Hello, I don't have a DW (Yet!) but will be on the hunt in the February/March time frame. I am relatively new to pinball but have been collecting/fixing old arcade machines for the last few years. I just purchased a new Stern TMNT premium last year and have been having a blast. Long story short TMNT needs a friend and I happen to be a HUGE Doctor Who fan but only have a few memories of playing DW when I was a kid at a local laundry mat. Any pointers on things to look for before buying one of this DW machines? I've heard stories about the rising platform being a potential area of concern. I also plan to read back through the 90+ pages of this thread to familiarize myself a bit more.

Also I'm in the Pensacola, FL area if anyone has any leads for games in the South East.

A working time expander with no errors is a plus.

Should have the Dalek topper, Moving dalek topper is fun but not a deal breaker.

The game should be complete with no wiring hacks and clean original boards in the backbox.

No evidence of heavy corrosion on the metal parts. Balls should be clean, no rust.

The playfields are clearcoated, so no missing artwork or touch-ups on them.

Cabinet should be clean and straight with no cracks or cupped bottom or evidence of water damage.

Expect normal UV damage of missing red color on the cabinet on at least one side and the front.

In the process of shopping out mine and doing all the cab decals. Installing a full pf protector from Germany as well. Wondering if anyone else has. Curious to know the fitment with the cliffys. Over or under?

On a sad side note I have ruined the plastics. Had them in the ultrasonic cleaner (done this many times before) but forgot the water was so hot from the previous batch of metal parts. Artwork came off. FML. Now the long wait for repros to get here. Had a partial used set on hand but the really badly damaged plastics I have no replacement. Ordered a full set. Ugggh.

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That stinks about your plastics. I had always heard not to put anything with paint into the ultrasonic. I use mine for posts, screws, etc to clean them up. For plastics it was always hand clean with novus 1.

Actually my first attempt in the ultrasonic was with DW plastics from a garbage pf. It didn't matter what happened as most of the plastics were yellowed, cracked, and/or warped. They came out so friggin nice. That's when I realized the ultrasonic was good for those too. But now I know... LUKEWARM ONLY!!! or cold would work too I suppose. Also plastics shouldn't be touching each other(this I knew). In this case they shifted when I put them in the water and the ones that lost artwork were in fact rubbing against other plastics. The long piece in the pic was the one I pulled out first. Looked odd so I went to wipe it dry, hence the "wipe" look. Uggh. Expensive lesson learned.

I just picked up a Doctor Who and there is a light that is out on the ESCAPE area. The (C) insert does not light up. I looked at the light board under the playfield and can see that someone tried to perform some type of repair on the board. In addition, I noticed that one of the wires that goes into the IDC connector looks to be cut. I am not sure if this wire is meant to end at this connector or if it was accidentally cut. I was hoping that someone could look at this connector that goes to the ESCAPE light board and let me know if this wire terminates at the connector or if it continues onto somewhere else like the rest of the wires in that connector. See picture of the IDC connector and wires. I have a yellow arrow pointing to the wire. I realize that it should not have an exposed wire showing but am wondering if this wire is meant to terminate at this connector or if it is meant to continue elsewhere. This seems to be the only thing that is not working.

Any help would be much appreciated!
Thanks
Ed

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That wire does terminate at the connector.
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Switch out the twist connector bulb unit with a working one. Maybe the solder pad is not making contact with the tabs and needs to be re tinned.

Yep. Remove the bulb from the board and take a photo of the "hole" the bulb goes through. Likely it's got a little dimple from years of being connected

PF is done. Cab is almost done, just 1 side of the head left and putting the siderails back on. Waiting for my Amazon delivery today of double sided tape. Stuff I had planned on using was too thick.

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Looks really nice!

It makes me happy to see another one of these awesome games brought back to life!

Looks great! I’m getting ready to do my cabinet as well in the next week or so once I finish restoring my friends 2nd space shuttle pin. I haven’t looked at it yet, but does the start button and launch button just unscrew into two pieces or does it snap together/apart?? My friend had an issue with his roadshow and the button actually broke apart trying to take it out.

