Cleaning/Fixing Lamp Holders

[Andrew65]

I have a number of lamp holders on the playfield that work intermittently on a Bally Lost World. I have hit them with switch cleaner and some have come back to life but some are stubborn and end up half lit, not lit at all, or work intermittently.

Any hints for fixing/cleaning/repairing the lamp holders or should I just bin them and stop being a cheap skate and buy some new ones?

Cheers,
Andrew

 

[ronsplooter]

Have you got a dremel type tool? If so buzz them out with a sanding tube attachment If they're still causing you problems after that then you can solder one of the wires directly to the teat on the back (there's info on the net showing pics of this). If they still play up then replace them.

 

[replicas]

Save yourself the trouble and buy new.

 

[DRD]

Old chestnut this one. I have faced this problem with bally paragon, the sister game of your lost world. With all due respect, games like paragon and lost world are not that valuable so unless you are loaded think carefully before spending too much on your refurb

Purists will say replace them. But at maybe £1.50 a time the costs soon add up. Also they are very awkward to solder on these old ballys as one of the bulb's terminals will be soldered to stapled cables on the underside of the pf. If you ate doing a mass replacement, take the playfield out and flip it over. This will make it so much easier

I would say if the game is a keeper, or if you are a perfectionist, replace them.

Otherwise if you do not mind the odd one going every now and again, clean them, see how you go.

1. Clean the bulbs with iso proply alcohol, scrape the lead base on a rough surface like an old towel
2. Clean the internals of the holders per @ronsplooter
3. Clean the contact point of the spring at the bottom with this type of wood drill, a "brad point"

I tried cleaning. This dealt with it for a while. But I ended up replacing about 10 of them with the playfield in situ as Paragon is a long termer for me