Week of 4/27/2014

Skee Ball
I moved nine balls back into the proper lanes.
There were more bulbs out in one of the displays on one of the lanes and I had the bulbs along so I delved into the bulb changing job.  The first lane went easy enough, I replaced four bulbs and put it all back together and moved to the next lane.  The first issue I ran into was that the display covers fell off when I pulled the backglass off.  That is always a sign that it isn't going to go well and sure enough it didn't I replaced a couple bulbs and noticed that the clips that hold the display in were broken.  You have to pull the display board off the metal plate to replace them.  I replaced a few of the clips and bulbs and when I tried to reassemble it, the display panel wouldn't stay on the clips.  I tried to find a reason but I couldn't find one.  I spent 45 minutes trying to get the display back together and eventually was successful but it still wasn't quite right and I had enough of Skee Ball displays for the day.  I really should spend the money and get the LED upgrade for these things!  In case you are wondering why I haven't the answer is $400 per lane.  Which is a lot of money and the only payoff is that I wouldn't have to spend a few hours every couple of months replacing the bulbs. Based on my labor and parts it would never pay for itself.

Trap Door
The bill acceptor wasn't working and was flashing red.  I found a rental ticket covered in gum in the acceptor.  It took some time to clear up the mess that the gum made of the acceptor but afterwards it was working fine.

Air Hockey
The entire surface was coated in some sort of sticky material.  I cleaned it up and the game played fine.


Golden Tee
I found a dime stuck in each coin slot.  Cleared the jams and the acceptor worked fine.  As a side note, I need to get this game out of this location as it is making pretty much nothing but taking a good amount of abuse.




Dr Who
Finished the cleaning and ring replacement on this game.  I noticed that several of the lamp inserts were filthy but I didn't have the time to clean them like I normally do.   Especially when access to some of the lamp boards are blocked by one of the under playfield ramps.  So I used my air compressor to blow out as many as I could. For a quick cleaning, the game really turned out well. 

Week of 4/20/2014
Cyclone
I found it turned off along with everyting else that was plugged into the power strip along that wall.  I couldn't find anything wrong with any of the equipment.  One item that is also plugged in there is a Massage chair that if you sit on without putting money in will keep asking to put money in.  I assume someone got tired of hearing that so they turned everything off.  I am planning on replacing the power strip with something else that will make it harder to shut off my equipment.

Air Hockey.
The one puck return door looks like someone tried to pry thier way into it with a screwdriver.  I have no idea why you would try that as there is nothing in there.
It seems like a lot of work to try to get a free game.  I will talk to the location manager when I see him and find out if he knows what happened to it. 

Slam A Winner
The one ticket dispenser wasn't working.  I found that the rubber O ring had broken.  Some days I can replace them in just a few minutes.  Unfortunately today was not one of those days and I struggled with it for a long time.  I forgot the "trick" to get it done quickly.  I need to go watch the How to video again to remind myself.
One delay that I had while working on it was that I kept hearing someone in the building with me.  Which I should have been the only person in.  It sounded like kids messing around but I didn't want any hassles so I got up and locked the back door.  Then I did a walk through of the building to see if I could find anyone.  I didn't but I did hear what sounded like someone trying to open the back door a while later.  The building has security cameras and a security system so there is little chance that there was anyone else in the building when I left. 

Spider Stomping
I had worked out a trade deal with this game and another one for a Pinball machine.  Unfortunately this game was buried behind several other games in my basement.  So I spent a couple of hours playing a game of Tetris with arcade games to get this machine out.  The base is extremely awkward to move around.  Eventually, I got it free and put it back together to test it.  Sure enough only two of the switches were now working.  I cleaned switches and reseated connectors and didn't make any progress.  I gave up on it for the night and let the buyer know what was going on.  The next day I noticed that I had it plugged into this "energy saving" power strip that has caused some strangeness out of equipment that I had plugged into it.  I plugged the game in somewhere else and it worked fine.  I let it run a few hours and it continued to work fine.  It is one of those situations that I wouldn't believe if someone else had told me the story.  I didn't bother to plug the game back into the power strip to see if it continued to work fine or act up again.  I was just happy it was working.  I explained this to the person I was trading with and he was OK with the situation.  For the record, I did offer and want to keep the game a bit longer to verify that it was working 100% but the person I was trading with wanted the game that day.  I'm sort of sorry to see this one go as my son loved playing it for the past few years but apparently he has outgrown stomping on spiders.  He was happy to see that I got a Pinball machine in the deal. 

