Picked up a couple of EM projects that were sitting in someone's dank basement for quite some time, then up to someone's shack for an undetermined amount of time. Before going to pick them up, they were pictured set up. Seller said they powered on but nothing works and were moved to "ground" level. Legs were taken off and two were mangled in the process, so they're pretty much trashed. The heads still remained on when I arrived. Turns out they were moved out of the basement and thrown into a shack the guy called his shed.

These are by far the worst conditioned games that I've picked up. The heads are solid, the glass on Spanish Eyes was flaking. The sides of the cabinet were starting to delaminate and the back of the cabinet was crumbling due to the particle board that they used.

Royal Guard is in a bit better shape. The entire bottom board is falling out of the cabinet and will need to be replaced, but the rest of the cabinet and head seem solid. It had a new-ish lock in the coin door but no keys. Taking out the backglass to store in a safe place, someone had cared enough for it at one point to touch up the reds that were flaking off. It was a pleasant surprise.

They're stored in the garage for right now to air out. We are expecting heavy storms tonight so they were set aside so both our vehicles could park in the garage. Not sure which one I'm going to tackle first. I cant say that I'm a skilled woodworker so I will be seeking advice in the best way to deal with the cabinets on these games. My I initial thought was to work on Royal Guard first, since replacing the bottom board with plywood should be pretty straight forward. Both games seem complete and all there. The playfields seem to be in decent shape. More pics to come.

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Let's see what have here. First, starting with Royal Guard, besides the bottom board, it is in surprisingly good shape. In my initial post, I had mentioned that this game between the two, looked like it received more care overall. The first clue was that the backglass reds were touch up. Upon further handling and wipedown, it is overall very clean.

My guess is that the bozos that brought the game up from the basement might have dropped it, or did something to it (there was at least 1 mangled leg, which I wonder if it was involved). In any case, one layer of the bottom board had completely torn away, but other than that, it's in pretty decent shape. The head panel and bottom panel seem relatively clean

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The beat up bottom board and playfield condition. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it plugged in and started up a game, but I'm expecting that it won't.

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I agree. On my way home with these games, I was thinking I just paid someone to take his trash, but after closer examination, I think they can be salvaged and made into good players again. I'm not doing a complete restore by any means, even though I did think about having to repaint both games if the cabinets turned out to be trash, but I'm willing to accept any and all imperfections from my games these days

Thanks Alex! I appreciate that post.

So first thing I did after setting the game up was to replace the power cord and check the fuses that I could see in the bottom board. Everything check out good with a DMM. Checked the score reels and the stepper units in the head, and they were a little dirty but moved ok-ish. I'll probably have to go over them again.

Seeing that those things were ok, I try to power the game on, but nothing.

After trying another outlet with the same result, I decided to call it a night and play some pinball instead.

Oh and here's the replaced bottom board. I used some wall trim i had lying around. Not stock but it works. Dont laugh

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I will recheck the fuses again. Where are some safe places to check for power? I've read that checking at the transformer can end up really bad for me.

I followed vids guide on replacing the power cord on old EMs, and verified it with the schematic. The black line goes to the fuse, the white line goes to the transformer (attached to where the original cord attached to) and the ground wire to a lug on the transformer bracket.

Good to know. I'll have to study the schematic more to see what conditions are required to power on. I assumed that the game would do something with power running to it. I assume the game is getting voltage of some sort with the power on.

I'm not getting any lights or anything. There are some new bulbs in this game from what I can tell. Wouldn't the backbox lights turn on even if the hold coil is burnt?

I did a quick wipe with some simple green on the plastics and playfied...and its showing it's true colors a bit.

Obviously it's due for a full wipe down; just wanted to see what was under that layer of dust and dirt.

ok. Will try this when I get home today. The fuses all beeped out, outside of the fuse clip, as well as in the fuse clip, so i should be good there.

I did check the fuse that was connected to the black wire on the power cord, and it was correct. I'll make sure to check the other fuses that I can get my hands on.

Manually pulling the hold relay allowed power on with lights in the back box. Progress!

I had credits on the credit unit, and the score reels were in positions other than zero. When I hit that "start" button, with a ball in the drain, the game clunks momentarily, score reels did reset to zero, but no ball kickout into the shooter lane and no working solenoids.

Will revisit soon to gather more information!

Does anyone have a picture of the labels of the reset bank on a Gottlieb EM of this era?

Mine is missing.

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Some more good news. After manually pressing the hold relay, I can "Start" a game by putting a ball into the drain hole. Sometimes the score reels reset and sometimes they don't. And just before stopping for the day, the tens reel doesn't stop at zero, so I'll have to check the zero switch next.

Flippers, pops, slings, Snap targets all work, and scoring works from what I can tell.

I just need to sort out the conditions to call for the Hold relay to pull, and sometimes the last ball wont end game. So a couple things to address yet.

All-in-all, very happy with its operations so far. I know it's not much exciting technically, but I wasn't expecting this one to give me too much trouble either. Still a great learning experience me!

No worries. I might open it up to the "rest of the forum" asking for this specifically. I'm going off of one picture from Clay's website. I'm tempted to just take out the bottom board with the shotgun approach and clean all the switches....I know it's not a great idea but that will be my last resort. Going to keep looking!

