Now we are playing some pinball!

Finally, after months of hard work, I played my first real games on Funhouse! It was really fun cleaning up this beast and I am not done yet, but now I can play it.

First I have a couple of things I need to go over as far as solutions to previous problems.

Rudy was not blinking

I had cleaned out Rudys head, installed new springs, new plunger for eyelids, repainted the lip, put it all back together and found out that once Rudy closed his eyes they were not going to open back up. I was a little stymied, I had noticed that I did not like that action at all as far as the plunger for the eyelids went in and out of the bracket, so the plan was open him back up and reverse the coil. Luckily before I did my friend Jim pointed out there was supposed to be a little plastic spacer between the coil and bracket. I had not noticed this because the one that had been in there previously must have disintegrated some time ago, and when I had looked at the schematics its pointed out as it is supposed to be there, but visually you do not actually see it. If you pay attention (like I did not) you will see it listed in the schematics. Replacements available at the time I am writing this from Marcos for .99 cents.

Now his gaze is inescapable.

 

Check out the paint job on the lip as well. I ended up using Testors Gloss Dark Red, but I think you really need to play with the colors to find the one that matches yours. I had two different face plates and both were different colors from each other.

 

 

Multiball problems

 

After I fixed Rudy I was all excited to finally play a game. Trouble is multiball was not functioning properly. Here was the problem I had after I would reach 11:30 and light the lock. Please not I am copying and pasting this from elsewhere because it is a LOT of info and I really do not feel like typing it all out again, so please excuse the use of present tense instead of past tense.

 

So having an issue with multiball on Funhouse. Here is what happens once you reach 11:30 and the lock lights for the first time:

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First ball in lock- The ball sometimes does not lock. The ball goes in, waits a beat but does not go into ball search, and then the disc fires it out and then fires again as if to eject a second ball from the lock but there is none. Then you have to try for the lock again. It is not an issue of the ball slamming past the disc, it comes to a stop.
Sometimes it does lock though and ball two comes out at the shooter lane like normal.

For the second ball lock- sometimes it will go into the lock, waits a beat but does not go into ball search, then the disc will eject the first ball and then fire again and eject the second ball. Now there are two balls in play but when the first ball drains it does not recognize it as the end of the ball, you keep playing until you drain that second ball. You can at this point shoot the ball back into the lock, but it will not count as a second lock, it will either only count as the first lock again, or not at all. Sometimes it does recognize it and lock it as the second ball.

So if you lock two balls and Rudy goes to sleep- If you shoot it in Rudys mouth multiball starts as normal. If you shoot the lock for a third time on accident, the disc will now kick out all three balls without starting multiball and you are back to the scenario as above again. It wont recognize the first or second balls as drains and if you shoot the lock again you will be starting over from lock one.
If you end your game with balls locked, the game does not fire them out, it keeps them until the next game, where if you shoot the lock before its lit the disc shoots any and all out into play but like before none of them count as drains until the last one goes down.
In switch edge test the switches work off and on but mostly test as good, so I believe its a switch problem. I have tried adjusting them but you can only adjust from below the playfield. When in test mode it is hard to test the switch with the ball because once you send one up there its stuck due to the playfield design until you exit all tests and it automatically kicks out or go into solenoid mode and make it fire.

Here was the solution:

