Skateball

I am finally ready with the game. The last things done are installing the second hand knocker, installing the bat at the mini flipper and installing an external battery holder for the back-up. There were also some switches that needed to be adjusted, to get the proper sensitivity for the slingshots and bumpers. Also the outhole switch needed some adjustments, the ball did sometime get stuck against the wire instead of landing on top of it and push it down.

 

The plastic ball guide by the lower right flipper was broken, causing the ball to get stuck if it was caught by the flipper. The only way to get it back in play again was to fire the flipper which sent the ball out on the playfield without any control at all. To solve this I made a new ball guide from a piece of Lexan using the upper plastic as template.

 

 

 

I couldn’t resist to make a custom key ring as the last fix.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Skateball

All parts for the playfield have been cleaned and polished and the playfield are reassembled again. I tried the switch matrix in test mode once I had playfield connected to the CPU and the scoring problem I had during my first test was probably due to the outhole switch, it was stuck together. Once that was fixed the test showed the upper roll over star as continuously closed. This time it wasn’t the switch but instead a capacitor connected in parallel with the switch. It measured almost 20 M ohm but that was enough to confuse the switch matrix. Once the capacitor was changed all switches worked ok. Next problem was the outhole kicker, it didn’t manage to kick the ball out to the shooter lane. The cause of this was wrong type of coil, it had a flipper coil instead of a 26-1200. Once the coil was changed the ball was properly served to the shooter.

 

 

I found a new trick to flatten out warped plastics at the net. Clamping the plastics between two sheets of glass and let the sun heat up the sandwich. It’s a safer way than using the oven or a heat gun. I left the plastics for three days and one of them was warped about 12mm from the beginning and it ended up about 4 mm warped in the end and the other one was more or less flat when it came out, I just hope they will stay in this shape.

 

There is still some job to do. I’m missing the upper left mini flipper, right now I do only have the shaft installed. Else I would fry the coil when testing the game since the end of stroke switch wouldn’t be actuated. I have found a knocker on the net, I have order it and are waiting for it to be delivered. And then the most important thing, replacing the backup accumulator with an external battery, to make sure there are no more battery leakage causing problems at the CPU board.

 

Skateball

I have completed to cabinet during the day. It’s vacuumed and cleaned inside and out trying to make it look as good as possible. The lose wires for the lost knocker is insulated since I’m not yet sure if I will be able to find a replacement or not. The front had two holes and ugly wear from an extra coin door lock. I painted over the wear and covered the holes with carriage bolts. It’s not a perfect color match but the photo flash makes it look worse than it looks in reality.

 

There was also a really ugly cash box protector that I removed. It was partly covering the mains switch and it’s not needed at a home use game. I’m quite sure the owner will use the key to open the door instead of breaking in through the bottom of the cabinet. The protector left two holes at each side which are now covered by carriage bolts.

 

 

The lock down bar receiver was rusty and dirty. It’s now cleaned and polished. It’s not perfect but much better than it was before.

 

 

 

I cleaned the oil of the ball shooter and its components, it was almost like glue and it does now work fine again. I also gave it a new barrel spring to add some bling, the old one was in quite bad condition.

 

The coin door and door frame was disassembled cleaned, polished and reassembled. There were some wires insulated with tape that was about to fall off. These are now properly insulated with shrink tubing.

The right front leg was missing a bolt and I suspected the threads being bad in the bracket inside the cabinet. But instead I found that half of the bolt was still there. Someone had used brute force to unscrew the bolt, but it was locked with an extra nut inside and the bolt broke. I just unscrewed it from the bracket and the threads were fine so I put the bracket back in to the cabinet. But the game did now have four different leg bolts in the front, so I changed also the other three.

 

The playfield is temporarily back in the cabinet for a first cleaning and reattaching of the bumper bodies. I will have to take it out again to rebuild the under side of the bumpers and put back the flippers.

 

 

 

Skateball

I haven’t had so much time to spend at this project the last two days, but I have done a few small things. The bumpers have been removed from the playfield. I cleaned the bodies and the polished the rings. I also cleaned the skirts, but they turned out to have small cracks round the edges and would probably soon break. To make sure not have to take them a part again soon I gave them new skirts.

 

I have also repaired the high voltage regulator and I have now a nice steady 190V supply. The faulty parts were Q22, Q23, R51 and R52. The shield over the high voltage area was missing at the board but was in the coin box. I cleaned it off and also found the high voltage warning label in the cabinet and it is now back where it should be. Three of the displays were also missing the card board high voltage insulators. These were also in the cabinet and I cleaned them of and reinstalled them where they should be.

 

 

 

When I now had the displays up and running again I tested the playfield switch matrix by entering the test mode and connecting between strobe and return directly at connector J2 at the CPU board, and all combinations I tested worked. I’ll measure through the matrix at the playfield while having it at the work bench in case I can find anything wrong else I have to wait until the playfield are back in the cabinet again to see if they work in test mode. When I tested earlier I didn’t had the ball in the outhole, this might have confused the CPU when I started a game.

Next up to go through is the cabinet, the inside is very dirty and the coin door needs some attention.  

 

Thousands of dirty fingers have been pushing the flipper buttons and they really need some cleaning.

 

The ball shooter is also interesting. When pulled I almost have to push it back and when looking closer to it I can see that it has been oiled (look at the end of the spring, by the E-clip). Oil is great in pinballs, if used where it should be. Don’t ever oil anything else than what the manual says should be oiled. Oil at the ball shooter or a plunger might make it to go nice and smooth, but that will only be for a short time. Soon the oil will be collecting dirt and grime making things to go sluggish and stop working. And there is quite some job to get it off again. If something doesn’t go as it should, take it apart and clean it. Do not use oil, it will just make things worse in the end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Skateball

I am now almost ready with the underside of the playfield. I have gone through the other three flipper assemblies, cleaned all parts and polished the plungers and installed new coil sleeves. I found holes drilled through the playfield also under the upper right flipper. This time the holes are covered by a plastic at the upper side. The holes seems to line up with the screw holes for the coil stop at the flipper assembly, but I can’t figure out why somebody should do something like this. Note that there are two diffent lengths of the screws holding the end of stroke switch in the pictures below.    

 

Two flipper bats was cracked, this is the old type of flippers where the bat and the shaft are two separate pieces. I had a replacement for one of them, a large standard sized bat. But also the smaller flipper bat is cracked and I do not have a replacement for this one, I’ll try to find one else I have to order one. There is no idea to try to glue it together, it won’t hold.

 

The slingshots are also ready. All parts are cleaned, the plungers polished and new coilsleeves.

Note that there are three different screws holding the slingshot assembly in the picture below. The one to the left is original and the upper right screw was just long enough to make a dent in the playfields upper side once it was scewed in. The two non original screws will not go back in the playfield again.

 

 

The eject hole assembly are cleaned and put back in to the playfield. this is the unit that originally had a fried coil and the new coil came with a new coilsleeve.

 

 

Last assemblies to go through are the three bumpers. I have dissembled the parts on the playfield underside, cleaned them and polished the plungers and they will have new coil sleeves once they are reinstalled. But before doing that I need to disassemble the bumper parts at the upper side for cleaning. I thought one of the bumper skirts felt a bit odd when pushing at it and I found the cause at the underside. There is a hole worn in the spoon and the tip of the skirt was stuck I the hole.

 

 

 

This is the current state of the playfield, the only missing parts are the bumpers, everything else is ready.