Repair & Maintenance Log
03/04/10: Acquired Game.
03/21/10: New legs, bolts and levelers. Replaced missing head bolts. Cleaned insert panel. Replaced missing/burned bulbs in head.
05/10: Shopped game. Overall the game was mechanically sound, but was horribly dirty. The layer of nicotine on all the playfield parts was staggering. Most of my time was spent cleaning. There was a lot of fighting with T-nuts thanks to generous quantities of ancient thread lock. Heating the T-nut with a soldering iron helped, but I still ended up breaking and replacing a lot of hardware. The jet bumpers were mostly busted up so I replaced all of those parts. Thanks to some over enthusiastic hardware tightening, the playfield plastics were in pretty bad shape with a lot of cracks, warps and blown out mounting holes. But they looked reasonable after all the grime was cleaned off. The flipper mechs were surprisingly sound. I cleaned them up and the only wear parts that needed replacing was the shrink tubing on the pawls. I also replaced the flipper bats just for cosmetic purposes. Obviously I replaced all the rubber. And I finished up with a new ball and a new sheet of playfield glass.
Before shot of the cruddy, busted up jet bumper area.
After shot with new bumper parts, new rubber, clean parts and clean playfield.
Comparison between the clean Fishbowl Ramp and the still dirty Tiger Ramp. Yuck!
I found a cigarette butt supporting the Seafood Table window. I tossed the butt and replaced the old black foam. I also had to replace some of the screws and T-nuts.
Cigarette butt window support. Eewh!
Update... I have received a few emails asking about the Seafood Table window hardware. The picture below shows what you're looking for. These parts do not appear to be stocked by the usual pinball parts suppliers and I had no luck at the local hardware store. As you can see I had to buy in bulk and have more than I'll ever use. If you live in the US and are missing some screws or T-nuts, I can send you a few.
4-40 screws and T-nuts for the Seafood Table window.
The linear target (i.e. the Fish Bone-Us) is the most novel mechanism in the game. As far as I know, this mechanism was never used again. So you probably don't want to buy a Bad Cats that's missing this assembly. Mine worked, but was pretty dirty like everything else. There was a thick reddish blob of goo on the mechanism. I cleaned it up for the most part, but there's still a stain on the frame as shown below. The rubber parts appear to be cut down conical yellow post sleeves. I didn't know if this was the original or correct arrangement of rubber. But they cleaned up and appeared to grip the target rod well, so I left them as they were. The diagram in the manual appears to show round rubber rings. Unfortunately, the rings were not listed as a separate part number. The target rod rode on snap-in nylon bushings. But my bushing weren't holding themselves into the frame anymore and I didn't know with what to replace them. So I used a few small dabs of white caulk to hold the bushings in place. It's kind of hack-looking, but seems to have done the trick. Update: The bushings were available at least from Marco Specialties and are called 3⁄16" Nyliner bearings. I bought a few for future use.
Linear target mechanism.
05/13/10: Fabricated new playfield plastic. The following procedure was inspired by a segment from the TOP #4 video "Pinball Ain't Dead, It just Smells Funny". While shopping the game I noticed a missing plastic on the right side of the fishbowl ramp entrance. Fortunately I found a scan of the needed plastic on the Internet. I made a simple b&w print of the part and a good color print on glossy photo paper.
Prints of the plastic scan.
I made the plastic from a small sheet of Lexan purchased at Home Depot. Without removing the Lexan's protective films, I attached my b&w template to the Lexan with spray adhesive. I used a coping saw to rough-cut the part. I left plenty of material around the template so the saw marks could be removed later. Then I drilled mounting holes and test fit the part on my game.
Test fitting the rough-cut plastic.
I used a drum sander in a Dremel to work the part to its final shape. Then I peeled away the template and protective films. I used fine sandpaper to smooth the edges and finished up with a light flame polishing. Next I worked on the color print. I used an X-Acto knife to cut away all the white from the mounting hole areas. Then I used a black Sharpie to thicken the perimeter key line. Having a fat black line allows more room to fudge when setting the Lexan part in place. I coated the print with a light to moderate sheen of spray adhesive and carefully pressed the Lexan in place over the print using extreme caution to avoid any glue fingerprints on the Lexan. Then I set it aside to cure over night.
Finished Lexan part glued on top of the color print.
I rough-cut the print and then covered the underside of the print with a protective layer of Mylar. Then I used a razor to trim the print and Mylar to the shape of the Lexan. Finally, I used the X-Acto knife to cut out the mounting holes.
A comparison between my homemade plastic and an original. The color and texture are far from perfect, but it'll do.
