Yikes, sounds fun. I’ll try to find a local tech to take a look at it.

I’ll start with checking the solenoid in the coil test menu. Thanks for your help (and Chosen_S). I’ll report back when I have time to look at it.

I’d really encourage you to try this yourself. It’s literally a five minute job and will be very rewarding if you fix it and give you confidence to explore further repairs.
Under the playfield there are two small rectangular pcb’s with a white (or maybe yellow) plastic relay box on them. Not sure which one controls green but it’s be worth doing them both.
Unplug the connector, remove the pcb from the standoffs reflow a little solder at the base of the pins and hopefully you’ll be seeing green again.

You can see both yellow boxes of the relays on the left here, and the white irregular shaped one on right controls the motor:
pasted_image (resized).png

The bottom of them frequently looks like this:
pasted_image (resized).png

If you look closely you can see the solder is cracked around a few of the pins:
pasted_image (resized).png

Reflow the solder with a soldering iron and it's fixed.

Agree that it is easy if you have the correct equipment. Be careful with board work. It is recommended to use a temperature controlled soldering station rather than a fixed power soldering iron.

There are repair technicians local to you (Thurston County or south Pierce County). It's not really a buy/sell but you can post asking for help in the PNW buyer/seller thread. I would offer to help you but the last time I drove down to Olympia it was 1.5 hours due to I-5 construction in Tacoma and near JBLM. It raises my blood pressure and for a 5 minute job ... that's too much.

I appreciate all the help and input from you guys! I am comfortable making some adjustments and mods but I am horrified of doing soldering and board work. I understand that it’s a 5 minute job for those who know what they’re doing and I may post on the PNW page. If you are traveling through the area soon, please let me know. I’ll make it worth your while (a couple of nice 6 packs and gas money?). Traffic has improved through JBLM with the I-5 improvements, but it is still crazy at times.

On another note, I need to LED this machine badly. It is so dark especially after seeing what these can be with LEDs. Any recommendations? I see the two bulb options for full Cointaker kits.

Hi everyone, I have broken weld / solder joint on the wire rail guide that feeds the diverter wheel. I tried to solder with my electric soldering iron. But I don't think it had enough wattage to heat the rail to solder? Is it soldered or welded? Maybe a more powerful soldering iron would do the job?

IMG_20210913_221816043 (resized).jpg

IMG_20210917_131626771 (resized).jpg

IMG_20210917_131657122 (resized).jpg

You can’t solder that mate it’s plated. It literally needs welding. Which will look ugly
The best solution I’ve seen to solder it, is to wrap thin copper wire round the join to bind the two parts together then melt solder over the copper wire. If that makes sense

Thanks for that info. So what I thought was solder was weld chrome plated over. I didnt know that. I have some very thin copper wire in my parents shed, Will try it what you have advised to do over the weekend. It might end up being a very neat and tidy fix.

Cool. Yeah I’ve seen some good results.just make sure you have a nice tight binding and sort of figure of eight round the two parts. I’d like to see some pics of the finished result if you don’t mind mate.

I have a new issue...

For some reason recently, this game will reset when a coil fires WHEN other pinball machines are on. I've put it on different circuits and I have a voltage meter on the outlets. I know that my voltage is a bit low (coming into the outlets), but it's never had an issue before with this when all my machines are on. This leads me to believe something may be going bad in the game itself that it isn't tolerating it anymore. I haven't checked the actual voltage on the boards yet, but anyone have any ideas where I should concentrate my efforts past normal voltage checks?

How many games are on that outlet, and is it 15A or 20A?

20A, I keep about 2-3 per circuit (at most only 2 get played at a time generally). The one it was on only had 2, but the games on the other circuits seem to cause the issue as well. It doesn't matter if it is 1 game or all of them. I've swap it around and tried various combos. Mind you, the games are just 'on'. Not being played when this happens (except the space station).

I would just check the board TP voltages and then report back.

Also, which coil? That might narrow down which part of the PSU is struggling.

IMG_20210921_131049721 (resized).jpg

So I have stripped a length of copper wire. Half a mil thickness and wrapped around the broken weld in a figure of eight. As expected the solder flowed around the braid but did not adhere to the metalwork. Joint looks solid. Going to fit machine and see how it last. Cheers for your help in this.IMG_20210921_131049721 (resized).jpg

IMG_20210921_130611294 (resized).jpg

IMG_20210921_132130034 (resized).jpg

IMG_20210921_132156558 (resized).jpg

Great job mate. Looks neat and tidy. I actually did it myself yesterday on one of my Dirty Harry wire forms. Pleased with the results

Nice work, I was going to recommend epoxy or JB Weld to that broken joint, but that copper wire with the solder is a fantastic idea

I fixed either a Baywatch or Judge Dredd habitrail like that once. No solder, just a small steel wire. It was practically invisible once done, and never separated again(while I owned the game).

in 20 years that will show up in the 'hacks I found' thread

Cheers guys, the wire form / habitrail fix seems to be holding up well, have played a few games and it's hasn't work loose.

There is a few hacks on my machine, mostly good quality by the previous arcade owner / operator.

Check out this mod in the photos I have attached, looks like the previous arcade owner modified the cabinet to accept a larger cash box. A good sign the machine was a money maker in the late 80s early 90s. He actually had two space stations! I remember from when I was a kid, visiting the place.

