Trying to fix up a Daiichi Vanguard

[Azar]

Hi all, I've gotten my hands on a Daiichi Vanguard pachinko machine that an uncle of mine has owned for about 20 years. I remember playing with it as a kid and the lights and everything worked, so I decided to bring it home and try to get it running.

The wiring was still hooked up and seemed right as far as I could tell, but I tried connecting a battery and no luck. I've tried a small 9 volt and a big 6 volt and seen no activity in the thing. I don't know how to tell what's wrong--could the wiring be bad? Any ideas?

Also, there's remnants of a copper wire near the plunger machinery in the bottom left corner--any idea what that's supposed to attach to (pic 4 below)?

Instead of attaching pics I've linked to them so you can see them at 8MP. Love the passion you guys have for these machines, and I hope you can help me get mine working!

[pachinkojeff]

Can't help you with the electrical problem, but I'm sure someone out there can. Have you checked the bulbs? You do have a major ball jam that needs attention.

Welcome to Pachitalk!

[thepachinkoman]

I've started on a page to help folks with electrical stuff. the page isn't finished but perhaps it will help.

Do I need electricity to play my machine? | Vintage Pachinko Information

Best of luck. It is always nice to have the machine we remember from back when. I let mine go in a garage sale during my college days for about the price of a 12 pack.

[OneBigTuna]

Once inspected the electrical is not to difficult to figure out, but thats not really my expertise(sp). The Ball jam is in the jackpot chute, so thats really the best kind of jam there is. I say fill the top hopper and let the payouts begin

Ultimatly, Welcome to PachiTalk

[Habious]

I would start with some basics and work your way out from there.

Take your 9V battery, hook up a connector to it with wire pigtails (from Radio Shack), and touch the two wires to the two contacts of each bulb - right on the back of each bulb socket.

Do they light? Yes - bulbs are good, move on. No - bulbs are bad, replace.

Next, if you can beg, borrow, or steal a meter/continuity tester, check the switches.

If the bulbs are good, you probably just have a corroded contact somewhere, considering the age of the machine.

The microswitches are basically sealed so, I wouldn't expect too many problems there, but a lot of these machines just use the little leaf switches (two straight pieces of metal with a little extra nub of metal on one end that get pushed together by an arm). The contact leaves are exposed to the air 24/7, for 20 years. They get corroded. You can use something like a pencil eraser (if you can get between them), or a piece of fine sandpaper. Put the sandpaper between the contacts, hold them together gently, and move the paper around the clean the contact. Don't forget, sandpaper is one-sided so, turn it over and do the other contact.

The electrical circuits on these machines are VERY simple. When you do find the problem, you're going to say "Dang, that was obvious!"

[Moparformances]

your bigger problem is the huge ball jam...

take a look at this and see if it will help ya out a bit..

http://www.pachitalk.com/forums/vint...l-b-video.html

its a different brand of machine but the concepts and layout are the same... so leave the red wire and move the white... 9 volt battery will power ya up.. there may be other problems as well... broken wires bad bulbs etc... but thats where ya can start..

once ya get the machine working then start on the wires... a place to start would be move the white wire to the other post.. the one the white wire is conected to is the feed back to the parlor... it is not used for home use...

[Azar]

Thanks for the awesome advice so far! I'm not too worried about the balls, as I figure it'll be easy to get them out once I get the electrical working. good tip on the white wire--it was loose when I picked up the machine and I just assumed it went there based on the red wire's location. Should I move it to the post where the red wire is as well? there's another screw located in the center behind a plastic nub, but I'm not sure what it's there for.

Figured I'd probably need a meter, so I'll either buy one or wait to work on this till I have access to one. I was just touching the wires to the 9v heads with no result, so I might pick up some pigtails as suggested to properly hook the battery up. I'll keep plugging away.

[Moparformances]

Should I move it to the post where the red wire is as well? there's another screw located in the center behind a plastic nub, but I'm not sure what it's there for..

the red wire is correct.. just make sure it is connected good..

the white wire need to go on the other post.. if you unscrew the green nub and insert the white wire threw the hole then tighten the green num that will bite the bare wire and make contact for ya..

Bills directions make goos sense to me but i understand waht hes explaning...

if ya get in a huge jam with the lights.. make a post and ill get my machine down and shoot ya a quick Vid...

just keep in mind that the lights are totaly secondary and you do not need them to play the game...

most of the time when im playing i dont even bother with the lights... but the Kids do like them...

[ACMech]

I fixed a buddy's Daichi up, pics are in my albums (I'd attach, but I'm on vacation out of state), I had to use sandpaper within the light sockets, and around the bases of the existing bulbs. I don't know if the Daichi's used some sort of anti-corrosion stuff, and that caused the bad connections or what, but I had to do it on both light sockets. The pics in my album also show how I hooked up the lights. On another note, with the jamming issue, my buddy's was filthy, and was jamming all over the place. Once it was cleaned up, it worked like a champ. Like Mopar says, you don't need the lights... but they sure are pretty...