wire brush the crud off and hope it still works for a long while. you might want to start there. It does not appear to have been festering very long.

send off to pro to thoroughly clean it up

get replacements

You still have alkaline damage on the board. Take a nice stiff toothbrush and scrub all the areas with vinegar. Let it sit for a few minutes then flush with distilled water. Used compressed air to blow thoroughly dry.

IMG_0567 (resized).jpeg

I personally would just buy a new one . For a few hundred dollars you will have a worry free and clean board . You won’t think everything that’s a little weird is a board issue . Then if you wanted I would send it off to a pro and have them go through it and keep it as a back up .

That’s really not true; if a rotten dog is your only option and there’s a problem, you’ll always wonder. The QC on those boards ain’t great.

Original always a better option for WPC. Send the board out for repair. $150 and a couple months later you are set.

I like keeping the original option. There are some great techs out there that can take care of this board for you. You might be down awhile but it would be original and as good as it would get. While they are at it have the tech remove the battery holder off the board or have them install an NVRAM.

This is the best advice. I have had a number of these repairs done by Chris Hibler. He can make it better than original and to me that’s a better option than a replacement. Great communication and very fair price.

http://chrishiblerpinball.com/

The process and prices are on his web site. Also can see a lot of his repairs on YouTube. .

That board doesn't look that bad at all. No need to replace it. Just brush off with old toothbrush and install remote battery. For added measure, you could apply vinegar to the corroded areas then wash off. In any event, that board should last you a very long time.

Battery Acid is insidious. It gets in the traces. The trace IS compromised, but remove as much battery acid (alkaline) obvious corrosion as possible and I've seen a lot of these 'dark green conformal coating' traces continue to work. Sometimes for a year, sometimes for many many years. It all depends on how much alkaline is creeping under the coating. The only practical way to get the vinegar (acid) to the copper of the trace is to scrape off the conformal coating which is covering up the dark black copper top of the trace. I've done some work here with fiberglass brushes:

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/77-FGB

But it's easy to scrape the trace itself thinner and thinner as you remove the conformal coating leading to breaking the connection and having to install a lot of 'bug wires' out of 30 gauge wire wrap wire to fix what you scraped off... it's do-able, but not actually worth it. Dark green conformal traces I generally leave as they are until the alkaline damage breaks the connection... then I use the 30 gauge wire to fix the connections that are broken.

Here is my friend Lenny's answer to battery acid (alkaline) damage:

Replace anything that is grey or greyish-green with shiny. In your case, the CPU socket is compromised, probably the 6809 CPU chip itself, the 74LS14, a handful of resistors and capacitors and diodes. Long experience says replace any component that is compromised.

Or not.

You can attempt to stop further problems by really cleaning, maybe using some vinegar solution. I've crossed my fingers and hoped before. About one in five boards continue working well year after year. The other four boards you end up replacing the CPU board. Most acid (alkaline) damage is much more severe than what you have, so maybe you'll get lucky... Or you'll replace the board.

Which is my advice.

Replace the CPU board, get the batteries off the board if you need to keep a midnight madness real time clock working, otherwise replace the Ram chip on the replacement board with NVRAM.

If you send the acid compromised board out for repair ask them to put the ram chip in a socket and replace the chip with NVRAM when you get it back... desoldering ram chips on this cpu isn't all that difficult as far as these things go, but if you've got a professional already looking at the board it's a job best left to the guy who does a LOT of this.

This is a much lighter case of battery acid (damage) than most... but I strongly suspect you'll be replacing the CPU board if you don't have it professionally repaired.

Good luck!

Not sure why you keep calling it battery acid when it is alkaline leakage . Huge difference between the two. Potassium hydroxide is just about on the opposite end of the PH spectrum of sulphuric acid.

You talking about your car battery!? It contains acid.

In your pinball machine, you are correct!

The stuff on the parts can be cleaned up. But the discoloration under the soldermask is a bit disconcerting. Not so much the ground plane, more concerned about the traces.

Are you able to remove the battery holder so we can have a 'look see' underneath? You mention you don't have the skill set/time for some repairs, but is removing the battery holder something you're able to do? Just curious if it's a mess under there or if more traces are affected.

Hodijag: I would have the board professionally repaired and keep using it. That said, your location/shipping may make this highly cost prohibitive. I also think that all your posts have you leaning towards a new board to begin with and you do not seem comfortable that a repair will last. Keep in mind that this isn't an airplane where failure means disaster- if the old board died for some reason you can still replace it down the road. Also remember this is pinball and stuff will constantly break whether it is this board or something else.

Regardless - if your comfort level says replace the board - you should definitely replace it.

Personally I put NVRAM in all my games - for reasons you now know batteries are terrible and shouldn't be in any pinball machines. I suggest your new board have NVRAM instead of batteries.

Pour on some vinegar, scrub with a toothbrush, rinse and dry. Install remote battery. You'll be good to go for a long time.

I recall many decades ago at work, we use to use an electric eraser to remove solder mask on engineering prototypes. Worked rather well.

I know you're not going to try to clean it up further, more of a FYI.