Williams A-Go-Go 1966

Just curious, does the roulette wheel have a metal ball on it?

Yes it does. Smaller steel ball.

Brad

Roulette wheel spinning doesn't happen anymore. It was before the tear down but not since the rebuild 😕

The only symptoms I have now are the above.

Cheers,

Brad

Not a lot of progress over the last 2 weeks, I was away last weekend and couldn't face the backbox issues so completed some more cosmetic work.

Lockdown bar and playfield glass holders needed a de-rust and clean.

Before:

Closeup

They went into an Evaporust bath for 24 hours and then out for cleaning

Wiped them down, then used a metal polish. Lockdown bar turned out pretty good but the other two components are not in good shape

Lockdown bar installed into its rightful place.

There are still surface marks but no amount ob scrubbing would remove that.

Now the foam padding underneath this that would normally rest on the playfield glass was toast. What can I use to replace it?

Had a quick look are score motor reset issue. Player 3 One Reel is locked up. I can't even manually move the coil. I'll need to take it all out again and go over it all. Also I should double-check the harness repair.

On a side note, I have never seen so many photos of my feet. You foot fetish guys might be having a field day :lol

Cheers,

Brad

Yes, its been a while since the last update. I need about $220.00 worth of parts and we were putting all our spare cash into a trip overseas (which was awesome btw) 🙂

Whilst I was away I had new side rails from @Railways arrive and 100 LED Bulbs from @Ryza show up though and I was keen to get more work done.

Check out the sexy new rails made up just for me although they're now in stock for others should you need them. Should fit most Williams and maybe others from the 60's. They fit perfectly and look amazing! Thanks guys 😃 🆒

I got the no nail variety. I'm assuming you attach them with double-sided tape? They're just sitting there for now. :unsure

I also grabbed 4 chrome leg bolts for the front and they also look awesome!

Before:

After:

So all up I needed something like 138 bulbs. Since I'd previously only ordered 50 I bought another 2 x bags of 50. I'd already done the entire playfield and part of the backbox so on with the rest.

One issue is that I have 19 I just cannot get my fingers around. I even had my daughter try and that space is just too tight. How the hell do you remove them? 😕

Also since the game won't reset properly and powers up as soon as I give it juice I need to go over all the wiring. In dicking around with putting in the rails I discovered one issue. No doubt there are more. Will need to re-test all solder points I think. :rolleyes

So I still need to order some parts. Pretty much all of them not stocked in the country that I can see. So it'll be an overseas order and then wait for them to arrive.

Cheers,

Brad

wiredoug said:

.

with the open end of a shooter rod rubber, or with a post sleeve. or theres even a proper tool which is essentially the same thing - http://www.pinballspareparts.com.au/23-6527.html

Genius! That worked although the rod end rubber is very short and sometimes gets stuck LOL!

Cheers,

Brad

Time to get this project back on track. With being away, massive projects at work and a need for parts only stocked overseas, this has been on hold. Just got the parts I need from PB Resource yesterday. Great parts and service, used Transferwise for payment which was easy. Holy hell the shipping on a small carton 😮

Brad

Autosteve said:

Excellent to see your back into it. I wasn't going to say anything because I can assure you I know all about long term projects. Farm is a project full of lifelong projects and a HomeBrew pinball is another I've recently added to the ever increasing projects I seem to add to faster than I manage to complete and get off the list.

Still, I see the projects keeping my mind off being depressed. I just hope it doesn't work the other way one day where I get depressed by not finishing the projects quick enough.

Bottom line, I love your project and enjoy reading about it.

Acquiring too many projects is definitely a danger. I do have a backlog like many of us here but I tend to look at them for a long time then crack the shits and do one until its complete.

This one is a little different in that, its entirely out of my experience and expertise coupled with time consuming and expensive. I've been keeping track of costs and whilst I've gone over what I expected to outlay it isn't by a lot.

Delays have been time, money and motivation. The challenges of working out why an EM machine is working properly is definitely an issue for me particularly as I have no idea how to read a schematic and have never seen the insides of a pinball or worked on one. I assure you there's going to be a lot of questions coming up....well a lot more than the 100 or so I've already asked 😕

Cheers,

Brad

Yeah Ive programmed before so I get your logic. Once I start fault finding I'll try to follow the schematics and work from there. I'll get there in the end, just have to be patient and logical.

Brad

Finally a progress update!

Decided to attack the flipper rebuilds today. I have 4 of them so a little bit of work and I had to buy two kits.

Here we can see the existing with a closeup of one. I don't think one screw matches and at least one of the coils has been replaced in the past as it has a plastic sleeve and newer coil whilst the other three are dirtier and have brass sleeves.

I took them all apart as almost all of it is replaced with these kits except for the actual mounting brackets which are coated with crud.

Into a bath they go

Heres one of the flippers before the bath. The letters are indented into the metal and are painted. It actually looks red but hard to see in this state.

Well after soaking for about 90mins I took them out, rinsed and dried them off. Not sure if its fade or UV but the letters are actually orange, the same orange as on the playfield.

Here they are all lined up. Notice that one of the shafts is grey whilst the rest are shiny as new.

So time to re-paint these letters with some orange acrylic. Lucky my wife is an avid painter so borrowed some paint and a brush.

Generously brush over the writing ensuring all is filled

Fold over some kitchen paper towel twice so that its reasonably stiff and firmly wipe off excess.

There's a little on some indentations and scratches which I'll carefully remove with a little nail polish remover but all up they look great!

Cheers,

Brad

Good feedback!

Those existing EOS are actually brand new and something I replaced back in march not realising that some would come with the rebuild kits. I ain't gonna re-solder the new ones in now 😉

I don't have a welder but none of the bolts or screws snapped at all and easily came out with threads intact. Probably hard to tell with these photos. About the only difference I see with bolts is that the existing bolts that held the flippers to the shaft are hex bolts with a straight edge screwdriver fitting. The replacements are the same size but allen key bolts instead :unsure

I'll take the parts out of the evaporust tomorrow and see how it comes up. The different screws are the ones that hold those brackets to the playfield. I have a mix of 3 different types but since it's only to bite into the wood they should be fine.

Cheers,

Brad

So it looks like a previous dodgy repair and may explain why this flipper wouldn't move.

Taking the coil out of the holding bracket. The kits come with new plastic sleeves to replace the old brass ones. I had to use a bit of force on the first one indication that the coil had overheated. Probably means I should test all of them and maybe replace however once I used a pair of thick pliers to rip the old sleeve out, tearing the entire lip off of course, the new plastic one goes in fairly easily.

However it looks like some clown put this one in backwards.

It could never have locked into the holding bracket as the flange is too big for the hole in the bracket! I then attempted to tap it out from the other side......ooops

I pushed it back in and it appears no worse for that but I really need to get that sleeve out else I'll have to replace that coil.

Cheers,

Brad

ajfclark said:

When you remount the coils, terminals away from the coil stop should mean less vibration, therefore less problems.

 

Not always enough slack in the wires to do it though.

They were already on the opposite side of the coil stop if you mean the metal brackets where the hinge to the flipper is so should be all good.

Cheers,

Brad