Here's the end result. Fortunately there are no lamps under the plastic so its lack of transparency isn't too detrimental.
This area of the playfield is pretty busy. I doubt that my inferior replacement plastic will ever be noticed from any normal viewing angle.
05/16/10: Added GI light to jet bumper. The center jet bumper on Bad Cats was unlit. Because the bumper is covered by a flat low-clearance plastic, there was no room for a conventional bulb and socket. So I skipped the socket and soldered wire leads directly to a (hopefully) long-lasting LED. I had a #44-style "warm white" LED on hand, so that's what I used. A yellow zip-tie held the wires to shape.
Adding GI lighting to what was an unlit bumper.
I should have taken a picture before installing the ramp, but here's how the bumper turned out.
01/15/12: Added remote battery backup. Instead of permanently soldering some sort of remote battery setup to the CPU board I made battery place-holders from ½" dowel. This method required no board modifications. And no connectors were needed between the board and the battery pack. The battery pack was from Great Plains Electronics. I liked that the pack was fully enclosed. I didn't like that it had an integral ON/OFF switch. I set the switch to ON and put a blob of silicone caulk over it. The battery wires were mounted to an end of each dowel with a screw and crimp terminal. The screw head became the "battery terminal". Don't forget to account for the height of the screw head when figuring the length of the dowel. I wired the battery pack with 8' leads. Instead of placing the battery pack in the head, I dropped it down into the body and placed it next to the cash box. Opening the coin door is easier than opening the head. The idea is that I'll be better motivated to replace the batteries more often.
Battery place-holders and remote battery pack. Note the blob of silicone over the battery pack switch.
Scruffy gives each assembly a quality control check.
The CPU board showed how each battery must be oriented, but did not show the location of +4.5 volts. Before removing the old batteries I used my volt meter to confirm that the lower-left terminal of the battery holder was +4.5 volts. The orientation shown here is correct for most system-11 CPU boards. Grand Lizard is at least one exception. Grand Lizard and the previous system-9 CPU boards (along with their battery holders) are oriented 180 degrees from that shown here.
Dowel sticks in place.
03/24/12: Installed standard-keyed (751) lock on coin door.
11/23/15: Acquired a complete set of new reproduction ramps from Starship Fantasy.
04/2020-10/2020: Shopped game. The flippers were getting sluggish. And I had a new CPR plastics set and a new set of Starship Fantasy ramps collecting dust. It was time to go through the game again.
Here it goes...
I could tell what I had not previously worked on because there were still a few seized T-nuts. A broken post stud made a good T-nut tool. First I used the stud to tap out the old T-nut. Then I used the stud as a handle to place the new T-nut. I lightly tapped on the stud to seat the new tines in the old holes
Broken stud T-nut tool.
Here's an interesting bit of hardware I had not seen on another game. The left post supporting the Tiger ramp rollunder is hollow to accommodate the switch actuator.
Tiger ramp rollunder post assembly.
I serviced the linear target again. First I scrapped the foam target pads and the broken old Nyliner bearings. And I removed the caulking I had previously applied. I scraped away more of the "reddish goo". I got rid of the homemade yellow rings which were now hard and cracked. I ran some of the parts through my ultrasonic cleaner which removed the rest of the staining and residual bits of old yellow rubber. I polished the target rod and drive pin. Next I reassembled with new 3⁄16" Nyliner bearings, new foam pads and new white 3⁄16" rings on the drive assembly. I also replaced the opto interrupter. The old interrupter housing was loose and askew on the circuit board as if it had been struck at some point in its life.
Refurbished linear target mechanism.
All of the remaining playfield mechanisms were disassembled, cleaned and reassembled with new coil sleeves. Aside from the linear target and jet bumpers, it appeared that I had not previously worked on most of the mechanisms. There was still plenty of filth and everything still smelled like cigarettes. While I was under the playfield I also cleaned all the inserts and lamps and replaced any lamps that needed replacing.
I was always too lazy to desolder solenoids when it came to servicing the under-playfield mechanisms. Thus I would be hunched over the cabinet while disassembling and reassembling the mechanisms in place. That was hard on the back so I decided to start adding connectors to the solenoids.
I used the knocker assembly as my guide to establish a solenoid connector standard. I used three-position connectors with .093" pins. A female housing with male pins went on the solenoid side of each connection. The power wires went toward the pointy side of the connectors and the control wires went toward the flat side of the connectors.
My first attempt was with the garbage can eject hole assembly as shown below. I simply clipped the solenoid wires and moved the whole assembly to the workbench where it could easily be disassembled, cleaned and reassembled. Then I added connectors before moving the complete assembly back to the playfield. Awesome!