Ok, so I went home and worked on this last night.
First I was having trouble actually testing the switch in the edge test with the ball, like I said once you sent a ball up there you had to exit test mode so that it would kick the ball out. I knew I really needed to be testing this with the ball and not under the playfield by pulling on the switch. I bit the bullet and removed all of the screws from the steps ramp, unplugged the connectors on the bottom, and pulled it not completely out of the machine, but away from the ball lock area so I had access to that. To completely remove the ramp I would have also had to remove the mirror sign and a plastic so the connector would pull through the playfield. Instead I zip tied it to the wireform so I could raise and lower the playfield and keep the ramp safe from being damaged.
Second I fooled around with the position of the disc that ejects the balls. Its pretty tricky, It is like a flipper mech where a rod comes through a bushing and you loosen it like you would a flipper. I ended up making a small mark with a marker on the end of the rod so I could see how much I was turning it so I could fine tune it. I did it a little this way, a little that way until I was satisfied. I will also note here that previous to this I had to replace the spring that was broken, and the plunger that was worn going into the coil. If you are reading this later on trying to troubleshoot your Funhouse, check that while you are down there as well.
So now I could run the test with an actual ball, this was VERY helpful. I could see that when a ball entered the lock area the switch would trigger BUT not stay triggered, the ball was not resting fully on the switch. Also I was previously only making adjustments to the arm that was coming out of the playfield. See the pic below. What I actually needed to adjust was the little flat piece of metal that hits the switch to make contact, it has a red arrow pointing to it. Mine was bowed. I flattened it out and the switch was now registering.
I only say "Mostly" fixed because I do still need to tweak that switch a bit. But this was definitely the issue. I played for about forty minutes last night and got rejected due to the switch a few times. I include times when I shot the lock without it actually being lit as well, so it was a pretty high success rate, maybe 95%. I knew it was still working properly even when not lit because when you shoot the lock without it lit Rudy will make a comment about giving back your ball, and the disc would only fire once, previously it would do it twice. This let me know that the switch was still registering correctly. Still I am very satisfied with the results. The ball lock works properly now. You lock one ball, then the next and it stays locked, and if you accidentally shot a ball into the lock before you make it into rudys mouth it only rejects the one ball like it should.
I did note that the game is designed that if you drain with any balls locked it is supposed to keep them up there until the next game, that is normal.

So very proud of myself. I really did get a lot of help from others, especially Jim and Willie. Willie must have gotten at least 50 emails about problems, what a great guy.

So are we done?

Not quite. There are other things I plan on doing and that need addressing, but I think I will just enjoy it for a week before diving in.

Future tasks:

New test switches came and still need to be swapped with the bad ones.

About 7 lights out in the playfield, have not really looked into them, could just need new bulbs.

Lockdown bar is gross, the foam in it is nasty with old beer or soda, want to tear that out and replace.

Lockdown bar receiver is also rusty and gross from old beer or soda, want to remove that. Have been wanting to try Evaporust, may be a good candidate for that.

Legs are pretty dingy, want to maybe try the Evaporust on them as well, give them a good polish.

Trim that faces out from the backbox is pretty dinged up. Just that one inch strip that faces you. May consider color matching and painting just that portion of backbox, the little white dings are a real eyesore.

I am sure there will be new things, only time will tell.

So keep coming back, I will be updating this as new things happen, thanks for stopping by!

Taking care of buisness

Switch column fixed!

Fixed the switch column last night, finally this blog will have some actual repair tips. Like I said in my last entry that I had a whole column out, switches 71 through 77 all out. These include: Outside flipper return lane, left trough, outhole, center trough, upper right loop (trapdoor), trapdoor closed, and upper right jet bumper. Looking in the manual next to the page with the switch matrix it tells you which connector it goes to, in this case J206, and which wire that is specific for that column, in this case wire at pin 7 which is green/purple. First I needed to determine if this was a board issue, or a playfield issue. To do that I clipped one lead of my DMM to one of the switches that was out, I clipped it right were the green/purple wires was soldered, and then you poke the other lead into the back of the IDC connector at pin 7. You set your DMM to continuity and you do this with the machine off FYI. Now if it had beeped and I had continuity from the connector to the playfield that would indicate that the problem was not under the playfield but in the board itself. I had no continuity so that means the problem is under the playfield. If you are reading this and troubleshooting a problem for the first time, try it with a different switch from a different column on a different wire so you can hear it beep and know you are doing it correctly.

So I have no continuity from the connector to the switches. I then tested continuity from one switch to all of the other switches in the column. I started at one and then tested that one to each of the other switches. Turns out I did have continuity between all of the other switches. If I had ended up not having continuity from one switch to the other that would indicate to me that I need to examine the solder joints on those two switches and look for breaks in the wire, or a pinched wire between them. This was not the case.

So I started at the connector and worked my way backwards following the wire. At the back of the cabinet where all of the wires like to party together I found this:

Fixed that and problem solved!