Dr Who Pinball
I needed a game to take the Allentown show and realized that I didn't have any even close to ready that I want to sell.  So, I decided to take one just to show and looked around and decided that Dr. Who was the best candidate.  It was in need of some cleaning and new rings so I started on that.  Apparently, it has been a while since I cleaned this one up as pretty much all of the rings need replaced.

Skee Ball
I found one lane with a coin jam.  I found a quarter in the mech that looked like someone used a hammer and punch on it.  After clearing the jam, the lane worked fine.
I moved three balls back into the proper lanes.

Cyclone
I found it moved a couple of feet and unplugged.  I moved it back and plugged it and it worked fine.

Jackpot Crossing
I found it with an out of order sign on it.  There was a ticket jam, I cleared the jam and the game worked fine.  I am still looking for a replacement for this one.

Rowe Changer
The out of service light was lit.  I found that there was a huge jam in the bill stacker area.  It is possible that I didn't get the stacker latched last time I installed the stacker.  I cleared the jam and ran several dollars through it and it worked fine.

Collection

While I was doing my collection at the location that the change machine that had the jam was at, I noticed that they had a couple of shredded dollar bills laying on the desk.  They weren't aware of the huge bill jam and apparently the machine was shredding money or the patrons were ripping the bills apart trying to get them out of the acceptor.  I explained where the shredded money had come from.

Skee Ball
I moved four balls back into the proper lanes.
One lane was making a horrible noise when the ball release solenoid was active.  I moved the lanes and crawled underneath to find out what was going on.  It turns out that a glow stick had found its way into the ball release mechanisms.  I removed the glow stick and the noise cleared up.  While I was under the Skee balls I found some of the rubber bumpers I had replaced in the score rings just a few months ago.
One lane had a coin jam and after removing the quarters, I found dimes and pennies jammed into the mech. 

Cyclone
I slid it back a foot into its normal position.  I've been considering replacing this Cyclone with a New Harpoon Lagoon but knowing that the game is getting kicked around discourages that idea.

Slam A Winner
I found the ticket dispenser laying inside of the game yet again. I moved it back and it worked fine.

Game Swap
I pulled the Western Train off location and replaced it with a Tic Tac Toe game.  I couldn't find the keys to the Tic Tac Toe game and spent at least four hours looking for them.  Eventually, I found them with the rest of my keys in the truck.  Other than the key search, the delivery went fine.  I also found out that the roof at the location has been leaking and probably has leaked over a few of my games.

Prize order
The prizes that I had ordered arrived.  I started on the inventorying and pricing of the prizes. 

Storage area
I moved a few more games out of the shop and into storage.  The shop still looks packed.  I still need to move more games into the storage are but just the few games so far has given me some much needed room to work.

Nintendo Red Tent
I picked this up a few weeks back and one of the monitors in it seems to have a bad picture tube.  The monitor and picture tubes in these games are difficult to find.  My son has been playing the side with the bad monitor because he likes the game in it.  So I swapped the monitors around so he could play on the good monitor instead of the bad monitor.  It was fairly easy and the monitors are light.

Air Hockey
I found it unplugged.  I plugged it back in and it worked fine.

Armor Attack
I had some free time so I took a look at my Armor Attack with the bad monitor.  The breaker would pop after being on for a minute or so.  I disconnected the Yolk and got the same results.  I checked the output transistors and found two that were shorted.  I replaced them and the breaker stopped popping but I didn't have any horizontal deflection, so I replaced the other two output transistors and the picture looked good.  I did some testing and found that one of the LF1331 chips I had on the shelf was bad.  I need to find a source or suitable replacement for them.