Navystan, reporting back to duty...
Castle Door Journey
- Been working the door issues for the past few weeks.
Background
- When I first got the machine, it seemed to be working, but noticed the right door stayed open occasionally.
- Other Pinsiders suggested the common issues be looked at. 1) set screws not tight enough; 2) latch needed adjustment; 3) weak or bad right motor.
- When I took off the first time, I had to add a 2-wire/pin Molex. Apparently, the older Woz machines didn't have this Molex connector.
- Upon examining the right door, I added new set screws, the Allen head style to permit easier tightening. After reassembling, the right door stopped working. So, the door actually got worse. Don't know if it was coincidence, or if was just binding more, or motor power was getting worse.
- I ordered 4 new motors from JJP and all did not have capacitors installed.
Saturday Work day
- I spent about 4 hours working on the castle doors.
- Since I have now taken the castle playfield off so many times, I now can remove in less than 10 minutes.
- I removed the door assembly from the the castle playfield for the first time. Took off doors first and discovered the common problem of the bottom right screw was worn away. Luckily, I was able to get a small vise wrench around the screw to loosen and remove. (see pictures)
- I removed the right motor only since I didn't want to change out left motor until I have new capacitors. Had a little problem "melting" solder from the lugs. Don't know if my soldering unit is going bad, since in the past it worked pretty solidly. So, I had to cut away existing wire from the motor terminals. I also could not "melt" the solder along side the motor for the capacitor, so I had to cut that off as well. Barely had enough room to resolder back to the new motor.
- While I had the motor off the assembly, a friend recommend I test with a 9 volt battery. I tried to test with a 9 volt battery while still attached the the castle playfield, but neither left or right door would move with the battery (yes, I moved latch away). However, once the motor was off the mechanism, the battery did successfully turn the motor on. The new motor seemed to sound louder (more power?) then the old one.
- While I had the assembly apart, I had a closer look at the plate that is located near the latch the holds the doors closed. As some had suggested, this plate bends over time causing the doors not to open. I did notice mine was slightly impacting the latch clearing from the tabs, so I pushed it in a little before putting back together.
- So, to summarize what I did before restarting the game, I replaced the right castle door motor, used the existing capacitors, and bent the metal plate that impacts the latch that it used to keep doors closed.
- After restarting the WoZ, I went to test mode, and tested opening and closing doors. Both doors opened when test buttons were used.
- After running test mode, went to game play. As soon as I hit the doors, the stayed partially open. I turned off game and noticed when I pushed the doors with my fingers, both doors pushed past the latch with minimal effort. So, bending the plate apparently was too much.
- I took off castle playfield and could clearly see how latch was barely holding doors from opening. I tweaked right door by lowering the door down (as you look from the top) by adjusting the set screws on the post. When I did this, it also helped the left door. It now seemed light pressure by hand did not permit the doors to push through the latch. So, I stopped here and didn't try to bend the metal plate like I did earlier.
- I retested and pressed on the doors by hand to see if the doors would push open past the latch. They seemed to be strong enough to resist light pressure by hand, so I went to test by game play.
- During gameplay, it was a lot better. However, occasionally, the right door still partially opened. It would either reset after hitting a few times or at the end of a ball leaving the mini playfield (game reset).
- One other oddity happened one time. I noticed the crystal ball came up with an error message. However, after restarting the game, it was back to normal. I did nothing more than just restart the game.
Conclusion/Questions
- I need the get these capacitors. (See pictures). I looked at Great Plains Electronics, but didn't see the number on his site. Anyone know where I can get these and what part# I should be looking for?
- For my final adjustment to right door, bend plate a little more? I'm not going to take off again until I get the new capacitors and will replace the one I just did and likely just go ahead and change left door motor as well.
- My soldering skills need a little work. I had a hard time getting solder to "stick" to the side of motor. Use some flux? I saw others file down to scuff, so maybe that's all I need to do.
- Thanks for everyone's help and tips on the castle doors. Pinside users are super for helping the community.
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Newtown, CT
Melbourne
