Re: Pinball Repair..How hard/long to become competent? Long, read at own risk

On Jul 3, 9:36 pm, sevyj...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
Used to play Pinball in 1975-1982 era. Loved it. Addicted to the
various games at the bowling alley or pizza parlor or pop shop. Lost
touch after college. Recently (November2006) realised that awesome
games of my youth were available to buy and my wife didn't seem too
upset that I would dump gobs of money and take up lots of prime real
estate with machines! Bought some machines. Got a little abused on
Ebay once. Now have to deal with the frustration of repairs.
Paragon..right upper flipper stuttered /now just goes up then right
down...marvin diagnostics, looks like a bad coil (EOS looks old but
fine). Do I have the courage to change the coil?
Captain Fantastic...Bumper skirt broke...repaired, was harder than it
looked...had to learn to solder (rough job but ok) While fixing that,
developed problem of starting the game on ball # 2.. Used marvin site,
able to fix but a little loose, so acts up occasionally. The enemy of
good is better.
Jack's Open..Great machine..wanted to replace the drop targets...OMG
brutal, finally succeeded, but had to jerry-rig things with an extra
spring attached to help the ACE go all the way down when hit.
Eldorado..Bad EOS..Successful repair! Bought new back glass...Too
big! Had to file down the machine.
Space Invaders Great shape...Changed one bulb, a fuse blows, and a
row of lights is gone..change fuse/blown fuse...can't find the short.
Should bulbs be changed with Power on or off? I have LTG and have
found conflicting answers.
T2 Ebay bummer, repairs appear beyond my ability until I get some
circuit board repair skills.
MM Worked great, then a few lane errors, then a bad kicker, and now
finally the dreaded slam tilt occuring about 3 minutes into a game.
The Marvin site is great, but how brutal is learning the circuit board
work, the schematics, the use of the DMM and all the other things it
takes to fix these things. Can an electrically challenged person with
normal (whatever that is) intelligence actually teach themselves how
to fix these things without ruining killer machines? IS IT POSSIBLE?
In an effort to limit repairs, I bought a NIB LOTR from Captain Jack
at Pinball Sales per this site's general rec. Called him on Labor
Day, machine arrived three days later. Great service, through in a
POTD protector because I asked if he felt it was needed. Great guy.
One of my heros.
So, bottom line, I keep staring at the Marvin Site, reading this site,
and am slowly getting up my courage to tackle the foreign language of
circuit boards..Give me strenghth. At least it is over the top fun,
and my kids love to play and I own my basement (I occasionally
threaten the wife with a bowler, and then she is relieved when it is
only a pinball machine :-)

Curious as to how long it took to learn the repair skill, and did
anyone take a course, if so, where? Did the repair tapes (TOP) help?

Thanks for reading
Mike

the TOP DVDS are invaluable. i am in the middle of a williams sys 11
resto, and there was stuff on the dvd not on the marvin site. its a
learning process. i do have decent knowledge of electricity, and very
basic knowledge of electronics( they are two different things). i
started with EMs. they are as hard ( or easy) to fix as SS, just in a
totally different way. with EMs, its pretty hard to ruin something
during the learning process. with SS, a simple mistake can really set
you back, both time and money wise. i've always been decent with a
soldering iron, but some board repairs can be dicey. i find if you
cant fix boards yourself, a game ends up costing more than its usually
worth, unless you get a really good deal. still, your time is money,
so if you have a great job that you can apply the time you would
spend on the boards to, and make enough to pay for board repair,
maybe thats a way to go. you'll learn jack *** that way though. its
always a give and take, what to do. also, doing your own repairs gets
your game working faster. board repair turnaround is pretty long
sometimes. you also need to know, board problems can often originate
else where. plug in a new board, and poof, its toast again. you have
to be sure there isnt another problem before you toast a board. i'm
also lucky, close by is a component supply shop that has 80% of my
needs always on hand. makes radioshack look like a deli. get some
crap circuit boards, old computers are an endless supply, and practice
removing and replacing components. keep in mind, PC boards and
components are usually smaller than pin boards, and you may find them
difficult. old TVs are a good source, just be sure the've been
unplugged for a few days( to be safe) , they can kick like a mule for
a while. many of the SS TOP dvds have excellent tips on the replacing
transistors, diodes, chips, etc.

i tend to gravitate toward EM's, but like to own a SS or two,
both to mix it up, and for the repair experience. still, sometimes i
kick myself for having SS's, they can be a fickle bunch.

.