I have enjoyed playing pinball for as long as I can remember but back in my first job there was a pub nearby that had a TAF. We started off going for lunch but then it became after work and eventually I went back at the weekends. From that point, 12 years ago, I wanted a TAF and would check out prices every so often to see if I could afford one. One thing putting me off was the maintenance but also the space it would require. Last month a series of events triggered me buying an ex-arcade machine off someone who I have known for a quite a while but somehow never found out what his job was.
He has a lot of games that get moved about so recommended a Preston firm to move the machine from Hull to my house near Watford. It was agreed that it would arrive on Tuesday the 27th of March and I took a few days away from work, one to prepare the house, another to take delivery and set it up and a third to spend a day playing. Mid morning on the 27th I was told that the lorry was packed the wrong way round and my machine would not be delivered until the 28th, maybe the 29th. I quickly took the 29th off as well. Then on the 28th I was called to say that he hoped to be with me by 18:00 but it might be the 29th. Later that day I was told that the driver, lorry and table were heading back up north as his father had suffered a heart attack.
Delivery was re-arranged for the 2nd of April at 07:00, to be with me before work. So this post marks one week with the TAF.
This is my first pinball table so I am learning as I go and this site has been very helpful in help and advice.
So one week ago the machine arrived and we man handle it up three steps to my front door, we then have measured the back box and already know it won't go into the kitchen and we can't see how we can sort that out so it gets left in the hall way. Whilst I go to work, the girlfriend was somehow not annoyed she couldn't use the downstairs toilet.
I remembered reading a post somewhere of someone who had removed their back box to get the table down some stairs so I decided to do that. I got home and got started but not before I took pictures of how many wires there were. I started removing all the clips but then realised that it was not going to be that simple due to wires that did not need to be disconnected were cable tied to those that did. If I cut those cable tires, I was going to end up with a mess of wires with not obvious plan of where they went.
My girlfriend came home at this point and asked why I don't leave the cables connected and just undo the bolts to the box and turn it slightly so it would slide through. I didn't want to do this on my own and so she helped. A few minutes later I had the machine in the kitchen and a back box with all the clips still disconnected. I used my pictures to re-home them though wasn't 100% sure on one.
I tentatively fired it up and there was no smoke but also no flippers. I turned it off, checked again and found a clip was not seated and then had both moving but the right one got stuck. OK, I can sort that out later, get the legs on. Not nearly as hard a job as I had expected, had a little help from a chair.
Now to see what the stuck flipper problem was. The bracket holding the coil had suffered from fatigue and broke.
One quick bodge with some washers and it was functioning so now to play some ball, just to see what else needed attention. OK, the GF got to play and I got to watch and check.
So it played but was much darker than I remembered, there were obvious bulbs not working so I started the next evening with checking and swapping them out. This fix a few but not all and a full maintenance day available until good Friday when the GF was going to work.
Fixes
Good Friday arrived and a new coil bracket was fitted first and the outside of the table cleaned a bit more. The right flipper feels weaker now but it is using a red coil, a orange one will be ordered.
I noticed that the thing flipper wasn't being activated, not sure it was even being triggered. I rechecked the wiring in the back box and the wiring diagram, and changed the white/blue wires from the extra flipper board (J901-1-2, pins 1&2) from J105 on the power driver board for J104 as it showed that was a breaker. Still not thing flip, so cleaned the sensor, still not thing flip but it did show me a broken wire to the opto board. Took that apart and soldered it back on and we had a thing flip.
Whilst refitting I checked the switch for the lower jet which didn't work, a little bending fixed it.
Then I took as much as I dared off the table to clean and replace the hard to reach bulbs and rubbers.
I expect to have to do this again at some point as I clearly didn't clean it enough as the rubbers are getting dirty but the old ones were perished in places.
The remaining non-working bulbs were, the yellow Thing bulb, the center left jet and a lot of the mansion bulbs. Starting with the mansion I noticed that they were fed from the same Yellow-green return. So either that wire was faulty or the pin on the pcb was.
.
It is hard to see but the pin on the far right is the return and it appeared fine but there was a hidden crack. After a lot of checking I convinced myself to re-solder the joint and that fixed that problem.
That brought 8 mansion lights back into action which allows me to actually work out the game play.
Next I took off the Thing light plastic and checked the wires. This time it was a faulty diode in the red-violet feed wire. Easter Sunday had me visiting the parents so a quick rummage through the old mans spares found me what I needed. That was fitted last night.
This morning I tackled the center left jet bumper light. This always looked like the hardest of the fixes I had for the long weekend. Due to the staples on the solid metal strips, I carefully removed the bumper parts which has a crack in the screw hole and also found that the steel armature link on the coil speing (01-5492) was snapped when it flew off into my face. More parts for the list.
