Bowl-O
Bally, 1970You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider troxel.
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Got a Bally Bowl-O and started going through it. It's in pretty rough shape, but up for the challenge. Thought I would start a thread on the process of it and have a venue to ask questions when they arise. Hope to learn a few things on the way.
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Thing I did yesterday:
**Father-in-Law reattached the base board on the head. Came undone and he glued and re-braced it.
**Cleaned and vacuumed the base of the machine
**Replaced power cord
**Replaced four fuse blocks and soldered broken wire on the power transformer
**Half way done rewiring the coin door. Mouse chewed on a number of wires in the front of the game.
Next items to work on:
**Finish wiring coin door
**Get 4 bolts to mount the head
**Rewire the other front wires (flippers, knocker, tilt, etc)
**Try to find a backglass (might be a hand drawn 5 year old picture if I can't find one)
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Thing I did today:
**Finished rewiring the coin door, knocker, and power switch.
**Found 4 bolts for the head
**Put the bottom panel back in the game and connected the front jones plugs. I have a stray jones plug that has one connection on both
and not sure where it goes. I will try and look at the adjustments tomorrow for the missing jumper.
**Checked coils on the playfield and all moved freely and none were burnt looking.
**Moved one of the stepper units on the playfield and moved freely and snapped back in reset position. I was shocked that it wasn't gummed up.
Next items to work on:
**Reassemble rest of the game and give everything a look over.
**Try to find a backglass.
Quoted from phil-lee:Thats a cool old machine,I wouldn't have walked away from it. A full size paper print behind a glass looks ok if you can get a picture of the original.
Thing I did yesterday:
**Wiped down right side of game
**Put the head on along with the pf
**Found another mouse's nest
**Cleaned and adjusted the score reels.
**Disassembled Replay Unit
Next items to work on:
**Finish cleaning/adjusting the rest of the units in the backbox.
Down the road items:
**Try to find a backglass.
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Things I did yesterday:
**Finish going through Replay Unit, Ball Count Unit and the 0-9 Match Unit. Replay unit was really misaligned. Would only move one step before hitting a switch and being stuck.
Next items to work on:
**Clean jones plugs
**Dust of the fire extinguisher
**Plug in game and see what happens
Down the road items:
**Try to find a backglass.
**Order rubber kit, schematics, manual (if available)
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This is the part of the restoration where I will need some help 
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Finally turned the game on this afternoon and the score motor just spun. Looked at the schematics and checked the following relays:
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I focused on the switches with the red-yellow wire and all looked good. The 1A scm had the two tabs touching and adjusted that. The score motor now stops spinning. I can coin up a game and the credit unit advances, but nothing happens when I hit the start button. The reset relay and hold relay are both energized. (If the reset relay is engaged, shouldn't the score motor be spinning?)
Not sure where to look next on the start up sequence. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
I adjusted that switch and now the score motor is spinning continuously. I manually set each score reel to zero and checked contacts. I just don't know what should be engaged and what shouldn't be. So far the reset re is locked on along with the hold relay.
Thanks for the help, HowardR!
Switch 1B SCM was closed and adjusted it. Now the reset relay unlatches and the score motor stops spinning. I can add credits and show up on the credit window, but when I hit start, nothing happens. I imagine that I need to look at the start relay circuit? Or, is it the coin relay circuit that I need to look at?
Got the manual and schematics and now have some questions on it. I believe I am on the 2nd step of the start up sequence. I am not getting any response when the replay button is pushed.
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I imagine the "game over trip relay" should be closed on the start trip relay circuit.
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What is the best way to inspect this switch. I realize there is a wing nut to remove the stack, and I can move it about a foot, but doesn't seem like enough to investigate. I have a been putting it back in place and struggle to get it lined up correctly. Is there a trick or something I am missing?
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After some adjusting and tweaking, I am able to start a game! All scores reset and ball count goes to 1. However, the 1000 relay locks on and won't turn off. It looks like the top path is completing the circuit. The top center lane relay is showing closed on my DMM even though the switch is open. I checked the tabs and they aren't touching. Also, the actual switch on the center roll over is open so the top center relay is not engaged. Am I missing something else?
Fixed the 1000 unit problem and now have 100 unit problem. There was a roll-over switch that was closed that shouldn't have been. Didn't realize at first that the roll-over was worth 1000.
Two problems with the 100 point unit:
1. The 100 unit the relay is locking on after 100 points is scored. If I open the EOS switch the relay shuts off. When I manually score 100 points sometimes the coil engages and other times it doesn't. Sometimes it is really weak pull on the coil. Is this an adjustment or possible bad solder joint on the coil? I ohmed out the coil and was same as the 10s and all switches on the unit are good.
2. 100s is it is not advancing when the 10s unit goes from 9 to 0. I check all switches on the 10s unit and are good.
Any advice on what to double check? Kind of talking out loud here, but would appreciate any help.
***Looks like it was just a dirty contact. 100s are now working fine. I will go through and see if all switches are registering next and then will probably clean the PF***.
Looks like all the switches are scoring including the pops. What is the best way to clean and adjust these switches? I tried moving the wing nut and moving the whole unit out, but still don't have much room. Do you remove the rectangular plastic piece that holds the individual relay switches in place? Or, is there another method?
**Just found this on Youtube. Looks easy enough.**
I got mine from Pinball Resource (http://www.pbresource.com/). Order the manual, schematic, and ring kit from Steve. I struggled reading the online schematic as it's not the best copy, and I like having a paper copy.
Went through and cleaned the playfield today and got majority of it put back together. I try and get a few photos tomorrow when it's done. Game was playing fine, but didn't check things like replay and strikes yet. This has been a fun project and learned a lot on it and hopefully getting close to done.
BowlO I'm jealous of your backglass. Makes the game look a lot better than looking at burnt out lights.
It's getting closer. I put it back together and even rounded off the shooter's rod. The only problem that I am having is the strike lights are not lighting. The strike unit is advancing, but no lights. Will investigate some more when I have time. Played a few games and the scoring, lights, and switches all worked.
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Just following up on this post. I did get the schematics to Michael in the above post.
A friend of mine redid the backglass on a print. It's not perfect, but way better than anything I can do. I am going to bring this to TPF tomororow. Any EM pros that can lend a hand with it if there are problems?
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Adams, NE