Is anyone an expert on restoring EM pinball machines?
- Thread starter Spanky
- Start date
Is it not working or in poor artwork appearance? My eldest daughter lives near you ‘bishopton’ so I do get that way on occasion but live down in Cheshire.
Cabinet artwork needs stencilling, playfield wear is often non-restorable to original quality? Then damaged plastics are not easy to find while even rubbers now often can only be acquired as partial make up from kits on sale as not many places sell rubbers separately? Many old tables have lots of 1/2” post and mini post rubbers more than larger size ones? And bayonet 6v bulbs , which frequently corrode in the sockets so are dim , blown or totally not connecting? Not least odd wires breaking off?
That make that age … common faults >
Could need a lot of tlc? Not familiar with the actual game but …..temperamental things , so try see if any of these apply ?
I assume you know how to get the glass off to access the internals? Some people don’t know if they never had one before.
Eg if it’s totally dead there is an on/ off switch under base near right near leg saves you crawling under to unplug at wall when lined up in an arcade.. many folks miss that as do they with old space invaders with switch on top or side of base? So it’s not unusual to miss those things?
Fuse holders in the base go weak and poor conduction, so you may lose lights or coil supply voltage?
Contacts on score drum units get dirty on either 9th position or ‘off zero’ contacts .
A fine contact cleaning file or fine nail-file emery can be useful but go steady as the gold or gold plating on contacts is thin and easily make contact conduction worse?
If you can power on and credit a game you should see contact sparks at any which are poor because of dirt or poor adjustment.the main indexing motor in the base should rotate until full reset is achieved and the ball kicks out to the shooter lane. It pulses all reset target solenoids and each revolution pulses score drums 5 times mainly for 50/500 point target or two full turns to zero the previous score showing .. if any number is showing score ‘stuck’ in the window the contacts need attention on that drum unit.
Score drums can be checked on their own relay in back box .. an AX relay should work all drums until they all land at zero when game begins it too is in back box
If a score drum is runaway contacts on playfield are too close on a target scoring that level of points?
The ball should be in the outhole making good contact when coin is inserted or a free replay is available, on the numbered wheel in the back box .. then it should eject to shooter lane … the ball index relay will show ball in play light and a target must be hit to increment a score and also allow the ball count to increment when it gets to the outhole ….
Loom plugs into the base relay board from playfield may need reseating or loom plugs into back box also same …..
Without seeing it or list of symptoms it could be several things and some coils are quite rare if they need to be replaced ?
If you have the table there’s a few pointers?
The playfield surface probably quite grubby if it’s not been regularly cleaned best use just a lightly damp cloth and rub hard . Don’t spray polish on it the ball picks up dirt from contact arcing dust and carries it all over the whole table…
hope that helps? The request is a bit vague… and I for one am retired now so not able do it personally.
Cabinet artwork needs stencilling, playfield wear is often non-restorable to original quality? Then damaged plastics are not easy to find while even rubbers now often can only be acquired as partial make up from kits on sale as not many places sell rubbers separately? Many old tables have lots of 1/2” post and mini post rubbers more than larger size ones? And bayonet 6v bulbs , which frequently corrode in the sockets so are dim , blown or totally not connecting? Not least odd wires breaking off?
That make that age … common faults >
Could need a lot of tlc? Not familiar with the actual game but …..temperamental things , so try see if any of these apply ?
I assume you know how to get the glass off to access the internals? Some people don’t know if they never had one before.
Eg if it’s totally dead there is an on/ off switch under base near right near leg saves you crawling under to unplug at wall when lined up in an arcade.. many folks miss that as do they with old space invaders with switch on top or side of base? So it’s not unusual to miss those things?
Fuse holders in the base go weak and poor conduction, so you may lose lights or coil supply voltage?
Contacts on score drum units get dirty on either 9th position or ‘off zero’ contacts .
A fine contact cleaning file or fine nail-file emery can be useful but go steady as the gold or gold plating on contacts is thin and easily make contact conduction worse?
If you can power on and credit a game you should see contact sparks at any which are poor because of dirt or poor adjustment.the main indexing motor in the base should rotate until full reset is achieved and the ball kicks out to the shooter lane. It pulses all reset target solenoids and each revolution pulses score drums 5 times mainly for 50/500 point target or two full turns to zero the previous score showing .. if any number is showing score ‘stuck’ in the window the contacts need attention on that drum unit.
Score drums can be checked on their own relay in back box .. an AX relay should work all drums until they all land at zero when game begins it too is in back box
If a score drum is runaway contacts on playfield are too close on a target scoring that level of points?
The ball should be in the outhole making good contact when coin is inserted or a free replay is available, on the numbered wheel in the back box .. then it should eject to shooter lane … the ball index relay will show ball in play light and a target must be hit to increment a score and also allow the ball count to increment when it gets to the outhole ….
Loom plugs into the base relay board from playfield may need reseating or loom plugs into back box also same …..
Without seeing it or list of symptoms it could be several things and some coils are quite rare if they need to be replaced ?
If you have the table there’s a few pointers?
The playfield surface probably quite grubby if it’s not been regularly cleaned best use just a lightly damp cloth and rub hard . Don’t spray polish on it the ball picks up dirt from contact arcing dust and carries it all over the whole table…
hope that helps? The request is a bit vague… and I for one am retired now so not able do it personally.
Last edited:
Right, thanks for that. Perhaps I should elucidate.
I bought this thing twelve years ago. Whilst it appears to be complete, I've never turned it on. The plan was to completely restore it, but progress has been glacial.
It's taking up most of my kitchen and I've concluded I'm never going to complete this. It has become a money pit, and it's time to move it on to someone who is willing and able to restore it.
I bought this thing twelve years ago. Whilst it appears to be complete, I've never turned it on. The plan was to completely restore it, but progress has been glacial.
It's taking up most of my kitchen and I've concluded I'm never going to complete this. It has become a money pit, and it's time to move it on to someone who is willing and able to restore it.