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Complete STTNG

Andy B

Site Supporter
Joined
Oct 6, 2014
Messages
1,350
Location
Hull. England.
Picked up a STTNG off FaceBook Marketplace.

It had been knocked down from £6K (hah!) to £3,750. It was in Northumberland - a 3 hour drive from where I live in Hull so didn't really have the opportunity (or desire) to go look at it in person so I had the guy that was selling it facetime me and give me a guided tour of the machine.

It had been left for some time in a cold damp warehouse and it was showing. Dust and muck and rust everywhere and the mpu board was clearly shot from acid leakage. The guy was nice enough but knew nothing about pinball machines or what he had. I'm certain he would have taken less but I offered him £3K for it and went and collected it that afternoon.

I've had it at home a couple of weeks now. Initially down the shed as I was working on a BoP for somoene so no space for it in my gamesroom. BoP was collected at the weekend so STTNG came in to the house and I started working on it Sunday and for a couple of hours after work each night this week.

Thus far I have:

- Removed power driver board and tested all transistors - amazingly all tested good - and resinstalled
- Checked all fuses - again, all good
- Taken out old mpu board and thoroughly cleaned with white vinegar, wire wool and isopropyl the mounting brackets that mpu was on in backbox
- Installed a Rocket CPU board from Pinsound
- Tested machine and it is fully functional with the exception of one opto switch not working above the Borg Ship and the lower left flipper sensor not working (though flipper was working)

So now, I know it works, I have:

- Vacuumed under playfield and in back-box - the grossest part of the job so far with dead spiders and cobwebs everywhere. Mice had even nibbled away the cloth sheafing around the transformer wires.
- Totally stripped playfield
- Taken the opportunity to buy myself a new toy in the form of an ultrasonic cleaner and cleaned the metal parts of the cannon turrets
- Put the wireforms in a bath of Evaporust
- Put the metal parts of the cannon turrets in my tumbler since as I wasn't overly impressed with how they came out of the ultrasonic cleaner :-(
- Removed the subway ramp to get access to some of the under playfield lamps (for LEDs) ready to clean

Ordered:

- New rubber kit
- Pinball Heaven wire looms
- 6 new pinballs (the old ones were rusted to F)
- Full LED Kit
- One (yes, just 1!) broken plastic
- Flipper optic board
- 3 new flipper bats
- Replacement opto transmitter and receiver for the one not working
- One replacement target
- One Neutral Zone hole protector

Have posted a few photos of before and after strip down but have taken dozens more ready for the rebuild (and if anyone needs some in the future)

To be continued...
 
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Some before and during strip down photos.
 

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Cannon turrets before ultrasonic cleaning and after. Will post some more photos after I have run them through the tumbler.
 

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Wireforms in the bath!
 

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Thinking those whacking great screws in the slingshot area are non original!

Why oh why?

I’m going to have to reinstall after cleaning them up otherwise I’ll have some fiddly little holes to try and fill and paint 🙁
 

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Dirty plastics!

3 x 20 min sessions in the ultrasonic cleaner. Not at all impressed with results so complete set of new posts and caps ordered.

Also not sure why the cleaner is turning the screws and bolts black. May be I’m putting too much cleaner in. Will need to run everything through the tumbler.
 

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Thinking those whacking great screws in the slingshot area are non original!

Why oh why?

I’m going to have to reinstall after cleaning them up otherwise I’ll have some fiddly little holes to try and fill and paint 🙁
I'm guessing an onsite quick fix to ball hangups behind slack sling rubbers. Get rid!
 
Time to get the Ambersil out.

Went through 3 magic erasers and picked up 5 grazed knuckles in the cleaning process.

Wax tomorrow.
 

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So glad I took all the advice and dismantled those cannon towers.

3 days in the tumbler later…
 

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Turtle Wax Heavy Duty then Light to Medium Polishing Compound followed by Turtle Wax Carnauba Wax.

Reinstalled the cannon towers also (topside only just now).
 

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Evaporust came up trumps again
 

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Mainly working on shiney bright things last night.
 

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Wasn’t happy with the LEDs in the backbox. Spots of light all over the translite so swapped all the LEDs back to translucent for a much better look.

When I cleaned all the muck off the backglass and translite I saw that the white backing had come off in one long strip (already off, did not come off in cleaning process).

New translite on order.
 

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Just paid the customs charges (£55 on £258 of purchases!) on new led display so hopefully that will arrive tomorrow and it will be fully up and running. Game plays excellent blind, though am getting the error bongs on start up so will be great to see what that’s all about when new display is in.

Tonight, fitted new flipper opto interrupters - flippers seem snappier as a result - and sorted the tatty shooter.
 

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No updates for over a week...been busy,

Installed LED display. Really happy with it as I am with all the PinSound products I've bought over the years. Really bright, sharp and crisp. Also installed a DMDLux DMD controller board from PinSound. Wasn't really necessary but wanted to make 100% sure that the old display was truly dead and buried. In any case, the DMDLux board has a 12v connector on it specifically for LED displays so I don't have to piggyback one of the 12v power connectors on the driver board.

Rebulit upper right flipper because I wasn't making the Delta Quadrant ramp shot that often. Flipper is a lot snappier as a result but I'm still not making the shot very often so I've decided I'm just not very good :)

Installed translite - really happy that I decided to take out the LEDs in the backbox and put incandesent bulbs back in. Looks so much better,

Was having an intermittent problem with the cannon motors. Diagnosed that down to a flaky ribbon cable and some corrosion on the Power Driver Board connector. All cleaned up and new ribbon cable on order. Been playing it to death last couple of nights and no issues at all with it now.

I am calling this one done and well and truly resurrected from the dead.

If I was keeping it then I would work on the cabinet which is a bit of a pig and I would polish the lockdown bar, fit mirror blades and replace the glass which has scratches but Christmas is coming so, once ribbon cable comes and I can get some photos of the cabinet in daylight, this will be up in the For Sale forum.
 

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Great results @Andy B will be looking at this thread when I do my one
I’ve just picked up a STTNG, it is in bad shape.
100% needs a new playfield and a damn good clean
 
Great results @Andy B will be looking at this thread when I do my one
I’ve just picked up a STTNG, it is in bad shape.
100% needs a new playfield and a damn good clean
Thanks Dave.

Had a few technical issues during the restoration that I posted in the Technical Questions forum in case you have similar and of course tons of reference photos should you need any that you miss (I always miss one or two).

Good luck!
 
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