I lucked out and scored a great price on this abandoned Terminator 2 pin ($700). After several weeks of tearing it down to clean, polish, re-rubber, LED, etc., it’s looking really nice. The problem is that it sat in a barn, untouched for 15+ years and when I cracked it open, there was obvious battery acid leaking down onto the boards and chips.

I’m going to have my usual tech come out this weekend to take a look and get the game playable. It will start a game and eject a ball into the shooter lane, but then it goes into missing ball mode.

Is it possible that acid leaks may look bad, but not necessarily have a detrimental effect on the game actually working like it should?

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Hopefully it’s not too bad/expensive, otherwise I’ll just sell it as is. I really only bought it to fix up and sell at my cost to a buddy who wants his first pinball. I had a T2 before and enjoyed it, but it’s not a must have for me. The thing is, this one cleaned up so nice and it looks amazing now.

Here's what it originally looked like...

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He was originally asking $100 and I think he got slammed with calls/emails and realized he way under priced it. I had emailed the minute I saw the ad and said i'd take it if still available. I never heard back until about 3 weeks later out of the blue he returned my email and asked if I was still interested. I said of course, but then he said he wanted $2250 minimum "because they sell for $3000-8000 on eBay". I told him thanks, but no thanks. Another week goes by and he emailed me again and said make an offer. I told him I'd take a chance at $700 and he agreed. After we loaded it up and I was thanking him, he admitted that his father wanted the thing gone and they were just going to burn it out back on their property.

Is this the board I'd need?

ebay.com link: WPC 89 MPU Board for Bally Williams Pinball Machines

Is this the new board you guys are referring to that I should just buy?

ebay.com link: WPC 89 MPU Board for Bally Williams Pinball Machines

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Ha it's actually all blue Cointaker LED bulbs, but they look purple in this photo.

I haven't taken the board out yet. Based on your guy's recommendations, I bought a new board on eBay and it should be here tomorrow. I understand a couple chips will need to be taken from the old and popped into the new one. I'm having my tech come out to help with it and take a look at any wiring issues.

The game cleaned up beautifully and when in test mode, all lights work except the ones in the skull eyes. The pop bumpers and left kick back don't work.

I'll post an update when complete and then if anyone wants to buy the old board I'll be happy to sell it base on what they want to pay. I won't have any use for it anyway.

Stand by... I'm pulling the board out now. Will post pics you guys requested momentarily.

J207 looks good.

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J208

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The replacement one looks good. I don't have a chip puller tool, so my tech will help me. Looks like J208 needs to be cleaned up. Am I missing anything else to do?

Thanks Pinside. You guys are always awesome with tips!

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UPDATE AND HELP REQUEST:

I had to order a chip puller on eBay to remove the big square chip and it arrived yesterday. I was able to remove it from the board easily and pop into the new board. There were a couple little pins that were bent when I pulled it out, but it didn’t look bad and I was able to move them back into place with a tooth pick. I couldn’t tell which way to pop the chip into the new board, as it looked to fit regardless of how I was about to pop it in.

I screwed the board back into the box and attached all the old connectors to the board, but I realized that my buddy that helped me clean up the wires and put a new connector, did it upside down and it won’t fit. D’OH!!!

Here’s where it gets bad and I hope I didn’t totally ruin something. I went to power the game on, thinking everything was hooked up ok except that one connector. But when powered on, the game made a loud buzzer sound like when you get an answer wrong on a game show. All the insert lighting turned on for a second and then went off. I tried to turn it on and off a few times, but it kept making the buzz sound and lighting up. Then I could smell faint burning, so I unplugged it. Man, I hope I didn’t screw anything up. Everything looked hooked up perfect except the one J208 connector.

Any thoughts on this loud buzzing and now the burning smell? I hope I didn’t ruin something. It seems strange that it would act so crazy just based off the one connector not being hooked up. Would installing the chip in wrong do this? It seemed to pop in and fit perfect.

Thanks as always. I can always count on the Pinsider brain power and experience to help me work through these issues!

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I'll take some pics this weekend. The sound it was making was so jarring that I didn't keep the game powered on more than a couple seconds. My buddy popped in a few of the smaller chips last week when he was out redoing the connectors.

Is there a 'right' way to pop in that big square chip? It looked like it would fit in any direction.

Ok good- I did recall seeing a little dot on the holder and a line on the chip. I lined those up thinking that made sense. I'm having my biddy come over tomorrow to take a look. If he can get it up and running on the cheap, I'll keep it. Otherwise, look for this T2 to be sold as is on the Minneapolis Craig's List soon, at exactly my cost. I've kept an itemized list of all the new parts/bulbs/etc I've paid and I'm into the machine for $1197 at this point. I suppose if the buyer doesn't want the new legs, casters, bolts, cab protectors, I can knock the cost down another hundred or whatever the amount of those items were. Fingers crossed. I really wanted to have a nice T2 back in my collection.

Helpful Cheddar -thanks!

The replacement board and chip I bought was installed and then when the game was turned on, it started making a really loud buzzing sound. I turned it on and off and it kept doing it. Then I started to smell burning.

The new board and the old damaged board were left with my tech before xmas and the game has been safely stored away for now. I told my guy to take his time getting to the repair of the original board (I'm out of room anyway). The game looks absolutely gorgeous now, but I still haven't got it working yet. Honestly, I haven't even thought about this game, but now I need to check and see where he's at with the update. I had told him Spring was fine, as I wasn't going to be selling or moving the game during the Minnesota winter anyway.

I'll post an update when this game is eventually working 100%!