Cabin Fever? Playing 1951 Williams Spark Plugs

1951 Williams Spark Plugs

Maybe it's cabin fever from self isolating, but lately I've been playing this game a lot. Maybe it's from recently repairing and playing a Gottlieb contemporary of Spark Plugs... Chinatown. Games from that ear have their distinctive feel to them.

I just have this... I wouldn't say fixation, but interest for electro-mechanical horse racing games lately (not the pure mechanical ones tho).

I have Spark Plugs on the "B side" of the basement arcade. In normal times, I never think about this game, but these are not normal times.

Spark plugs has inverted impulse flippers. I like those. They give a whole other dimension to the flipper thing, you need to time your shots and flip wisely. Also, you can play the game one handed for ease of beverage consumption.

I just love seeing those cardboard nags advance step by step every time their respective pop bumper (or rollover) is hit.

Spark Plugs and Sea Jockeys share the distinction of having Win, Place and Show selections. Selections are pseudo randomised as the game starts during the reset cycle. Selections are changed with top center rollover also. Your selections need to cross the finish line in order to keep playing and win replays.

I really like the 3 selection feature, it adds a bit of a challenge once you get the first horse across the finish line, you want to keep playing and win more replays.

Win selection across the finish line scores 2 replays.
Place selection second across the finish line scores an additional 3 replays.
Show selection across the finish line third scores and additional 20 replays.
For a grand total of 25 replays.
All other horses crossing the finish line at any time during the game ends game.

25 Replays! That's not much compared to the bingo machines of the same era. However, I heard rumors that back in the day those horsey games were used for betting. Patrons would put money on on a horse with someone playing the game. Off game betting? That's possible...

The machine does have panel score display, but these scores are useless really.

The machine doesn't have a mechanical replay display. But the colored dots at the top of the backglass are backlit panels displaying the number of replays. On the underside of the cabinet. There's a knock off button.

I've had this game for a long time, since 2013... I was a different dude then... I was married, more hair, less beard and a lot less coin operated devices. Time flies! This game is rough cosmetically! But it works great, I've gone over this game a couple of times over the years.

Williams produced a bunch of horsey games in the early to mid 50's

Hayburners
Nags
Jalopy
Spark Plugs
Sea Jockeys
Horsefeathers
Handicap
Daffy Derby

 ...a few in the 60's

Nags
Derby Day
Hayburners II... which can seen in the Yello masterpiece Pinball Cha Cha

...and the early 70's
Winner, here the horses were moved under the playfield

Cabin Fever? New rubbers for Delta Queen

Bally Delta Queen

Is it cabin fever, in these confined times, that drove me to re rubber Delta Queen?

Rubbers for Delta Queen

Why do I keep this game? Why do I keep playing Delta Queen? It's one of Bally's weakest pinball offerings of the 70's.

I didn't just re rubber the game... I freshened up the lamps too. Even did the ones under the top arch.
I have to admit it plays way better. As for looking better... it has more lights.

Freshened up Delta Queen

I'm grateful to be holed up at home with no kids, lots of beer and lots of pinball. But it does feel strange not to be able to go visit friends for public health reasons. Gives me lots of time to play and appreciate my games, instead of just repairing them.

Gratuitous shot of the Gameroom

Although I enjoy a bit of work / maintenance too.

Pinball repair vision

Playing bingo too.

3 in green scores 36: I'll take that

There should be a law for pinball repair... sorta like Murphy's Law but applied to pinball repair, it should go like this:
After repairing a pinball machine, and test playing it extensively, problems will reveal themselves once the playfield glass is re-installed.

1952 Gottlieb Chinatown trap hole pinball machine repair: Day five

1952 Gottlieb Chinatown pinball

Day 5... and beyond

Day five consisted of test and tune. Play, observe, fix, adjust and repeat.

Fun Fact: Front door is from a 1951 Gottlieb Globe Trotter

Here is a list of problems that was found during test play:

Changed a few more lamp sockets that fell apart shortly after being relamped.

Cleaned and lubricated the pivots on the slingshots, flippers and outhole flap.

"1" hole wouldn't register: Switch gapped too close would close and trip relay at reset due to vibration. Readjusted.

