(Topic ID: 28788)

Worst hack/repair you ever saw.

By mcclad

11 years ago


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  • 733 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 6 days ago by mojonitro
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    There are 4,665 posts in this topic. You are on page 32 of 94.
    #1551 6 years ago
    Quoted from Pinballer22:

    Cv sound board, must have run out of he correct size fuses!

    Quick run to the auto parts store down the road.

    #1552 6 years ago
    Quoted from Pinballer22:

    Cv sound board, must have run out of he correct size fuses!

    Is that a remote leg-bolt holder?

    Good safety tip! Keep it off the board
    faz

    #1553 6 years ago

    More of a modification than a hack. Previous owner said that this Spririt of 76 was "too loud" so decided to insulate that whole machine with cork matting!

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    #1554 6 years ago

    Wow... so does it work?

    #1555 6 years ago

    i don't want a quiet pinball - first job done, all removed.

    #1556 6 years ago

    Off topic: That spirit of '76 seems to be a very early Sample game (#1042)

    #1557 6 years ago

    I'm fixing up a completely thrashed eight ball. I enjoyed that someone fashioned a coil sleeve into being the cover for a slingshot arm.

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    #1558 6 years ago

    This hack was not even the worst of the story regarding the game it came in. Years ago, (some of you might remember him), Osh Kosh Ron was hired to deliver a Bally Black Belt to me in California from the East. When he arrived, (on Thanksgiving Day no less and I had a house full of family and friends), he told me he had some bad news. He said the game fell apart in his truck somewhere between Mississippi and Arizona.

    We went to his truck and sure enough it was a pile of particle board. No picture of this, sorry. We extracted the pile of rubble and got it on a cart I had. The play-field was fine, the back-box was beginning to fall apart. It had been held together with sheet rock screws. The glass was broken and the cabinet was in pieces. Chucked it all to the side of the garage. Then Ron asks to use the restroom before he leaves. Well, he basically emptied my house of everyone. I don't know what he ate but I was worried I was going to have to call in a Hazmat crew.

    A few days later I addressed the game mess and this is the CPU board. Still have it as a reminder of how not to fix something.

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    #1559 6 years ago
    Quoted from Bakerman:

    More of a modification than a hack. Previous owner said that this Spririt of 76 was "too loud" so decided to insulate that whole machine with cork matting!

    He couldn't have put a towel or something on the chimes instead?

    #1560 6 years ago
    Quoted from mcclad:

    Ok. My last post was a doozie so I am going to ask a nice and simple question that should not create much of a stir. What was the worst hack/repair that you saw? Or did?
    I saw a machine that the seller stated he painted the cabinet detail in with a 5 inch paintbrush. The kind that you would stain a deck with. And he did not use stencils. It looked like it was flipper painted by a walrus. Or by someone using an oversized deck brush.
    A flipper coil that had lost the end bracket and the owner tried to duct tape it in place under the PF. Same owner "touched up" some insert wear with nail polish. Might not have been so bad if he used the same color as the playfield area.
    Broken backglass that was replaced with plexi glass and it was screwed into the backbox with the translite duct taped to it. (only MacGYVER should be using duct tape to fix things.)
    A broken ramp flap so the ramp was drywall screwed to the playfied.
    And a missing coin door that was replaced with a piece of cardboard. And it was on a crude hinge system and had the door lock installed. Its a good thing that it was not on a route like that. I can't imagine it being to hard to break into. Just to name a few.

    "flipper painted by a walrus."

    Lmao

    I had a bad hardwired light wire mod which has loose exposed live cables and dodgy soldering. It came loose (surprise) and blew out my audio visual board which is almost irreplaceable. Then I relaised the former owner had super glued the light wire everywhere. Still cleaning up his mess haha

    #1561 6 years ago
    Quoted from ForceFlow:

    He couldn't have put a towel or something on the chimes instead?

    The nylocs on the chimes were so tight that the chimes were effectively disabled!

    Quoted from MarAlb:

    Off topic: That spirit of '76 seems to be a very early Sample game (#1042)

    Anything that I should look for to confirm this?

    #1562 6 years ago
    Quoted from Bakerman:

    Anything that I should look for to confirm this?

