well my brand new to me JD ate shit after about 10 games the planet stopped spinning , but the motor works fine ..

So I took it out and after realizing how much money a repaired unit was, I decided to take the thing apart and fix it myself

here is what I found , looks to me like one of the gears (the one on the bottom near the shaft lost its footing and is spinning on the shaft , so How will I “stick it to that shaft’? hammer and a pin I guess or a braze?

http://s122.photobucket.com/albums/o248/onesurf/?action=view&current=DSCF0231.mp4

_{Post edited by Dawson : typo}

I talked to Steve at the Pinball Resource yesterday , he told me it could be anything and I should send it in for $200 plus core...!

So today I decided to split the case... It was easy , and with the tools in my gals house this is what I did , I wrenched it and it seems solid ..

Me =super stoked not to have spend 200 buck in hard earned cash..

How is it fastened to the shaft to begin with? Drill a hole and pin could work....did you take the gears out yet?

I believe its a pressed fit that don’t hold for shit.

stoveweld.jpg weld.jpg back_togeather.jpg 3.gif

I feel the problem with the gearbox issue was the two welds used to hold the main drive gear to the inner shaft ....

those welds seem to bind on the secondary gear I had to file mine down a little bit to make things less pron to wedge up

TJ
thanks , I get by with a lot of those kind of moves , it comes from being broke

well shit .... I have the Ol JD back together and the motor seems to be running just fine ... shes a little loud but you cant hear it with the glass on ...

O great , now what .. JD is phantom tilting SHIT ... it seems to happen when the ball strikes the drop targets .. it happens about every other game now , WTF is with this game , I ordered the ball trough through pinbits ... and those people are awesome , they gave me the ball trough for free .. they said it would be cheaper to give me the the part rather than having to get charge the CC fee ..

could that be the problem? the magnetic balls ? ....

I did notice the wire colors that go into the target bank are the same ones that go to the tilt mech>..

anyone want to trade for a fish tales

TJ

well the gear that I Mcguyvered took a crap , so I removed the SOB again , took it down to a local blacksmith and he re-braised the thing with a more solid braise , It looked really good ... I cleaned all the gearing and re-lubed and assembled the unit ...

she ran nice all quiet and smooth and I loaded some balls in the planet to get the crane in working order , which it was working great , for a second ... and snap , the gear is again not connected to the shaft .... SOB..

350r claims this is an easy fix ? not in my shop I guess , the guy that braised it is a world class blacksmith too .... who knows? what I do know I do not want to spend 200 bucks on a game that still has a phantom tile .... O pinball gods give me a handle on this !@Q@#&$^).. Iguess I will call
Steve at the pinball resource to see if I can get that gear in prime shape as my wire are getting short..

I re seated the 2nd gear and took out the slight wobble , which was awesome
and there is the new weld job

TJ

2gears.jpg gearweld.jpg

Steve will not sell that gear or any other parts to the gearbox

the blacksmith was out of town yesterday so here is what I came up with I drilled holes for some spring pins and drove them home with a punch

working good , its runs fine just not super smooth

tj pinbear.jpg pingear2.jpg

that repair , the one where I drilled the holes and pushed in spring pins is working great... all the welds that were attempted did not work

the gearbox is running and it that smoothed out , seems perfect , knocking on wood.

TJ

be precise . use a new drill bit and a drill press ... take your time ... also make sure the drill bit and spring pins match , dont force the spring pins or you will bend the soft brass gears ..

call me a ass if you feel this is the wrong way to do this , ... im not trying to give anyfalse info here,.

tj

Good call criss ---cut the wires ---- I de soldered them then had lighting issues because I forgot to take a picture showing where the wires went!!

Problem I have is brass is one metal and the shaft is another , brazing I believe is a short term fix , I had a pro brazers weld fail...

If you do the pins just be sure to Match your pins with your drill bit , you can get spring pins at any good ace hardware and the matching drill bit should be posted on the springpin bin..

Hope that makes since , I don't have the JD any more but it ran smoother and quieter than any I had ever heard..

I also pumped the gearbox up with white litho grease

Hope this helps too

Hauling mishap , ?

Transportation can kick the crap out of a pinball machine , it seems , at least in my experience ( which I have a not a lot of ) Dmd connections , maybe because of the high voltage ? Take your time removing the planet and it will work out ..

I actually pumped the gearbox with graphite grease , not white litho grease..

I remember that my gearbox ran smoother and quieter than original , I did put a bunch of grease in there...

Good luck

Chris post some pics of your operation

Thanks

Tj

Ha I tough I came up with the roll pin idea... Just when you think your smart , there's always someone who has been there, and done that