Complete RESCUING A GOTTLIEB RESCUE 911 THAT NEEDS A HOME....

[new forest pinball]

Hi all. Had this shipped to me last week for a "basic players condition" restoration. After stripping it bare and getting the thing booting. (It's been left in a conservatory unused for about 10 years I think) the client is getting divorced and now has no room for it , or the finances to pay for it! So when it's finished it will be available for sale. Faults on initial inspection as follows:
1. Playfield wear in the usual places. Captive ball area. Pop bumper area. Flipper inlanes.
2. Game not booting.
3. Helicopter not picking up balls.
4. Plastics missing colour backing.
5. No audio.
6. No topper.
7. Apron looking very sad indeed....
8. Cracked left flipper.....all flippers lost black GOTTLIEB decal.
9. Has an old eighties shooter rod!??......Bally I think...with no rubber on it...
10. Most gi lamps black or blown...do I led the gi?......not sure..
11. Most flashers inoperative....
Probably discover more as I go along as this game has about a dozen Opto pairs......
Hers a few pics of the grubby thing stripped......
Notice in this pic the playfield wear and lane plastic/sling plastic worn clear instead of white and red!

This is the captive ball area , should have three balls in it..one standard at the front and two acrylic to glow with the inserts....where does a ball go missing to when its captive???.....

Worn helipad rubber..leaving 20 years of rubber dust in its wake....

One sad apron...but I am sure I have a nos decal kit for 911... must have a rummage!! This photo is after I have removed about a dozen stickers and old glued on instruction cards..spot the previous operator label removing skills......

Screws, acorns, ramp flaps, bolts, etc..in the ole tumbler!

Check out the dirty playfield....


More progress to follow......

 

[ronnie63]

Nice project, must admit I have a soft spot for gottlieb pins

 

[Tony]

Love a good shop log!

 

[new forest pinball]

Topper on....only had orange in stock...?.....

Plastics resprayed....

Legs re-coated with new feet and bolts.....

Audio sorted...with a full range two way 5.25" and a 3.5" two way super tweeter......the originals were all reading zero ohms...voice coils ceased up by lack of use.....


Cabinet given a quick hoover to remove decades of dust and old bulbs, screws, rubbers etc. Plastic shields cleaned and a new 8" subwoofer.....

Playfield stripped and cleaned, touched up roughly...my daughter normally does the artwork as her hand is more steady than mine but she's away......looks better than bare wood...will cover with Mylar when dry.....then will give the playfield a double polish.....

Will be fitting coloured post rubbers, white rubbers(as originally fitted) and some of our super bright led flashers.........watch this space....

 

[Courtney Blush]

I have a pair of correct flipper bats for this that another forum member kindly gave to me, you're very welcome to them

 

[new forest pinball]

.........continuing.........this was the shooter rod on it...looks like a early eighties Bally to me!?
Not sure how that happened...very odd.

Back to original. With new springs and rubber tip...much better.....

Where the machine had been left standing, some of the screws for the posts had become corroded into the playfield t-nuts...hate it when this happens....this is a ramp post but it also happened on three of the slingshot posts....

Here they are rusted and snapped off in their t-nuts!! And some replacements ready to be hammered into the playfield. Knock the old ones thru the playfield from the top with a narrow screwdriver and hammer. The sound of the little rascals dropping into the cabinet is a wonderful sound!!

Here is a pic of the slingshot posts replaced....

Decided on leds for the gi as some of them are very difficult to reach. Cool white was the chosen variety. And some of our super bright led flashers. The table was very dark on the left hand side, the city on fire looked very sad indeed! So we installed an led strip in the gi circuit to brighten things up! Fantastico...Bella..Bella....


Cliffy coloured post sleeves, sort of themed to targets/playfield but not really.....just adds a bit of variety.......

And finally ,whilst trying to fix the helicopter it became clear from the manual that the crabby white rubber this table had fitted was an incorrect part and that the correct part is a black hard rubber friction wheel.(part number 30365). On further investigation including various pinside threads it became apparent that this part is now "unobtainium". But thankfully , although not listed on there website...young jimmy at PBR NY had one for $6.00 few...that was a close call!!!........to be continued..........

 

[new forest pinball]

Nearly finished....need to find the decal set !....I know I have it some where....?
All reassembled today...helicopter now fully operational.....needed the correct friction wheel instead of a spare rubber??

The led strip under the burning buildings looks great, put red leds at the top that flash and give a cool effect ...you cannot see it in the photo but it really is a great improvement...lights the buildings and gives good GI...

Refurbed the flipper bats in the end..redecaled the "GOTTLIEB " and fitted red,orange and blue rubbers....groovy!


Here's the working copter...cool toy this......

New balls..and captive balls...super kool!!


Here is a picture of the playfield as it is now..the game now boots ..it was a capacitor on the power pcb and a handful of dry solder joints. One pop bumper was inoperative. And one of the slingshot targets. All wires that had fallen off...cleaned flipper mechs and they are all good...just a final polish and the new decals to go....when done will put up some final pics...

 

[new forest pinball]

More progress...
Found the decals this morning having a mini clearout! ...hooray!

New decals and instruction cards on the apron...smart....


New bumper target decals.....

Nice new ramp decal..brightens things up a bit....


Going to play a few games now and report back on how things are working and what's not...as there is bound to be a few things!!
Ciao fer now amigos....

 

[new forest pinball]

Ok had a few games...more fun than I imagined, as I had never played a rescue 911 before.
A few faults have come to my attention as follows....
1) lower helicopter drop opto's inoperative.
2) top rescue kick target inoperative.
3) x3 flashers inoperative. Top helicopter drop, left in lane, and bolder(rockfall) target flashers.
4) crackly audio. (Particularly when beacon spins).
Will repair faults in order for the sake of the log...
1). Lower helicopter drop opto's.
Here it is removed......


Take a look at those solder joints!!! All four dry...wow...good news as both opto's test ok...

Resoldered and refitted...now working ok...now we can rescue hostages hoorahhh!!

2).The 911 rescue target had both solenoid wires broken off! How does that happen?..rejoined and kicking good...sorry no photo.
3). Sound board all five capacitors replaced. Slight improvement but not good enough. The power supply to the sound board is dirty/noisy Need to trace its source and surpress that noise..... few pics of the caps.. x3 25v 22uf and x2 25v 10,000uf got stock let's get me in!..

Will look at flashers tomorrow. Pretty sure the more I play this the more faults will surface!?always the same with a machine that's been unloved and unused for so long...we will get there..to be continued..........

 

[new forest pinball]

Machine now complete and working...flashers were two driver ic's on power pcb. Changing the five capacitors on the sound board sorted the distortion. Another machine saved from a 12 year sabbatical....now sold to a forum member and being delivered tomorrow. Great stuff. Was actually a much better game than we thought. The soundtrack to the "life force" mode is great. .......now on to a PZ