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I like the way they play too. i bet some people do it purely from a cost saving perspective. linear flipper rebuilds are like twice as expensive as other types of flipper mechs.

toby your EBDlx is really nice! Unique and beautiful! Well done.

Thank you it was definitely a labor of love

Looks like I'm joining the club this week, picking up a nice original. This'll be my first of this era Bally, does the head come off pretty easily?

The head can come off.
1) remove ground strap: Philips screwdriver
2) remove wiring from the connectors: follow the center harnesses.
3) remove one of the backbox's female hinges while the backbox is down
--- over the bottom cabinet.
4) carefully slide the backbox off the other side hinge.
5) tada!

There definitely is a difference. Some people don't really care and I can understand that but I do because part of the thrill for me with the pinball hobby is re-living my youth when we would dump every quarter we had into these pins. I want the machine to play just like it did back in the 80s. The 1st thing I do with games like EBD is to totally rebuild the flipper mechs. Not half-assed. Replace everything with maybe only the coil being the exception. Every other part is replaced with new. Then you don't ever have to mess with them again.

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Another thing I always have on all my early SS titles are the coin mechs fully-functional as well as the knockers and free balls/games just like they were on location. None of my pins are set to free play. You have to "feed" them just like we did in 1981.

It's part of the excitement. Grab a few quarters and see how long you can go before the money runs out.

If you come to my house you better bring some quarters! lol

For earlier SS pins that didn't use the linear flippers I always keep them original too. That's the way they are supposed to be. There is a subtle (but noticeable) difference between the two styles.

Yeah the linears cost more to rebuild. That's why some people tend to cut corners and then whine when they still have some problems. After 40 years on location and sitting in storage they almost always need to have just about everything replaced. Then they are good forever in a non-commercial setting.

You can still make a nice EBD without linear flippers and incandescent lamps but I'm a purist... especially when it comes to Eight Ball Deluxe which is like the "Holy Grail" of pins for me.

I do have some that have the playfields clear-coated though and that tends to change gameplay too. I guess I'm not a total purist after all. lol

Cool, good to know. First time moving a pin with this particular vehicle and it might be a bit tight so I wanted to know what my options were. I have another Bally a few years older but the head doesn't fold.

Need some help here on an EBDLE. I have a guy who is missing the plugs and wires from the rectifier at J3 and J4. I know by schematics what goes there and where it goes to on EBD and the classic versions. The LE version terminates differently and I need to know type and size of plugs, etc. Any info and pics would be great. Thanks!

I always thought they were all the same as far as the rectifier board goes.

True, but there are also lines to the sound card, one each to the MPU and light board and the GI wires. From the few pictures I could find it looks as though they are all plug to plug.

I must not understand your question then? They all use the same Molex connectors to the rectifier board. I think the wires are all the same color too.

You can get new connectors from Big Daddy. I have them all as well as the insert removal tools and crimper.

The connections at the rectifier is not the problem, its the other ends. The LE has a florescent instead of GI bulbs and the board arrangement is different. I have all the materials to make up the harness I am just not sure what the other ends should look like. On the original and classic versions, most of the wires go to A3J3, 3 go to A5J4, 2 to A8J1, 1 to A4J4 and several wires to the GI and controlled lamps. I make and sell entire Bally lower cab harnesses but I have never seen the inside of an LE cab.

Fit just fine. Did any of these have factory Mylar?

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The Thumper bumpers have mylars installed, from day one factory,
and the game came with two sling shot half circular mylars and
one playfield mylar that you had the option of installing or not.

I have enough fun putting one(or two) in my Grand Caravan!

A lot of the owners chose to install the factory-supplied Mylar. It was up to the buyer.

I remember back in 1981 a lot of the machines I used to play on location had the Mylar although every now and then we'd come across one that didn't. I've had several EBDs over the years and some have it and others don't. Those without the Mylar tend to be worn to bare wood in several areas.

Has anyone ordered a plastics set recently from Shay's for an EBD?

I ordered a backglass & plastics set & paid for them both last December.

Received the BG O.K. a couple months ago, but no sign of the plastics set.

I think I saw Bay Area Amusements has a plastics set in stock so am thinking of cancelling my PayPal order to Shay's.

Should I give Shay's more time?

Send him an email reminding him of your order

Thx -- will do, that's my next step.

Hey Humphrey you going to start working on that EDB soon?

Gettin' stuff together, gotta build a rotisserie next

I am now 2 months into being able to join this club myself. Just finished reading all 24 pages of this thread. This is now my 2nd machine ever owned, the first being Firepower which I picked up 3 years ago. I also thought I could restore Firepower and took it apart 1 month into owning it. It still is in pieces, if that tells you anything.

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Anyways, EBD! Picked it up from the dad of one of my son's friends for $625, as his main concern was that it went to a loving home. So I'm gonna do my best to give it some love. He had owned it for 15 years, would turn it on and play very infrequently, did absolutely no maintenance in those years.

