Complete Popeye's Shipwreck

[clarkey]

Hi all, just thought I would share my Popeye restoration, this is the first Pinball I have owned / worked on so figuring things out as I go and I am sure making plenty of mistakes but enjoying the process and learning a lot.

How it arrived, damp, a human body weight of spiders eggs through out the whole machine and essentially a wreck, at this point I wasn't sure where to start.



Top delaminitation, looked as though water had been dripping on it for some time.


Nice amount of mold (seller didn't mention this)









Playfield had full mylar that was a mess, peeling, split etc. Stripped everything off removed the mylar, started cleaning and rebuilding.



Much better with the mylar gone.



New rubbers etc.





Painted and new stickers.



Powdercoated apron, and painted the rubber life rings as they had yellowed.

 

[clarkey]

Cabinet painted and new art going on.







Playfield back in and connecting back up.

Now working on the bottom of the playfield, stripping cleaning etc.

Have powered up after checking all fuses, transformer wiring etc and working through issues.

 

[s000m]

Cool, nice work, you stripped off the old decals first right?

 

[clarkey]

Cool, nice work, you stripped off the old decals first right?

Cheers, electric sanded it all down flat so was a level base, seems to have come out ok.

 

[Gonzo]

Good luck mate, I'm looking forward to this.

 

[Tony]

Wow great work!
I love how you started with a delaminated head and then the next picture is it looking gorgeous! With no work in between? How did you sort out the delamination? Just nosy really always wanting to learn something if I can.
Is that a S2000? In the garage?
How is the playfield? How did you take the Mylar off? Where did you get the decals? Did you wet apply? Love a bit of detail
It’s gonna look fab, it already is?
Tony

 

[clarkey]

Wow great work!
I love how you started with a delaminated head and then the next picture is it looking gorgeous! With no work in between? How did you sort out the delamination? Just nosy really always wanting to learn something if I can.
Is that a S2000? In the garage?
How is the playfield? How did you take the Mylar off? Where did you get the decals? Did you wet apply? Love a bit of detail
It’s gonna look fab, it already is?
Tony

Thanks, yes sorry I didn't get as many pictures of the bits while I was doing them as I should have really. Too sort the head I bonded / clamped it all back together, filled sanded etc. Luckily the bulk of the wood was decent just the outer layers coming off seems to have come out ok. I applied the decals dry, they were from pinballdecals.eu.

For the mylar I removed it with heat (hairdryer) and then removed the glue with goo gone and isopropyl where that wouldn't cut through it. Then cleaned and polished (it's diamond coated so has come up well).

Currently trying to get the sound working correctly seems to cut out, have reflowed all the pins and recapped, seems to be ok now will leave it testing. I will try dig out some more before after pics as well.

I put this question on pinside but if anyone here can help would be useful.

I need a new coil for the right hand popper, that Williams parts list has it as a AE-24-900, the owners manual lists it as both a AE-24-900 but also a AE-26-1200 in different places, I just wondered if someone could confirm what the correct coil should be?




Also yes that's an S2K well spotted

 

[clarkey]

A few before and after pictures at this point I am not trying to get things perfect just clean enough to test / play and not wreck the new balls etc.

You can see how bad the mylar was around Olive here.



Cleaned up and polished the inner surfaces of all the metal parts, I want to get them plated eventually.



Before removing the Mylar



After




Replaced pretty much every fuse as they were wrong.



Questionable OP wiring mods.



Water damage, luckily seems to have only dripped / travelled down one line so a few bits to replace but not too much.


Been through and replaced all the coil inserts, lubricated all the mechs cleaned all the ramps, switches etc and fixed all the bodged wiring. Just waiting on some parts now.






Made a coin reject insert.



Next is electrical testing and lighting.

 

[Jay Walker]

The extra wiring would've been to get around the problem of broken resistors on the trough l.e.d. board, which affected all the early games with the then-newly introduced trough unit.

Things could have been worse, at least it still has the original fitment moulded Bluto head.

 

[Tucks]

Did someone mention Popeye again!!!!

