dgt: I'd have even brung muh own tools. :D
 
is the toaster plugged in? Beeper could have a real turn-on....maybe the pinball machine is jealous of the toaster.. stranger things have happened-----around JASS
 
so lets say you get somebody to fix the the pinball machine , will they then have to fix the toaster also ? :huh:
 
Jass...
What's wrong with it...transformer ?

got any pictures of it ?

I've got a Mint 1978 Gottlieb Countdown...love it
 
Ever since I was a young boy,
I played the silver ball.
From Soho down to Brighton,
I must have played them all....
 
About noon I tried to post here but windows booted, maybe it's time to liberate from the cooling fans another couple years worth of cat hair and tobacco tar.

I SAID!!... When I was growing up we had a 4 slice toaster it helped get everyone satisfied and off to school on time.

ALSO:.. My brother did this shit for a living and if you come up with a specific "symptom" perchance I could pick his brain for ya.
 
Rob R said:
Jass...
What's wrong with it...transformer ?

got any pictures of it ?

I've got a Mint 1978 Gottlieb Countdown...love it
Click to expand...
I don't have any pics of mine, but it looks like this. My cabinet's in better shape but my scoreboard isn't that nice.

The problem isn't the transformer, as it powers up and works just fine on the first ball... however, once you lose the first ball, it acts like it's tilted and you lose the remaining four balls immediately (they count down and the lights all flash, which is what it does when it's tilted).

The tilt mechanism's hanging weight was removed eons ago, so I know it's not that (plus, it wouldn't play at all if the tilt were stuck).

When you look inside one of those old machines, it's an amazing tangle of wires, solenoids, bells, capacitors, etc. Nary an integrated circuit to be found... impressive, but intimidating.
 
I said "intimidating", not "irritating".

*runs out of room ducking beer bottles thrown by the board's lovely ladies*

:D
 
learical said:
Ever since I was a young boy,
I played the silver ball.
From Soho down to Brighton,
I must have played them all....
Click to expand...
..................................................
..........
He stands like a statue
Becomes part of the machine
Feeling all the bumpers
Always playing clean
:giggedy:

no word from the bigga bruddah :huh: I have dumped cash into machines that did exactly as described, has to be a common fault.
 
I swear he does talk English sometimes

"I would start with the connector to the main board and check for broken or
burnt pc traces at the connector up in the header part, the head is where
main electronic guts are. Clean the connectors with a common pencil eraser,
in single strokes going away from the board, so the thin traces do not get
caught on the eraser and get peeled away. These older computer boards are
much more fragile than PC equipment nowdays and the traces peel off quite
easily. Those connectors also got hot and blistered too. They make/made a
special printed circuit trace glue, To glue them back down. These connection
problems were quite common with gottlieb PB games. Some have mutiple boards
in them with connectors between each one. Check to make sure all IC chips
are seated in their sockets. Also check the dip switches. Which program the
# of plays Credits free games etc. With out the manual I wouldn't remember
the settings. Other than that and mechanical repairs It would have to be
scoped to find out where the signals are going awry. I'd also inspect the
board for blown electrolytic caps. (looks like little beercans wrapped in
plastic) If bad they'll look puffy and or actually blown apart. (Think lady
fingers hehe) I would also check the switch at the drain hole which could be
stuck in the closed (on) position. I'm sitting here imaging the innards of
gottleib pb machine.....Be a good start anyhoo. Oh! If they took the tilt
plumb out I think give the wiring that went to that a close look too. Should
be open circuit for no tilt condition. Service and/or owners man.??? I
believe, though not sure about gottleib in particular, that some did have a
tamper switch on the money door and or coin changer which would also kill
the game if tripped. (so people couldn't rack up credits by tying a string
to a quarter and pulling it back up to trip the credit switch again. To
reset the the game would have to be turned off and on again, losing all
posted points and or remaining credits etc.

Looks like I got a little long winded here. Lol"
 
The tilt plumb was removed, but not the related hardware. Its pivot and the contact ring were left in place; I could replace the plumb in 30 seconds with no tools... no open wiring there.

ICs? PCs? This sucker is 1970... I've not seen traces of either inside it. Everything appears to be wired directly to the component to/from which it needs activate/receive signal.

He may have something on the coin door, though, as it was rigged decades ago to rack credits by pushing the coin return. We had this problem once before, and it was a quick fix, but the guy who did it is worm food.

I appreciate the input... I'm gonna look into it Sunday, as tomorrow's full with the golf tournament and ensuing festivities.
 
I have to clean the switches periodically on mine ...I'd look here at the bottom of the ball drop and make sure the spring isn't broken or the switch hasn't lost it's temper...

ball1.jpg

ball2.jpg

ball3.jpg

ball4.jpg
 
If you look again at the auction, youll notice there is no ball drop... just one ball that launches out from the center.
 
Jass...

that's where I'd start...that center launch is a ball drop...I'd check it out and then follow the wires up to the head and clean the contacts along the way...then I'd check every contact switch at every ball drop to make sure that none of them are corroded and stuck...that's where I'd start...that my ritual...not much help but it's something
 
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