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