Complete Bally Playboy - Pinfest 2024 candidate?

[AlanJ]

I Picked this up a few months ago, been sitting patiently in the garage awaiting attention.


The cab has been horribly repainted:



It should look like this:


I bought it of a chap who has had it for over 30 years, about 15 years ago he bought a set of stencils in order to re-do the cab, but he never got around to it. He sold the stencils as part of the deal, but I'm not sure they will work, being so old.... we will find out later!

All boards are there:


The rectifier board has been hacked with wires soldered to the header pins and some of the head cab wiring has been extended.....yuk:


Before I do a full refurb on the cab, I thought it might be nice to get it up and running and take along to pinfest in August this year.

First job is to get a new rectifier board - and I already have one:


Today I'll move the pin from the garage into the pin room, set it up on legs and get the head on, then remove the rectifier and transformer. The rectifier board on these early Bally SS games requires 12 wires to be soldered from the transformer to the rear of the rectifier board. Not the best design!

I'll then need to sort out the wires to the 3 rectifier headers and re-pin them.

 

[stevebm1]

looks like the playfield has survived quite well,has the original cab artwork been painted over,or is it in the weong cab?

 

[AlanJ]

Original cab has been painted over.

 

[AlanJ]

Found a nos flipper coil in the bottom of the cab, but i can see i’m probably going to need it:



The wiring and connectors to the rectifier board is well dodgy





Took the transformer and rectifier out:


I hooked it up to 230v and tested it. very odd readings. the 7v ac is at 13v? the 44v dc is only at 22v. the 11.9v dc is at 5v and the 230v dc is at 158!!!

I checked the wiring on the back, and all correct, so are the ac transformer voltages, so it’s time to swap in the new rectifier board.

hmm:


The backbox and everything in it is covered in black dirt- like something set on fire at some point in the past. The main cab is ok though. It’s absolutely filthy!

I replaced the rectifier board and repinned all 3 connectors. The funny coloured wire extensions are staying for the time being.

i checked all voltages correct before connecting up j1 and j3.





Powered up. GI and a locked on mpu led. at least there was no boom or magic smoke

 

[replicas]

Fun game ,

 

[AlanJ]

Tried a few things to get the mpu to boot but it’s not booting. led locked on


So took the mpu and the sdb boards out to take a closer look



A bit of corrosion on the bottom of the mpu, but it looks pretty fair, no cracked headers and so i’ll clean up the headers and run some tests. I’ve got a bench test rig I built so I can test on the bench.

Sdb board looks fine too, but a few cracked headers need reflowing.



I tested all the coils and all are fine except the burnt out right flipper.

Plan for today is to get the mpu booting. If I can’t sort it easily, I’ll pop in. brand new mpu board I have spare.

 

[AlanJ]

Progress. I’ve now fixed the mpu board and it’s booting. I can start a game and got switches scoring and sounds. no flippers or solenoids.

I repinned j4 on sdb as not getting good readings



Still not getting the correct solenoid signals. At first i suspected U11 PIA on the mpu board, but it is generating sounds which use the same pia outputs as the solenoids. I tested u11 outputs and all ok. With j4 sdb disconnected the mpu is generating correct signals.

as soon as i plug in j4 sdb, the signals go funny.

I’ve come to the concluding u4 ca3081 is duff and so is us 74ls154, i suspect u1 and u3 might be too.

U4 is standalone, so i’ll replace that and see if i can get the flipper enable relay to work as that’s controlled by u4




not often i’ve got 5 soldering tools on the bench at once!

 

[AlanJ]

Replaced U4 on sdb and tried it.


I was pretty sure I’d got this sorted, but the flipper enable relay still doesn’t switch on when I start a game. Although I can trigger it by grounding U4 pin 3, which didn’t work before so U4 was deffo duff, but I still have another issue.

The flipper enable signal comes to u4 from the mpu u11 pia and specifically pin 16, which i’ve already tested and pin16 is going low when a game is started.Hmm. I’ve checked the wiring between mpu and sdb and that’s fine.

I next tested the output on the mpu j4 header pin 7 - this has no high or low output at all ????? Very strange.

U11 p16 goes via a resistor to j4, checking both sides of the resistor and again no signal high or low.

U11 is situated at the bottom of the pcb and there is a bit of corrosion about. I tested continuity between u11 pin 16 and its ic socket pin on the pcb ——zilch ! so looks like it’s a faulty ic socket! These are 40 pin chips so bit of a pain to remove. but it’s looking that way!

I also did a bit more testing of the other outputs on u11 and it looks like there may be issues with some of the other pins that control the solenoid data. I’ve also noticed some of the sounds are a bit odd, and these use the same data lines. I think i’m onto it .

 

[AlanJ]

here’s the dodgy socket


i carefully cut it off


then desoldered each pin. On these old mpu boards it’s easy to lose pads and traces.


I took the above pic so i have a reference to where each pin goes to, so once the new socket is installed i can check all 40 pins are properly connected up.


New socket in and all pins now have continuity to the pcb! yey!

Popped it back into the game and result! we now have solenoids!

before i flip the right flipper, the coil needs swapping. thus one is burnt and a dead short.


