Ist Pachinko: Gear Shock Thunderbirds 2 Repair - Not Paying Out
Hi, I recently bought my first pachinko machine off eBay: 2004 Thunderbirds 2 Gear Shock frame, won for £127 and it was only 40 miles away from me. What a thing for 127 quid! I really didn't buy it to play it, as I know it will get old fast, but it looks great. It was sold as fully working and I’ve been messing with it and at first it seemed well. However, as I played more I found it wasn’t paying out and after a few minutes play an error appeared on the screen. At first I didn’t know it was an error, as it was written in big friendly text, I thought it was a play instruction.
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I was worried about the not paying out, through Patchitalk, I researched what could be the problem, main suggestions were the pockets weren’t registering, the machine was blocked, or it’s been converted to cyclic. I knew it wasn’t the pocket sensors as they were starting the music and graphics and it’s not cyclic. I had a good look around the back, I couldn’t see any signs of modifications or errant wires. I turned to the payout chutes: I first took out the bottom part of the chute assembly which seemed the easiest place to start. This is the white piece in the photos and there’s no electronic or mechanical parts in this chute.
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It came out easy and there were no blockages.
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I then looked at the electro mechanical part of the chute, there are two chutes, side-by-side in the assembly. I noticed the right hand chute was full of balls, but the left hand wasn’t, could be a clue! So this drove me on to think I was on the right track. I drained as many balls out of the chutes and hopper as possible, there is a clear plastic lever that releases the balls when pulled. However, due to the blockage, many balls stayed in the chute feed tunnel. These of course when everywhere when I removed the chute assembly. However, the assembly was easy to remove, two screws, and just one cable connector connects all the sensors to the rest of the machine. As soon as it was out: There’s yer problem! A screw in the left chute trapping a ball.
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I took the chute assembly apart and removed the blockage, put it all back together, filled with balls and fired up.
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Wow, what a difference, no error, except when the ball hopper emptied, which it did a lot, the balls came flooding out of it in wins thick and fast!
I ordered a card emulator from Pinball Dave: works a treat!
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Next: I've seen one of the bulbs is blown...
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