New Guy Here - Wiring and Restoring a Vintage Pachinko

[Unforgiven]

Ok Guys, I gave the Pachinko machine to my wife for her Birthday. No more seeking around and I can finally begin restoration. I will post pics and keep you all updated. Time for some new balls

[compirate]

Time for some new balls

Does she at least give you visitation? (the machine, you nasty people!)

[Unforgiven]

Today was the first day that I could spend quality time with the machine. I have the lights powered and it seems like one light comes on for a jackpot and another comes on if the hopper needs to be refilled.

Does this sound right?

I will now being to removed every piece to clean it up.

[d mowery]

Ya got it thats about al they can do , I have added a few micro switches in mine to make a few more blinking lights 4 more to be exact all with the 9 vt batt hookup

[sharmoni]

I highly recommend taking photos of every piece that you remove so you can remember how to reassemble it if your cleaning project gets interrupted. I took many hundreds of photos for my current restoration project which I started in May (nearly six months ago). I even took photos of the screws beside their holes so I would know which ones went where. I doubt I could remember exactly where everything goes otherwise. The first time I cleaned a pachinko I got lucky, I only had three washers left over afterward, but that one I cleaned in less than a month.

[birdbrain]

i've found that if you lay the parts in the shower and spray them down with foaming carpet cleaner and let them sit, when you shower them down they are just about spotless. and you can take credit for cleaning the shower with the overspray!!!

[Unforgiven]

Got it, I will take pictures and ask question here when I screw up

[ggreen]

so a month later I too jump blindly into a vintage Sanyo Comet II. Mine has a couple of very big nosed guys in the playing field and a drum on one side. Got it with only a few balls, and in decent shape today. I will be ordering a manual and taking pics as I disassemble it. Seems to work fine, but like most, rust never sleeps. Great site, good info...wil keep you posted on my resto. How is yours going?

[wrkey]

Hey GGreen! Welcome to PachiTalk! I joined not too long ago after I purchased my vintage Nishijin machine. I came to this site and found tons of information and made some good friends along the way.

Be warned. The addiction the people on this site are afflicted with is extremely contagious! It sneaks up on you and before long, you'll find yourself seaking out another machine to restore and play... and then another... and then another...

Again welcome!

Did I mention I now have 3 machines?

[hanabi]

Welcome to PachiTalk ggreen!!



You picked a great time to join us, there seems to be a few members restoring vintages at the moment,
and sharing their experiences

[ggreen]

I just posted pics of mine under a new thread titled "one day sympathetic "restoration" if you want to see what i did today to my new machine. Ordering balls off ebay for about $22.50 shipped- does that sound right for 500 spheres? I have lots more photos. Just decided to clean it up and play with it- works good!

[luckydog]

you got a good price on the balls.

[Unforgiven]

Just a note, the metallic borders on the machine were pitted and discolored. I used a cleaner called Noxon 7 and while it did not remove the pitting, it sure cleaned it up very nicely.

[shooter05]

Just a note, the metallic borders on the machine were pitted and discolored. I used a cleaner called Noxon 7 and while it did not remove the pitting, it sure cleaned it up very nicely.

I have been using #0000 steel wool. It is super fine and will smooth the pitts too.

[ggreen]

my strategy is to now play 10 times as much as I polish. will check out the cleaner. I used brasswool and brasso, then silver polish, hands and fingers got tired. Like I said, its a quick clean and play (i literally took about 4 hours to disassemble, clean and reassemble, but i will continue to do some work on it. Bought it for my wife- her grandfather had one and when we saw it she got excited. I was happy to get it operational and presentable in one day. Ordered balls last night, and now i need to sort out the entire wiring system. seems like the center jackpot may have had a option for a light or two, but its covered in back (between the light assembly and the field) with a small piece of very pitted chrome. even if I was to relamp it the lights would not show through. Do others have lights on the jackpot (center?) or most just light when empty and jackpot is hit-right?

[Unforgiven]

My Comet II just has a red jackpot light in the upper left corner and a yellow hopper light just below it. Either way, I am enjoying working on it.

[wrkey]

I have a Sankyo and a Nishijin vintage machine and here's my wiring/light configuration.

Both machines have basicly two lights. One that is turned on when the hopper is empty and one that is activated when a jackpot is paid. I think, my Nishijin has two lights in the jackpot area (both controled by same circuit) however, my Sankyo has only one. There are two switches used in the machine, one that is activated by the upper hopper lever and the other by the jackpot mechanism.

For both machines the empty hopper light (on the side / top) is activated in the same way, through the highest lever on the machine which is located in the upper hopper ramp. This switch is on the 'negative' side of the circuit. In other words the positive lead runs through the bulb and to the switch and THEN to the negative post. This function also allowed the hook up of a 'controll board' grounding wire that was used by the Pachinko Parlour system. When the hopper was empty, it "grounded" both the light on the game AND the associated light on the control board. Since you only got the one you can ignore that extra wire.

Now the JackPot lights are essentially the same, but with some sutble nuiances. On my Nishijin, the JP switch is located at the upper part of the machine and activated by the level that 'dumps' the JP balls. On the Sankyo, the JP switch is located on the bottom of the machine where the winning ball 'regulator' rocker is located. Here's the diffference. When a winning ball falls is first activates the regulator rocker at the bottom (which turns on the JP light on the Sankyo). The ball then falls down and onto the JP seesaw that pushes up on the release lever (which turns on the JP light on the Nishijin). The JP balls are release and the dropping of the JP balls release the winning ball from the JP seesaw causing it to reset back to it original position (which turns OFF the JP light on my Nishijin). This final motion also resets the regulator rocker (which turns OFF the JP light on my Sanyko). So.. the difference... the Sankyo light comes on a lot sooner and goes off a bit later than the Nishijin. Both methods have their 'benefits'. The Nishijin gives you a bit of the 'flash' feeling when the balls drop and hit the bell, while the Sankyo gives a bit of 'anticipation' as it lights a half second before the balls drop.

Both of my machines I have powered by individual transformers that I had laying around in my shop. (Ok, they weren't laying around, I tend not the throw things like that away and have a drawer full of them.) Once I have my machines mounted in their cabinet, I will plug these into a switchable power strip so I can turn them on when in play.

There are few wiring diagrams out there on the net that can assist, but even with those, it took me a while to trace and figure out what went where. Oh, the Nishijin's bulbs and sockets were toast, so I purchase some inexpensive sockets and bulbs from RatShack and soildered them in. I hope this helps. If you need a wiring diagram, just reply here and I'll try to put one together for ya.

later,