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Thread: Williams 1977 Wild Card

  1. #1
    Kungishi ballsofsteel's Avatar
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    Smile Williams 1977 Wild Card

    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...
    "Knowledge is good." - Emil Faber

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  3. #2
    Pachi Puro emmadog's Avatar
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    Default Re: Williams 1977 Wild Card

    since you triple thicked it you can easily experiment with different colors of pink/red acrylic paint to touch up the backglass. what is it with the reds on EM backglasses? that's typically the first color to flake.
    i'm debating whether or not to triple-thick my sea ray bg. i've done the process to 3 bg's so far with no issue and then did it to a sweet hearts and it melted the paint in about a 1X2" area. i don't know why it did it at that spot and not the whole glass-i lucked out on that one for sure. anyway, since then i haven't done another except for a tiny spot on my expressway.
    your post reminded me to check all the wires on my sea ray score reels. especially with all the handling that takes place when changing sleeves and cleaning.
    EM Pinballs & Arrangeballs

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  5. #3
    Kungishi ballsofsteel's Avatar
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    Lightbulb Re: Williams 1977 Wild Card

    <sigh> I couldn't resist.... The scene on this backglass is just so darned similar to an old favorite of mine - Kings & Queens. Bunch of folks around a card table in a saloon. Same lamp hanging up. Something missing - the folks at Williams didn't put a blinker bulb behind the lamp.

    wcdivot.jpg

    I used a small grinding wheel to dig a divot for the bulb. I don't think I'll wire it in with the game over light like K&Q.

    Yes, the insert panel is out of the backbox. Amazing how much easier it is to work on that way.
    "Knowledge is good." - Emil Faber

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  7. #4
    Kungishi ballsofsteel's Avatar
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    Default Re: Williams 1977 Wild Card

    Woohoo! One score reel rebuilt good-as-new.

    wcreel.JPG

    Okay so it was the fake one. They need love too. That's why PBR sells new stickers for 'em.

    Freaking Disaster!!!

    I suspected there would be a problem or two related to repeated attempts at starting the game with the ball counter 270° out of place. First problem I've found was that the ball counter wiper had been the short in a short-circuit and got hot enough that a couple of fingers lost their spring tension. (hoo boy did we ever get lucky it didn't burn the circuit board)

    wcwiper.JPG

    Disaster averted thanks to a well-stocked parts department. This game-specific assembly is made from generic pieces. Not too hard to make an exact copy.


    As for that lamp.... When I went looking for stepper bits I had to move a box. It was wire and right on top was a piece of white/orange just like the gameover light has. It was the exact length to go from the gameover lights up to that lantern. I took it as some sort of sign. All I had to do was strip the ends and solder in place. Lantern should glow faintly from nearby GI during game and blink brightly otherwise. just like Kings & Queens.
    "Knowledge is good." - Emil Faber

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    Pachi Puro emmadog's Avatar
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    Default

    Nice job and another thing that's great about EM pinballs-easy to get them going again by problem solving and fabricating parts.
    EM Pinballs & Arrangeballs

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  11. #6
    Kungishi ballsofsteel's Avatar
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    Default Re: Williams 1977 Wild Card

    Got the rest of the score reels dealt with. Replaced a few coil stops and plungers to go with new sleeves. Cleaned some relay switches and got the head back together.

    Chime box overhaul. It wasn't beat up like some I've seen. New coil sleeves, a few inches of leftover beerseal, some bits of plastic sleeve recycled from another old pin, some cushions punched from an old mouse pad. The knocker got a coil sleeve and a brand new grommet.

    wcnoise.jpg

    Thought things were puttering along just fine. Only had to tap a little on one coil sleeve - bonus unit step up coil - the rest pushed right out easily. Found out the difference between a D-24-1400 coil and a D1-24-1400 coil - darnit the D1 is longer and I don't have the right sleeve.

    wcdrat.jpg

    Darnit again there really isn't much visible wear on the old sleeve - little shiny spot where the coil stop touches. I hate metal sleeves but this one could go another few decades.

    Now to clean up another few dozen relays....
    "Knowledge is good." - Emil Faber

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  13. #7
    Sandwich Shooter SteveFury's Avatar
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    Default Re: Williams 1977 Wild Card

    Hi BOS!
    Gawd I hate those metal sleeves. I think I had to reuse one myself but I polished the insides of it and the plunger real good with #0000 steel wool and applied a few coats of Meguiar's gold auto paste wax.

    This is an original pic from my 1976 space mission chimes. Someone put one of the plungers in upside down! It caused the metal end to strike the bar instead of the nylon end. It beat a hole in the bar almost all the way through it! See all the metal shavings sprinkled about:

    Chimes.jpg

    If you look close, you can see the nylon tip of the middle chime is down on the resting pad.
    I also replaced the pad, but I used a very thick piece of leather cut from an old belt.

    Also, I had found the 10's reel on the player 4 bank (bottom right) had caught fire. It burned all the insulation from the reel switches, and some wires and parts of a relay above it:
    Burned coil.jpgBurned wires.jpg

    I had to replace the wires with new ones:
    Fixed reel wiring.jpg


    The front of the light board had dark soot streaks running up it. I painted it all flat white and you can see the light reflectivity is excellent:
    Lightbox.jpg

    My 1947 United Singapore light board was also very dull:

    United.jpg

    After the glass repair, I repainted this board flat white.
    In both cases the backglass looks better because the illumination is improved.

    -Steve
    If you enjoy my pachinko, pinball and pachislo YouTube videos, please "like" them at:
    http://www.youtube.com/user/SirSteveFury

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    Kungishi ballsofsteel's Avatar
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    Default Re: Williams 1977 Wild Card

    Maybe a bit late but here's my handy trick for masking light sockets...

    masking.JPG

    Found that .45 Auto brass fit the lamp holes nicely. Plinking range pickups that were in the scrap bin already and went to the mill with a coat of paint. Match numbers got burnt bulbs as the brass was a bit bulky for those holes.
    "Knowledge is good." - Emil Faber

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  17. #9
    Kungishi ballsofsteel's Avatar
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    Thumbs down Re: Williams 1977 Wild Card

    wcguts.jpg

    Still cleaning relays. Dang there sure is a mess of 'em. This is about as busy as a 1 player pin gets.

    gpoiler.jpg

    Here's your typical Williams score motor. See that little hole right in the middle of the pic? There's a hunk of felt in there that would just love to soak up a drop of oil after lo these many years. There's actually two - one on each side. The motor has to come off to drip the inside felt.

    More later.....
    "Knowledge is good." - Emil Faber

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