Well it didn’t take long. Only a few weeks into owning a machine that I didn’t plan to do any work on, and am going to strip the playfield for a solid clean. Having had a much closer inspection now, there is a lot of dust and dirt at the top of the playfield, along the ramps and on the plastics located up there too. I really want to get it into a clean state – a base line – that I can reference to know when the machine was last given a service and deep clean. Since I’ve already worked through a number of the assemblies below the playfield, I want to give the playfield itself similar attention. While I’m doing that, I can clean the individual parts on the playfield and get fresh rubber all over it. Naturally, that means I won’t be able to play it for about a week – but it’s task well worth doing.
assembly
All posts tagged assembly
I’ve been having a lot of fun playing my Last Action Hero since it’s arrival. I’m not sure how it rates as a game among the pinball community, but I’ve found it to be really enjoyable and it’s a welcome entry to my Pinball fleet. My previous update focused mostly on small cosmetic things but in update #2, I’m starting to look at cleaning the assemblies to get the game running at an optimal level. First thing on my radar this time is the single scoop, located on the right side of the playfield.
With the apron area completed in the previous update, it’s time to move up the playfield and service some more of the assemblies that make up the game. Shifting my focus about 3cm higher than the apron, the first feature to look at in this update is the “up post”. This feature is pretty cool in game and a welcome addition given the lack of in lanes beside the sling shots. I’ve covered it slightly in previous updates where I sorted out some issues with it not functioning correctly, but this time i’ll be pulling it to pieces for a good clean.
Two switch issue have crept into Pinbot over the last few months and I wanted to take a look at them. The first relates to the ramp switch, which lets the game know if the ramp is up or down. When the ramp is down, the switch should be activated. There are two coils which control the state of the ramp and if the switch is in the wrong state, the game will continually try and activate a coil. This was the behavior I was seeing. The ramp would be down, but the coil would continue to fire.
The drop target bank has waited, or more accurately, been put off for, long enough. Time to pull the assembly to pieces and clean it all. When I first got the machine home, the 6th and 7th yellow drop targets were broken. I replaced these back in update #2 so I could start a game and test out the switches. At this point, the drop target bank functions correctly. That includes all switches. So this is a good starting point. If I mess anything up in rebuilding the assembly, I’ll know it’s my fault. The plastic, posts and old rubber had been removed awhile back. This photo is also from awhile ago too as you can see all the areas around the drop targets are incomplete (but have since been finished in previous updates).
