Complete Mars Trek

[We Gone]

Well here we go. I have had this for about 30 years and never messed with it (time and general lack of know-how) This may be a long term project so bear with me. My photo skills are not the best but I put lots.

Update #1 Nov. 26 2015
(still waiting on Manual and small parts)
Everything on the playing field removed and cleaned along with field. have cleaned all contacts took all day lots of those buggers! Everything I trip manually works. The more I work things the better they work, next will be plungers some seem to be a bit slow or weak.

Still trying to get a handle on what does who! as most the labels are missing so a lot of trial and watch. I can get the coin part to see a coin loaded but still can't get the start button to work may be something out of time. I found what relay to trip and can start a game and get the ball to eject to the plunger all switches and bumpers work when tripped, but no ball count. Hope the book will shed some light on the sequence of operation.

Nov. 28 2015
Have most the parts back on, all the play field bulbs replaced. It works ...at least most of it.
Just a few issues left to sort out. All the chimes are working!
1. Still can't get the start button to work.
2. Only one player works and no ball count, bit it always returns the ball !!!
3. Once bonus is tripped I have to reset everything as it won't stop counting.. So I blocked the bonus hole for now.

Dec. 4 2015
Everything back together and fully operational, found a few more broken wires some sticking level assembly's.... Plays Great....

First day.....Ohh, I did plug it up and stand back!! Yes it works after some contact points were cleaned, well most of it....

Goals.. Not many
1. Get it to work (will be a learning process)
2. Clean up & replace any parts necessary.
3. Play the crap out of it!!!!

Out of storage does not look to bad.




Got it inside for a good look.

Playing field looks in great shape

Startin the tear down.




Nov. 25th

Th clean-up continues... until I get the elec. issues resolved.





Clean and waxed.


Lots of bits and pieces....


Nov. 28 At least we can play it now..

 

[cooldan]

Wtf! It's still outside?
Bring it in!

 

[new forest pinball]

Nice yard dude.......pinball looks pretty tidy too!.....

 

[carl lawrence]

Nice looking machine. and its sunny over there , its been raining all day here

 

[We Gone]

OK first stupid question.... How do you change it to free play?? Having lots of issues with the coin set-up so for now I unplugged it (lower left corner) and can only get it play by tripping a relay lower right by red brush . And what is the black 2-wire connector in this pic under the fuse block center?

 

[We Gone]

Nice looking machine. and its sunny over there , its been raining all day here

In the 50's here today I live in the Eastern southern US Ga. way out in the country!!

 

[Paul]

I was gonna say - i noticed the Sun - didnt take long to suddenly click you you were in a different country

 

[ronsplooter]

Nice looking Mars Trek Cab looks in great shape which is unusual for an original. Re: free play, there should be a credit reel unit in the backbox (it'll show the number of credits on the game through a small square window). You can add credits by manually moving this reel to be something other than zero.

To make the game proper freeplay, have a look at this unit and activate it by hand. You should see a switch on the unit that activates when the credit reel goes to zero. It's likely that the switch is normally closed and goes open when the count hits zero. Rig this switch so that it doesn't open at zero position and the game will think you've always got credits on it and is then basically on free play

 

[We Gone]

Major snag... parts book does not show. can anyone help? There are 3 of these type counters one in the pic hung from the play field, the other 2 on center of cabinet floor all look to have the same gear missing teeth.

 

[J.C.Rox]

Missing teeth? Ask @cooldan.....

 

[Moonraker]

Major snag... parts book does not show. can anyone help? There are 3 of these type counters one in the pic hung from the play field, the other 2 on center of cabinet floor all look to have the same gear missing teeth.

Do you know of anyone who has a 3D printer...?

 

[Spandangler]

Can you 3D print Dan a new face

 

[cooldan]

Thanks Jon. That's not me by the way. Back on topic, can those gears be obtained nowadays? Are they generic items in EMs or specific to this title?

 

[Moonraker]

I think the answer is to speak direct to pinball resource and ask for a stepper unit cog (notice the spring kits for EM pinballs). It is probably a re-branded Williams part. Plus they have lots of other parts like new rubbers, etc. Send them a photo of the one with the missing teeth (not Dan) and I'm sure they'll be able to help.

http://www.pbresource.com/pfparts.html

 

[We Gone]

Well this shows how much I don't know about these things but here goes (this is why I'm here)

Does anyone have an assembly similar to this that could take a look and see if the plastic gear is like this. I have cleaned all 3 and watched them working they are spring loaded and as they move (count) they turn a rotating switch. At some point they have to unwind (turn back to the original position) have not been able to get that part working so I just unload them by griping the latches. The area they stop (fully wound up) at is where the teeth are missing. I think I'll let it go for the Holidays and start back after. Thanks for your help so far


What the gear turns.This is on the Bonus Unit
The other two are called
Ball count Unit
Coin Unit ( I may not need this one?) as I am going to set up as free play.

 

[We Gone]

I think the answer is to speak direct to pinball resource and ask for a stepper unit cog (notice the spring kits for EM pinballs). It is probably a re-branded Williams part. Plus they have lots of other parts like new rubbers, etc. Send them a photo of the one with the missing teeth (not Dan) and I'm sure they'll be able to help.

http://www.pbresource.com/pfparts.html

Thanks for the link I had not run across them yet, I will do that.

 

[Nedreud]

Great looking pin @We Gone (and nice looking yard too). Never seen a MARS TREK before but I'm a sucker for retro space themes with space ships and rockets.

Definitely worth hooking up with PBResource, they seem to have pretty much everything. They have way way more stuff in stock than they list online. Quite hard for us to deal with hear in the UK as they're not setup for international orders via credit cards or PayPal etc. Very old school, they even suggest sending cash for small international orders!

 

[Jay Walker]

Well this shows how much I don't know about these things but here goes (this is why I'm here)

Does anyone have an assembly similar to this that could take a look and see if the plastic gear is like this. I have cleaned all 3 and watched them working they are spring loaded and as they move (count) they turn a rotating switch. At some point they have to unwind (turn back to the original position) have not been able to get that part working so I just unload them by griping the latches. The area they stop (fully wound up) at is where the teeth are missing. I think I'll let it go for the Holidays and start back after. Thanks for your help so far

Hi,

The wheels may be meant to have those teeth missing - in the event of a malfunction where the advance coil kept pulsing, it wouldn't be able to over-wind the unit.

The black component next to the fuses on the motor panel looks like a line voltage power outlet.

The upper area of the playfield, with an eject hole and rollover lanes at a bizarre angle, pre-dates the similar but reversed arrangement on Bally's late 70's Star Trek.

 

[We Gone]

Jay, Thanks for the information. So far I can manually trip all the relays and everything works, waiting on some parts before reassembly.

Updated original post with current status.

 

[We Gone]

Few updates in first post.

 

[We Gone]

Done.... Works Great.