Connector installed on the eject hole solenoid.
The garbage can eject hole assembly was disassembled, cleaned and reassembled at the workbench before being returned to the playfield.
Why leave a pair of parallel wires on the solenoid side of each connector? There's no electrical reason, of course. But there was something about the symmetry that visually appealed to my brain.
More connectors!
Jet bumper bodies are Williams part number 03-7443-5. Last time around I ended up with the Data East/Stern parts, which were a bit taller. It wasn't a big deal on Bad Cats, but the boxing cat plastic on the right was slightly misaligned. So I switched the two right-side bodies back to the proper Williams parts. There was no clearance issue with the left-side bumper so I left the DE/Stern body. The taller body better accommodated my lamp modification (see 5/16/10 entry above).
Williams part versus the DE/Stern part.
Jet bumpers are one place I'll make a concession to LEDs. It isn't that I like LEDs, it's that I dislike bumper sockets. So I take advantage of the LED's (hopefully) long life expectancy and hardwire them into the game. In this case I switched over the two right-side bumpers and picked frosted warm white to match what was already in the left-side bumper. These LEDs don't necessarily like being soldered on. I'm quick with the soldering iron. Then I test that each LED still lights up and I make sure the lens hasn't come loose in its bayonet housing. Again, see my 5/16/10 entry for the procedure.
Jet bumpers coming together.
Here's something that may have been done by the game's previous owner. A screw and washer clamp down each lead from the jet bumper lamps. This eliminated an under-playfield soldering chore.
Screws and washers clamp down the bumper lamp leads. No soldering required
The Seafood Table assembly was the only under-playfield mechanism that I didn't disassemble. There was a suspicious blob of something on the carousel wheel hub. Epoxy? The mechanism worked so I left well enough alone. I did, however, buy a spare carousel wheel which would also be compatible with the prize wheel in my Cyclone. I cleaned the wheel decal and the underside of the playfield window. The decal had two curls around its edge. Although not visible from the window, I put the edges back down with some 3M 467MP transfer tape. The curls were stiff so I don't know if they will stay flat.
Mystery substance on the carousel wheel hub.
Clean and flat (for now) Seafood Table decal.
I didn't have any replacement decals for the drop targets and the existing decals were still in great shape. Unfortunately I had one broken bird target. I used a heat gun to gently warm the decal and a razor blade to carefully pry the decal from the old target. I kept a finger next to the target as I was determined to burn myself before overheating the decal. Once removed, I used a Q-tip to apply a bit of naphtha to soften the remaining adhesive which could then be rubbed away with an (unburnt) finger. I scanned the decal for future reference. Then I applied the decal to a new target with 3M 467MP transfer tape.
Slow going.
New drop target (far left) with the remaining four old targets.
I replaced the Dog House kick crank arm and a mounting bracket from one of the slingshots. Both old parts had a loose pivot pin.
New kick crank arm and mounting bracket.
How about a Flipper Mech Rebuild Rack? The FMRR - otherwise known as a scrap of plywood. I prefer to install bushings first. But that makes everything else awkward. So after installing a bushing, I screw the flipper base down to the FMRR. Two screws are enough. The FMRR keeps the flipper base flat and stable and gives me something more substantial to hold while installing the remaining components.
I fully rebuilt both flipper mechs and added solenoid connectors. I also replaced the bats. Again. Last time around I inadvertently bought the bats with the up-side-down "W".
The FMRR with right and left bushing clearence holes.
The flipper base was held flat and stable with the bushing installed.
Done!
I did not reinstall the flipper and slingshot mechs until the very end. The absence of that extra weight made it more convenient to raise and lower (and raise and lower and raise and lower) the playfield as I worked on everything else.
An old inspection sticker was in the way when I was working on the trough runway. I reapplied the sticker nearby with some transfer tape.
Who was T. Dam and did they ever imagine someone would preserve their sticker three decades later?
I was trying to think of ways to tighten metal playfield posts without using pliers. I made "handles" which were just pieces of scrap steel with a tapped hole. Using a temporary screw, I tightened a handle against the top of a post like a pair of jam nuts. I used a screw, but a screwdriver was unnecessary. Hand tight was plenty. The handle gave me something to hold while I tightened the under-playfield nut. It didn't take much to hold the post, so nothing more than a small handle was needed. After the nut was tight, the handle was backed off and removed. I tapped one handle 6-32 and another 8-32. I made the handles so as to get into tight corners. Then it occurred to me that a simple wingnut would work well enough in most circumstances. Or for tight corners, a wingnut with one wing cut off. And since the wingnuts didn't have to be made, a bunch could be pre-fit to a group post before flipping up the playfield.
