I don't like how layered the left side of EATPM is. You have to first install the wire ball gate (all 3 screws), then squeeze the flat plastic behind it, then add the left ramp underneath and twist it into the hole in the back, and then somehow attach the dome above the two grave targets when the hole is slightly underneath the ramp. The right ramp is MUCH easier.

I've had trouble with this one......

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I was wondering if someone was gonna mention EATPM. That left side is quite a pain. I'm not looking forward to doing it again. Don't plan to anytime soon. Felt pretty good to get her back together and work perfect since it was my 1st teardown..

This sounds great, can you take a picture to give an idea?
-mof

Take freezer bags, fill with parts and media, tumble bags. You're welcome.

What is the absolute best way to ensure you get all parts in and out of the tumbler for each bag? I just got my tumbler, and I never know what I've left behind in there.
-mof

Small groups

A Magnet helps

I use a sieve basket.

I wouldn't want to have to tear down a WOZ!!! looks like some serious hours

It must be......

Just look at how long it takes to build one!!!!!

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I kid, I kid...

I usually end up short a few screws and nuts.

I thought Stargate was very time consuming. Top side was not to bad, but there are a lot of coils, drop target banks, and other assemblies to take apart and clean on the bottom. And to top it off it was very heavy to move around!

Also true for the WPC widebody games, just a lot of stuff to go through

I sure did on my first (and so far only complete) one! I like to think I was Madman Muntzing it:

"Muntz developed a television chassis that produced an acceptable monochrome picture with 17 tubes. He often carried a pair of wire clippers, and when he thought that one of his employees was "over-engineering" a circuit, he would begin snipping components out until the picture or sound stopped working. At that point, he would tell the engineer "Well, I guess you have to put that last part back in" and walk away." (From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madman_Muntz)

My machine still works fine, so I was just de-over-engineering it right?

Nice to know that as that will be my first restore project. However,if I was gonna take estimated guess,I would have to cast my vote at Haunted House.

Take detailed notes of the teardown and the order in which parts were disassembled. Then reverse it when you put it back together.

I was going to say Whitewater, but I see that several people already beat me to it. That should tell you definitively that Whitewater is the pin that is the most trouble to shop.

Take lot's of pics from every angle during each step of disassembly. The one I got was very dirty from being stored with the playfield glass off, so every thing came off, top and bottom. But pics helped me put it back together in the order I took it apart. It is now better than new.

Out of all the games I have touched so far, the BIGGEST PITA has to be Earthshaker, hands down.

The entire back third is just layered on top of each other, and is damn near impossible to do without removing the PF from the game. Just from a bulb changing standpoint, putting LEDS back there in the GI and flashers is a requirement. Don't even want to talk about the 20lbs of loctite it seems was used on every game for anything that remotely resembles something threaded....

WH2O, which seems to be universally regarded as difficult, I found rather easy. Lots of ramps = fewer parts.

I wouldn't say I found any to be harder than others, but I have found some went way faster than others...

I see Whitewater listed a lot, that was one of the quickest ones I have done. That game is all ramps, once those are out, there isn't much to it.

Dracula took awhile, because everything is stacked on top of each other.

Anything with loctite sucks... Again, not hard, just time consuming.

Anything that doesn't slide, for the most part sucks. Gotta love the playfields on hinges that don't move, and then they put a bunch of bulbs behind the backpanel.

Data East games seem like a pain to work with. For one, just replacing bulbs is a major nuisance, since you have to do it from the top of the playfield. Have a bulb that's toast, but it's below three layers of plastic, coils, and a ramp that doesn't come off that easily? Tough luck, you have to take that #&$* off!

The most difficult part of Whitewater for me was fitting repro ramps. I had to grind down a couple of ramp entrances to get them to fit. This sucked because you had to remove a bunch of crap to get them on and off. Otherwise, I thought it was actually kind of easy.

Almost all repro ramps will need some adjustment due to the thicker plastic. My earthshaker ramps needed some work, with the far right ramp needing the most amount of trimming by far. The main ramp needed trimming too, but mostly to clear the moving building kit ( which is mentioned in the kit install)

Yea... I'll agree with that. Mine is apart right now, and playfield out of the cabinet (had to desolder like 12 wires, wish they connectorized them like everything else is so I didn't have to label them). You can't even hardly change out the bulbs in the earthshaker institute without removing the plastic that's hovering above it, and then you have to snake it underneath the playfield.