Carefully opening the screws, I un-soldered the wires and lifted the bulb holder and center plastic cap out to clearly see the bulb holder and wire had become separated. It had been repaired before but that had not survived. I cleaned up the old solder, slid in the metal strip to the bulb holder and reapplied some solder to hold it. That should do it for now. Re-assembly was a nightmare due to the broken armature link but I got it back together.
During all this I ran out of bulbs so have four non working #44 lamps but they will go on the next parts order.
Issues
The ball occasionally falls off the wire ramp return since I removed the plastic ramps. I keep adjusting it too much and it then falls off the other side.
FIXED: The dot matrix is missing the bottom line.
FIXED: There is a bulb under the center ramp at the top which is white and glares. Is the bulb wrong or should it have a coloured cover?
FIXED: Another bulb by the top left flipper is also rather bright.
FIXED: The yellow bulb from the electric chair flies off, falls in the hole and blocks the kick-out.
FIXED: The right flipper is weak since the rebuild of the base plate.
FIXED: The ball bounces all over the place since the rubber replacement.
Cracked paint on center power cloud.
Wear under return wire drop in on RHS.
FIXED: Turning the screws does not loosen the phone plastics to clean and replace the flasher lamp.
FIXED: Undoing the bolts for the electric chair do not release them so I can fit a cliffy to hide the wear and protect it.
Incorrect, broken or missing parts
Cloud topper.
FIXED: The plastic that holds the glass in place is broken.
FIXED: Missing ramp metal protector on center ramp.
FIXED: Oblong target before center ramp is shattered.
FIXED: Incorrect top right flipper.
FIXED: Book case stand is cracked, replacement is ready to go on.
FIXED: One of the front legs doesn't match, shame as it is the cleanest.
FIXED: Red coils for bottom flippers need to be replaced with orange ones.
FIXED: Sling shot plastics need replacing, Gomez is broken at both ends.
FIXED: Start/credit button is wrong.
FIXED: Lots of bulbs need refreshing.
FIXED: Blue jet cover is cracked.
FIXED: Yellow jet cover is cracked.
A tilt switch has been broken.
FIXED: Jet Pop Bumper Light wire broken
FIXED: Jet Pop Bumper metal armature link cracked
FIXED: G R E E D , E D lights intermittent
FIXED: EOS switched not wired up
Please take a look at the pictures and let me know if you spot anything else that is incorrect or missing. I have been looking at pictures but can't always see the everything covered.
He has a lot of games that get moved about so recommended a Preston firm to move the machine from Hull to my house near Watford. It was agreed that it would arrive on Tuesday the 27th of March and I took a few days away from work, one to prepare the house, another to take delivery and set it up and a third to spend a day playing. Mid morning on the 27th I was told that the lorry was packed the wrong way round and my machine would not be delivered until the 28th, maybe the 29th. I quickly took the 29th off as well. Then on the 28th I was called to say that he hoped to be with me by 18:00 but it might be the 29th. Later that day I was told that the driver, lorry and table were heading back up north as his father had suffered a heart attack.
Delivery was re-arranged for the 2nd of April at 07:00, to be with me before work. So this post marks one week with the TAF.
So one week ago the machine arrived and we man handle it up three steps to my front door, we then have measured the back box and already know it won't go into the kitchen and we can't see how we can sort that out so it gets left in the hall way. Whilst I go to work, the girlfriend was somehow not annoyed she couldn't use the downstairs toilet.
I remembered reading a post somewhere of someone who had removed their back box to get the table down some stairs so I decided to do that. I got home and got started but not before I took pictures of how many wires there were. I started removing all the clips but then realised that it was not going to be that simple due to wires that did not need to be disconnected were cable tied to those that did. If I cut those cable tires, I was going to end up with a mess of wires with not obvious plan of where they went.
My girlfriend came home at this point and asked why I don't leave the cables connected and just undo the bolts to the box and turn it slightly so it would slide through. I didn't want to do this on my own and so she helped. A few minutes later I had the machine in the kitchen and a back box with all the clips still disconnected. I used my pictures to re-home them though wasn't 100% sure on one.
I tentatively fired it up and there was no smoke but also no flippers. I turned it off, checked again and found a clip was not seated and then had both moving but the right one got stuck. OK, I can sort that out later, get the legs on. Not nearly as hard a job as I had expected, had a little help from a chair.
Now to see what the stuck flipper problem was. The bracket holding the coil had suffered from fatigue and broke.