Factory settings restored and bookkeeping totals cleared

So I was getting this message every time the machine was turned on. Normally this would be an indicator that the batteries were dead, but I had just put new ones in. Per a conversation with my friend Jim he suggested I may not be getting a good connection and that before I remove and replace it I should try lightly sanding the contacts. I used some fine grit sandpaper and a small flat head screwdriver to sand them down lightly. Replaced the batteries and so far so good, no reset messages!

Next up:

Escape service button inside the coin door still not working well unless wires are jiggled and button repeatedly pressed. I took it apart last night and resoldered what I thought was the bad wire but nothing changed. It may need to be replaced. It looks as if at some point beer or soda was spilled and dripped down into the button, it may be internal. Not an expensive part, so I will try a little more before replacing. Open to suggestions on how to fix though.

Rudy eyelids still not opening, have not had the chance yet to remove the Rudy head again, will get to that soon.

Game needs leveling.

Some insert lights are out, need to address that.

Thanks for stopping by!

It's Alive!

We have power!

Exciting stuff! As you can see I got to the point where I was able to power on the machine this weekend. I switched those two slingshot switches to their correct places, was able to check all of the fuses and miracles do happen, all of them the correct value and were good. I pulled them out of the machine and used my DMM to check them. So I crossed my fingers and all of my toes, and flipped that switch......

Nothing blew up!

Nothing locked on!

I counted this as a victory. But I knew that I was not out of the woods yet.

So it was really late when I got to the point of turning it on, I did not spend a lot of time doing any trouble shooting, but I will walk you through what I did, and what right now are problem areas.

First thing I did was put it into test mode and right away ran into my first problem. The "back" or "escape" switch inside the door is not working well. If I repeatedly push it while wiggling the wires underneath it it will work and back out of tests, but this is something I will definitely need to fix or replace. My first step in this will be to take it apart and examine how it connects under there, the problem as of right now does seem to be right at the connection point due to the wiggling getting it to work.

I ran a switch level test and the only switches that came up were the opto ones. Most of the pins I have had in the past did NOT have optos, but I believe those showing up as closed is normal.

I ran the solenoid test, and they all seemed to be working fine. Flashers worked, slings, trap door, pops, diverter, I did it really quick but they seemed to be good.

I ran the Rudy test which tests his eve movements and jaw. Here I ran into the second problem. He shut his eyes and now they do not reopen. This actually did not surprise me as I did not like the way the plunger action was when I had the head out of the machine. It tended to catch a little on a bracket. I will have to remove the head again and take it apart. I think I will first try and reverse the coil so it is facing the other way. These small coils do not have sleeves but they do have a "built in" kind of sleeve and on one end there is a small protruding lip that I believe if I flip it around will solve that problem.

I ran the trap door test and that worked fine.

Starting a game.

So I started a game, well I tried to start a game, but it was not recognizing the balls in the trough. It would not load them as they all sat at the outhole. I pushed them over with my finger and got it to start a game, but it still will not recognize them when they drain. I batted the ball around the playfield and realized I did not tighten the flippers nearly enough and they were loose and tended to kind of travel up. That's easy enough, I can tighten them later.

Everything seemed to work well, except for the ball trough and when I pushed the ball through the trap door lane the trap door did not open. Hmmmm it ran in test mode, but as I said it was super late, so took that quick picture and went to bed.

Of course as I lay in bed in kept trouble shooting in my head, I thought about that trap door and figured maybe it was the switch. Those trough switches must need adjusting too.

So this morning I had five minutes to run down and run a switch edge test this time. I had not done that last night, just the switch level test. Found out that yes the trapdoor switch was not working, also the ball trough switches were not working, plus the right ball return switch was not working... hmmm I see a pattern. Looked in the manual and no surprise here, a whole column of switches are out.
Switches 71 through 77 all out. These include: Outside flipper return lane, left trough, outhole, center trough, upper right loop (trapdoor), trapdoor closed, and upper right jet bumper.

Testing each of those switches in edge test confirms the whole column is out. So now I need to do some research into the best way top test for why the column is out. Hoping it is connector or playfield related and not on the board.