A "handle" for gripping a post while tightening the under-playfield nut.
A collection of post handles.
The game manual didn't show locations for the rubber parts as many manuals do. And as usual there were a few inconsistencies with the ring kit I bought. Shown below is what I came up with. I'm not saying this is correct, but it's what was on my game and it seems to work. I wasn't overly meticulous about filling in my map as I went. There's probably some things I missed. Click for larger image.
Rubber parts map. Click for larger image.
The plastics set for this game was exceptionally complicated. Or maybe I should say that I made it complicated. I like to add a protective layer of Mylar to the underside of my new plastics. The idea is that any errant screw head, ball guide or other hardware would have to wear through the Mylar before damaging the art. I peeled the backing off a sheet of Mylar and taped it down to a table sticky side up. Then I peeled the backing off each CPR plastic before sticking the plastic on the Mylar. I rough cut the parts and then carefully trimmed each plastic with an often replaced X-Acto blade. Lastly I used a finger nail to thoroughly burnish the Mylar to each plastic.
Sticking plastics onto a sheet of Mylar.
I tend not to Mylar any plastic that is significantly transparent or any plastic that needs to be formed. Bad Cats had three large plastics with small transparent areas. I wanted to protect these three plastics without obscuring the transparent areas. I photocopied each plastic. I taped down a piece of Mylar with its backing intact. Then I taped the copy over the Mylar. I used the copy as a guide to cut away the Mylar under transparent area of the plastic. Next I peeled away the backing and taped the Mylar down again. The trimmed edge of the Mylar was too hard to see so I slipped a scrap of paper under the Mylar and traced the edge. Then I peeled the backing off the plastic, lined up the transparent area with the tracing and stuck it down. The rest of the plastic was trimmed and finished as above.
A photocopy for initially trimming the Mylar.
A pen tracing around the edge of the Mylar.
Plastic stuck down to the Mylar.
Bad Cats had many formed plastics. Some people just freehand the bends, but that seems to imply artistic talent which I don't have. Instead I made a wood form for each plastic. I used the old plastics as a starting guide to shape wood blocks and add alignment strips and/or screw holes. I didn't just blindly use the old plastics as a pattern because many of the old plastics were not carefully formed from the factory. There was often room for improvement.
I peeled the top and bottom films from a new plastic and put it on the form with a parchment paper liner. I made the forms as smooth as I could, but still added the parchment paper with the idea that it may help prevent any residual woodgrain texture from being pressed into the warm plastic.
Next I used some cut up cardboard drink coasters and painter's tape to mask off areas I didn't want to heat. The cardboard also helped to evenly distribute my finger pressure. Then I slowly and gently warmed the bend with a heat gun. When the plastic felt pliable, I pressed it firmly around the corner of the block and held it until cooled.
Wood form.
Plastic and parchment paper scewed the the form.
Cardboard protects the areas I don't want to heat.
Plastic formed and cooling.
Done.
The original bird cage plastic had some art wear from the associated flasher assembly. After bending the new plastic, I added a layer of Mylar, but only to the art half of the plastic.
Next up was my new PinRestore rivet press. Actually I bought the kit and supplied my own arbor press from Harbor Freight. Assembling the kit required some careful hole drilling, but it wasn't too hard and the instructions were good. I didn't want to bolt mine down, but the press did need to be firmly clamped to the workbench while in use. Note that I aligned the pinion gear shaft with the ram such that the handle was perpendicular with the dies when the dies were closed. This was for maximum leverage. Yet I was disappointed. No amount of leverage seemed to fully cinch the rivets. The press was good for aligning parts and at least snugging the rivets. But then I returned to my trusty handheld rollover punch. I put a head die in my bench vice and used a hammer and the rollover punch for final cinching. The hammer taps make a distinctly different sound once the rivet is fully cinched. I truly hate hammering on stuff, but that's what seemed to work for me.
Harbor Freight arbor press with PinRestore rivet press kit.
In the case of the birdcage plastic, 3⁄16" rivets seemed right. The original assembly did not use backing washers.
Finished birdcage plastic and handheld rollover punch.
I haven't found any universal riveting solutions, but here's a jig idea that can be helpful. The problem is I need one hand to hold the rollover punch and one hand to work the hammer. That leaves no hands to steady the plastic. First I put my head die in my bench vice. Then I added a "table" made from ½" plywood with 3⁄8" holes. The table steadies the plastic and holds it perpendicular to the die and punch. Alternately, I made a smaller stick that may work for riveting close to an edge.
