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Brian Hanifin

Comet: Pinball Repair Log

Update: [6/2/2010] Thanks to help from my wife, my dad, and Brian from HSA Pinball, Comet is complete. Today I leveled the leg levelers, cleaned the playfield, replaced all the rubber rings, and replaced any missing bulbs so it now plays quite nicely.

Comet is one of two non functional pinball machines I picked up for at a Garage Sale. The other is Space Station (whose repair log is here).

ISSUES
  1. Battery corrosion -- but no leaks.
  2. Display Power Supply voltage problem.
  3. All displays are dead. One display is dead.
  4. All ramps are damaged to some degree. The middle ramp needs repair.

ISSUE DETAILS

Battery corrosion.
  • [7/13] Removed corroded battery holder and replaced it with an off-board battery holder. Game powered up and played very well (except of course for the lack of displays, and middle ramp issue). Luckily the corrosion does not appear to have spread.

Display Power Supply voltage problem.
  • [7/17] 100 volts was missing on one of the two 100v pins. When I was feeling around for overheated components, I touched the heat sink of one of the transistors and got a little zap! Since the heat sinks of a transistor should be ground, I believe someone hooked up a replacement transistor without making sure the correct leg went in the correct hole (often replacement transistors legs are in a different order than the original component).
  • [7/20] Rebuilt +/-100v section of power supply board. I suspect there must have been a short inside the transistor that zapped me. The voltage is down to +/-91v which allows the gas displays to last longer.

All displays are dead.
  • [7/13] The glass looks scorched. Will have to see if any of the displays work after I repair the voltage problem. I suspect I will end up having to purchase a new set of LED displays.
  • [7/20] Four of five displays are working! Player 4 display is dead. I hooked up the connector for the player 3 display, and it still didn't work.
  • [6/2010] Thanks to Brian from HSA Pinball, who graciously gifted me a used but working display, my Player 4 display is now working!

Ramp Damage: Middle / Roller Coaster Ramp
  • [7/15] Side walls at entrance appear to have melted slightly and lean far to the right. This prevents the entry gate/switch from moving out of the way of the ball. With gate removed, a large bump at the entrance still makes entry almost impossible and causes many airballs to fly hard into the glass.
  • [7/16] After talking it over with several people, and doing some reading, we will probably use a heat source to soften the ramp enough to allow us to reposition the warped walls... and perhaps lower the bump. Per the suggestion of both Shane and my father-in-law, we may attempt to use some kid of resin to reattach the cracked lip at the very front of the ramp.
  • [9/4] Over the weekend my wife and I took a heat gun and some putty knives and the ramp is in much better shape now! I applied some of the TAP 16 plastic weld and reattached the base of the ramp.
  • [5/2010] Reheated middle ramp on playfield to bend back down to original position.
  • [5/2010] Cut and rivet a spring steel flaps to protect fragile ramp entrance for both the middle and corkscrew ramps.

Tags: comet, pinball, repair, repair log

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Brian Hanifin Comment by Brian Hanifin on July 17, 2009 at 11:32pm
Before anyone asks, here are pictures of both pins before I moved them inside and started working on them.


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