One quick bodge with some washers and it was functioning so now to play some ball, just to see what else needed attention. OK, the GF got to play and I got to watch and check.
So it played but was much darker than I remembered, there were obvious bulbs not working so I started the next evening with checking and swapping them out. This fix a few but not all and a full maintenance day available until good Friday when the GF was going to work.
Fixes
Good Friday arrived and a new coil bracket was fitted first and the outside of the table cleaned a bit more. The right flipper feels weaker now but it is using a red coil, a orange one will be ordered.
I noticed that the thing flipper wasn't being activated, not sure it was even being triggered. I rechecked the wiring in the back box and the wiring diagram, and changed the white/blue wires from the extra flipper board (J901-1-2, pins 1&2) from J105 on the power driver board for J104 as it showed that was a breaker. Still not thing flip, so cleaned the sensor, still not thing flip but it did show me a broken wire to the opto board. Took that apart and soldered it back on and we had a thing flip.
Whilst refitting I checked the switch for the lower jet which didn't work, a little bending fixed it.
Then I took as much as I dared off the table to clean and replace the hard to reach bulbs and rubbers.
I expect to have to do this again at some point as I clearly didn't clean it enough as the rubbers are getting dirty but the old ones were perished in places.
The remaining non-working bulbs were, the yellow Thing bulb, the center left jet and a lot of the mansion bulbs. Starting with the mansion I noticed that they were fed from the same Yellow-green return. So either that wire was faulty or the pin on the pcb was.
.It is hard to see but the pin on the far right is the return and it appeared fine but there was a hidden crack. After a lot of checking I convinced myself to re-solder the joint and that fixed that problem.
That brought 8 mansion lights back into action which allows me to actually work out the game play.
Next I took off the Thing light plastic and checked the wires. This time it was a faulty diode in the red-violet feed wire. Easter Sunday had me visiting the parents so a quick rummage through the old mans spares found me what I needed. That was fitted last night.
This morning I tackled the center left jet bumper light. This always looked like the hardest of the fixes I had for the long weekend. Due to the staples on the solid metal strips, I carefully removed the bumper parts which has a crack in the screw hole and also found that the steel armature link on the coil speing (01-5492) was snapped when it flew off into my face. More parts for the list.
Carefully opening the screws, I un-soldered the wires and lifted the bulb holder and center plastic cap out to clearly see the bulb holder and wire had become separated. It had been repaired before but that had not survived. I cleaned up the old solder, slid in the metal strip to the bulb holder and reapplied some solder to hold it. That should do it for now. Re-assembly was a nightmare due to the broken armature link but I got it back together.
During all this I ran out of bulbs so have four non working #44 lamps but they will go on the next parts order.
Issues
The ball occasionally falls off the wire ramp return since I removed the plastic ramps. I keep adjusting it too much and it then falls off the other side.
FIXED: The dot matrix is missing the bottom line.
FIXED: There is a bulb under the center ramp at the top which is white and glares. Is the bulb wrong or should it have a coloured cover?
FIXED: Another bulb by the top left flipper is also rather bright.
FIXED: The yellow bulb from the electric chair flies off, falls in the hole and blocks the kick-out.
FIXED: The right flipper is weak since the rebuild of the base plate.
FIXED: The ball bounces all over the place since the rubber replacement.
Cracked paint on center power cloud.
Wear under return wire drop in on RHS.
FIXED: Turning the screws does not loosen the phone plastics to clean and replace the flasher lamp.
FIXED: Undoing the bolts for the electric chair do not release them so I can fit a cliffy to hide the wear and protect it.
Incorrect, broken or missing parts
Cloud topper.
FIXED: The plastic that holds the glass in place is broken.
FIXED: Missing ramp metal protector on center ramp.
FIXED: Oblong target before center ramp is shattered.
FIXED: Incorrect top right flipper.
FIXED: Book case stand is cracked, replacement is ready to go on.
FIXED: One of the front legs doesn't match, shame as it is the cleanest.
FIXED: Red coils for bottom flippers need to be replaced with orange ones.
FIXED: Sling shot plastics need replacing, Gomez is broken at both ends.
FIXED: Start/credit button is wrong.
FIXED: Lots of bulbs need refreshing.
FIXED: Blue jet cover is cracked.
FIXED: Yellow jet cover is cracked.
A tilt switch has been broken.
FIXED: Jet Pop Bumper Light wire broken
FIXED: Jet Pop Bumper metal armature link cracked
FIXED: G R E E D , E D lights intermittent
FIXED: EOS switched not wired up
Please take a look at the pictures and let me know if you spot anything else that is incorrect or missing. I have been looking at pictures but can't always see the everything covered.
