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Complete Top Card - Gottlieb EM - 3 day deadline

AlanJ

AlanJ

Site Supporter
5Years
Joined
Dec 27, 2017
Messages
8,553
Location
Leeds, West Yorkshire
I bought this lovely Gottlieb Top Card from a local guy - he bought it over 20 years ago as a non worker - with a startup fault, he stored it in his workshop for ever since, never got around to looking at it.

I decided to buy it as a project to work on with my cousin Marcus who is over from abroad for a week to stay with me. We have 3 days to get this fixed up and working.


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I’ve always fancied a top card! Goodluck getting it fixed up i’ll keep and eye on this one for sure!
 
After getting it on its legs and the head attached, time to have a look at it properly.

Some of the legs didnt attach as the bolt housings in the cabinet were damageed, so had to resprt to additional nuts to hold them firmly in place

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Mchine is filthy, but looks to be in fairly good shape, a bit of playfield wear, but I think I will leave this as is rather than attempting to repaint
 
Switch on revealled a number of issues, the score motor runs continually, signifying something is not resetting. At first we though it was a score reel as the 10's core unit has no coil in it - but we moved the reel around manually to "0" and the problem was still there. Looks like we're going to have to trace the circuit and see what else needs to reset.

To replace a score reel coil is not an easy job on these Gottleib score reels - basically the whole unit needs taking apart and it's sprung so a bit tricky to get back together. I have a spare score rell with a coil so have taken the coil off this sparre, that is how I learnt that it is not an easy swap.

All the rest of the coils are in the machine, and we have tested each one out to ensure it works. This is easy to do with the power off to the machine and using an external variable voltage power supply set to 24v

One of the coils was disconnected - wire cut - on closer inspection we can see why - the unit has been damaged and doesn't work properly. It is the number match unit. As per 2nd pic below the armature is missing. Both sides were missing but we found one in the bottom of the cab. However the sprung arms that are supposed to hold it firmly in place are bent. Fortunatley, I've got some spares from @Jay Walker and we have been able to fix this up back to working order. The contact boards needed a good clean with 300 grit paper to shine them up

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Plenty of pics of the playfield as we take it apart. Everything is filthy and especially the plastics they have a red coloured dirt all over them - not sure what it is. it could be spray paint dust or something like that

We have determined that the machine is not resetting correctly due to some sort of issue with the Reset relay - this is one of those latching pars of relays - the first one triggers nd then the second one is supposed to release it once the game reet is complete. it is either a ddirty or malfunctioning switch somewhere or it is a purely mechanical issue. Still investigating

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Lots of cleaning playfiled parts, the plastics have come up very well. The small plastics and metals into an ultrasonic cleaner for a few goes (it only does 5 mins at a time, but we found that it needs several goes to fully clean)

Meanwhile we've tested, cleaned, adjusted and retested a lot of the relay switch contacts under the playfield to fix a number of issues. the reset / sytartup issue seems to have beeen resolved, it was partially mechanical and also dirty switches

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Trying to remove the leg levelers from two of the legs is proving impossible, they are stuck fast, WD40 and a lot of force haven't budged them. I cant find my old blowtorch, so next best thing is to heat them up on my Induction hob - they have become extremely hot! And, very very stinky!


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This is brilliant...

Hot and Stinky.... but did it come off?
 
On with the cleaning, yes @James - we got the stuck legs sorted - the heat loosened it up just enough.

Gently wire brushing the legs.

Chrome polished to front door.

Aprol cleaned up as best it can be. Lots of horrid glue stuck to this

playfield cleaned and polished ready for new rubbers and refitting

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DanLewell said:
:rofl:
My missus would go mental if she caught me doing that!
Click to expand...

i paid a ridiculous amount of money, in fact the most luxurious thing i have ever bought, a divorce, to get shot of my mrs. now ex-mrs. it was money well spent. so i can do silly things like the above!!!!! [emoji23][emoji23]


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I love the look of one of these as a project, especially at the price you can pick a ropey one up for, but those reels scare the beejebus out of me...

Looking good.
 
this one is the cheapest one so far and it’s been the one with the least wrong.

there is nothing scary about these they are so simple and you can see if something is working or not. i can’t wait to see you get your hands on one


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ll put back together and 100% working (note the lights out in the pics is because we were playing a game as the pictures were taken!!!
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WOW!!! You guys were seriously enjoying the beers! I think that is more impressive than the refurb to be honest!

Do you plan on doing anything with the planking on the playfield?
 
no i’m going to leave the playfield as is. it’s been cleaned and waxed and polished. i think the natural state is better than a repaint attempt by a novice like me. i learnt my lesson on the last one!!!



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AlanJ said:
this one is the cheapest one so far and it’s been the one with the least wrong.

there is nothing scary about these they are so simple and you can see if something is working or not. i can’t wait to see you get your hands on one


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Click to expand...

Now I am thinking about getting a blinkin' EM... what is wrong with me - started out with 1 pin, told I could have two but that's it, with EM's being so reasonable... could I push it to 3?
 
Nice!

Always fancied a Top Card but zero space now....

Oh, if you want correct flipper bats ( left is correct ), I have a set of new bats plus new shafts...... much easier to align on new shafts as no old marks on the shafts. I bought spares from pbr but don't think going to need them now.

 
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