    It would be nice to add it to the serial number dbase. So far the earliest machine has serial #1159

    http://www.ipsnd.net/View.aspx?id=2293

    #1563 6 years ago
    Quoted from HighVoltage:

    I thought about it, but did you see the rest of the board? Ha, seemed like the appropriate fix level. Function over form on this one. But like I said, I don't do much board work, I'll take it under advisement if that's best practice.
    The other thing I was wondering about is the connector. Would IDC be frowned upon for GI? I kind of wish I had one, as crimping each pin was the only thing that made it "all that work", otherwise this would have been fast and easy. I also wondered if I should solder after crimping. This stripper supposedly crimps, but I found it way too fidily and found I could do a nicer job manually. Does this thing actually work for crimping? I need a proper crimper.

    here's a link to what I would consider is the best molex crimping tool that money can buy
    http://www.techtoolsupply.com/Sargent-Tools-Open-Barrel-Contact-Crimp-Tool-30-16-p/ros-1026ct.htm

    unlike the klein ratcheting crimper, the barrel on this one is nice and narrow, allowing you to see exactly where you are crimping. yes, you will need to crimp twice (once for the wire and a 2nd time for the strain relief), but it's a trade-off that I'm willing to take for excellent crimps, every single time

    1 week later
    #1564 6 years ago

    machine : Nugent .... symptoms of patient : lifeless pops
    quick inspections reveal 2 rings with only one threaded nut remaining so a complete rebuild is needed, while disassembling pops noticed the most lifeless pop & only one with two nuts on the ring had no coil sleeve in the coil - duh
    solution : replace all three pop bumper rings, coil sleeves, clean spoons & adjust switches
    result : amazing pop bumper action

    machine : class of 1812 .... symptoms of patient : many playfield posts are leaning at very strange abnormal angles - wtf?
    quick inspections reveal someone used a non-hardening painters caulk to try and fill in over sized holes on the playfield and stuck the posts back into the gooey mess which did not work out so good
    solution : scrape out all caulk, clean holes as good as possible, trim wooden dowels down to fit over sized existing holes & glue into place
    result : vertical posts are solid & look great

    #1565 6 years ago

    Someone tried to fix this time machine special coil area with plug and play transistors and a poor soldering job on the back of the board. The burnt coil with melted plastic inside was the first clue.

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    #1566 6 years ago

    Looks like they used a blowtorch to solder !

    #1567 6 years ago
    Quoted from fatcake:

    I'm fixing up a completely thrashed eight ball. I enjoyed that someone fashioned a coil sleeve into being the cover for a slingshot arm.

    Someone used a plunger tip on mine. It stuck up too far and erased one of Pinky's boobs.

    #1568 6 years ago

    Hey Coilstop....go ahead make my day! (....missed)

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    #1569 6 years ago

    Barracora with every. single. wire. between backbox and head cut, then twisted and taped back together. Guess they couldn't figure out what all those connectors were for? Had to untwist, cut (the twisted ends were a disaster), clean tape goo off the insulation, re-strip, solder, and heat shrink each one.

    Didn't take pics, but they had also soldered jumper wires in all the "breaks" of the braided wire along all the multiple lamp socket brackets, as well as twisted the diodes shorted on a whole lot of them.

    It took me more than a few days to sort that game out, but I did get it back to 100% with some effort.

    Oh, and the first thing I had to fix were the game ROMs were installed backwards, so the game didn't even boot. WTF people thinking I dunno. Seller, who was a "collector" not a dealer, told me the game worked...

    Richard

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    #1570 6 years ago

    wow, someone got up on the wrong side of the bed. if you're going to give a 'thumbs down' be man enough as to a reason why (especially, my reply was providing an answer to a question

    and if it's because that person's question was considered off topic, then pardon me mr. debbie downer

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    #1571 6 years ago
    Quoted from j_m_:

    someone got up on the wrong side of the bed.

    I hope this helps balance things a bit.

    #1572 6 years ago

    I don’t have the right fuse; hold my beer.

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    #1573 6 years ago

    I burned the hole and I don’t have a jumper; thank goodness for long leads.

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    #1574 6 years ago
    Quoted from pintechev:

    I don’t have the right fuse; hold my beer.

    It is a hack, for sure. But pretty creative when you consider that those pea-wad size of fuses are hard to find.

    #1575 6 years ago
    Quoted from pintechev:

    I burned the hole and I don’t have a jumper; thank goodness for long leads.

    I do this whenever the original trace is ruined or missing. I don't think that's really a hack when you consider a jumper wire looks way worse.

    #1576 6 years ago
    Quoted from cottonm4:

    It is a hack, for sure. But pretty creative when you consider that those pea-wad size of fuses are hard to find.

    Drilling the sheet metal screw into the nearby heat sink is also creative.

    #1577 6 years ago
    Quoted from schudel5:

    I do this whenever the original trace is ruined or missing. I don't think that's really a hack when you consider a jumper wire looks way worse.

    Yeah I would totally do this over installing a wire

    Quoted from pintechev:I don’t have the right fuse; hold my beer.

    I opened up one of my first games recently where I had had the same problem (wrong size fuse). Two years later my wrong length fuse ("just for testing!") was still hanging by two alligator clips.