I did mine, buddy asked me to do his....NOPE. By far the least enjoyable pin experience I have had. First (and only) time it felt like work and not fun.

and could lawlor use any more damned metal rails walls any closer together? I have a box filled with probably 20 various lengthed pieces of metal. I'd imagine funhouse is similarly fun to shop, 10lbs of shit in a 1lb bag

Funhouse is not nearly as bad. Hell, I consider funhouse easy. Really the hardest part is getting Rudy out, and he is pretty easy.

Whitewater is a pain in the nuts, that's my vote!

Putting demo man back together was an experience.

Just got a Godzilla....hands down winner to me. That is 1 giant ass ramp in that game and it is attached to the playfield is so many different ways and you can't get to anything under it without complete removal of it......It put me in a very bad mood yesterday. I now understand why they only made 500 of them, not because it was a bad game, but because operators probably instantly recognized they could never possibly maintain the game on location and didn't order them. Thank fully it is fun, and there are lots of resources for help nowadays, but yes, huge huge huge pain in the ass!

TZ.

It's not necessarily the removal and cleaning of everything, but more the amount of repair and dialing in that's required. It's an engineering masterpiece but there seems to be a lot that can go wrong when it's not properly maintained over the years.

I own Demolition Man, White Water and Corvette.... In my opinion Corvette is the hardest to shop out. Firstly because the layer cake of ramps, habit rails and assemblies all trap each other... meaning they all have to come off.

The main problem I encountered was the playfield holes were too small to comfortably accept the connectors.... they JUST fit through the PF holes under firm pressure, so you cant feed any connectors through easily through gaps in plastic.

This means wiring that feeds through the playfield at the bottom needs to be done before you put the lower level plastic on.... which means you need to have the top level of ramps loosely in place before fitting the lowest level, because they all have wiring that dives down through the playfield. The ramps themselves then start to block access to the PF holes holes and the screw holes. Its a real headache.

The Vengeance ship & Warp on ST Stern is a pain.

yep baywatch and frank thomas !!

TZ by far for me.

All the bit and pieces on the topside.
The amount of assemblies on the underside.
The overall weight of the playfield if you try to lift it out of the cabinet populated.
And that goddamn clock if you go the cheap route and try to repair it yourself.

I tore down Elvira this weekend to wax the Playfield and install clear titans. What a nightmare to tear down. Worst ever

WH20 was one of the easiest games I've ever shopped. There are something like 7 steps in the instruction manual for disconnecting the mini, after that, everything is wide open.

Baywatch is one of the hardest.

PM is kind of a pain, mostly because of the ramshackle way a lot of the plastics and mechs go in, and a lot of questionable stress put on the plastics themselves. As with most games, you just have to go slow and reverse the order when you put things back in.

I thought CFTBL was bad, but really once you get that one big ramp out, it’s fairly straight forward.

I have to shop a STTNG soon and I am not looking forward to that...

I have shopped hundreds of games. There is a clear winner for most absurd amount of effort to rebuild.... ridiculous.
Capcom, Airborne
Layers upon layers, and nothing fits quite right.

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STNGG what pin is this? I did a lot to Rollergames. First pin I took apart. Lifting PF off of brackets to slide out to work on the ramp was a little time consuming. But I did enjoy working on it a lot. Kind of fun.

“Star Trek: the Next Good Gophers”

I hear World Cup Soccer is tough?

I thought Earthshaker as well?

TZ was medium no biggy

World Cup isn’t bad. Just takes a while.

World Cup was a piece of cake. I've done a few. I agree TZ is medium. Earthshaker is annoying. You have to take the playfield out a bit to get at the back ramps. It's been years since I shopped one. I think I pulled it forward a bit and then rested the flipper coils on the lock of the lock down bar.

The worst game I ever did was Capcom Airborne. It is an absolute nightmare. Such a fun game and it's got an amazing number of habit trails. It's really something to look at, but wow is it a pain to work on.

I'm afraid of ST Pro. The Vengence looks very difficult. I have to tackle that once soon.