Complete Bally Sky Kings EM

[Biff]

I have a league meet in a few weeks. Always conscious that i don't have enough machines for people to play. I got the Sky Kings from a group member a long time ago, no worker seemed complete at the time - just never got around to sorting it out.

So i set myself a challenge to get it going - not the usual 100% strip down i normally do - but enough to play and be reliable in time for the meet.

Will need a new power cord, been nibbled, full of blown and wrong size fuses so probably a mech or two sticking somewhere and very dusty inside.

Any way for those doing the Midland league meet in late Feb the machines available will be:

Mr and Mrs Pac Man - solid sate
Night Moves - Solid State
Aerobatics - EM
Wizard - EM
Nautilus - EM
Circus - EM
Farfalla - Solid State
Starwars - DM (borrowed from Robby)
and Sky Kings - EM - hopefully...

Also to play - MAME arcade cab
Star wars - Upright Arcade Cab
Battle Zone - Cabaret
PS4 VR

 

[strobey]

Can't wait!

 

[Deleted member 2463]

thats a league meet round with a difference for sure!

 

[Biff]

Also forgot to add we have the Rodeo EM rifle game as well. Rufus is still not up and running though... ;-)

 

[Biff]

A bit more stripping and cleaning, found a 1948 two shilling piece and a 1973 10p, same year as the wife's birthday: -



One of the best back glasses i have ever seen for a machine of this age: -

Everything has had a blast of compressed air to lift the dust, will hoover the cab out, then drop an earth braid round the edge to pick up the metal work - have to be safe, right kids

A few burnt coils but they check out okay. I think will strip the main mechs including score reals and degrease and relube where needed.

I found a lost contact floating around in the base board, might be why there is a bunch of blown fuses - will see...

I need to photoshop and replace the spinner decoration, badly worn. I will replace the pop bumper metal rings and get some new balls fnaar.

Stay tuned...

 

[Biff]

A bit of a hoover and compressed air, and some brading to pick up the earth on the extraneous conductive parts...

 

[Biff]

Still does not feel right not stripping it to bare bones, but as long as mechs are free and contacts clean and aliened shoudl be fine.

I uses the brushes to clean and the grit pad: -

Before

After


Chime unit plungers are knackered, the nylon rods have been pushed into plungers.

I had three spare from a previous unused refurb of Captain Fantastic -coils bell out fine, despite looking like the outside of a cigar...

After cleaning up the bottom panel & replacing the supply flex I took the liberty of powering it up to test if the score motor works - works fine


Incidentally take care when working on some of these older pins, fuses are not always in the line conductor this EM has a fuse for the supply in the neutral, also the switch is before the fuse. I left it like that as that is how it is shown on the wiring diagram -


I need to replace the left flipper switch, it's a bit melted. I have some DIY make your own which i will use to repair and replace: -


Panel fitted and conections made.

Next the head

 

[J.C.Rox]

My dad will love seeing this, you got it from him in Guildford, he got it in auction but didnt have a clue and neither did I with EMs ( ummm those fuses for example ) silly sod broke his hip last week so seeing this amazing restoration work will cheer him up big time! Great work, lovely to see!

 

[Biff]

My dad will love seeing this, you got it from him in Guildford, he got it in auction but didnt have a clue and neither did I with EMs ( ummm those fuses for example ) silly sod broke his hip last week so seeing this amazing restoration work will cheer him up big time! Great work, lovely to see!

That's terrible, so sorry to hear! he is a nice guy, in a band right? Please give him my best. It will be going to Pinfest (assuming they still want a bunch of EMs there ) so do get him to come a long to have a blast. Give him my best please. I will do a video nearer completion as well so he can see it in action.

 

[J.C.Rox]

Thanks mate I'll pass it on, he's doing OK, just driving my mum up the wall 24/7 but there's nothing new there!

 

[Biff]

Swapping out the left flipper button contacts should have been easy. Would have been if the screws had not sheered...

