Wow! Have fun on the harness swap.
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Jeremy Agema
Central WI
(Topic ID: 52969)
Linked Games
Revenge From Mars
Bally, 1999
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Quoted from PM_Jeremy:Wow! Have fun on the harness swap.
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Jeremy Agema
Central WI
It is one of the scary parts but also very fun. A mess of spaghetti.
I take a bunch of photos, then take everything off and take the whole thing to the tub. I leave on all switches and sockets. Any bigger cherry switches (none on RFM) would get taken off because they could hold water.
Awesome orange does the work along with a scrub brush and LOTS of water to rinse afterwards.
Then off the the air compressor to blow the heck out of everything really well.
Finally I let her air dry for a while and then reinstall.
The past few days have been pretty productive. Big thanks to Corey for some needed RFM intel along the way >> I am sure you are sick of me calling/texting to ask questions of how it is supposed to be 
This game was so hacked! The deeper I dug the worse it got.
Harness pulled off the old.
I like to use a piece of pink foam to transport the harness around. Makes it easy to move and keeps stuff in its general spot.
I take the harness to the tub and spray it down with 'LA's Totally Awesome Oxygen Orange' degreaser. You can find it at the dollar store and it works like a charm with no corrosion or residue. I use a stiff nylon brush to get between the cracks and wires and of course rinse liberally with water. The funk just melts away.
Then it takes me about a day to put the bottom side all back in place. Quite a few issues i discovered along the way like missing diodes or diodes on backwards. Note: never trust that just because a game came to you a certain way that it is correct.
Only a few things left to do on the bottom. I am waiting on the missing coil wrappers from BAA, which they ended up mailing out on Friday. I also have a few coil rubber grommets that I need to replace when the marco package comes in later this week.
For all intents, the pf is now done.
If anyone is in need of any part leftovers or interested in the old pf then hit me up. I am not sure on pricing for anything but the pf is just a wall hanger. A pro could likely restore with a nice decal and then clear coat for the inserts that are missing art. Ramps are all functional with some cracking >> I just go all the way and spend way too much money so I 'had' to replace them with NOS. I know it is silly, but I accept it
PC010263.JPG
PC010264.JPG
Tronville, WI
Quoted from Whysnow:Big thanks to Corey for some needed RFM intel along the way >> I am sure you are sick of me calling/texting to ask questions of how it is supposed to be This game was so hacked! The deeper I dug the worse it got.
That RFM looks so clean&purty, I cant wait to put something on it and get my own "glamor shot"
1 week later
Almost have the cab back together post paint.
I set up a temp spray booth in my garage this past week with a portable heater. It is the one thing I do not like about winter in WI, Cab work is a more complicated process.
I have a few more things to work on, but with any luck the cab will be completely back together by the end of today.
Ordered T-molding finally as I complete forgot about it till now.
I never realized the boards for these games were in the bottom.
Looks very nice - we have discussed this before - how long does it take for you to solder everything back on? I always take everything off the pf as one unit rather than seperate the harness.
Resoldering everything took me probably 4 hrs in total? But that also includes messing with switches and similar stuff. This one also took a bit longer that FT because so many things were messed up from the operator back in the day. I spent a decent amount of time just making sure I had diode on everything and correctly orientated as may were missing or backwards.
4 hours isn't too bad at all. Maybe on my next one I will make the attempt to remove the harness. I usually clean it right on the PF.
How many diodes are wrong do you usually find? If they are backwards or missing - how did the game still function?
I have no idea how the game was still functioning but it was. I had turned it on when I got it and everything 'worked'. i will admit that flipping the switch on this one is going to be very scary and I am trying to mentally prepare for some degree of issues...
This pf repair is using all the vid methods (to the best of my ability) and then had ssbodyman clear this one with 2 part auto..
Quoted from Methos:How many diodes are wrong do you usually find? If they are backwards or missing - how did the game still function?
I was wondering the same thing. A game can still function with missing diodes (with a much higher chance of damaging the transistors with high voltage inductive kickback), but backwards diodes should blow a fuse, unless the diodes were backwards and already blown open. You might want to make sure the connectors to the pcb are still wired correctly if this game has had as much abuse as you describe...
