Quoted from SilverballSleuth:So - I’ve got a Data East Hook that survived some sort of major water incident - it was in a flood of some sort.
The volume control was rusted shut...it’s the long metal knob one on the right side next to the service outlet.
It’s no longer rusted shut - I used WD-40. I know - it was probably stupid.
I also got a little warm zap when my finger accidentally went under the metal box - it wasn’t crazy or anything. The game was off but plugged in - now unplugged.
How bad did I mess up? Do I need to tear this area to clean it? The WD-40 doesn’t seem to have gotten on the service outlet or it’s components, but maybe on the volume knob wiring. How do I do it safely?
Thanks.
If you sprayed wd40 into the volume pot its probably shot now if it wasnt already from the rust. You can take it apart (if possible) and try and clean it up. WD40 turns sticky and gunky and will foul up the volume pot. I don't think there is anything in pinball WD40 is good for. Maybe stuck leg levelers....
Did you experience a static discharge or did you get a tingle from current flowing? All exposed metal is typically earth grounded in pinball. ESD discharge assuming the game was plugged in and you touched exposed metal probably just discharged to ground and not hurt anything. Capacitors can hold a charge after the game is off and can give you a tickle if you touch the right thing. Should not damage anything.
A static discharge into the circuit board can be a bit more serious but hard to predict. After ESD event can have latent failure (works now, dies later), immediate failure, or works fine forever are possible scenarios. This winter I was sitting at the bench, stood up and walked over to a test fixture. Touched the MPU test button and drew an ESD arc. CPU locked up. Powered down and reboot and all was fine. Now that board was suspect so I put it into one of my own games and it has been fine since. So hard to predict.
Clean or replace the volume pot and see where you are.
Lancaster, PA