Got one out with a pair of mole grips, the other just kept sheering until nothing left sticking out. So had to drill around the screw and extract with some long nose plyers. Then got a bit of 9mm dowl, drilled a 9mm hole, filled it with some PVA shoved it in then sanded it down - just waiting for the new screws to arrive to refit teh3 contact...





Now the head, starting with eth score reals...


A Williams score reel plunger in a Bally score reel... No wonder it was a bit of a pig to remove...

What no score reels...

I scanned the spinner, then touched it up in photo shop with a Waco pen tablet, then sent a the pic to my friendly neighbourhood printer.
Before new stickers applied..

After.

A rumbling sound in the garage must mean a load of metal work is now being tumbled....
Next will be a couple of mechs in the back box, clean up the relay contacts, Jones plugs, check for bodges, bust wires and botherations; then clean out the lamp holders and refit the score reels.

 

[Biff]

Very lucky. i have an entire day for Sky Kings. More updates tonight, all being well.

 

[Biff]

This is and continues to be my little hole in the garage to do my work on this Pinball - nightmare…

 

[Biff]

Busy bunny today and the odd hour or two during the week. Bonus stepper, Very gunked up, spring over wound to try and compensate for the gunk, badly burned coil - still showed correct resistance, but needed to replace it, a broken coil stop - must have been like that for years as it was smoothed off either end - i have to say this is indicative of a lot of this machine, looks okay on the out side but lifting rock reveals problems .





Nice and clean now, responsive and no sticking - new coil and stop.



Worn down to the wood on the left pop bumper a bit of art attack and a Mylar ring you would never know it was there.



The rubber rings for these are 7/16 by the way, a large adjustable spanner the other side of the playfield to remove.




Another broken contact, good job i have a selection of contacts, and thickness of leafs... The one on the EoS is the one I made, the ones in my fingers are the ones i took off.


Whilst clean inserts and re lamping under playfield lamps, some of the inserts started popping out - will re-glue another day for now let's just pop them back in where they came from



Very messy playfiled.





After about a liter of 99% Isopropyl Alcohol and a 100 magic erasers ...

Finished off with some Carnauba wax, but i will need to go again with some Novus 2 then rewax. It will never be 100% but i would like a bot of a shine. One thing is very clear this machine has seen a lot of action... It has had quite a few operator repairs and make goods on it and the playfiled has seen many, many plays.

Anyone want to guess at how many plays it has had? At time of writing, I have genuinly not looked at it yet.




The head has been completely stripped and i running out of time. I am away for a few ds this week with the family so the head is coming with us so i can do some rebuild work while we are away

 

[Biff]

By the way here is a copy of the red / white diamond, digitally remastered in Dolby prologic surround sound 26...

They will be sent to IPDB, but can i ask that if you use these ones, to donate £5.00 to Andys run: -

Running for Cancer Research

I’m running 56 miles throughout February to raise money for Cancer Research. Any donations would be greatly appreciated if this is a cause that you value. (It’s also motivating me to keep my running up) Thanks Andy...

www.pinballinfo.com

Cheers
JB

 

[Biff]

Dedication for you. A couple of days in Derby. Dedication for you… bring the head with us.., wife is over the moon…

 

[Biff]

A few ciders later… score reels re installed.

 

[Biff]

Head done…

 

[Pudsey pinball]

Oh I’m sure she is thrilled!!!!!!!
Got life insurance??!

 

[Biff]

It’s alive! Kind of. Have some bugs and i think a burnt out score real coil. Dam Bally bonus steppers ate super twitchy…

 

[Biff]

Yea score real coil fried as well as a hand full of tricky to trace issues - but all sorted now. Might need the odd gap tweaking still

I added a couple of bits of Mylar to the captive balls, as they had warn down to the wood.








I must admit i think Bally must have been harder for engineers to maintain than Williams, everything seems against you - mechanics seem clunky, lamp holders odd, lamps buried under reams of plastic and metal work...

Not impressed i have to say. Fortunately the game is good fun though, you can play in add a ball mode, extra ball or points.

Anyway please see you tube link below of it working. Cinderella shall go to the ball...

Fin...