Incoming, Incoming from @Sgt GrizZ

 

[Sgt GrizZ]

Hats off and a lifetimes supply of spinach for saving another Popeye

lubricated all the mechs

This slightly concerned me - you didn't lube ALL the mechs did you ??? That can cause all sorts of gunky hell issues.
In general pinball machines run dry. Exceptions are motor gears, and sometimes a tiny bit at hinge points . The manual will always point out where needed, if at all.

 

[clarkey]

Hats off and a lifetimes supply of spinach for saving another Popeye




This slightly concerned me - you didn't lube ALL the mechs did you ??? That can cause all sorts of gunky hell issues.
In general pinball machines run dry. Exceptions are motor gears, and sometimes a tiny bit at hinge points . The manual will always point out where needed, if at all.

All the mechs it mentions in the manual I should have said , (animal ramp kicker, ball feeder, slingshot pivots).

Anyone with a popeye able to check the coil on the rear right popper as above would be appreciated.

 

[clarkey]

A month has passed and been busy getting all the lights working, had to replace a lot of sockets that looked like this.



Much better



Spent some time trying to get the DCS sound to work, all the eeproms verify correctly, getting 10 bongs that most posts online suggest is ram. I picked up some new ram, removed and socketed the old ones (checked continuity of all pins using schematics after) but no joy.



New RAM (yes did the restrap for larger size)


For now picked up a used working DCS card and moved the roms over so have sound, would like to come back to fixing the other in time.

After that I have one electrical issue left and that is with the upper left flipper hold, have checked all the wiring, coil, diode transistors etc and can't see any issues. I need to try grounding out the transistors but need to read up a bit on fliptronics 2 first.

Got a raised insert to deal with, what is the best way, I have seen people using heat and gently tapping them back into place?




Picked up some new apron cards. So apart from the couple of niggles it's mostly up and running and as a family we have put a ton of time into actually playing it. My current best score is around 530 million but not yet made it to save Olive mode (find the bluto companies the hardest to beat).

 

[s000m]

Dear God, that corrosion made my Shadow look good!

 

[clarkey]

Dear God, that corrosion made my Shadow look good!

Thankfully it was down one long piece top to bottom (could see how it had dripped) so although it was bad it was isolated enough that it didn't feel hopeless.

 

[Sgt GrizZ]

but not yet made it to save Olive mode (find the bluto companies the hardest to beat).

Yeah 2 are pretty easy and 2 are tougher , I think the oils drums one was the toughest ?

Best bet is stack them into Multiball

 

[clarkey]

Yeah 2 are pretty easy and 2 are tougher , I think the oils drums one was the toughest ?

Best bet is stack them into Multiball

Will give that a try

 

[Sgt GrizZ]

Will give that a try

Here’s what I said in my GrizZ guide https://www.pinballinfo.com/communi...opeye-the-good-the-bad-and-the-spinach.34036/ ….


———————————————————
I'd say defeating the Cartels is one of the harder aspects of the game to complete. If I am aiming for Wizard Mode then I'll concentrate on these first.

You can attempt each fight multiple times, but of course you need to relight the 'Fight Cartel'. When you do so the 'Ding ding' boxing noise will also alert you.

A few tips ......

2 of the modes ..... Spill Co Oil and Earth Pavers ....are considerably easier to win due to the fact that the Pops Bumpers count as shots - sometimes flinging it straight into the pops will do the job .

The other 2 .... Never Green Logging and Blutonium Waste ....always seem much tougher , the Pops are not active for them.

You can stack a Fight Cartel mode into Multiball. This is a VERY good idea, I'll always try to start a Fight before a MB.

 

[Jay Walker]

Re. Fliptronic II, the symptom of a failed Hold winding is for the flipper to kick twice when the button is held, then turn off. As if it's going to 'chatter' as with the conventional type, but the software stops that. One of work's Getaways did this out of the box.

The Fliptronic set-ups have each winding driven separately - the power windings have 2-stage drive, the '122' device switches a heavier '36C' transistor, while the hold windings only have a 122. AFAIK, it's okay to ground the metal tab of the relevant transistor, to establish if the circuit through the coil, wiring and connectors is intact. This won't prove anything about the transistor itself, just narrow down the problem to electrical (coil, wiring) or electronic.

