This is my first EM and my first pinball
Starting this thread to organize my thoughts and process as I go.

Got this game two weeks ago.

According to the seller it was purchased NIB by his company as part of a bulk liquidation by the distributor in 1978 or 79. The bulk lot contained ten Neptunes. This one was on his company's route for 4-5 years (so 1978-82/83) then warehoused until 1993. It was sold in 1993 to a home environment where it remained until the family sold it back three weeks ago. Now it's in my home, I am the third owner

My Neptune is structurally sound and clean overall. Plays sharp and crisp too, but does need a few things (from a collector's pov). First and foremost a good playfield clean and wax. By all appearances there has been only moderate play use and no maintenance or upkeep since 1993.

DSC03243.JPG

In addition to cleaning, waxing, new rubbers all around, need to deal with:

1. black jack light is out (needs to be re-soldered underneath)
2. "spots black when lit" light is dim/flickering (bulb socket loose underneath, hand-tightened ? but have not re-tested in play yet)
3. jacks star rollover does not score (but does light when jacks rollovers are 'completed')
4. center bumper skirt is chipped (needs to be replaced)
5. all bumper mylars old/dirty (need to be replaced)
6. Q and K standup targets worn, bad sharpie 'fixes' wearing off (need to be replaced)
7. cracked rollover guide (A9396) between red Q and K
8. fifth WOW on backbox not lighting
9. upgrade all bulbs from #44 to #47
10. three mylar spots at two kickout hole wear points and rebound rubber 'stop'

That should keep me busy for a bit! Questions to follow (you have been warned)...

Thanks cd1954, I already am!

I've removed all the easy stuff from the playfield, to get at the rubbers and facilitate a good clean and wax. My thought was that I could simply (whoops!) do several fixes/replacements along with clean/wax at the same time. So all the bulbs, the single pop bumper skirt and three mylars. Only the cracked rollover guide replacement is...simple lol.

So this morning I've figured out that:

1. I don't know how to get to the bumper skirt and mylars (it's not just the two screws visible under the bumper cap!), do I need to unscrew/nut underneath the playfield too?

2. Am worried about being to sausage-fingered with the bulbs. Don't want to just yank on them (to remove and then replace) but they play with several, they all seem sort of "in there tight". What to do? Will the sockets withstand a bit of manhandling? Don't need to break any more solder either (as I don't have a gun yet, and have never used one anyway...so that will be a small learning curve thing).

Ah. So I won't start this until I have a soldering gun and skill to use. Not thrilled about dissembling 'otherwise working just fine' pop bumpers (or rather getting them back together correctly). Definitely not a newbie task. Now I know why this wasn't done previously.

Trust me - I know

Long day. And now I hate pinball enough to know it's time to step away for a day or two.

Here's what I learned:

1. A "rubber kit" will not include the tiny rubber that goes on top of every post, your first time you'll only find that out after you've stripped everything off and then realize - they didn't give me enough rubbers! Is this my rookie mistake or theirs? I don't know, I'll just add a bunch to my next PBR, but it stunk to repopulate the pf with some old rubber.
2. "Spots black when lit" light is dim/flickering (now resolved, hand-tightening did it).
3. Bulbs are a pain but I'm getting there. Only started with one box of ten, so I'll be back to do the rest. Have to tear down the pf again anyway for #1, so I guess I'm okay with this (but not really).
4. Sadly, as we all know, anytime you go in there to "mess around" something else can/will go unexpectedly. So now I have to add more non-functioning lights. This is startup for new game, ball in shooter:

DSC03248.JPG

So the bummer is all the 'cards' should be lit. Too bad both top sets of three (up top) are not, and the red Ace (bottom left) also not. Maybe that's just because it's on the same circuit as red Ace up top...maybe not. This is a loss, as these all worked before today. No idea how pulling all the plastics and posts, cleaning and waxing the pf, and replacing most rubbers would do this...but there we go. Another mystery is the fifth WOW in the backbox is now lighting. It was not before today. That's not a win, that's a huh?? since I was not working on it.

Another head-scratcher is new game has a red special lamp lit (under red King at top in the picture). I don't remember that occurring immediately at new game before. Pretty sure it only came on when you earned it during the game. Anybody can to comment on that?

Yes even a fifth for up top near shooter lane exit. I miswrote - meant the post rubbers for the lane guides. So the next size up. There are a few hidden posts underneath the plastics that also have single (not shared) rubbers. Not a big thing, just wish I'd known when I ordered, would have added them. Like I first wrote, lousy putting it all back together (after cleaning/waxing) with some bad rubbers under there. And knowing I'd need to rip it all apart again to get to them in a week or so.

Started and played through several more games to gather data and see what varieties of mess I'm in. Game is definitely bust in the sense that it's starting with WOW (aka SPECIAL) lit on playfield. And it's variable, different WOW lamps lit when new games are started. And they score WOW too (so free ball). I am not happy about this. In addition to losing six feature lights. That's what I get for cleaning/waxing. Bah.

My updated to-do list:

1. black jack light is out (needs to be re-soldered underneath)
2. jacks star rollover does not score (but does light when jacks rollovers are 'completed')
3. center bumper skirt is chipped (needs to be replaced)
4. all bumper mylars old/dirty (need to be replaced)
5. Q and K standup targets worn, bad sharpie 'fixes' wearing off (need to be replaced)
6. cracked rollover guide (A9396) between red Q and K
7. fifth WOW on backbox not lighting (lighting now, but not sure if/how related to #10 below)
8. upgrade all bulbs from #44 to #47 (ten done, many more to go!)
9. three mylar spots at two kickout hole wear points and rebound rubber 'stop'
10. WOW 'on' at start of game
11. red 9-10-J lamps not starting 'on'
12. red Q-K-A lamps not starting 'on'

I should have written 'not easily visible', they are ball reachable.

I'm definitely burnt out right now, but I'll need to pull the plastics off again to see what's what. Too bad PBR doesn't include this with their ring sets:
$_57[1].JPG
Anyway, I my invoice does show quatity 13 of 5/16". And that picture above from eBay (assuming it's kosher) says I should have gotten rings for the posts under the lane guides (marked "B"). So...we'll see. The real issue is I ran out of parts before the job was done, usually it's the other way around

Going back to my EM Toolbox thread - for the newbies today proved to myself these are absolutely unnecessary:

REM Rubber Light Bulb Remover $3.00
GTB-26181+ Palnut Removal Tool $4.00

Couldn't say until I pull the plastics back off. Tomorrow. I hate pinball right now