I've read some people say no, don't do this, you'll make things worse, and I've read others like you where they just go about cleaning everything.

I think it has a lot to do with experience level. I'm still relatively new; a lot to learn yet definitely, but I know enough to be dangerous

I think for now, I'm going to try a more targeted approach. It will help me better understand how to read schematics, and learn the particular way of thinking when it comes to EMs. If I ever get good a diagnosing EM problems, then I might take the shotgun approach so that I'm not left with a too-far-gone non-working machine.

Just read on Clay's site that on Gottblieb games, the start button will energize the hold relay. I'll have to try that later today. He also writes that he likes to rig the hold relay so that it's always closed, for home use. This way the game lights up when the power is turned on and he can disconnect one of the wires to the coil so it doesn't burn during play. I might do this, as it makes the most sense in a home environment.

I'll get it going as intended first. I definitely don't want to introduce any new problems. Right now, it seems like it'll "start" a game, but it won't quite end a game. Everything in between seems to work, but I'm sure there will be more going through. I'll first try to get it to behave like it should. That will definitely be my starting point, then go from there!

Can someone tell me if the "control bank" on the schematics is the proper order of the relays on the bottom bank without the label (what I'm referring to as the "reset bank")?

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I thought I had made good progress today. Cleaned some switches, worked out a sticky score reel, got it to start games properly with credits and overall felt pretty good about it. That was before dinner.

Had dinner, spent some time with the kids, put the kids to bed, then went back down to test play again. Still working. Great!

I decided to clean and wax the playfield and plastics, and replaced most of the GI and apron lights with LEDs. Turn the game back on to look at my work and test play with a freshly waxed board, and nothing...

I have no idea what I could have done, short of jiggling a lamp socket and causing a short somewhere? But would that affect startup?

I'm so confused and have no reason to believe that any relay or score motor switches are related, as I was only working on the topside.

Manually pressing the hold relay will get power to the game, but I cant start a game like I could before.

Sorry, not sorry. LEDs are better than incandescent in almost every way. Brighter, cooler, last 10x longer. I dont rainbow puke my games.

With that said, I'm willing reverse the change to get it working again, to rule it out as a cause.

I manually reset the reset bank and got it working again. The next thing that I'll have to troubleshoot is that sometimes the last ball in play doesnt end a game. Going to take a look at the game over relay.

I understand. Imo, the pros outweigh the cons. Everytime I see a burnt insert or flaking backglasses or burnt bulbs, I have to think that if they were LEDs, more of that would be still intact.

Also, as I was changing a burnt bulb, I dropped it on my tile floor and the bulb shattered. Yes, you lose some of that vintage feel but I feel the benefits far outweigh the cons.

Anyway, there are plenty of other threads that discuss this. I certainly dont want this thread to turn into one

I believe the ball count is in the bottom front of the cabinet? If so, I took 600 grit sandpaper to the contacts, but didn't do more than that. That's on my list though. I did take apart the snap targets and they are snappy again

It's the little things.

I think I've worked through most of the bugs. I can power on, start a game, and most of the time, finish a game. Cleaned and resleeved the plunger, flippers, slings, and snap target mechs. Will go through the pops next. Got new rings on part of the game, in white, but after putting them on, decided I want to try to whiten up the posts with hydrogen peroxide and sunlight, since the contrast between the new white rings and the yellowed posts is quite stark.

I also just put in an order through PB Resource, and surprisingly enough, it wasn't too bad. The bulk of the cost was new legs for both games, which needed to be replaced. But otherwise, a few things here and there. I still have to check the ball count unit, as itmoves from ball to ball, but I don't think it's making good contact on that last ball.

I did that with all of the fuses. It's been ok for the 20 or more starts from off so far!

Royal Guard is running for the most part. Sometimes itll give me a ball or 2 extra, but only when I get a Special, but it does end. I'll consider it done for now and move onto Spanish Eyes this week.
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It's a fun flipper too! There's something about the simplicity of EMs. I don't know what it is. The refresh was pretty straight forward thankfully. Other than the bottom board, it was in really good shape. Really happy with how it turned out.

Spanish Eyes on the other hand; I'm probably going to haul the cabinet back out to the garage to see what I'm dealing with. I'll probably have to replace the back panel. I'm thinking about knocking out the crumbly stuff, and replacing it with 1/2" plywood, then prime and paint it black. Not sure if that's the original color or not, but that's what the remnants of it looks like.

So project #2 has been slow going to say the least. I got it up on legs, took out the playfield, and started checking fuses. I need to take out the relay board and go over it with some kind of cleaning method. I've been debating taking a toothbrush dipped in simple green and brushing all the parts, the rinsing it with cups of water, and drying it with an air gun, or using the same method with 91% isoproyl and drying it with an airgun. Same with the board in the backbox.

Just need to find time and motivation (this being the key) to do it.

Also found a crispy Lock relay that will need to get replaced. Found one on ebay after searching the usual places. And looking into getting translights printed to replace the backglass, but this is probably the last thing, if at all, that gets done. Need to get it running first then decide what to do with the cab.