Lastly two other small things. When I got FH Rudy's head was already removed and take apart. I found screws that work for the front half of the face, but none that work to put the back half of the face on. That's a trip to the hardware store. Also, I have turned the game off and on a few times now, everytime I turn it on I get messages that bookkeeping totals have cleared, audits (or something else) have cleared, and date and time are not set. I have not bothered to set the date and time so I am unsure if the batteries (which are new) will remember them for each time I turn on and off.  

So in review, what needs attention so far?
1. Escape button on test switch inside coin door needs fixing or replacing
2. Need to remove Rudy head and re examine eyelid solenoid.
3. Need to figure out why the switch column is out.
4. Need to get screws for Back half of Rudy head.
5. Need to set date and time and see if batteries are holding memory, and see how to get rid of those bookkeeping totals cleared messages.

Rudys head, The bone head, and thinking ahead.

Quick blog update and I want to apologize in advance for the lack of pictures, did nto expect to have the time to work on this today.

First off. This is my first blog, and today I just noticed something when I went to create a new post where it tells me where the majority of my "traffic" comes from. Pinside was there as to be expected, but something else was too. http://www.vampirestat.com/ what is that? Is there a vampire forum online where people are talking about my blog???? I clicked through and its not nearly as exciting, looks like some kind of blog ranking thing, not nearly as glamorous as I hoped. Anyway.

The Rudy Head.

Here's where pictures would make this more exciting. Last night I took apart the rudy eye mechs, cleaned them all out, replaced the springs and the plunger for the eyelids, removed the weird spring someone had jerry rigged to try and help his blinking and it was very successful. I did spend a lot of time trying to reposition one of the coils, because the eyelid plunger action was not that smooth. Here is where "thinking ahead" would have been handy. After a good half hour of tinkering I decided to put it all back together and see how it worked complete, well after I put a bracket back I realized that the bracket played a major role in the plungers action. If I had thought forward I would have saved some time. I also got a good color match for the lip and applied a couple of coats, its really close and I am satisfied with it. If anyone needs to know in the future it ended up being Testors Gloss red straight up. However, the face I was trying to match looks like it may have also been repainted at one time so please don't blindly use that color, check for a match first.

Fun with paint!

 

 

Once I get the final coat on I will show it off. Needs more paint though.

 

I do also want to add here in case anyone comes along looking for advice a great Youtube video I watched that shows the inner workings of a rudy head and explains some things. This is just part one, I will trust you to find part two and three. If you are fixing a Funhouse up it is super helpful and I hope that the gentleman who made the video does not mind me linking to it, happy to take it down if he does mind.

 

A riveting ten minutes (30 if you watch all three). Soon to become a major motion picture starring Brad Pitt as Rudys faceless head.

The Bone head.

 

I'm the bone head. I spent the good part of two evenings replacing the slingshot switches only to realize after I was done that something looked funny.

Can you spot the bone head move? Also I need to clean that little bit of Novus I left behind.

 

Yep, two of them are backwards (you only see one in the pic, the other one is on the other side). At first I was very confused, is this how they looked? They don't look like this on my other games. Did they come up with new switch technology? Did Pinball Life send me the wrong ones? No dum dum, you put them on the wrong sides! I think my problem was on these the diodes are on the other side of the switch than the old ones. So while I was focused on getting the wires in the right spots and having everything line up I did not even think about teh end result! Another case where thinking ahead would have helped.



They sure did need replacing though, old ones were shot!

 

Lesson learned on that one! I did say in my first post that mistakes would be made!

 

Other stuff

I talked about my new love for Flitz metal cleaner in an older post. I did manage to get a pretty good before and after pic. These posts were tumbled with walnut, then just a spritz of flitz and a quick rub in a rag. Can you spot the ones I polished?

If you cannot, please see your optometrist.

 

 

So were are getting very close to powering on! I think I could have turned it on tonight if not for my bonehead move, but now switching those switches will take up most of my evening. More coats of paint scheduled for tonight as well. Then I just need to check all of the fuses and HOPEFULLY none are bad or hard to find. I really meant to check the fuses earlier so I could order any I need online and have them ready when everything was back in place, but I just kept putting it off. Guess I should have thought ahead! Dammit that's three bonehead moves now!

 

 



I put everything back where I found it.

