(Topic ID: 125658)

Bride of Pinbot head motor problem

By floyd1977

8 years ago


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  • 18 posts
  • 5 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 8 years ago by robm
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#1 8 years ago

When the face turns to the right (normal direction when you're advancing faces), the motor seems to work normally. When going in the reverse direction, it is slow and sounds like it's struggling.

Has anyone else encountered this?
Thanks

#2 8 years ago

I put a couple of drops of 3-in-1 oil on the shaft that goes through the plastic cams. I also put a little silicone grease between the white plastic cam and the metal plate it rests on.

Seems to be better, for now. The next step would probably be to open up the motor casing, but I wasn't able to drill out the rivets! I'll report back if anything changes, but it looks like there are already other threads on this topic.

#3 8 years ago

Ok, the problem is back. When the motor is slow moving, if I wait a few seconds, it will start to speed up and seem to function normally again.

Would anyone agree that I need to open up the gear box, remove the old grease and replace with new (silicone?) grease?

I have tried drilling out the rivets that keep the box together but have been unsuccessful.

1 week later
#4 8 years ago

I was able to clean and regrease the gears, but that didn't help. What did help in my case was adding some grease between the white plastic cam that causes the head to turn.

#6 8 years ago

What would you suggest? New parts? Different lubricant?

#8 8 years ago
Quoted from thedefog:

How did the gears look?

The gears had quite a bit of hardened black grease on them. I degreased them, put them back together and added new grease. The motor works and turns just fine when nothing is hooked up to it. Once I added the load of the box (with the four faces), it would move very, very slowly at times.

That's why I decided to add a little silicone grease between the two plastic parts. I think that's where the friction was. If calvin is saying this is a bad idea because the grease will eventually harden, I'm ok with cleaning it out every couple of years. Without doing anything, the game was almost non-functional.

#11 8 years ago

Ok, thanks guys. I'll take another look when I have time to take everything apart again.

3 weeks later
#12 8 years ago

So I am still having an issue. The very first time the head turns after powering on the game, it is always very slow. It always makes it, but it is slow. The second time, it's a little faster. After that, it functions normally.

It seems that the head moves better when the playfield is vertical, so this morning I started the game up cold, tilted the playfield up and went into manual head test. Sure enough, the head turned fine.

I then lowered the playfield back down and the motor started to struggle again. I can't figure out what may be causing the friction. The rollers on the bottom of the head seem to move freely.

#14 8 years ago
Quoted from freddy:

is there play in the motor shaft?

Would I need to take the head assembly apart again to determine that? I suppose I could just try turning the head manually? I am almost positive there is no play there though.

#15 8 years ago

I'll look at it some more tomorrow or hopefully tonight. When the playfield is vertical, the round opening at the bottom of the faces doesn't rest on the three small metal rollers. I'm guessing there is something going on there but I need to look at it more closely.

OR, are you asking if there is up/down play on the shaft, so when the playfield is horizontal, the head is pulling down on the shaft? I think I have at least a couple of things to look into now...

#16 8 years ago

Here's the deal. At one point, there was too much play (forward and back) in the head, so I tightened it up, but too much. After backing out the screws and pulling the bottom plate forward just a little, it's working great. I just played a game and went through all four faces (both directions), and it's as smooth as could be.

5 months later
#17 8 years ago

This is unlikely to help anyone else, but I just wanted to close the loop on what was a very frustrating problem.

Shortly after my last post, the problem returned. After the head turned a couple times, everything worked normally, though still a little sluggish. When playing the game cold, the issue was very noticeable.

So, I decided tonight I was going to solve this issue once and for all. I took everything apart, and I started looking at the whole assembly. I noticed the washer on the axis that the head rotates around. It sits near the white plastic cam that turns the head. I noticed that it extended underneath the plastic cam, causing the cam not to sit flush:

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I looked at page 2-21 of the manual. This washer (part #5 in the diagram) is supposed to be a 1/2" OD washer, but the one installed appeared to be about 3/4". I replaced it with a smaller washer:

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Now the head moves like I remember on the first BoP I had and others I've played. It rotates quickly and snaps into place now. It makes sense now that the head turned more smoothly when the playfield was tipped up, as that took pressure off of the cam since gravity was not pulling the head down.

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