Head die in bench vice.
Head die table.
Head die stick.
Back to forming plastics... The dog house roof had two bends so I made a form with an appropriate edge on each of two sides. I don't know how the factory originally did all this, but the shape of the old dog house roof was pretty sloppy. The shape of my new dog house was much more straight and crisp. I think the forms were well worth it.
Dog house roof form.
I was apprehensive about the dog house gable because the art would be stretched by the bend and the art was cracked on the old gable. I kept most of my form edges as sharp as possible. But in the case of the gable form I added a quarter round to the edge to ease the curve. After forming the gable I added a Mylar backing since the bottom edge of the gable may rest on the metal dog house scoop.
Dog house gable form.
Old gable verses my new gable (no cracks).
The dog house wouldn't sit right if the underlying orange plastic was warped. The metal post by the upper milk bottle drop was shorter than the surrounding red plastic posts. I shimmed up the associated post stud to get the orange plastic straight. I also trimmed the orange and blue plastics to fit around the scoop so everything sits straight and level. Each plastic installation was its own project.
Shim washers to level the orange plastic.
Assembled dog house.
Show below is my collection of Bad Cats forms. I don't imagine I'm ever going to use these forms again. If you live in the United States and want to pay shipping both ways, you're welcome to borrow them. Don't ask until you're ready to use them and can return them within a reasonable time frame.
Plastics forms.
The big Tiger Ramp was easier to get in and out without the trashcan plastic in the way. Instead of riveting my new trashcan plastic to its associated bracket, I used screws and nyloc nuts. If I had to do it again, I'd also install the Tiger Ramp before replacing that tall metal post that supports the rear edge of the Fishbowl Ramp.
Removable trashcan plastic.
The old flipper return frames (B-12363-L/R) were slightly peened so I got a new set from Passion for Pinball.
New (bottom) flipper return frame. The stripes are a trick of the camera flash.
Somewhere over the years I acquired a big plastics protector set, but decided against using it. I don't know that these CPR plastics need protecting. And I didn't feel like messing with the vertical alignments of all the various layers of playfield components.
Unused plastics protector set.
On to my new set of Starship Fantasy ramps... The two top lamp boards on the big Tiger Ramp were riveted in place. I didn't feel like messing with rivets on this giant new ramp. So I used machine screws and nyloc nuts to reattach the boards. Some parts were attached to the ramp with self-tapping machine screws. But instead of just driving the screws into the new ramp, I sized and tapped each hole first. I used a step bit (not a twist drill) for any hole resizing.
To apply the many ramp decals to the tiger ramp, I positioned each decal then taped down one end. Going to the free end, I peeled the backing and cut it off about half way. I pressed down the decal working from the cut to the free end. Then I removed the tape and the other half of the backing. This more or less kept the decal aligned while working each end.
Here's an example of overthinking and not paying attention to my own reference photos. I notched the boxing cat plastic to fit under the Tiger Ramp. Then I realized that the boxing cat plastic should fit beside, not under the ramp. Side pressure from the ramp puts a slight twist in the boxing cat plastic that helps roll errant balls back to the playfield (as opposed to allowing balls to get stuck behind the dog house). I fixed up the notch with a scrap of plastic using SCIGRIP Weld-On 3. The boxing cat plastic had a pair of unused mounting holes along the outside edge. I've seen games with black plastic spacers in these holes. My game had nothing and the plastic seemed stable. So I left the holes empty.
Boxing cat plastic repair.
My old Fishbowl Ramp had a concave edge at the bottom of the fishbowl decal. The old decal was curled at the bottom edge since there was nothing supporting it. The new Fishbowl Ramp was convex and better fit the shape of the new decal.
Old Fishbowl Ramp atop the new ramp. Note the shape of the new ramp that better fit the bottom edge of the fishbowl decal.
The new Fishbowl Ramp was a bit taller (or deeper, if you like) near the ramp exit and didn't sit well on the upper right hex spacer (yellow arrow). I replaced the existing 1 7⁄8" spacer with a 2 1⁄8" spacer. The other hex spacer (green arrow) doesn't support anything and I've seen games with and without it. Perhaps it's for preventing an airborne ball from jumping up under the ramp.
Fishbowl Ramp spacers.
Aside from the longer hex spacer, the new Starship Fantasy ramps dropped right in without trimming or fuss.
I printed off a fresh set of instruction and price cards. Lastly I installed a new power cord. The old cord had long since had its molded plug replaced.
New instruction and price cards.
Done!