Known factor when purchased, the sound wasn't working, which was a surprise to him. Currently have someone who knows a thing or two bringing a known to be working Squawk and Talk board over to further diagnose, but his initial assessment after checking out things is that it's the chips that have gone bad with "bit rot". Find out hopefully this Saturday if that is indeed the case. I had tried unplugging and plugging back in all the connectors to everything before that diagnosis, only to have the MPU suddenly not light up anymore. The guy checked voltage on every board, was satisfied, gave a connector on the Solenoid board a good jiggle and back came the MPU. So I guess at some point I'll need to get the connectors switched out? Oh, and my knocker coil is fried.

I've provided a bunch of pics since I know how much people like looking at 'em.

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As you can see, the cab has some deep scratches, the head is banged up with paint planking on the right side.

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No, the coin door isn't dented, that's just light bouncing. It has a credit button on the right coin window, so that makes it easy for free play.

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Only the left coin drop seems to register.

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Playfield has mylar over the entire thing, but it seems to be cracking as you can see.

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It's almost like clear coat flaking, especially on top of the inserts, but I know it's not. The bummer is that paint has scratched off on the inserts. There's also a rather deep scratch in the mylar at the top inlanes.

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Backglass is near perfect, no flaking. Sure isn't what the back of my Firepower's looks like!

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Inside the head, you can see I've still got the battery on the board.

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Yes, I know to remove it. I bought a 4 bank AA holder, I'll see if the guy can install it on Saturday as I know zip about soldering. Plus, from what I've read, I need a diode of some sort in one of the AA slots?

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Also included pic of the underside of playfield in case anyone is really gung ho about looking. I don't know what they might be looking for, but there you go!

I'm missing the right flipper lane clear plastic, and the two clears surrounding the multiplier targets are broken at their tips.

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All my clears are yellowed (I scanned 'em in b&w, top 2 are the broken ones). I have a buddy with a laser CNC machine, I'm hoping to have him cut me some new ones. Anyone have a 1 scan of theirs? I'll also need to find some metal standoff bells, but Marco Supplies is out of stock. I'll check with PBR soon. All else fails I'll remove the old ones from their plastics and attach to new, but I'm still 2 short with the missing right flipper guides. And yes, I want to eliminate that ball hop.

My plans are not to do a restoration. I don't have those skills, and I don't have the money to pay someone. I can do the cosmetic stuff, so I'll eventually buy new pop caps, replace all the drop targets as they are currently a mishmash from other tables, things of that nature. Here's my questions; were red flipper rubber the norm for 1981 edition, or yellow? Once I Naptha the crap out of the playfield, do I just wax it, or will wax not work on mylar (I honestly don't know)? How sensitive should the slingshots be, as mine currently need a solid hit to activate? Lastly, what kind of inexpensive fixes would you guys do first?

Enjoying the hell out of this machine so far (even without the sound), especially since this wasn't even on my radar as something I wanted. Also it's really making me want to get Firepower up and running, which mainly involves me losing my fear of clear coating (again, something I've never done).

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I'd suggest replacing all of the capacitors on the squawk & Talk. That will probably fix your no sound issue.

The machine is much better with the sound.

That's why the repair guy (who knows what the hell he's doing as opposed to me!) is going to bring a working Squawk and Talk with him. He didn't seem to think the capacitors were the problem on first look but the sound chips, but this way we'll know for sure. Since this is all out of my skill base anyways, I'm kinda at the mercy of the repair dude. I'm just gonna try and soak up what I can by watching.

That is one of the playfield swaps I did back in the 1980's.
I'm glad that the flipper mechs have held up after all
of this years.

Let us know what the repair guy finds

The Eight Ball Deluxe which I took over from somebody who gave it up to fix it is driving me crazy. It seems that everything is mixed up, the sounds and the actions, I replaced the CPU board but that did not help. For example if I touch the middle bumper, the 8 ball drop target moves. See what happens in the video I made:

Is there someone who can tell me which direction I have to look at or should I post a new topic about this?

Check MPU connector J4 and solenoid driver connector J4. There are 4 wires that carry the solenoid data from the MPU to the SDB. If even one is bad weird solenoid behavior, like in your video, will occur.

MPU pins 1-4 map to SDU pins 3-6, respectively. Verify continuity all the way through from the BACKSIDE of the MPU connector to the BACKSIDE of the SDB connector.

And the answer was...a capacitor.

Everything was giving strong voltage and there seemed to be no indication the capacitor was at fault. Weirdness was that the sound would work when Nick (repair guy) had the board grounded, but once he removed his ground lead and restarted the machine, sound would go out again. If I recall, it was losing it's charge? Anyways, after checking every point of contact he could think of, he changed the capacitor right near the CPU in an "it can't have been that easy could it?" maneuver. Bingo bango.

It my head I heard a collective "told you so" from every other post I read about this sound board and changing the capacitors. In the process though, Nick also changed out another capacitor and resistor that he said were on their way out, and he installed a 3 bank AA battery holder and got rid of the corrosion spewing factory battery.

