The Addams Family Pinball

I notice some ramp damage today on the subway ramp under the playfield where balls falls into the ramp once the single drop target has dropped. So I decided to take off the ramp to repair it. Although I had read many horror stories regarding the removal of this ramp, it turned out to be not so bad.

Main subway ramp

Of course the ramp was filthy, so I cleaned it with Bref prior to repairing the cracked ramp with Ambroid Pro Weld (an excellent soltuion for repairing ramps, as it welds the cracked plastic together at a molecular level rather than sticking them together).

Having put everything back together, replacing J121 in the process and inserting some new batteries, I turned the machine on and was met by some crazy canons which seemed to have a mind of their own and just kept on rotating. Fortunately I was prepared for this (having read up on the most common problems with a ST:TNG) and knew that if the opto in the canon wasn’t working (which it wasn’t on the left) that there was probably a wire harness problem. So, having removed the left canon covering, the opto pair and unplugged the wires from under the playfield, I removed the wiring harness to reveal some very damaged wires:

Broken wires from the wire harness from left cannon

So, having repaired these and put everything back together, I had a fully working ST:TNG. Wonderful!!

My recently acquired ST:TNG came under scrutiny today. The backbox had already been removed, so it was a case of checking out the PCBs. Two things were immediately obvious – a scorched J121 and an external battery wired directly to the battery holder on the CPU board.

Inside the backbox - note external battery bottom left

Although dirty, the condition of the boards was good, so I just had to clean them up with Bref.