"I' dead bumper not lit: "I" trip relay would tip during reset from mechanical interference of shutter opening and closing. Moving a few wires solved this

"W" switch wouldn't register: Broken wire on the switch lug.

"8" hole would count up to infinity when capturing ball and trip relay wouldn't trip: cold solder on the coil's lug. Reflowed and good to go.

Stock trip bank coil lug picture, Not from Chinatown

21 light panel wouldn't light due to trip relay not tripping: again, cold solder on one the coil lug. Reflowed.

Gong... 21!

Game not resetting properly from time to time:

Some of the wiper fingers on the 100 000 point unit were a bit too worn out.

100 000 points unit

Causing the fingers to catch on one of the contact pads and the wiper not resetting completely to zero. The zero on the 100 000 unit closes a switch that allows the reset sequence to continue.

100 000 points unit at 0 closing switch

 I found some good wiper fingers in my parts stash and swapped out the worn out ones.

Worn out wiper fingers. the tip isn't supposed to have a flat spot

Gameplay rules:

5 balls per play

C or A rollovers light pop bumpers

Completing C-H-I-N-A not in sequence lights the center top rollover to score replays.

Completing C-H-I-N-A-T-O-W-N, again not in sequence lights the bottom center rollover to score replays.

T-O-W-N

Any number hole combination that adds up to 21 scores 1 replay.

Trap holes... It's a trap

1-2-3-4-5 trap holes score 1 replay

5-6-7-8-9 trap holes score 1 replay

No out hole so the balls are played until every ball is trapped by the numbered holes.

Tilt ends game.

The chrome triangular flap at the bottom of the playfiels between the flippers is to evacuate ball(s) during game reset if game was previously tilted with free (non trapped) balls in play.

Personal Impressions:

Owning similar Williams games from the same era (Spark Plugs and Four Corners), I don't find Chinatown as fun as it's Williams counterparts. Maybe the comparison isn't fair, however. It doesn't have that "one more game" appeal. I did find myself wanting to play the game from time to time but I'm not sure if it was more for testing purposes than actual want to play.

The obvious gameplay objective is to score 21 and that feature is pretty cool. The machine adds up the trap hole values for you on the right side of the backglass under "Points". Maybe the 21 feature was a "skill game" kind of thing. Hitting a perfect 5 ball 21 would get you a beer or a cigar at the bar?

The real question:

Is it a gambling machine?

The flippers are anemic, they feel almost vestigial. The bottom slingshots, like in a late pre flipper game, or a later Bally Queens game makes the game lively. Makes you want to nudge the game to reveal the full power of those slingshots.

Slingshot

There is no out hole. In a game of skill, you have to risk losing the ball. With Chinatown, you bat around the ball until it is trapped by one of the numbered holes.

Hidden behind the flippers, handle to lift up the playfield carved in the wood apron.

It doesn't have a knock off button, but the credit unit reset coil has a special adjustment to fully reset to zero, so it's a bit of a clever work around. However, the credit unit only goes up to 26.

What do you think: Gambling machine or not? Or maybe light gambling?

I have the back door for the head. But my basement ceiling isn't high enough to reinstall it

1952 Gottlieb Chinatown trap hole pinball machine repair: Day four

1952 Gottlieb Chinatown pinball

Day four

By the end of day three, I had a mostly working Chinatown. At the press of the start button, the game would reset properly most of the time (this would require further investigation). The next step was cleaning the playfield...

It's dirty but it works

I have to admit this is the part I dislike the most about pinball machine repair. I know a few fellow collectors that quite enjoy it. Not me. I can spend 30 hours repairing a dilapidated C title EM chasing down some fruity intermittent problem, but when it comes to detailing a playfield, I start thinking to myself. WTF am I doing this for?

Despite my dislike for playfield cleaning, I persevered...
My cleaning technique goes as follows. I start at the top of the playfield. I use a medium bristle brush and a vacuum cleaner to remove the dirt and loose material. Then I use Novus 2 on the wood and art. One pass with Novus and a soft cotton rag. When the rag gets dirty, I get another rag. Then with a dry clean soft rag I buff out the cleaned section. Repeat as necessary.

