Picked up this King Rock alongside an Eight Ball in tip top condition.
I wasn't sure whether I wanted it, but I always liked that backglass so I did pick it up. I got it really cheap and now I'm wondering whether I want to part it out and keep the backglass and do a backlit frame for it or get it working and shop it.
I'm not really thinking of doing a restore as I have too many machines in the queue already.

I could probably recoup what I paid for it by selling the lockdown bar and the score reel assemblies, and I think my framed backglass could be badass but I would feel kinda bad about destroying it.

There's two games played counters in there for some reason, but it looks to me like the 311K one matches the condition of the playfield.

I think I'll put some time in cleaning it up and get it working just for the fun of it then we'll see what happens.

Stay tuned!

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Well it's not that black and white.
People don't like EMs much around these parts, nor are there many people that I know of that know how to work on them. It's already a C-lister of EMs as far as I know, so I'll probably have a hard time moving it when I have to. I don't see anybody driving hundreds of miles to come get it here either.
Right now I'm all full, with a machine at my dad's place plus one that I'm restoring and that I'll have to fit somewhere when I'm done with it.
If I hadn't picked it up I don't know that anybody else would have since it's not working.

All that means that any money I'm putting into it will probably be lost and my time will be invested for the good of pinball. I don't think parting out a beater (in this case, destroyed playfield, dirty as F guts, and what you don't see is that the cab is pretty shaky too) is that bad of a thing either since some other machines may benefit from the spare parts.

I was certainly expecting such a discussion with this thread, but I wouldn't have posted either if I had just decided to part it out, so we'll try to clean it up and get it running and see where that goes!

Thanks for the reply!

So let's start with getting that bottom board out...

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Might have been a reimport... first time I see that part. Oh, King Rock where have you been??

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Cleans up pretty nice.
I'm already getting attached. I think you may have some more life left in you King Rock, old pal.

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Thanks!

So I won't get the bottom board any cleaner than that.
Next up I'll clean up the switches and look that everything seems to work as it should.
Then I'll see if I can simulate what the board needs to go through the start sequence. If I'm not mistaken I just need to close the score reel 0 switches and that should do it? I'll go look at Clay's guide.

I think I had done that with a Bally Monte Carlo board at some point.

I'll see if I can get away without ordering the schematics...

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There's both. The bell is when you score points.

Well if that play counter is accurate, and the machine seems to be set at a quarter for 2 plays, that's 311 000 / 2 / 4 = 38 000$
Rough math, obviously, and there's got to be many unpaid games, home games and such, but still, even at 30 000$ 70's-80's money, that's a gold mine.

Don't worry folks, I wanted to make the post a little dramatic, but I have an order in for rubbers and pop bumper caps so it's safe to say the King will live on.

I did briefly entertain parting it out for reasons stated above, but I have to agree with Muppet_Man that it's not too far gone and you guys convinced me not to consider it if there was any doubt left.

Alright so I'm pretty confident that the board is clean and well adjusted so I just dropped it back in there.
At first I just plugged in the head and the score motor turned briefly, reset the front bank then stopped.

I plugged in the coin door and it started turning, resetting the front bank at each turn and the play counter that's been added to the front, piggybacked on the start relay, started smoking.
I don't see the point for that thing so I just cut it off.
My bet is that the Canadian operator added it when he got it, so the machine probably has 255k german plays and 56k canadian plays.

Plugged in the playfield too and I get the same behavior.
I'll go check out the start sequence, doesn't look like I'm too far off...

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Alright, starting to see some life here.
Something screwy going on when I plug in the coin door for some reason, but after cleaning up the Jones plugs and the head relays, when I trip the S relay I get the score reels to reset and the motor just keeps running. Looks like a need to do a good old fashioned cleanup of those 16 score reels back there.

The King is flippin'!

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Just cycled through a 1 player game, all 5 balls and the game ended as it should.
Only the 1000's points are working and obviously I'm not sure every feature is working as it should either, but we're getting somewhere.
I'll get it working across the board, then post some shopping pictures.

Yeah turns out I didn't have to take them apart. Just cleaned the 0 position switches on the player 1, tried my luck again and I got it to start.

Still haven't gotten around to ordering the schematics, but here's what I found out the deal is with the coin door.
So basically as soon as I jumper the door tilt shut, the machine behaves as if I was repeatedly pressing the start button (I even see the player 2, 3 and 4 relays activating at each turn of the motor).
I check for continuity at the start button switch and I don't see a short.
I have other schematics I'm looking at (Card Whiz, King Pin) and the start relay path is pretty similar on both so I guess it's gotta be pretty close on the King Rock.
It looks like there's two other paths that will activate it, one being the 1st coin chute and the other one being through a switch on the Start relay itself, which I don't understand.
Any ideas?

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Looks like I'm getting continuity at that S relay self-activating switch even though it's open. Gotta have something to do with that... Will keep investigating.

Got it!
Had a normally open switch on the third coin chute relay that was always closed.
Opened it up and start sequence behaves as it should.

Alright, got all the points scoring and it looks like all 4 players are working.
Now can someone fill me in on the rules? I'm not sure everything is working as it should.
Especially the bonus counter. How is it supposed to work? Just keeps going up and up until it reaches the circle over the 10 000 and then it goes around the circle? What are the spinners supposed to do? What happens when you get KING?

Thanks!

So, each KING letter will add 1K bonus and doing a full circle with the spinners will add 1k as well? Each spinner spin will advance the green light one position?

Ok so here's what I'm seeing. Each KING letter increments the bonus up to 15K. The spinner advances the light, which goes around and around (at least it should, but it's a bit gunked up so I'm simulating it manually), but it doesn't seem to add any bonus.

Thanks a lot for the help.

Ok so that's one thing I need to fix.
Also weak-ass left flippers...

And what should be the behavior of the middle stand up target? When should the left and right lights light up?

Yeah that relay is kinda gunked up. I'll clean it up and see what should happen when it goes from the last to the first position.

Yeah but the right ones are noticeably stronger than the left so I might have to do a rebuild or something. Will look into it this week.

Ok, but do you remember how the middle target cycles between these 3 different states?

I'd says the proportions are A-OK by today's standards
But I can imagine some 60's boys went pasted_image (resized).png when they saw the BG.

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Another question for you King Rock buffs... I cleaned up, replaced the inner gear and try to adjust the A/S relay for the green circle, it works pretty well but will sometimes stay stuck... I'll see if I can try shortening the spring a tad, not sure what else to try.

Now, I haven't figured out yet how it should trigger the bonus increase, but it also seems to advance anytime I get 10 points anywhere on the PF. Is that normal or should only the spinners do it?

Also, it looks like the worst offender for flipper strength is the leftmost one. I've read about removing a couple turns of the coil wire, anybody have luck with that? If so, how many turns do you suggest?

Thanks for the help!

Man it's hard working without schematics... I think I'll have to do the walk of shame to the post office and get my money order for PBR.

That would be awesome, I'll Paypal you some money, I love PBR it's just a little complicated to order stuff back here in Canada.

Yes, it's that second cam that's not doing its job right... I've jumpered some power to one of the lugs and it does advance the bonus but I can't figure out the path of the faulty wire with some crappy colors (some kind of gray with yellow trace or something, the kind that gets indiscernible when it's dirty.

The A/S seems to work pretty well now, it doesn't seem to stay stuck anymore. But it looks like every 10pt switch will advance it, is that normal (advance the A/S relay, not the bonus)?

Alright, thanks for the answer! So I'm pretty close then, just need to get that bonus going and make the left flippers stronger and I'm done...
Man everything cranks up the bonus on that machine!