Any pictures would be helpful.

Thank you,

Light pulls out, then unscrews into 2 pieces

Thought these would add to the British theme, Union Jack flipper toppers offered by @mr_tantrum.

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I think they are nice however I think they would be better suited for Tommy perhaps, just my cents. But if it works on your game, then enjoy.

That's a nice touch. An alternative could be sonic screwdrivers as well.

Is there any way to prevent the balls from bouncing out of the time expander jackpot shots? My flippers are strong, and the ball will often nail the Dalek gate, hit the back wall of the time expander, and then bounce right back out. One the gate is gone, it's even harder to get the shot to stick.

Due to years of being bashed the time expander lock backstops are bent backwards.

This makes it so that the ball is not deflected downwards when it hits the stop, or just hits straight on and bounces back.

I bent mine forwards +/- 1/8" to 1/4" to force the ball drop in the lock instead of out.

The hardest adjustment is to get the balls to not go STDM off the locks for multiball. Adjustments for this are in the manual as well as to warp the backstops so that the balls go anywhere but STDM.

I also adjusted the pitch a little higher to slow the ball a little. I think Im at 6.7 degrees?

My rule of thumb on pitch right now, for this game, is that a cradled ball from the left flipper should just make it thru the video loop to to the pops and then the tardis VUK.

It should to thru at a moderate pace and not slam the pops but kinda trickle thru.

Its an awesome shot to master.

Awesome! Can this be done without taking apart the Time Expander?

Edit: I just re-read your post, and I think we are talking about two different things. My two Pinbot style locks are working just fine. I never get any bounceouts. It's the Dalek jackpot shots that reject on my game.

Are you talking about the 3 dalek doors when the time expander is lifted?

Lots of rejects on those, its a slightly narrow fit for the ball, challenging for sure.

Sometimes you just cant hit them, sometimes they go in like butter.

But they sink the ball effectively on a clean shot.

Its fun and frustrating at the same time, a classic pinball target. Looks easy but not, lol.

Once you find the shot, they are very satisfying, especially when you can hit them off the right flipper 3 in a row!

Yes.

This is where I'm having the problem. I believe I am nailing the shot perfectly, but the velocity is causing the ball to hit the back wall and bounce right back out the way it came in.

I'm having issues with those shots too.

You guys have the pf at the correct 6.5deg slope? Just seems unlikely this could happen. Unless you have the completely wrong flipper coils installed.

I'll double check the slope. As far as the flipper coils, this is what's installed in my game. I believe they are correct ...
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In my case it is probably a faulty player. Me. I think I just need to play better. Although it does seen easier NOT to hit the three holes with the Daleks and have it bounce right back down....

Its possible that the rubber rings on the 4 mini posts are the wrong ones?

Silicone rubbers are almost always the wrong size but kinda close.

I made my rubber kit from the manual. I used the exact STC rubbers in latex.

The mini post rubbers were hard to install and fit tight.

The doors should only open one way and catch or lock.
Unless something is wrong the balls shouldnt hit the back wall and bounce out no matter how fast.

I had to rebuild my door assembly completely, the doors didnt lock, missing nyliners, springs etc.

Someone removed the rubbers on the mini posts, probably to make it easier.
The posts were nearly cut in half from ball strikes.

I basically had to rebuild it completely with available parts.

I wish I could get new door flags, mine are a bit worn.

Can we see a picture of your Time Expander in the up position to see what it looks like. Some close up pics of the 3 entry gates as well with the Dalek gates in the up positions.

Pinballgoddess is kicking my ass on it right now, Ill get to it later.

I was referring to the OP who has the issue with the balls kicking out.

Got it, thanks.

We know your machine is the king!!!!!!!!

Lol, Pinballgoddess wouldnt have it any other way...

