Restoration/Clean up of Taitel T-83

[Azrall]

After some much deliberation, I'm going to "attempt" to give this cab a nice clean up and replace some of the older parts as they're looking a bit worn. I did consider keeping them "as is" but as i'll be playing the hell out of it, it made sense to replace parts and preserve the old ones as "spares", don't worry, won't be chucking them! If they clean up nicely, then I might leave them on. Who knows?

The cab is in relatively decent condition for its age, a couple of scuffs and it smells worse than a tramp, but nothing a good soak in soapy water won't fix!




I will most likely start with restoring the control panel, the vinyl is tired and looks like it's been through 12 rounds with Mike Tyson, so a sand down and a re-wrap is planned



First job, however was to see why the 1p stick wasn't moving up or left.


Turns out this little blighter was snapped off. I managed to stick on a new spade connector and re-thread the wire - however, no dice. So thoughts are either the wire's knackered or indeed the microswitch is. But not to worry, as I'm taking the whole lot off anyway, I hope the issue will resolve itself.
I'm off over easter, hoping the weather's half decent as I intend to give the monitor a good clean and get all the "nasty stank" out of my spare room. I'll be uploading progress videos as well to my youtube channel, hate to shamelessly plug, but you can check that out here too : clicky!

Cheers!
Az.

 

[Mr20to5]

Hi mate. The joystick issue is unlikely to simply fix itself, however it will be a relatively simple fix, and a good way to start to get to know your first cab.

Whilst it is still together, and aside from the dirty contacts in that photo, you need to start by doing a simple continuity test, using a multimeter.

You need to check the microswitch itself, then the complete length of the wire loom all the way to the pcb.

Have you tried a different pcb to the world rally one on your video? It might be a broken trace on the pcb itself. Again check for continuity on the board too.

Good luck.

 

[Azrall]

Hi mate. The joystick issue is unlikely to simply fix itself, however it will be a relatively simple fix, and a good way to start to get to know your first cab.

Whilst it is still together, and aside from the dirty contacts in that photo, you need to start by doing a simple continuity test, using a multimeter.

You need to check the microswitch itself, then the complete length of the wire loom all the way to the pcb.

Have you tried a different pcb to the world rally one on your video? It might be a broken trace on the pcb itself. Again check for continuity on the board too.

Good luck.

Thanks for the tips, I've not tried the continuity yet, but I'll dig out my mulitmeter and give it a whirl.

 

[muddymusic]

I'm sure I've got a nice unhacked coin door for this, I'll have a look in my storage when I can.

 

[cliff_poole]

This came up in another thread recently. I love those Suzo joysticks, prefer them to modern ones. Clean them up and give them a go, you might find you like them. Leaf switch buttons are better for shmups.

 

[Azrall]

This came up in another thread recently. I love those Suzo joysticks, prefer them to modern ones. Clean them up and give them a go, you might find you like them. Leaf switch buttons are better for shmups.

Yeah I do like them, I think I will clean them up and see if I can get them looking spot on.

 

[cliff_poole]

I think those microswitches might have been replaced anyway, usually see them with the black and beige Miltac ones.

 

[Azrall]

Finally had time to myself to start stripping the cab today, which is what I have spent most of my Sunday doing!
There's a youtube video I've uploaded here:

But here are some progress pics as well:


Control panel came our relatively easy, probably going to sand this back and spray the metal plate, unless re-vinyling would be a better idea?




Monitor needs a bloody good clean, but it works fine still, which is great.



Marquee gave no resistance and popped off quite well and the marquee art itself appears in decent condition.


This wiring on the other hand, not sure who did this but it was all wired to the Jamma extender - which I believe is an after market addition due to the amount of splicing I've found in the loom. I could be wrong though. The plan is to re-wire the lot with a new harness as most of the wiring is in pretty poor condition. Very brittle and just tired in general.



This power supply works, but I'm probably going to replace it as it's very, very rusty and grubby!


Speaker and light wiring appears original. The speaker works fine, albeit a bit crackly. Light does not work. Bulb and starter probably need replacing.

Post continued below....

 

[Azrall]

The new coin mech is on the right of this image. Seems it was replaced in service. The operated obviously hacked the door to death and slapped this bad boy in. I believe the one on the left is original. I'm probably going to replace this coin door as I'd like to have it looking original, rather than like how it does currently. If anyone has a spare kicking about (restored or otherwise!) i'd be interested.



The Jamma loom and extender, all looking very tired and brittle, so it's going to get replaced.


And how it it is now, I've stopped for the day. I'll most likely strip the t mouding and give it a thorough clean in the week. As I have limited facilities, I'm probably not going to re-paint the cab. It's not overly bad, though there are some chips in places, but I don't have the strength to lug it downstairs into the garden to fix. (I wish I had a bloody garage!) I don't fancy sanding in my spare room either, so I might just touch it up in places using a paint pen. Though happy to listen to any advice!

Now for a beer!

Cheers,
Az.

 

[Azrall]

This evening, I've mostly been tackling the control panel. The goal was to strip the old paint/vinyl and give it a fresh coat of paint and some new buttons and joysticks!


First job was to tackle the panel with an angle grinder and hard pad to remove the rust and the old paint.


Once done, I had to use a step drill bit to make the holes wider to fit the new buttons as the previous ones were the smaller type.


Then it was time to paint up!



Then got the bad boy home and began fitting the new buttons etc.



is it perfect? No. But considering this is my first restoration, I'm happy with how it's going so far. Just need to get those bloody fingerprints off!

Saturday's job will be to begin wiring the Jamma harness up!

 

[Azrall]

Latest Arcade Azrall video is up,

sorry it's taken so long to get the latest update to you. Please enjoy the latest restoration update!