Work in progress

Section by section, I remove the posts and/or plastics. Clean and buff. I use Autosol on metal parts. I take out the metal parts and polish them on the workbench. Work my way down the playfield.  It was a pretty long process. Took me a whole afternoon. I re-lamp and re-rubber as I go. I use #51 lamps in the pop bumpers and dead bumpers. They're not as bright, but they won't interfere with the cap.

Clean Playfield. New lamps and new rubbers

Once I was done with the cleaning cleaning, I start a game... Disaster! The ball return flap solenoid locks up. The trip bank doesn't reset at all and I hear the chant of the ever cycling score motor! Poke at a few relays with a stick. No effect...Turn the game off.

This was right around dinner time. I pannick a bit. Go to my computer. Find a paper copy of the schematic for sale on ebay. Buy it. Might get it in the mail in a couple of weeks best case scenario...

Then I pause for dinner.

After dinner, I go back to the game. Have a look in the backbox. Look at the jones connectors at the bottom and find that one was half popped out unplugged. Plug it in properly and try the game again. Game starts up perfectly. It's never a bad idea to have schematics I guess!

Here are a few detail close ups

Roy Parker Art

Look at that mess of coils. Is this really the best Gottlieb could do?

Notice for high tap: Never connect the wire to high tap if line voltage is 110V or above.

1952 Gottlieb Chinatown trap hole pinball machine repair: Day three

1952 Gottlieb Chinatown pinball

Day three was a busy day repair wise.

I started by laying the playfiel upside down atop the cabinet. I used small pieces of wood (1 x 2) at both extremities rest the playfield on, being careful not to damage anything. With the playfield upside down it's way easier to work on.

Flipped over playfield resting on strips on 1 x 2

Then I removed the ball return panel to inspect the switches for the trap holes. Disaster! Rivets on 5 switch stacks were broken. The switch stack were falling apart, or barely holding together.

Can you spot the busted switches?

I used a roll pin punch and a small ball pein hammer to extract the broken brass tube rivets. Also used a small piece of 2 x 4 with a 3/4" hole to use as a sturdy base to rest the shutter on when knocking out the broken rivets. 

Line up the switch stack with the hole in the base and knock the rivets out.

I used screws and retaining plates from old Williams switch stacks to fix the ones on Chinatown. Thank Zarquon I have lots of parts to pick and choose from while in lockdown.

Williams parts! in a Gottlieb

Shutter switches repaired. Naturally, I burnished the switch points while I was in there.

Fixed shutter switch stacks

With the trip bank flipped over, it gives easy access to the switch blade points. I burnished every contact. That bank is huge so it took many hours to clean all the switch points. I also checked every switch stack to make sure the switches open and close with the proper gap.

Flipped over trip bank

Lots of work

With the trip bank moved aside, I preventively changed the lamp sockets that are hard to access when the bank is in place. Good thing I did, some were falling apart. Also burnished the rollover switch stacks.

Don't know what tools you need for EM Pinball Repair: Check out 5 must have tools

1952 Gottlieb Chinatown trap hole pinball machine repair: Day two

1952 Gottlieb Chinatown pinball

Day 2

Day two was more like an evening of work on Chinatown. I still have to show up to work a couple of times a week... 

I concentrated on working on the head and reinstalling the score motor panel. Removing the wood clamps and reattaching all the small parts I had to remove to reglue the cabinet. Ball lift rod, ball shooter housing.

The heads stepper units were in exceptionally good condition. They weren't gummed up like I usually see them, they were mostly free but required a little bit of lubrication on the metal on metal pivot points on the set up and reset arms. Also cleaned off the old contact disc grease, burnished the contact pads with and electrician's eraser and reapplied fresh grease.

Once I finished working on the head, I plugged in the playfield and tried to power up the game out of curiosity. The steppers reset properly but all the playfield switches and trip bank trip relays were unresponsive due to corrosion on the switch points. I have my work cut out for day 3! 

Not very exciting stuff, but necessary. Also not very photogenic stuff, hence no pictures, But enjoy a few pictures of backbox details. Also, an interesting detail for Quebec or Canadian pinball aficionados: There is no Laniel stamp.

Gottlieb Chinatown Backbox inside

Notice Stamp