So its been a minute since I updated this, been busy but I have at least had time to work on it. Playfield is now 99% repopulated! It would be done but I ran into trouble buying replacement screws for the guides that feed to the flippers. First set were too thick, second set were too short, hopefully the set I bought today at the old hardware store will work, no reason they shouldn't. So here's how it looks:

 

 

I could not be more pleased with how it looks, The mylar removal went so well, and everything cleaned up so nicely.

 

 

So what do I have left? I am in the process of rebuilding all of the flippers. Take a look at the pic, think it needed to be done?

 

 

Old flipper on top, new on bottom if its not obvious. Going to do all new bushings, and converting the spring style to the WPC era ones for extra snappiness. If you are new to flipper rebuilding do yourself a favor and check out this guide. http://www.performancepinball.com/rebuilding-flippers.html

 

 

Next up, I will be replacing the switches on the slingshots. No pic handy but believe me they are bent!

 

I still need to paint the bottom lip for Rudy, went to the hobby shop the other day and of course they had zero red or yellow testors, going to check another spot or order online. Also I still need to replace the springs for his eyelids and eye balls, they don't look to be correct and should help. I also have new arms that control the eyes too, going to replace those as well.

 

After that I will be checking all of the fuses for continuity and correct value, which you should always do when a new game comes into your house regardless of whether it is already playable. Chances are the guy (or gal, lets not be misogynistic) before you dis not have the correct one and threw any old fuse in there.

 

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So the main purpose of this blog has always been to show my friend the progress I am making on his machine. But in the offhand that someone else stumbles upon this trying to do their own Funhouse restoration I would like to highlight some tips and processes I went through. I found Funhouse to not be too difficult, this was the third machine I did a complete top teardown on.

 

1. Order. I started at the bottom of the playfield and worked my way counter clockwise. pretty much went: Flipper area, slingshot area, left side of playfield, steps ramp, main ramp, left wireforms, all other plastics and pop bumper area last. I took a ton of pictures and took notes of everything I removed in order and then just started at the end and worked my way back to put everything back.

 

2. I did forget the small cover that goes on the top of the main ramp after putting everything back and it was quite a pain to remove everything again just to put it on, so watch out for that. Wasted a good hour on that.

 

3. There was a lot of Loctite on screws in the lower half of the playfield. Mostly on the slings and guides for the flippers. To combat that use your soldering iron underneath the playfield. Hold it on the bottom of the screw until its nice and hot, then quickly lower the playfield and "walk" the post or screw out. Loosen it a little, then tighten it a little, then loosen then tighten, keep doing that until it comes free or in the case of 80% of my screws or posts, it breaks off in the playfield. No worries, just tap out the T-nut and replace. I had a hell of a time finding the right size replacement posts so good luck with that. Try Bay Area Amusements.

 

4. To remove the main ramp you need to remove the diverter. Under the playfield on the side of the shaft is a tiny little set screw you use an allen wrench on. Easy enough if you know where to look.

 

5. You got all this stuff off the playfield, the least you can do is put cliffy protectors on your scoops. If you have the playfield cleaned off it takes maybe ten minutes, no drilling. Go here for them if you want order from the man himself: http://www.passionforpinball.com/fhscoop.htm. My friend decided against installing the ramp ones since we bought a new ramp that is formulated from thicker plastic, so I can't speak for installation of that.

 

That's all I can think of. As far as future posts I want to detail what color combo I end up using to repaint the lip to help others. I want to give some tips about working in Rudys head, replacing the springs, etc. And when all is said and done I will figure out a place to put all of my shop pics online so people can use them for future references.

 

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Just for fun, here a couple of pics of my work area:

 

I try and lay everything out the way it comes off the table, makes life a little easier.

 

 

My tool box and Baron Von Pantsdown the best lamp ever made.

 

I told you I like cleaning supplies right?

 

My Foreman.

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 





Hoping for an endorsment deal.

Thought I would do a little post on some of new cleaning supplies I have run across while working on this Fun House. Now, I love to clean, I find it very satisfying and zen. I don't think I could stand yoga but if I need to take my mind off stuff nothing works better for me then cleaning something.