IMG_20210922_205930138 (resized).jpg

IMG_20210922_205958895 (resized).jpg

IMG_20210922_210013635 (resized).jpg

Wanted: missing play field plastic. Between blue upper mini play field and space station diverter wheel. Kinda looks like a crosshair. I just have the threaded studs where it is supposed to go. Maybe one of you guys has a spare one? I'm willing to purchase it please.

IMG_20210922_215507952 (resized).jpg

IMG_20210922_215518082 (resized).jpg

Looks like a pretty easy game to break into and steal the oversized cash box.

I’m pretty sure have at least one spare of this plastic, and I would be happy to send it for just the cost of shipping. PM me your address and we’ll figure it out.

EDIT: actually I do want one thing. Add a profile pic, preferably something from Space Station.

John

Anyone else notice that the building on Godzilla is kind of like a mash up between the Time Expander on Dr Who and the Space Station diverter? Both Oursler designs...

I just had to look up your hometown. What a great looking place.
Welcome to the Space Station Club!

I was thinking the same thing, it looked a whole lot like the time expander! I need to look closer for the diverged, did it change directions spin-wise on one of the layers?

Cheers dude, it's nice living by the sea. There was a local sea side arcade/amusement where my machine came from.

Thanks John

Have to Love Condition Green Multiball!!!

From 1:10:26:

There's different layers that divert different ways, changing the destination of the ramps, much like the space station diverter.

whoa, now that’s cool!

I am getting the adjust switch 61 error, which is the right bumper. What should I be doing and looking for as I adjust the switch? I am trying to ensure that the distance between each metal layer of the switch looks like the switches for the other two bumpers but it still won’t engage. Is there anything else I should be doing?

0BBF7265-7DA2-45BF-951E-85719CE4DF51 (resized).jpeg

Looking for a Space Station backglass/translight and complete speaker panel w/displays and speakers.

Thanks
Rob

Be careful working there. There is a second switch tied to it. The second switch has 50v DC on it to directly activating the power transistor for pop bumper coil. The switch has a capacitor across it to reduce arcing. That's the 50v DC switch, williams call this special solenoid. They bypass the mouse board control and directly actuated, supposed to be faster than the CPU can do it.The other switch with the diode is part of the switch matrix 5V DC to inform the mpu that a bop bumper has activated and increase scoring. I.e a scoring switch. Make sure two don't touch off each other by way or short by tools or screw driver. Or you will blow allot of chips and transistors on the switch matric mpu board.

Best to adjust the diode switch with machine power off. Adjust the shorter blade using the special tool. To close or open the gap. Use a bit of cardboard to clean the contact.

A way to check the switch is actuating with the machine powered up. Go to switch edge test menu. Offer up a pin ball to the pop bumper in question on top of field . It should fire and switch will come up on display. Be careful with your fingers.

Here is a link to troubleshooting the switch matrix, common faults and how it works.

https://techniek.flipperwinkel.nl/wms11/index3.htm#switch

A video of tool I'm talking about: leaf switch adjustment tool.

One thing Orange-Brommie didn't mention is that the long blade of the scoring switch should engage with the yoke of the pop bumper. I've seen them incorrectly assembled with the long blade on the wrong side of the yoke (or snapped off), so the switch does not close when the ring of the pop bumper comes down.

Hello!

Ok the pinball I picked up is mostly working, the display board was snapped so I picked up an led replacement and pulled the 100v fuses.

The display mostly works but I get garbled digits on the top line.

I've metered out the display cable which is ok and even tried reversing it to no avail.

No battery corrosion at all on main board.

I've attached a video

I'd be looking at the schematic to see what the commonalities are for the segments that are staying lit, then work backwards from the display board to the MPU to see where the signal is getting held on.

I'm interested to know what colours have you all chosen, what people are using on their back box translite?

I have set up mine with a multi coloured space station wheel. Two blue, two red and two violet LEDs.
IMG_20211005_205654849 (resized).jpgIMG_20211005_205658925 (resized).jpg

My “chase lights” are blue incandescent, but I may switch them back to white incandescent.

I use light blue fire bulbs behind the windows. Looks like active lights flickering and working in a bright white-blue. Love the effect. Also put a normal fire bulb behind the shuttle rocket so it looks like it’s firing. Really works perfectly.

Found an interesting code “glitch” last night! Got the Bonus Ball and was playing it after my ball 3 ended. The bonus ball drained at EXACTLY 0 seconds left on the bonus timer. After that, the display showed the after-game stats like when it normally ends, BUT, the game kicked up a new ball into the shooter lane and let me play that one, with no time limit, and it added to my score. Must have been perfect timing and the game got confused.

When I had it, I liked white lights the best in the chasers. For the rest of the back glass, I used 3 different whites based on the artwork that I thought really enhanced the foreground/background. Cool, warm and sunlight whites. Some color down on the planet of course, and for the ship on the lower left, I always wanted to mod in a flame bulb and angle it with the artwork. Never got there though.

That’s cool! Almost like a videogame glitch where you can get into the walls at the seam.

Here’s a video of how mine is set up with the fire bulbs.

That looks cool. I'm gonna have to do that to mine, but first I need a new translight. Mine is completely faded and washed out. I see the ones on ebay are gone. Anyone know where I can pick up a new one from?