1952 Gottlieb Chinatown trap hole pinball machine repair: Day one

1952 Gottlieb Chinatown pinball

Day 1

Being more or less stuck at home for the moment, might as well take on some project I've kept on the back burner for a few years... Chinatown

Here are a couple of pictures when I first got the machine in June 2018

The first task was to get the machine out... easier said than done. I set the cabinet on my pinball dolly for greater ease.

The machine was a mess. It has some obvious water damage from being abandoned in an old semi trailer with a leaky roof. Fortunately or unfortunately, the mechanics of the machine are in superb condition. The machine was owned by a coin operator until I bought it. I'm probably the second owner. It looks like it was briefly operated and then put away and remained untouched until now,

The cabinet needed re-glue and clamp in one corner. I let it cure for 24 hours before removing the clamps

Added a wood corner for strength

I took out the score motor panel, which allowed me to work work on it with greater ease. Burnished all the points on the relays and score motor switches.

Took apart the score motor to access the actual motor felts to re-oil.

The transformer was replaced at one point. It looked dodgy and it didn't even have a line fuse. I replaced the Hammond transformer with a more recent Gottlieb transformer.  Replaced the line cord also, the old one was dry and fell apart to touch.

Once the cabinet was empty. I vacuumed the inside.

Gratuitous shot of the tilt bob.

Perfect bingo session on Key West

Bally Key West Bingo machine

Being more or less stuck at home for the moment, might as well play some bingo, and pour a few malty hoppy libations to the memory of the father of Bally bingos... Don Hooker

So it starts with a Nickel, then another one and another one...

It was a two hour credit tug o war between myself and the machine. Win some, lose some. Sometimes driven to the brink of zero when a lucky ball scores 8 credits, just enough to keep you going. Playing the odds and moving numbers. Calling numbers and shouting at the machine from time to time (when I failed to hit a 23 or a 25). But eventually I made it past the mythical 200 credit threshold all the way to 220! At that point I turned the machine off. Curious of how many credits I played, I opened up the coin door and was shocked to see only 8 Nickels in the coin box! From 8 to 220. In 1956, that would've been a steak dinner and then some. Perfect game night.

Here are a few highlights. Enjoy!

3 in line in Red and Yellow thanks to the spotted 18

Beautiful!

152 Credits, Very a propos

4 in Line

220 Credits

Big win on Key West

8 Nickels! Those Ladies seem pleased

Older posts with Key West from this blog

Playing Bally Key West (1956) bingo

Staying at home: Vintage pachinko machine fort ;-)

Pachinko Machine Fort

We have to stay holed up at home.

For me, it's like being locked up in some kind of weird arcade. Despite having tons of pinball machines, I've never played so much pachinko as I did during the past few weeks.

I decided to take out some of the old pachinko machines I put into storage over the years, wire them up and set them up on the ground around the Satomi Hustler Arrangeball.

It looks like a fort made out of pachinko machines.

Pachinko Fort

Show some rainbows and spread hope

Power Roulette Rainbow

Stay home. Stay Safe.

Bally Skill Parade: More broken switch shenanigans

Bally 1958 Skill Parade

So it's Saturday morning, I think to myself: It would be fun to play a few games on Skill Parade...

Drop a Nickel at the top... Flick through the first tier of switches... geta a hippo.
Flick through the second tier. Coin rolls over the Jumbo. Doesn't register. That's odd... maybe the switch is dirty.
Flick through the 3rd tier... get the monkey

Second Switch tier. The red tier

No big loss for that non registering Jumbo the elephant. It wasn't a winning combination anyway.

Play a few more coins, again, at the second tier, hit Jumbo. No trip. No reaction. Nada

That's plain annoying.

Maybe playing games on a lazy Saturday morning isn't a good idea. It's becoming a recurring theme...

Back of the skill parade playfield

I open up the back of the game. Use a jumper on the rollover switch... No trip. The switch isn't the problem. I have a look at the Jumbo-2 switch stack on the trip bank. The problem becomes obvious.

Can you spot the broken blade?

Look for the broken blade

Here's the stack from a different angle

Even worse. I can't seem to find the broken switch blade. It could be anywhere inside, possibly even causing a short circuit. Grrr. Eventually I did find it under the up kicker mechanism.

Pesky broken switch blade

I took the time to measure the thickness of the broken blade: 0.01 inch. Pretty sure it should have been a 0.008 inch blade. It's way more flexible. And that's what I reinstalled anyway.

Fortunately, I have a donor Bally 2 in 1 pinball machine with a massive trip bank that has plenty of donor switch parts.

That's EM repair life

Older Skill Parade Posts

Bally Skill Parade Repair

Bally Skill Parade 1958 "Skill" game

Prevents Pilfering

Here's one out of the 1959 Wico catalog

BINGO FRONT DOOR PROTECTOR GUARDS METAL

PREVENTS PILFERING

Ad from 1959 Wico Catalog

Here's a closeup look of the said door guard 60 years later as seen on a Bally Beach Time Bingo. Stainless steel giving added beauty.

Stainless steel coin door guard

Pilfering... Tee-Hee!

Two coinmen walk into a bar.

First one turns to the second and asks: Why so glum?

Secon answers: My machine was pilfered

He should have used a BINGO FRONT DOOR PROTECTOR GUARDS METAL

Talking of Bally Beach Time...

Bally Beach Time Bingo Head

I really should get this game up and running. It's been in storage since July 2017 :-(

With Sun Valley, It's the only magic squares moving number game you can move all 25 numbers.

Bingo in the back of the Sienna with my shadow

Playing Bally Key West (1956) bingo

Stripped gear on Bally Sea Island

So it's a lazy Saturday morning.

...Have a coffee, putter around the basement...

I get the urge to play a few games on Sea Island.

For those unfamiliar with this Sea Island. It's the OG Chasing Bugs... Sea Island... we have a history.

Sea Island and Key West

I drop a dime. The magic screen starts rolling back to home position and unexpectedly stops midway... Poo :-(

I knew then what just happened. The gearbox for the magic screen motor stripped a gear.

My lazy Saturday morning had just turned into a repair project.

Why did this happen?
It comes down to maintenance...
There was a stiff / dry spot on the magic screen unit bottom track.
The oil used for the magic screen clutch unit leather clutch washers congealed, seizing the clutch unit.

Magic Screen mechanism. Clutch unit in place

A small nylon gear absorbed the shock instead of the clutch unit. With catastrophic results. The G-4114 gear to be precise (it's also used in the ball lift gear motor)

Diagram taken from the Sea Island manual

Fortunately I had a spare gearmotor assembly pilfered from another Sea Island. I was hoping to bring this second Sea Island back to life one day if I ever found a decent backglass for it, but it's missing more and more parts as the years go by.

Sea Island sans Magic Screen Gearmotor

I swapped out the whole gearmotor. I also took the time to disassemble the clutch. Degrease the parts, and re oil the leather washers.

Leather clutch washer

Clutch unit taken apart

In the end... I got Sea Island up and working again and I'm down a G-4114  Molon gear. I only have myself to blame.

Happy times

Sea Island with Beer
Sea Island at Pincon 2017