First off, forget Home Depot, that place is the worst, I try and avoid it at all costs. Plus if we are talking strictly cleaning supplies their selection is terrible. Last time I went they only had two different metal polishes, pathetic! If you live in the bay area like me, ACE is the place. Just look how excited this lady is to find such a great selection in this pic I found on the internet:

She is stoked! Anyway, trust me. They have like a whole shelf of just metal polish, they have like five shelves of deodorizing stuff, plus the staff is usually helpful which is more than I can say about Home Depot.

First new cleaning product: Purple Power.

 

 Its already got a cool name, so you know it will work great

 

This worked great on the subway ramps under the playfield, took the nasty stuff off no problem. I formerly used Simple Green but I did not like the smell at all. I also used Simple green to clean cabinets but its green colored and when I tried it on my friends Mata Hari it turned the yellow a greenish color (don't worry, I tested it in a spot you could not see first, if you dont tell my friend they will never know.) So this is the new go to.

 

 

Next new product, Flitz metal polish. I am so happy to find a metal polish I really like. Before Flitz I used Neverdull wadding polish and then followed it up with Brasso to shine it. I never liked either of them. Neverdull is a pain to use and the brasso just was not as great as I hoped it to be. When I came home with the Flitz I figured I would try it on a ball guide I had already done with the two aforementioned products, after using some Flits the cloth came away totally black getting a lot of dirt the others had not. Now I only use the Flitz. Its one drawback is that its 5.99 for a little bottle and I think it will take the whole bottle to get all of the metal clean so its not as cheap as the others but in my mind the time saved and results more than make up for it.



The lightning bolt in the letter "Z" lets you know it means business.

 

 

This is the first time I have used a tumbler as well. I had hoped to have some great before and after pics to show but my camera is not that great so the pictures all looked the same. So instead please enjoy this video of Culture Club performing I'll Tumble for ya

 

 

Ok, now that you are back from that. I really did like the results from tumbling, basically if its made of metal and fits in the tumbler its going in. I also used some KITs Scratch Out as an additive. I know I could use Flits instead but many people on RGP swear by this and its really cheap and worked great to shine up the metal. Its in the automotive section at ACE. Just squirt a couple of rings around the walnuts before you turn it on, not too much though.

 

For the tumbler media itself I used crushed walnuts, you can get it at most pet stores. I have always heard to get it in the reptile section, but the stuff for reptiles looked a bit fine for polishing. My tip, check the bird section as well, the crushed walnuts there were a bit coarser.





Just don't let your parrot take a crap in your tumbler.

 

 

Lastly, Novus 1, the most neglected of the Novus products. I have seen people on the forum say don't bother, its basically windex. I got a bottle from my pal Tony when I bought his F-14 Tomcat and I really like it. I cannot thank him enough, I almost told him not to bother but I used this on all of the playfield plastics. Novus 2 works great on plastics but I find it leaves a residue, Novus 1 gets it nice and shiny. I get my Novus 1 at TAP Plastics FYI.

Don't call me Windex Muthaf**ker.



That Playfield is so clean you could eat off of it (if you like your food to taste like Novus and wax.)

Lets look at a couple of pics of how dirty this playfield was when it came to me.

 

 

So I finally got the playfield stripped, cleaned and waxed! My method was to use Novus 1 for the initial clean of the really built up dirt. Then I went into a couple of the area that had ground in dirt and hit them with Magic eraser. Next up was a thorough going over with Novus 2. lastly I did three coats of wax. I decided to try a new wax that was highly recommended on all of the forums and sold by Pinball Life, my preferred online parts shop. I bought the little jar so I could test it out and not commit to 30$. The results were fine but did not blow me away. Plus because it came in a tiny little jar it was kind of a pain to use, so the second and third coat were meguires gold wax, which people also swear by. It works well, but I was really hoping to get that mirror shine others get after a wax job, but I have come to the conclusion you need a clearcoated playfield if you want that, so while I am extremely happy with the way the cleaning went, the waxing will just help keep that ball rolling and protect the playfield but did not add a ton of shine. Still take a look, the playfield looks great!

So now it is on to putting everything back where I found it.

I should really document how I do my playfield teardowns, I think I will save it for a later date though so I can take a few pictures of my set up.