Only other issues I have now are a blown coil (AR-26-1200) and a bank of lights that won't work, all tied to a certain IC chip labeled MC14514CP that Nick didn't have a replacement for. Found it on Marco Supplies, so I guess I'll be ordering that. Haven't located the coil yet.

I just received an EBD plastics set from Bay Area Amusements, but don't know where this particular clear plastic goes.
It's pictured on Bay Area's website, but I can't find a home for it on the playfield.

There is another plastic I received in the set not pictured on Bay Area's website, but is the clear plastic left of the eight ball drop target.

Thanks in advance.

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Do you have the one that goes to the right of the eight ball target ?

Yes, I do have that (much longer) piece.

Oh okay that picture made it seem bigger. Not sure then. Haven't shopped one in like 2 years and the one to the right of the drop target is all I can remember. It has to be up somewhere around the 8 ball target or the inlines. I would think if it's used at all it will be pretty obvious when you're putting the game back together.

Thanks Chuck, I'll check again.
I haven't torn down anything on the playfield as yet (original plastics still in place), but was able to match everything up for the new set except for that one piece.

There are a couple mistakes with the clear plastics for Eight Ball Deluxe that have been perpetuated over the years even in the reproduction sets. The piece you have shown is an extra clear plastic piece that is incorrect and not used. The holes in the lower bottom lane guides are also usually incorrect.

This has been discussed many times before in other threads.

Just throw the incorrect piece away. You don't need it and no one knows why it was ever included.

Eventually someone will make a reproduction set that doesn't have the extra incorrect piece. Apparently the original replacement plastics sets from Bally had this error and no one who has ever made the reproductions has ever known enough about the game to delete it or spot the lower lane guide holes in the correct location. They just continue to copy them and perpetuate the errors. At least it's an extra piece and not one you need to remake.

Here's a picture of a CPR Eight Ball Deluxe plastics set. Just like every one of these ever made it has the two errors. The extra piece you have plus the lower clear lane guides have the holes in the wrong location.

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That explains it !!
Thanks for your patience and explanation.
I was beginning to think I needed a new eyeglass prescription.

I posted this in the Allentown Pinfest thread yesterday but will post it here too. I have a framed NOS 1981 Bally Eight Ball Deluxe Backglass for $400 I can bring to the show. I purchased this years ago. The guy I bought it from said his father had it professionally-framed when it was new in the early 1980's. I have never had it out of the frame or even looked at the backside but it appears to be good from the front. The frame alone is probably worth $100.

Although this could be removed from the frame and used in a machine, it would kind of be a shame. It makes an awesome wall decoration for a game room or mancave.

Sold as-is. I will not remove it from the frame or separate.

I bought this along with a framed NOS Bally Playboy backglass probably ten years ago in the exact same type of frame and ended-up using the Playboy. It has been stored indoors in a climate-controlled environment for the entire time I have owned it.

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Inline 2X,3X,4X,5X, right side next to the top left pop bumper.

I just the other day pulled all my clear plastics, scanned them, and am having a friend CNC me some new ones out of Lexan. I also made tracings, which you can see here (they're backwards, fyi). The one piece I never seem to see in those repro packs is the left side 8 ball lane guide, pictured here with the funky shape. The other piece is the left side multiplier guide which has a broken tip.

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Here's the other tracing I did. I only have the left side flipper guide, and the right side multiplier tip is broken.

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Hopefully the new ones being made work out. I don't need the printed plastic pieces, so this seemed like a good option. Of course the next trick is getting the standoff bells off the old pieces and onto the new. I saw video of one being attached using a soldering iron, but haven't seen one about getting them off. How do people remove them from metal lane guides?

Here's the scans of the actual pieces, just in black and white. In real life they are yellowed.
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I think this is like the third or fourth time I've posted this but it comes up often so I'm glad I saved the pics. I think it's even posted earlier in this thread.

The soldering iron technique works but I prefer this method because it is faster and easier. All it takes is one or two seconds with a lighter. If you heat the post longer than that the plastic will start to melt. Not the end of the world but makes the job messier. Just a quick wave of the flame to heat the metal post is all you need and it will pull right out of the plastic.

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Now the post is ready to be inserted in the new plastic piece. You can re-crimp the post if you like or just leave it as-is (which is what I usually do). Once everything it screwed-down it's good to go.

This method works like a charm. Just takes a bit of practice straightening the flange.

It sure did. Took all of a few minutes to remove 8 bells. Only one needed the flange straightened, I can't say I did a good job on it

Okay, need some help. Replaced very cooked knocker coil with new one, but it still doesn't trigger. What should I look at as the culprit?

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The more detailed the troubleshooting advice, the better! I'm new to all this.

I'll post this too for the fun of it. My old caps with new ones from PBR. I like how these are starred, and how the image is textured as opposed to perfectly flat on the old.

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See 3i of Clay's old Bally SS repair guide...
http://techniek.flipperwinkel.nl/ballyss/rep/index1.htm