Taiyo Electron Resto

[mbodi]

This is one of the arrangeball machines picked up from Long Island.
Moving right along. Got everything off the playfield and cleaned up, including the chrome.
Working my way from top to bottom on polishing the nails. Top half are done. Starting to put parts back along the way.

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[mxfaiman]

I look forward to seeing the finished product.

[hanabi]

Good looking arrangeball and restoration seems to be coming along nicely

Nice shiny chrome too!!

[mbodi]

Took a break from nail polishing and moved to the back for some mechanical work and cleaning.
Pulled the bank of leaf switches out, and removed the cover for the ball channels to expose the bar. Found a little corrosion on the bar like Don said I would. Got that sanded down. Started to clean each ball channel, both horizontal and vertical. Also going to shine up the face of the leaf switches. Hopefully this will solve the problem of an occaissional ball hanging up when the bar opens and drops the balls to the shooting tray for a new game. Also going to put back the leaf switches with a couple of washers to hold them out a little, like Dave mentioned. Looks like a couple of spacers were installed when the machine was put together. I'm pointing to one of them in the photo.

BTW, there are 212 brass nails on this cel. Yes, I counted them.

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[emmadog]

Nice job, keep the pics coming. It's a good idea to remove the solenoid and its plunger that drives the ball drop bar and clean with a scotch brite pad or similar and alcohol, don't use steel wool for this. Clean the cavity inside the solenoid as well. Also clean the area where the bar attaches to the plunger. It's frequently full of old lube. Do the same on the coin dispenser solenoid as well and disassemble the coin payout mech and clean those sliding parts. I use a dry Teflon lube on these areas as well as the sliding frame locks, etc. won't gum up over time and attract dust. I'd also get a magnifying glass out and check all the boards for broken traces, corrosion, etc.

[emmadog]

another thing i forgot to mention and that concerns the green plastic rotating arm unit. it's located at the top rear of your machine and controls the payouts. so it has a wiper (the rotating arm) that rotates and touches various contacts on a pcb beneath to make and break circuits. it's a good idea to remove the wiper and lightly sand/scotchbrite/magic eraser the contacts on the arm and on the traces below and clean with alcohol. that rotating unit is homologous to stepper units found in EM pinballs with the exception that yours is driven by an electrical motor and in pinballs it's driven by solenoid(s) that interact with a ratchet on a toothed wheel and functions basically the same but with many more circuits. anyway, that's one of the first things to check and clean when getting an old EM back up to snuff and once it's clean a thin film of clear, synthetic teflon grease is applied (see pic). it helps to keep wear to a minimum, conducts electricity, and will lessen friction that the motor has to overcome. keep everything lasting longer so that these already impossible to obtain parts won't be an issue. normally grease is frowned upon in arrangeballs and pinballs but here is the one exception. i think radio shack carries it or an equivalent.
i also included a pic of the same generation (as far as the design of the front of the machine) machine. this is my scissors, rock, paper arrangeball and it's interesting to compare and contrast the differences, such as the inclusion or lack of the rotational unit.

[mbodi]

Thanks John. Will post some pics of the back once I get it cleaned up. Got a lot done tonight, but still got a ways to go.
Was planning on replacing the power cord. Looks like some sort of resistor before the fuse box. Don't recall seeing anything like this on any of the PF's I restored. Is this something to do with the electronics in arrangeball machines? Looks like it says 10W and then below, %7936.

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[emmadog]

Yeah that resistor is fairly common on arrangeballs. Come to think of it I've only seen it used on Taiyos. Anyway, I think it was to drop our 110V down to what is used in Japan, 100V.
The Taiyo owl and balloons machine that I had, both had that resistor. Since most of these machines are running on US current now without that resistor, it follows that it would be fine but since it's there, I'd leave it on.

[mbodi]

Still chipping away at it.
Got the back pretty well cleaned up and everything put back together. Also finished getting the front back together.
Ran a couple hundred balls through it with no problems. Still got a ways to go, but happy with the way it looks and plays.

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Taiyo Resto 23.jpg

[mbodi]

A few more.

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[emmadog]

Nice pics. So can you describe the game play? Pockets do anything special?
Thanks.

[mxfaiman]

So can you describe the game play? Pockets do anything special?

or you could post a video of it in play.

[emmadog]

or you could post a video of it in play.

yes, even better.

[mbodi]

I'll try and do a video soon.
Top center pocket pays one token and lights #1. Easy to get one in after the first one, since it opens up the sides to it.
Top red pockets do the same thing.
Lower green pockets light the numbers on them.
Lower green tulips just send the ball back to the shooting tray.
Tulip below the dials lights the red bonus lights and numbers 4, 8, 9, and 13.
One token for every 4 numbers lit together. One more token for each additional number connected.
This machine seems to pay out a max of 5 tokens per game, not countng the tokens won by hitting the red pockets.
Not sure if thats normal for this machine. I think Don said that his pays out 16 tokens for all numbers lit.

[emmadog]

Thanks for the info, I was curious as to how it compared to the "original" version. Looks to play the same. Don will likely chime in here but when I had mine, it would only pay out 5. Turns out it had a couple of broken components on the circuit board. The new owner of it fixed it and it paid 15 or 16. It could also be that the max is 5 since it is a newer version and/or it was used in an area where 5 was the max. I've seen the same model machine with different max payout stickers on them. Some Taiyos and Satomis have models that had a user adjustable switch on the board to change the max but the vast majority don't.

[mbodi]

John, check out the 4th photo in my post #9 with the circuit board with the plug in relays.
Numbers: 52 8 30. Wonder if that could be the date. That would make it 1977. Sound right?

[emmadog]

The last year I know of for arrangeball manufacture is 1980. In fact it's the generation of Taiyos after yours so '77 makes sense. Very interesting.

[mbodi]

Hey John, finally got to cleaning the circuit board under the rotating arm like you mentioned.
When I pulled the arm off, I noticed it was gobbed up with crazy glue. Didn't think too much about it at the time.
Cleaned the board and contacts with alcohol and a magic eraser. You can see in the photo of the eraser how filthy it was. Don't know where I got it, but had a tube of the same synthetic grease you posted a photo of. Put a thin coat on the board. Put the arm back on, then as I was tightening the set screw, I heard a crack. Apparently it was cracked previously and the former owner had glued it. Removed it and re-glued it with gorilla glue. Let it set up, and put it back on. Seems to be working fine.
Before I did this project, I was getting shorted on the payouts every once in a while. Mainly on the left dial. Would get paid one, when it should have been two, get two, when it should have been three, and so on.
Since I finished doing this, I put over 300 balls through the machine, and all payout have been correct.

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[emmadog]

Nice job! The arm on mine was cracked as well and was subsequently epoxied. The gunk was probably interfering with a good connection and affecting your payouts. That or the arm was not correctly positioned. Over time, it can slightly get out of position. Both are common issues on EM pins but easily fixed. Keep the updates coming, it's great to see the progress.

[thestreetzking]

the restoration looks amazing!, forgive me for being new here but how exactly does this work?? do you start with a set number of balls? when you mention tokens are you referring to an actual token or balls??