Magic Eraser and Simple Green does wonders, but as aobrien said, be prepared to protect it with either clear coat or mylar.

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I have a -54 rectifier board that reads 3.8VDC at TP1. It should be ~6.5VDC. But on the other boards, my 5VDC test points seem fine. Should I be concerned?

Yes. Your 5VDC logic is derived from the 12VDC supply (TP3), not the 6VDC which is used only for controlled lamps. Check F1. If it's good you may have a failed BR1 or a short on the playfield somewhere.

With the connector to the playfield disconnected, I still get 3.8VDC. So that points to BR1 or maybe a bad solder joint or something?
Somewhere, I saw a guide to replacing bridge rectifiers. I'll look into it and post what I find. Thanks for the help.

Well, I guess I am in this club. After being out of the hobby for 8 years or so, I'm getting back into pinball. Currently I have a Lost World and an Embryon (both projects) that qualify me for club inclusion. In the past I've had a few others - Mata Hari, Flight 2000, Space Invaders. And my want list includes a bunch of others - Xenon, Centaur, Catacomb, Fathom, Paragon, Meteor, Medusa, Black Pyramid... Between the machines I've had and those I've worked on for others, I'm pretty good with the solenoid driver boards, the light boards, transformer/rectifier boards, probably will be okay with sound boards. I haven't had great luck in the past with MPUs, but I've got three or four sitting around that had battery corrosion that I hopefully can get at least one good board out of for the Lost World. (I'll probably drop an Alltek into the Embryon.) I plan on picking up a programmer for EPROMs soon (I came across a stash of NOS 2716s at work that were about to be tossed) - any recommendations there? - I'll be using a slow old PC running Windows XP, as I've been running a Mac for a while.
I've ordered some stuff from GPE to get the Lost World up and running, minus the sound card. Don't have the right one, the one that was in the machine when I got it is a -51 with Mystic ROMs installed, and I don't think that works with this.
Anyway, I'll be popping up in here every now and then, and if I start any threads specific to a machine, I'll post a link here.

Welcome to the club! I love a good Bally project. I also miss my Black Pyramid. I don't know much about chip programming but I do believe old slow computers are best for doing it. Looking forward to watching your rebuilds.

6.5 degree pitch for these old Bally's?

The two I bought were at around a 3 degree pitch, I raised it some right away. Now, I need new levelers on one to go any further. I was just wondering if 6.5 is standard for all games from all eras? Or, what?

definitely not recommended to have a 6.5 degree pitch for those machines. Perhaps 3.5 degrees.

https://user.xmission.com/~daina/tips/pub/tip0137.html

3.5 degrees? What the hell are they thinking??? I'd never set my games at 3.5 degrees. If I did and let people play them, they'd never come back to play my games again. Ever.

All of my early SS games are set at 5.5 to 7 degrees. All of them. I may be a little aggressive on a couple of them....Xenon and Meteor come to mind, but these two are normally easy games and now they are very challenging and have that 'one more game' appeal.

eh, this guy says 5. http://www.flippers.be/basics/101_level_pinball_machine.html

moral of the story... as high as it takes to make it most fun for you!

Ya, I guess I'll play around and see what works for me.

I imagine the ball my not land in the saucers as easily on Xenon with a higher pitch. That may be a limiting factor.

3.5? That's BS. If you hit an orbit shot, you'll have time to go to the refrigerator to get a beer before it comes back to you.

5-6 is the way to go. Machine dependant.

rd

Level each game to your preference. No set rules.........

hey, that's why I linked my source.

I believe new connectors including new 0.089" connector ends would clean that up for the cables coming from and leaving the rectifier board. Have you had instances of fuses blowing on this board for no particular reason? get rid of those old molex connectors, I have some part numbers if your interested pm me.

For the rectifier board itself buy these pcb connectors. I see them on Digikey but I got mine from a local supplier for this kind of stuff.

350432-1 9P M X2
350431-1 6P M X2
350433-1 12P M x1
350763-4 9P F x1

Female Pins 350550-1 (get about 50)
Male Pins 350547-1 (at least 10)

Housing example if you don't have the 0.085" tool to save your existing housing
1-480706-0 9 Pin male

Guys, I'm having a strange issue with my Baby Pacman. The lamp matrix gets messed up to where the inserts still light, but the lights are not lighting in the correct order. I've traced it to the PIA that leads to the lamp matrix. After I replace the PIA, the lamp matrix works fine for a while (a day or two) then it acts up again. Rebooting the machine sometimes results in it starting messed up or sometimes it starts up normally which leads me to thinking the PIA is not being initialized correctly. I have an Alltek CPU board.

Anyone seen the lamp matrix get messed up like this before? Any idea where to look for whats messing up these PIAs?

So the new pia eventually gave you the same result. Almost seems like the game isn't set for baby pac man. Or forgets it's running baby pac man. Have you talked to someone at Alltek? Sound obvious but i'd talk to them first.