Hopefully it will be fine when you power it up.
From the looks of it my guess is that the ones that were on backwards were toast and effectively gone/blown open? I have gone through the entire came following the manual to make sure I am putting it all back together as intended rather than as the CEC 'technicians' had it done.
I am guessing it was not really functioning at the end of its route life since the flippers were not really playable.
Quoted from Methos:I never realized the boards for these games were in the bottom.
Looks very nice - we have discussed this before - how long does it take for you to solder everything back on? I always take everything off the pf as one unit rather than seperate the harness.
Not sure if this is what you meant; the computer is in the head, the power/relay board is in the bottom of the cabinet.
Side note > If I end up keeping the regular monitor, I noticed quite a bit of bleed over from the florescent tube in the back box. I am guessing there is supposed to be some sort of foam around the monitor to block out and light coming through?
What have others used? Just pipe insulation?
Keep a fresh supply of balls near the machine. By painting the whole inside of the lower cabinet, your balls will rust out about every month or so.
There's a reason they weren't painted from the factory. Wood absorbs moisture won't when painted. So moisture finds its ways to metal things - especially balls.
Telling you from experience.
Quoted from Whysnow:Also, anyone have good LED recs?
Do I need to worry about ghosting?
I was thinking of frosted warms for the GI and frosted color matching for the inserts. Keep the flashers standard.
Not sure it's the best value, but I installed the below kit. No issues with ghosting or other lighting issues, except the usual error from P2K because it doesn't think the lamps are working...
Quoted from dgoett:Keep a fresh supply of balls near the machine. By painting the whole inside of the lower cabinet, your balls will rust out about every month or so.
There's a reason they weren't painted from the factory. Wood absorbs moisture won't when painted. So moisture finds its ways to metal things - especially balls.
Telling you from experience.
I have not experienced that at all with my fishtales and I did that almost 9 months ago. I even did more coats with that game so it is sealed even more.
I am guessing the reason only the top half was painted from the factory is because it was a labor and material savings???
1 week later
Quoted from Whysnow:I have not experienced that at all with my fishtales and I did that almost 9 months ago. I even did more coats with that game so it is sealed even more.
I am guessing the reason only the top half was painted from the factory is because it was a labor and material savings???
I also did this on my last restoration which was coincidentally a FT too. Never heard of the rusty balls problem either (heh heh).
Although my my basement is pretty dry so it would be a slow process for me. If this was ever an issue you could always buy a small silica gel dehumidifier and toss it in the game. I have a small one for a gun safe that you can plug into a wall socket to recharge.
Yeah, if anything, sealing the wood will mean less moisture inside the cab IME.
Also, there are some really big vent/speaker holes in every cab I won so I should be OK
Quoted from Whysnow:Side note > If I end up keeping the regular monitor, I noticed quite a bit of bleed over from the florescent tube in the back box. I am guessing there is supposed to be some sort of foam around the monitor to block out and light coming through?
What have others used? Just pipe insulation?
When I had SWE1 I had to put a new monitor in and found that sealing it in with black gorilla tape worked perfectly.
And I the cured the light bleed from the gap between the playfield backside and cabinet with thick foam weather stripping. I still have some and can bring it on the 28th if you want.
3 weeks later
Hi
Great job on the restore project!
I am doing a little restoration on my RFM and had a question that hopefully you can answer. I need to remove the pop bumpers to replace the wafers, but can't seem to figure out how to remove the ones with the lights in them since the flat silver wires are stapled to the bottom of the playfield. Do I need to cut the wires and re-solder or is there another way?
Thanks
Taber
you could desolder, but I think that is a part worth replacing.
Cheap and easy. If you are unsure of your skills, just do one pop at a time. I cut and leave the leads stapled so I can see where to restaple the new ones upon reassembly.
Worth mention to plan your attack on which pop to do first (really easier to do all 3 at once) as space is tight, esp if you have big fumble fingers like I do.
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