 

[Max]

Re the insert, I've dealt with several sunken inserts just using a rubber mallet and sockets as a drift, tapped up from underneath harder and harder until they eventually moved up slightly above the pf surface, then just used a small block of soft wood and mallet to tap back down flush. This was slightly nerve wracking the first time but I have re-levelled at least 15 inserts this way (diamond plate pfs) and have had no issues. In your case obviously I'd just tap down level with a wooden block and mallet.

I didn't apply any heat either, I don't really see the logic in that as inserts are only pressed in as far as I know and I would think heat would have the opposite to desired effect tbh.. I'm sure someone can chime on the reasoning behind applying heat.

Edit: Just read on pinside that apparently Williams etc used wood glue on inserts, so a little heat is probably a good idea.

 

[clarkey]

Re. Fliptronic II, the symptom of a failed Hold winding is for the flipper to kick twice when the button is held, then turn off. As if it's going to 'chatter' as with the conventional type, but the software stops that. One of work's Getaways did this out of the box.

The Fliptronic set-ups have each winding driven separately - the power windings have 2-stage drive, the '122' device switches a heavier '36C' transistor, while the hold windings only have a 122. AFAIK, it's okay to ground the metal tab of the relevant transistor, to establish if the circuit through the coil, wiring and connectors is intact. This won't prove anything about the transistor itself, just narrow down the problem to electrical (coil, wiring) or electronic.

Thanks I will look into trying it, it chatters in game, out of game in the test menu it's just unresponsive, I have checked the wiring etc and checked for voltage during test (nothing) will try the grounding technique.

Re the insert, I've dealt with several sunken inserts just using a rubber mallet and sockets as a drift, tapped up from underneath harder and harder until they eventually moved up slightly above the pf surface, then just used a small block of soft wood and mallet to tap back down flush. This was slightly nerve wracking the first time but I have re-levelled at least 15 inserts this way (diamond plate pfs) and have had no issues. In your case obviously I'd just tap down level with a wooden block and mallet.

I didn't apply any heat either, I don't really see the logic in that as inserts are only pressed in as far as I know and I would think heat would have the opposite to desired effect tbh.. I'm sure someone can chime on the reasoning behind applying heat.

Edit: Just read on pinside that apparently Williams etc used wood glue on inserts, so a little heat is probably a good idea.

Thanks for this, I will give that a go, I need to lift the rear deck again so will have a go when I do.

 

[Jay Walker]

There should be voltage present at each of the coil terminals whenever the machine is powered up; the switching (by transistor in this case, or directly by the button and relay in the conventional set-up) takes place on the return side. The transistor switches On and conducts to complete the circuit to ground. Both windings operate to raise the flipper, with the power winding only pulsed for a moment. It then switches off, leaving the hold winding to keep the flipper raised. If that isn't working, the EoS switch opening again will switch the power winding once more, but only once.

 

[clarkey]

Just a a small update to say the machine is essentially done, been up and running now for several weeks, put some new glass in, a little bit of tweaking done with some optos and a few iffy bulb sockets but they seem good now. I still need to sort the upper left flipper hold but will spend some time on that over the winter (currently working on another machine and doing a lot cabinet work so making the most of the nice weather. Thanks for all the help and tips been really useful in my first repair/resto.

 

[Gonzo]

Well done mate.

I've got a lot of love for this game. I could hit the orbits/loops all day on Popeye.

Nice to see a machine rescued

 

[Mozie]

Looks great, fair play

 

[clarkey]

Well done mate.

I've got a lot of love for this game. I could hit the orbits/loops all day on Popeye.

Nice to see a machine rescued

Thanks, the loops get upto some crazy speeds, my son has the loop record and we can only manage four before the ball is going so quick the rebuilt flippers launch it off across the playfield into the glass or a top corner .

 

[Max]

I thought this was beyond saving, looks lovely - great work!

 

[replicas]

Great work saving a pinball machine even if it is a Popeye.

 

[Sgt GrizZ]

Great work saving a pinball machine even if it is a Popeye.

I heard that

 

[clarkey]

I really don't get the hate for poor Popeye, I can appreciate if you wandered up to it in arcade and had a few goes it would be very confusing but once you know the rules and gameplay loops it's extremely addictive (imo).