A closer look in the cab and under the playfield reveals the same coating of smoke on everything. It could possibly have been this burned up flipper coil?

 

[AlanJ]

Burnt out flipper replaced and a new EOS switch fitted because the old one was burned up too.


Quite a few lamps out, so first job is to test the lamp driver board



All 70 circuits tested ok, which is a first ever for me with these lamp driver boards

The non working lamps were caused by dodgy lamp sockets, one blown bulb, and the majority by dodgy header connections. I cleaned and repinned to get them all going.

Added a memory capacitor to the mpu board


Game is now fully working. Yey!

Tomorrow I’ll have a good look at the stencils for tge cabinet to see if they are useable.

 

[AlanJ]

Got the stencils out.


They’re only 17.5 years old. !!!!!

I’ll flatten them out and examine once they’re flat - might take a few days given they’ve been rolled up for so long!

 

[Big Phil]

Can you iron them on a low heat or something?

 

[AlanJ]

Can you iron them on a low heat or something?

dunno - i’ve unrolled them and put some heavy books on top to help flatten them.

 

[AlanJ]

The standup targets not registering very well. the usual case of cut off capacitors. soon sorted with new ones.



The repainted cab is doing my nut in :


So it’s time to dismantle and get this sorted. If my decals don’t work i’ll just buy new pinball pimp ones.

 

[AlanJ]

Head strip out - boy this thing looks like it was a heavy smoker


Those pcb support rails should be bright shiny metal they are almost black with smoke and dirt!


yukky.

The insert door rear is also very smokey! you can see how while it should be where i’ve removed the wire p-clips.


the front side is slightly less black


I’m hoping this muck might come off using evaporust? If not i’ve got a lot of metal cleaning and polishing to do!
Never seen a pin so filthy black inside like this

 

[AlanJ]

Both stripped out




The side rails are proving difficult to remove. I’ll move the cab into garage tomorrow and try some other tools

 

[Mfresh]

These bad boys are what I use. Always gets those pesky siderail nails out in no time…

C.S. Osborne No.93 Flush Cut Shoemakers Pincers - Hwebber

The Osborne No.93 Flush Cut Shoemakers Pincers - a rugged forged steel pincer for heavy cutting. Polished flush cut jaws for getting close to a flat surface

hwebber.co.uk

 

[AlanJ]

Coin door is covered in black muck too. time to pull it all apart


those streak marks on the lhs were also in the cab and the walls of the backbox. almost as if water has run down the smoke stains? No idea what caused all this black smoke? and why it’s then streaked?

 

[Moonraker]

I'm thinking condensation and that it used to live in a hot, sweaty pub...

 

[stevebm1]

I'm thinking condensation and that it used to live in a hot, sweaty pub...

or hot sweaty brothel,given it's theme

 

[AlanJ]

Im going to ask the prev owner, he didnt look like a Brothel owner, but you never know.

 

[AlanJ]

Coin door in bits. rusty parts soaking overnight in evaporust


Sorted out parts into various boxes




Rest of today is all about cleaning wiring looms and screws and bits of metal and plastic.

I tried some acetone on the paint over paintwork but it’s non reactive, probably some sort of water based paint rather than oil based, so looks like a heavy sanding job later this week if the weather if good.

 

[AlanJ]

These bad boys are what I use. Always gets those pesky siderail nails out in no time…

C.S. Osborne No.93 Flush Cut Shoemakers Pincers - Hwebber

The Osborne No.93 Flush Cut Shoemakers Pincers - a rugged forged steel pincer for heavy cutting. Polished flush cut jaws for getting close to a flat surface

hwebber.co.uk

Thanks Paul, I recall you mentioned these before. I’ve bought a pair. Not cheap but they are very solidly made. Arrived today. I’ll have a go tomorrow as cabinet currently undergoing some glueing:

 

[Mfresh]

never seen an adjustable spanner used as clamps before. Good idea!

 

[AlanJ]

Boring jobs underway. cleaning metal etc.




Painted up the insert door


needs another coat tomorrow.

 

[AlanJ]

Paint removal day. Got off to a good start until my orbital sander gave up! Changed the brushes and it worked for about 5 more minutes and then gave up completely.

Had to finish off with my multi tool.






I fully sanded the insides as well as the outside of each cab.

Next job is fill in the holes and dinks and missing bits of wood.

 

[AlanJ]

Filler time





Also awaiting delivery of a new random orbital sander

 

[AlanJ]

priming, sanding, filling, repeat…

 

[AlanJ]

Underside of the pf is filthy with smoke debris


cleans up ok though


insert done


cabinet still in the garage - slow work in the cold

 

[AlanJ]

Tried applying the stencils. what a nightmare. they are so old and the adhesives have gone off. the backing paper came off the stencil ok, but the low tack adhesion that is supposed to be on the actual stencil has lost some of its effectiveness, so isn’t sticking so well. Worse still the clear plastic backing layer is some sort of tough polythene on these stencils and it is really well glued to the stencil, making it really hard to peel away. It’s taken me about 5 hours to get 3 cabinet stencils onto the woodwork. normally it would be around 45 mins work!

i’ve now got to figure out how to stop them lifting before applying the pink paint…….





This won’t be a perfect paint job. but at least it will be better than: