(Topic ID: 28788)
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Quoted from MrBally:In the 5 1/2 years I worked for a route operator, I carried the Xcelite technician tool kit and three years into it replaced it with Jensen Tools Field Engineers tool kit. Also two old-school cardboard beer cases with one of every coil needed on the route. Coil stops, coil brackets, Flipper pawls, coil sleeves, a large box of springs, shooter rods, shooter housings, flipper buttons, joy sticks, Every contact blade and point type imaginable, Bumper ring & Rods. A nice hardware kit with 4-40, 6-32, 8-32 and 10-24/10-32 screws/bolts nuts flat and lock washers. Remember, this was prior to Home Despot/Blowes so hardware stores were not open late nor were many at all on Sundays.
Also had a shoe box with an assortment of plastic parts including every flipper plastic housing we had on route, Bumper bodies, rollover buttons (all types), drop targets (all types including Game Plan garbage) Also light sockets not to mention fuses and every incandescent lamp type. Including flourescent tubes. Not just F15T8's either. Had to have them for the Juke/Jute boxes and cigarette machines. An unlit machine doesn't make money. The silly 25 or 40 standard incandescent bulbs for the Galaxians & Pac-Man machines. These parts were stored in two milk crates with boxes nested inside. My trunk was pretty full.
I also carried all seven Bally AID/Solid State board part kits as I would sometimes repair a board on location if the kids in the game area were not too obnoxious. Or, I'd get to use the bowling mechanic's workbench as I carried soldering irons, solder wick and a Soldapult solder sucker.
If it was an MPU issue and it was not fixed in 15 minutes, the board went back to the shop for a swap as we had had many spares. I also stayed in the shop two days a week repairing boards. Sound boards were brought back but the game remained operating. Did not work well on Gorgar, Centaur & EBD.
We would only pull a game if we could not fix the board, Under warranty for 90 or 180 days as cut-throat operators would search for broken games and offer to put theirs in as a working game. We had CONtracts with most of our locations though. Also, we would pull heavily damaged games from break-ins. I'd say pulls on games we could not fix in two days was maybe ten that I went out on the calls for. Probably 40 during my time there by everyone.
Nice read. Would love to hear about what was thrown out in the day by your company as far as games go. Sounds like you have lots of stories to tell.
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Quoted from Aquapin:Bringing it back to hacks...here is my IJ POA PCB fix that lasted over 8yrs before a repro was available. It's ugly, but worked great. Thankfully my soldering my skills have improved since then [quoted image]
Thats great work!
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Gilligan hack. They put this round target on . Problem was the ramp would catch on it so the little down ramp coil burnt up trying to go down repeatedly.
Lots of effort to install this target as it had ton reassembled in pieces as it was too big to go through the pf.
Third pic is lamp socket removed before removing switch.
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Quoted from Schwaggs:Yes. There are design errors in Williams pins (and others) that could cause a fire. I’m sure all companies have some.
Modern pins are built better with better protection (like MOVs and main fuse inside metal boxes)
I've seen stern older games with transformer on the bottom of the cabinet. Overheated gi plugs that are burnt. Paper work and manuals floating around in cabinet. Under right circumstances anything is possible.
Had an operator with hacked gi wiring on a twilight zone. A fire burnt away the lower left corner of the driver board. Couldnt get going due to lack of oxygen.
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This game we can call a hat trick hack. 3 hacks and this game was sold as restored.
1 wrong flipper bats
2 old artwork on inserts doesnt line up with overlay
3 upper left flipper switch is bypassed. On a 3 flipper game it will still work but being bypassed you have 2 left flipper coils energizing at exact same time which can cause the coils to overheat over time.
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Quoted from phishrace:When I occasionally need to replace one bad connector with two, I use a Sharpie to make a mark on both housings where they match up when installed. Quick reminder for the brain. Also, if either housing needs to be trimmed down, use the trimmed side on the outside, not next to the other housing. Smooth factory sides next to each other when installed. Keys, toothpick or whatever, should always be replaced on female housings. Tape or super glue isn't a good idea. Mark them in a way you'll remember.
In a pinch I've used small wire ties as
keying pins .
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Quoted from MrBally:10% of the time. Improvising substitutes kept things to this level. If something was left i operative, the night shift tech would go out with the part. Or, we'd pick one up at one of the distributors if we were on the correct side of town. There were three major distributors in the area who stocked parts in those days.
Sounds like you have lots of history and stories to tell from the ss Era. I started operating in 1985 as a teenager so a little post video boom etc.
Curious on what got thrown away back in your day of operating. Also, what games like lw,ebd etc earned when new.
Sorry to go off topic.
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Quoted from cottonm4:I guess multi-ball was overrated on this game.
The deal with sp is half the lights could be out as well as half the features as well and the game will still earn very well.
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Quoted from undrdog:Ever tried to drill a quarter? The little devils love to spin around. Can’t imagine doing that as a shortcut on location. Would need a drill press. Easier to head over to the hardware store.
Had to be at a bowling alley. They always have a drill press.
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