I think it is still running baby pac code as all the playfield rules still work. I tried reseating the PIA in the socket tonight and low and behold, it started working again. The problem appears to be a flakey socket on the Alltek board. I'll contact them tomorrow.

Working on Mata Hari today. Replaced the sever and rectifier boards. Game plays great again, still pops the GI fuse and no displays are showing. I took out every numb to see if I can narrow anything down and it still blows the GI fuse on power up. The lower feature lamps all work ok. I checked to see if I had a broken wore or something and there is continuity through every light connection + or -. No matter where I touch I get a beep.

Do you have continuity to the ground strap? If so then you definately have a short

From the GI wires to the ground strap?

Yeah it's a simple test to see if you have a short to metal somewhere

I'll try it out as soon as I get home. Thanks!!

Ok, so there is continuity from the ground strap to the gi wiring. How is the best way to find it?

Got it!! A tab was folded over on a lamp socket on the green/orange string. Once I broke it loose everything worked just as it should!! That was stressful!

I also got my Bobby Orr going this weekend about 90%. Just need to replace a chime coil, and get the upper flippers working and it will be good to go!!

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Anyone know of a guide to re-pinning/re-working the connectors?

If you have a schematic from any 2518 game its there. They are all (with 2 exceptions) the same.

Don't know of a guide but they are standard .1" pitch connectors. I replaced the headers on my boards with extra long, gold plated connectors and that solved most of my connector problems. You may still have to replace some of the connectors, however.

I used part number CH100-40G-0.318 from GPE. You can get the crimp on pins and housings from him too. https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/categories.asp?cat=70

I replace the connectors one wire at a time. Make sure to key the connector so they can't be plugged in wrong. I use a Dremel tool with a wire brush to remove oxidation from the header pins.

This guide is pretty good. Make sure you have the right tools and make a few practice runs before cutting into your game wires.

http://www.pinrepair.com/connect/

Just discovered this club so I'm posting this here in the hopes it will help others with similar issues.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/bally-medusa-saucer-solenoid-not-firing#post-3302135
Also, these guides have been invaluable for me. Everything you need to know is covered here.
http://pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Bally/Stern_Electronics_Repair_Guides
http://techniek.flipperwinkel.nl/ballyss/rep/index1.htm

Added over 8 years ago: http://stevekulpa.net/pinball/bally_disp6r.htm

Got a question about a Harlem Globetrotters. I am getting ready to redo the cabinet. The existing orange/red is woefully faded:IMG_1753 (resized).JPG

Anyone know what color it "should" be? the images from the original brochure http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=1125&picno=3818&zoom=1 show a fairly deep orangey/red color. I assumed it wa ssupposed to be the color of a classic basketball, but it looks more orange to me so I was thinking of using the star color from the brochure.

Any chance there's some closer to original color under one of the legs?

Also, someone make me a really good offer for this.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/whats-this-bally-rolling-stones-project-worth

Practice crimping, make sure not to apply too much pressure, if they fold it's too much. And have the right crimp too and extraction tool if you want to save the housings.

If you need a crimping tool, this one works great for me. It crimps the wire and the insulation in one crimp. I was skeptical but it really works each and every time!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007JLN93S/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage

Thanks guys. Redoing connectors will be next after replacing many light sockets, which comes after building a playfield rotisserie.

I have a quick question about Bally stand up targets. I'm fixing up a Centaur and noticed there's no foam cushions (weather stripping) behind any of the targets. I'm used to seeing foam on all my Williams stand up targets. Did Bally just not do that in 1981 or is my foam just missing from all the stand ups?

Thanks.

They didn't use foam.

Got my viking today, needs a little work. But it came with a extra playfield

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I use these also, no complaints for the price

Nice score....Did it come in that Silverball Mania cab?

Is the extra Playfield a Silverball Mania?

rd

It's awesome to see so much interest in AS-2518 games but these games are different from Williams, and Gottlieb. Also keep in mind they are 35 years old so keep them as original as you can.

Not sure if the foam was on Bally games originally. I have put foam on my Bally targets and it does help w/airballs. Not hurting anything anyway.

Looking to replace a flaky volume control on a Stern pin but they neglected to put the value of this part on the schematic.. in the game manual... in the Stern Game Theory Book... or in the parts book.

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Could somebody please measure one for me?

These guys might be able to help you

https://www.thirdcoastpinballandgraphics.com/store/p1/Remote_Volume_Control.html

It should be a 1K or a 10K. Which game is it exactly?

Also, try moving all the way left and right while giving a slight down pressure. This may move the oxidation that's making the operation sketchy enough that you won't need to replace it.

Shawn

Lightning. Should be the same for all MPU-200/SB-300 games.

It has either full volume or none. I took it apart and the resistor stuff is flaking off of the ring inside. It's toast.

If you don't see a value on it, go with 1K. Should be fine.

Your right, game doesn't matter. All SB-300 are the same.

Crap, i forgot to measure it for you.

Gimme a half-hour, I'll go donw and measure mine.