Combat
Zaccaria, 1977So as you can see contacts on stepper motor are worn just enough to make a few functions intermittent...or not work at all.
I "could"
1) apply solder
2) use foil tape
3) grind contact flat enough to enlarge surface making contact
4) find a liquid metal paint of sorts....
Whats a good fix here??
Thanks All
Is the contact worn down to the Bakelite? I don't have much experience with this type of repair, but if I had to guess, solder would probably be too soft to be a long term repair. It might work for a while, but the little snow-shoe connector will probably dig the rut out again in short order.
If it's not worn down all the way through the metal, I'd just pull it apart, clean the grime out with a degreaser, and maybe lightly abrade the metal with a green scotch brite pad (something that won't take any more metal off, but would get some corrosion off).
Before reassembling, lightly grease the face of the stepper with teflon grease--that'll keep the metal from wearing out more, and the teflon will keep dirt from sticking. If the game is in a home environment, you'd be hard pressed to wear it down moreso.
Good luck.
Yup its down to theBakelite. Metal gone but if you wiggle the contact it will run the (in this case 1-4 active player lights). Took a while to notice what the issue is.
I wonder if a liquid solder application or similar works.
This looks like it would work for a time... https://www.bareconductive.com/shop/electric-paint-10ml/
Can't believe nobody here has had this issue with a fix.
Anybody?
I've wiped solder on them before, but that was with a Gottlieb unit, and those actually have contact points that are individual little rivets/nipples rather than this kind of "trail" design, not sure how it would work for you here. Worth a shot.
I haven't done it before but I would get some thin copper strip from the hobby shop, dremel out a small channel so a 1/4" wide strip can be epoxied in level, then solder it to the traces at either end.
I have 'filled' w/solder w/success. You don't want to get it to hot for to long. I then lightly sanded smooth. Get it as level as possible.
Thanks all for the wise suggestions. Found a "conductive pen". With a little conductive grease I wonder if it would work for only hours-days-weeks-months or?. Will report back on that one however looks like very thin solder w/o melting anything is needed.
Cash said it, fill with solder, but, use silver solder, ie... new solder, ie...no lead within.
The Damn tree huggers got to it, and now we cant use the old easy to use solder.
new is stronger.
That will be a whole lot of connections. Thanks Dr of Style for the Silver Solder tip. Wonder if "adding" a curved cap on each spring tip (larger surface area) would be less damaging than all that heat on the board. Hmm.
And remarkably if anyone else has this issue and wants a fix w/o disassembling the stepper motor and risking melting the thing soldering it- (don't mind but really doesnt need a whole disassemble) the conductive pen idea I mentioned above DOES work perfect. That stuff is really strong and does not easily scratch off. Took no time. Highly recommend. Hooray!
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Gloucester Township, NJ