Williams 1977 Wild Card

[ballsofsteel]

This game had been appearing off and on for at least a year on local cl. Came home from a pachinko fetch to find a happy email - "allright come get Wild Card". I did.

Got it all in the shop.
wcpf01.jpg

Kinda hard to work on at that angle. Maybe later.

Got the glass out and gave it a coat of Triple-Thick. Lost a little paint down in the corner but shouldn't be too hard to touch up. Kinda weak in places like the red hats and pink dress but can probably fake those with bulb sleeves and perhaps a bit of colored tissue. There's no ball up there anyway.

wcglass.jpg

Got the backbox where I can deal with it. Let's have a look inside...

wcback01.jpg

What do my eyeballs tell me about this here thing. Ball counter had me puzzled. 10 balls? Duh. It's an add-a-ball. Ball counter still has me puzzled. How did it get past the gap after 10th position and ratchet all the way around to the stop peg? Probably someone's grab-and-twist but we'll never know for sure. It's sticky and will get a cleaning and a couple of coil sleeves.

Push the flap on the Match Unit and nothing happens. The little plastic ratchet piece is either out of position or broken. There's one in the parts bin anyway. 'Darling' spreads her DNA to yet another game.

Seller said the game wouldn't reset. I believe that. When the 100s score reel is on 3 and the coil burns up and the wires are off the thing is not going to reset. More issues here. Closer look.

wcback02.jpg

One screw missing and the other loose. Take the coil stop off and remove the burnt coil. More? yup.

wcback03.jpg

Slide the sleeve back and find the usual broken solder joint. Seems like a wire falls off almost every time you touch one of these here score reels. Last month's 'Magic City' project had 7 loose wires on 4 score reels. I'm sure I'll find a couple more in there somewhere.

Time to get out and try to make a bit of progress - or at least get the heat on 'cuz it's cold out there.

Here's the IPDB page if you want a look: http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2778

More later...