I'd like to learn how to restore and repair EMs. I've already been advised to stay away from 4 player games because of the complexity they present. I don't have any experience working with pinball machines, and very limited experience working with electrical and mechanical things in general. However, I'm a fast learner, and I don't mind extended projects. Any advice on years / mfgs / games in general? I've been offered a Honey, and there are some other project EMs for sale in my area. Not sure how to pick.

Thanks, smailskid.

Since the Williams Honey I've been offered for dirt cheap (missing backglass though) is a 4-player, I'm trying to decide if the added complexity of a 4-palyer is something I should avoid for my first repair. Or should I just go for the trial by fire method?

There's a Williams Solids N Stripes (71) on CL for $350, post says it needs a new transformer. I've read that transformers are rarely the actual problem (???), but I haven't looked at this one yet.

The person selling Honey has other games that he would let me look at, but I didn't ask which titles because I was going for the Honey. Maybe not now.

And again, another guy I've talked to said he had 4-5 project games he'd sell, but he went on about how the titles were good so he'd want $400 - $500 for non-working EMs.

I know that isn't very informative, I was posting here to help me decide what was worth my time to look at and what wasn't. However, I'll get some more specifics and follow up.

Well, against some of the advice offered here, I picked up the Williams Honey for $50, missing backglass, missing back panel, left flipper disassembled, no key for the coin door, no fuses installed. I'm following pinball repair's steps - haven't even turned it on yet. Cleaning the steppers and the score reels. I'll get to the flipper repair once I've finished the preliminary cleaning. I've got the replacement fuses... a little concerned that the fuses were missing because they were blown (found an open / blown fuse in the cab).

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Thanks, mot. I looked at those videos - I wasn't sure how similar my machine would be to the one in "This Old Pinball" (can't remember the title now). Might not make that much difference anyway.

I bought a 3 amp breaker (not the 5 amp Clay suggests) and I have a dead fuse. Still practicing my soldering to get those two pieces to stick together. Hopefully, I won't need it

Thanks for the optimism -

I still haven't powered it on (16 dirty score reels + rookie = a long time cleaning). I don't want spend hours chasing down one loose connection, so I've been heeding your advice and checking all the connections as I go. I've already found 4 loose / disconnected wires that I've had to (ineptly) re-solder. I'll post pics below.

I've been talking to my brother who has also been restoring his EM (800 miles away) and he said I am getting off too easy - my $50 machine isn't as dirty as the one he paid more for.

I went over Clay's advice on pinrepair a few times, so I'm getting the message loud and clear about not putting cleaner / WD40, etc. on the parts (or anywhere in the machine). I like the saying Clay continues to hammer in: "Why would you try to solve mechanical problems with chemicals?" Makes sense in this context.

Thanks for the encouragement - pics to follow.

So far, I've done the following to my 1972 Williams Honey (still haven't powered it on):
1. Checked the fuses (easy enough - they were all missing), bought required fuses and back-ups.
2. Cleaned out the loose parts from the bottom of the cabinet and saved everything that looked remotely useful.
3. Bought 8 bolts (3/8" 16 2 1/2") for the legs, installed (it didn't come with these bolts, but the seller gave me two sets of legs - nice of him).
4. Bought 4 bolts / washers (3/8" 16 4 1/2") to reattach the backbox (didn't come with these either).
5. Checked the coin door mech. Looks good so far, except someone has fiddled with the wiring a little - we'll see how that turns out.

I decided to start working on the backbox steppers / score reels first because I can see what is going on and access the parts better.

6. Match Unit Stepper. Cleaned connections, "fingers", checked wires, checked movement. It was moving pretty sluggish at first, but cleaning the stepper and putting the PTFE lube on it seemed to make it run smoothly. Figuring out how to move the rod in the coil took a minute - got it down now. Also, you may be wondering why I cleaned *all* of the bakelite connectors (even ones that aren't connected to anything). Well, I went through all that work to take the contact fingers off, why would I leave dirt on it? Honestly, I just liked the way it looked when the whole thing was shiny - even if it did take a few more minutes per stepper.