I finally got all my parts to rebuild the MPF and it looks great! With 12 volt power it goes up and down perfectly. I have also worked on getting a Dalek Head upgraded to LEDs and moving with the Wobble head servo. Next will be actually adding the game to my house. I had a chance to play it and it worked perfectly. Even got a multi-ball to happen. It has a few cosmetic issues (as most do), but I am ready!

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looks great!

At the risk of totally jinxing myself... Calling my Doctor Who "done"!

I wrestled with the MPF a bunch more tonight. A buddy at work did a 3d print of the light baffle/shroud for the 5 opto bank on the MPF. I had never had issues before, but started getting a random credit dot for the right most opto. The piece appears to have resolved that.
When I got the MPF back in, I started getting both CW/CCW errors when it was working great... I noticed that I was getting a switch sound and realized it was the opto on the bottom of the MPF. I went ahead and added a couple of washers to shim them and that seems to be working well. MPF is back to working really well!

Here is a list of the work/parts that went into this game.
New Rottendog MPU
NVRAM
All Comet LED's: Sunlight 2SMD GI
color matching inserts
LED flashers
New star posts
Titan clear rings and red on flippers
New topper dome and decals
New mini playfield motor board
3d Printed Shroud for 5 target bank optos
Rebuilt flippers (upper also got new coil)
Various other new parts/switches/coil sleeves/etc

So far I can say I am really enjoying the gameplay on this one. Sometimes when I get deep into overhauling a game, I don't want to spend much time on it due to burn out. That doesn't seem to be the case with DW though.

This thread was immensely helpful in my work on this one. So much good information is in here. Thanks to all!

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Now it needs pinsound and a shaker!

I had to do the same when I changed out my optos and bracket assembly.

Pretty sure your post is what prompted me to do so! Thanks!

Here you go ...

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Wow, that unit has seen some harsh ball strikes

No doubt, but do you see anything out of the ordinary that would be causing my rejections?

Looks perfect! Nothing looks out of place other than the great clearcoat on the playfield and very minor chew marks in front of the time expander. Its one of the best games Ive seen.

I would invest in a full set of cliffys to slow down the deterioration of the MPF and playfield edges.

The mini-post rubbers are perfect.

I second the Cliffy set and I see nothing wrong that would cause the ball to shoot back out.

Heck yeah, a TE Cliffy is a must. Probably the best use of a Cliffy ever.

Here's an awesome new product I came up with, and by someone's request, I made one for Doctor Who!

There are plain old original stock coin reject buttons ... then there are aftermarket coin reject buttons with flat 2-D patterns -- I'm taking it to the next dimension with these new 3-D Coin Reject Buttons!

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These eye-catching buttons literally pop out at you! They're 3D-printed with multiple filaments, including a translucent red which allows the coin insert light to glow through. For Doctor Who, they feature the blue TARDIS -- with open windows to let the light out -- protruding from the face of the button.

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Available on my website (https://rocketcitypinball.com) or in my shop here on Pinside (https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1282-rocket-city-pinball/04799-3d-coin-reject-buttons-doctor-who). (My daughter gets a commission too; these 3D buttons were her idea!)

Can't wait to receive them and post pictures!!

Ken

Forgot to post pics of when it was done and back in the lineup...

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One little issue that I thought I had solved popped back up on my DW. Occasionally getting a ball fed to the shooter lane immediately after launching the ball that was there. This was happening every game.

I have checked/adjusted all the shooter lane and trough switches by hand and with a ball. I have been through the switch tests. My repair targets were not responding. I found one diode that was making intermittent contact shorting. I adjusted that and thought it also solved my ball feed issue. 10 or so games passed with no feed issues, then it happened one more time then 5 or so with no issues.

The ball in the shooter lane will sit there and not autolaunch if that is relevant.

Anybody have any other ideas on what else to check? Thanks!

It is possible that the switch is not closing fast enough to recognize a ball has been ejected or the outlane switch is not closing fast enough and calling for another ball. Make sure the switch rods are not hitting any part of the PF on the way down or up