    #1578 6 years ago

    ugh some of the board solder jobs/ hacks make me cringe they same way as seeing a pile of spiders.

    #1579 6 years ago
    Quoted from j_m_:

    wow, someone got up on the wrong side of the bed. if you're going to give a 'thumbs down' be man enough as to a reason why (especially, my reply was providing an answer to a question
    and if it's because that person's question was considered off topic, then pardon me mr. debbie downer

    I think a lot of up vote and down votes happen without the person indending to do so. If anyone reads threads on a tablet then you'll understand. If you scroll up using your finger on the right side of the screen you can accidentally upvote or downvote posts without realizing it. Kind of annoying really and it has happened to me many times.

    So maybe you got a down vote when none was intended.....

    16
    #1580 6 years ago

    New in the shop, get 'em while they're hot! You know you want one...

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    #1581 6 years ago
    Quoted from Robotworkshop:

    I think a lot of up vote and down votes happen without the person indending to do so

    I gave you one on purpose

    #1582 6 years ago

    Love the cup! It would make a great gift.
    Do you have em for right handed folks too?

    #1583 6 years ago

    Only for lefties like me! Actually, my logo is on the other side, but there is a rewrite in progress. Much more baloney to add and the logo is coming off.

    #1584 6 years ago
    Quoted from pintechev:

    Drilling the sheet metal screw into the nearby heat sink is also creative.

    lmao!

    #1585 6 years ago

    Had a problem with my PinBot ejecting the ball, thanks to ChrisPINk25 he helped me sort it out! I don't think Williams used a nail to reinforce this! Not factory....

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    #1586 6 years ago

    Why?

    #1587 6 years ago

    At the risk of sounding ignorant, can someone explain the "10K by Christmas" to me?

    Clearly, it's a running joke, but I can't find what started it.

    -1
    #1588 6 years ago
    Quoted from henrydwh:

    Had a problem with my PinBot ejecting the ball, thanks to chrispink25 he helped me sort it out! I don't think Williams used a nail to reinforce this! Not factory....

    I have seen this many times on machines as a fix to prevent the ball from going places it should not. Not sure it qualifies as an awful hack. It what I would do, but not the worst.

    #1589 6 years ago

    It's just a foreseeable value and pricing, worth joke. A five hundred dollar game would be talked up or down by others and with eBay and such terms as RARE , vintage, professionally, restored, HUO etc.. if you think 3k asking price for a 500$ machine is to much you could say 10k by Christmas.

    If you Google search it in RGP and find the oldest posts on there you will surely not find your answer.

    Clear as mud??

    #1590 6 years ago
    Quoted from Mk1Mod0:

    New in the shop, get 'em while they're hot! You know you want one...

    I am just trying to justify your reasoning in leaving out the classic “JD is a $1400 game folks”. Lol

    #1591 6 years ago
    Quoted from jmountjoy111:

    I am just trying to justify your reasoning in leaving out the classic “JD is a $1400 game folks”. Lol

    Working on ver 2.0

    #1592 6 years ago
    Quoted from Mk1Mod0:

    Working on ver 2.0

    Lol. I love it. I’d upvote twice if it would let me

    #1593 6 years ago

    Picked up a Zaccaria Time Machine a few years back. Seller obviously had problems with the backbox lock, so he had "his guys" take care of it...which was a damn shame because otherwise the cabinet was very nice. Nice machine overall.

    I have no doubt they are the ones that did it, too, as the van it was sitting in the back of had fresh sawdust everywhere around the immediate area.

    I'm betting this machine ended up in the collection of someone here, though I can't recall who I sold it to. It's been a while. Kinda hard to miss this identifying mark, though!!!

    Richard

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    27
    #1594 6 years ago

    Balloons. The original colored rubber.

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    #1595 6 years ago
    Quoted from wisefwumyogwave:

    Balloons. The original colored rubber.

    Little Joe!

    #1596 6 years ago
    Quoted from wisefwumyogwave:

    Balloons. The original colored rubber.

    You know what, that is SO hacky and SO reversible it's almost brilliant.

    #1597 6 years ago
    Quoted from gunstarhero:

    You know what, that is SO hacky and SO reversible it's almost brilliant.

    Melted all over the star posts and playfield hardware.

    Game was probably operated by carnies.. use whatcha got on hand.

    Richard

    #1598 6 years ago

    Ver 2.0 now up in the shop and horrendously overpriced...

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    #1599 6 years ago

    Forgot: "It's NOB!!"

    #1600 6 years ago
    Quoted from Mk1Mod0:

    Ver 2.0 now up in the shop and horrendously overpriced...

    An entire shelf could probably easily be filled with mugs like that.

    There are 4,665 posts in this topic. You are on page 32 of 94.

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