I'm not sure. On the one hand, I do, because everything in the backbox has some spray something on it, like everything, and everything is incredibly seized. On the other hand, I thought about taking each unit apart 1 by 1 to get things cleaned. They will need to be resleeved also. So just weighing my options.

It's pretty bad. The pics cant capture the residue on everything.

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This shit is everywhere! Anything that has dried out has completely seized the units. Thankfully, isopropyl alcohol eats it up. Its not shiny after its clean, but it moves freely.

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I'm not too worried about the rust. It's a beater of a game and all the parts are solid. Nothing is flaking off or anything. Honestly, even the springs are ok. Some of the tension is lost, but I trimmed them down to get the proper tension back. Even the clock spring still had good tension. My main goal is to get the game running first, then playing well, second. If those two things can happen with minimal dollars, I'll be happy.

Powered it on for the first time last night and it starts and ends a game. That makes things a bit easier. Lots of dirty switches. None of the pops fire, so I'll have to see if there's a fuse that goes to those solenoids. Flippers work and scoring works. Ball count counts down properly as well.

So I've got all of the units in the backbox clean. The switches all gone through with 600 grit sandpaper, all wires attached to the correct lugs. Someone at some point disconnected the wires to the chimes in the cabinet, that took a minute to figure out, especially since all the wires are brown/black from the bottle of motor oil they poured on everything. All of the solenoids and plungers now have crisp action.

I didn't notice this the first time I turned on the game, but notice it now. The 10 point relay in the backbox is locking on, which in turn locks on a coil in the match unit (the one attached to the bell ringer). Per the manual, the 10 point relay is actuated by the stand ups, some rolloever switches and the pop bumpers (specifically by a switch in the "On Bumper" relay. A switch in the 10 point relay steps up the Match Unit (Sw. C15). In searching for any closed switches indicated by the manual, I've gone over each of the components and have not found anything closed, no lugs touching, no solder splash that I can see. I'm sure that if I can resolve this issue, it will take care of the Match Unit coil locking on as well.

Thoughts?

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Worked out the pop bumpers, so pretty much have most things working now. Rollover switches sometimes get stuck closed, and the 10 pt relay locking on is intermittent during play; probably vibrations and what not making switches stick? At this point, it's working well enough to order parts and start rebuilding things. Hopefully through that, the switch issues go away.

Also, anybody know what this is? This is from the chime unit in the cabinet. The knocker right next to it was the same. It looks like someone took a lighter to the rubber grommet that used to be there and melted to the point where when it cooled, it fused the plunger so the knocker and chime wouldn't ring. Also had the wires for the chimes detached from the relay lug, so it seems pretty intentional. The Jones plug for the knocker and chime was literally right there too. Could've spent the 2 seconds to unplug it.

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Wouldn't it have just dried out and crumbled like all other rubber used at the time? Well, whatever the case, it's all cleaned now and the chime in the cabinet rings

I posted the same pictures to facebook and one of the comments was that "it's normal, it happens." I'm not sure what would cause it to happen, but I found it hard to believe

Worked out the stuck 10 pt relay. It was behaving quite strangely but I tracked it down to a pop bumper where it would display the problem with the playfield in the down position, but not in the up position. I'm sure it was quite the spectacle seeing me continuously move the playfield several inches up and down and get points

Seems like everything is working

Hopefully my PBR order comes before the weekend so I can get things rebuilt. Still not sure what to do with the cabinet yet....

That thought had occurred to me to, obviously, it can be something that's hard to try to find, the proverbial needle in a haystack. As I was trying to troubleshoot it first, I had the playfield down, and messing with the switches above the playfield. I found that the top middle pop caused it to lock on, which was odd, since that pop scores 100 pts. But after it locked on, I would switch another pop and it would go off. This lead me to lift it up and test the pops in the upright position to see what was going on and I found that the pops would behave like normal, no relay locking on. I believe it was the center pop between the flippers that was the culprit. I'm not sure 100% what was causing it in lowered vs raised, but it was very clear that if I lowered it, I would cause 10 pts to score, and the relay would lock. If I lifted it just a little bit, the relay would release.

More progress. Got my parts order in over the weekend, and rebuilt the flippers and the pops. More mystery goop on every one of the mechs. Got them cleaned and rebuilt and she plays nice and snappy now! Added comet LEDs in sunlight as well. So at this point, it pretty much plays 100% Feels good to bring a game back.

Next thing to chase is backbox lights. Not a single light is on, so I'm not sure if there's a "bigger" problem or if the bulbs are all just burnt out. I hate taking the backglass off though because every time I handle it, chips of paint fall off. I'm likely going to go the translight route, but still...

What a fun game! I'll have to strongly consider replacing the backglass with a translight, since I think I might hang onto it for a while. No backbox lights because none were installed! Made it an easy fix.

The middle pop is really awesome. I love how the ball will bounce wildly in the ring and can make for some interesting saves. I just need to cut out a back panel for the head, and possibly replace the back panel in the cabinet.

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I've gained an appreciation for the simplicity in the mechanics of a single player EM. I've never played Spanish Eyes before, and it has been really fun!