assembly

All posts tagged assembly

Fireball Classic – Upper play field (Part 1)

Posted by Andrew Burch on May 2, 2014
Posted in: Fireball Classic - Bally (1985). Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

There is quite a bit of work to be done in the top area. Two saucers, an upper ramp section, pop bumpers, messenger ball, gates, mylar and a few plastics. I decided to work on the right side of the play field first, and then work back around to the left. I’m waiting on parts for the pop bumpers to arrive before I can properly service them, so i’ll be skipping them for now.

First up is the ball saucers, which allows you to trap a ball. There are two on the play field, one on each side – which allows for a 3 ball multiball during game play.

Fireball saucer
Continue Reading

Fireball Classic – Lower play field restoration

Posted by Andrew Burch on April 29, 2014
Posted in: Fireball Classic - Bally (1985). Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Time for another installment on the progress so far.

This time, I’ll be focusing on the lower play field. I’m working my way up the play field – from the apron (which I covered in previous posts, all the way up tp tje top). This allows me to focus on specific areas and assemblies and then test them once they have been serviced. It also helps stop feeling overwhelmed with everything still to do.

The lower play field is quite dirty. Mylar covers some sections, while others either have chunks taken out of it (or it was removed by a previous owner). When it was removed you can see some damage that was done to multiplier and bonus inserts 🙁

I needed to service the slingshots, so figured that while I was doing that, I could also remove the remaining mylar and give the play field a much needed clean. Before I’m done with the machine I plan to give the play field a solid wax too. Doing the play field in stages will mean more work in the future as I’ll have to remove everything to clean and wax it, but I’ll live with that.

Fireball lower playfield
Continue Reading

Fireball Classic – Under the Apron (Part 1)

Posted by Andrew Burch on April 20, 2014
Posted in: Fireball Classic - Bally (1985). Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

With the sound issue issue covered, and the ball serve issue to look at, I wanted a bit of a break from problem solving to exploring the different assemblies on the machine and giving them a clean. The problem was – where do I begin? I want to cover the entire machine. In the end I figured I start from the bottom of the play field and work my way up.

So to begin with, I’d remove the apron and see what lurks below.

The apron on these early Bally machines are secured by two small metal brackets at the front and two screws at the back. The last person to work on the machine didn’t secure the apron to the brackets at the front and as a result it was lose (which isn’t good when you go to lift the play field by it…)

I have to say the two screws at the back don’t feel like the most sturdy attachment for the apron. I may be that due to age, it has just seen better days – but I don’t trust lifting the play field via the apron like I do on my Nugent and Space Orbit machines..

Fireball classic apron
Continue Reading

Nugent – Servicing the Drop targets

Posted by Andrew Burch on February 17, 2014
Posted in: Nugent - Stern (1978). Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 2 comments

The drop targets – one of the final elements of the game to receive my attention. The Nugent playfield has two banks of 3 drop targets. The first set (located on the left of the playfield) control the special bonus (which is an extra ball & 100,000 points). The second is located on the upper right and controls the bonus multiplier (x2, x3 and x5). Both sets are functional, although sometimes it does not detect when all 3 targets have been dropped (more on this later). The blue star decal on all 6 targets is worn and the white has faded over time. There is also some dirt build up on the targets and the assembly under the playfield.

This is how the drop targets looked to start with:

Nugent bonus drop targets
Continue Reading