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.