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7. Score reels. I started out by just wiping off the plastic number displays - I wasn't sure if I needed to tear the whole unit down if the action seemed smooth. However, when I was forced to tear one down (when I got to the Player 1 reel, it was so gummed up I had take it apart to get it to work - I was hesitant to disassemble the first one because I thought I was going to break it), it all turned out ok. So far, I've completely disassembled and cleaned 8 reels - it's almost not exciting anymore (Note that in the pics, the reels are in various stages of dis / reassembly - I didn't forget to reattach all the springs, etc.).

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8. Player Count step unit. This one was a breeze, but I'm glad I could get a feel for the "snowshoe" style contacts / fingers that were described in the pinrepair guide. The stepper was a little slow, but it completed all its functions with manual contraction / reset. I still cleaned it, just for the experience. I guess I forgot to take a pic of this stepper all reassembled - but it is and it runs smoothly now. I made sure the contacts were lining up with the rivets - I had to nudge the bakelite board a little to get them centered.

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I also had several wires come loose when I was cleaning the score reels. Oddly, it was the same wire on the same blade for various reels. Also, I don't really know how to solder, and I have a cheap soldering iron. It went something like this. Using a 25 watt / 900F iron (that drops temp real fast upon contact with other metals), and using 60 tin / 40 lead 2.2% flux 0.040 solder, I applied some flux to the blade and to the old solder. I heated the older solder and shook it off / scraped it off the best I could (I don't have a de-soldering pump thing yet). I reapplied a little flux to the wires, held the wires to the blade, put the iron on the blade / bare wire ends until they were hot enough to melt the new solder, applied new solder slowly (but quickly because my fingers were burning and the iron was dropping temp) to the blade and wires (I tried not to touch the solder to the iron directly). I let it sit for few minutes and tugged on the wire - hopefully I didn't get a cold joint, but that wire isn't going anywhere now.

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I followed Clay's advice on pinrepair. I used 91% alcohol for an initial wipe of the major crud, then I used 400 grit wet / dry sandpaper to get the stubborn stuff off, then I wiped the surfaces and nylon parts off with more 91% alcohol. I applied a light coating of the PTFE grease / gel ("Super Lube") to the areas where the contacts met the board, then I reassembled.

Since I'll be wrapping up the backbox pretty soon, and since my machine didn't come with a back panel, I'm thinking I'll need to construct one myself (don't want anymore dust getting in there after I've cleaned it!).

I'm thinking of getting a piece of MDF, cutting to size, and adding a simple latch / non-locking lock type mechanism. Any suggestions on how to replace a back panel?

Thanks poppapin, I'll check that out.

Finished cleaning the steppers and reels, checking wires, and scrubbing connectors. Put the head on and fired it up.

I turned on the toggle and then hit the left flipper - playfield lights came on, motor turned, but nothing else happened. No lights on in the backbox.

Turned it off, pulled the backbox connectors and reinserted to make sure they were seated. I manually reset the score reels to all 0's, then turned it back on. Nothing but PF lights and motor turning again.

Tried adding a credit by the coin door switch, 0.25 relay fired, but no credit added. Went to the backbox and flipped the credit switches manually, hit Start and a bunch of stuff happened. I triggered the pop-bumpers, drop targets, slingshots, all on Player 1.

The scores reels were going a little crazy, several player reels turned at once. A loud buzzing started and started to smell like hot electricity (kinda like burning).

Turned the machine off, unplugged main, checked relays, manually moved and reset steppers, clicked through score reels and checked connections.

Plugged back in, turned on switch, hit left flipper, added a credit on the credit reel, hit Start 4x. A bunch of clicking and whirring. Hit PF targets, scoring seemed better and accurate, tripped End of Ball / drain switch (to move to the next Player), hit targets, repeated for all 4 Players.

I tried to go through all 5 balls per player (by manually switching the drain switch), but the game never stopped.

Turned off, back on, hit L flipper, hit Start, all the score reels and steppers reset (yay).

Still, only one light on in the backbox, have to manually add credits in backbox, one of the rollovers causes a very loud whirring and hot electric smell until disengaged by hitting another rollover (down post), the "B" drop target sticks.

I'm glad it seems to work a little better now, but the weird thing is I have no idea what I did that made it run better.

Still need new bulbs, left flipper parts, and I need to figure out what that buzzing / burning switch is doing. And I need some pinballs too, of course. Ordering soon.