Hello All,

First time poster, long time lurker here.

First time on restoring a broken pin, so hopefully you guys don't mind the questions that I post here...I've been reading the marvin3m site, and bought the This Old Pinball videos and these are proving to be invaluable resources..

I picked up a couple of broken pins (Stern Nugent and Williams Phoenix) yesterday for a fairly good price (see pics)..

The Nugent is in much, MUCH better condition than the Phoenix. The Phoenix has a bad Driver board, corroded battery container, missing the Apron and the 1 player display, missing upper left corner plastic which will need to be photoshopped and re-created.... Its gonna need a lot of work. I think I'll save this one for last.

I'm finding out that the amount of information on the internet about pinball restoration is vast. I'm glad its all documented so well and detailed.

I think I'll start off completely cleaning my existing Williams Aztec EM machine. Its never been done, it works but weak pop bumpers. I can take it apart and clean and rebuild it one section at a time, and will give me a good reference point when tackling these two new machines.

The driver board is on the Phoenix crap, but I'll start by replacing the burned out components. Everything else on the board looks to be in good shape. I'm wondering what was the cause of the Driver board burning out like that... Must be a problem somewhere else...

Maybe one of you guys familiar with Williams can let me know if I got this right...

1. Is the CPU board interchangeable between Williams games (System 3..System 7) ? Can any Williams rom be burned into any of the CPUs?
2. Is the Driver Board interchangeable between Williams games (System 3..System 7) ?
3. What could have caused the row I've identified in the pic to fry? I'm hoping I can just try to rebuild this with new parts... I can solder (I've done Xboxes before), so think I'll be OK in this department.
4. The Phoenix is missing the yellow William Apron, anyone know where I can get one? Anyone have one for sale?
5. The Phoenix is missing the Player 1 Display. Anyone know where I can get one, Anyone have one for sale?
6. If I manage to screw up the rebuild of the Driver board, does anyone have one
I'll post in the Wanted section of the board

Heat and age sometimes cause that sometimes a hack or possibly over amp fuse or bypassed

Welcome to MAACA!

The CPU and driver boards of these early Williams are more or less interchangeable. It's fully discussed on pinrepair including the ROM issues.

http://www.pinrepair.com/sys37/index2.htm#cpuupgrade

However it's not all that difficult to fix them. It's pretty common to see some burned areas and previous repairs on the boards. The big resistors get very hot and may look bad but still work fine. The solenoid driver transistors can easily be damaged if a coil locks on.

btw you can switch the score displays, leave the 4th player disconnected and you probably won't miss it too much.

Thanks for the help folks... Much appreciated...

tinyrodent: I was just thinking this exact thing. Wasn't sure if the CPU would check for devices and not boot up if not found... I think I'll go this way until I can find a 1 Player display...

I started cleaning the metal parts with a tumbler. I'm using crushed Walnut with a little squirt of Novus 3. Checked this morning and parts are getting nice and clean..

I read up on using the Magic eraser with alcolhol to clean up the playfield. Anyone here do this? Should I be using 70% alcolhol or 99%?

Merci Beaucoup!

Quoted from Jabba

I read up on using the Magic eraser with alcolhol to clean up the playfield. Anyone here do this? Should I be using 70% alcolhol or 99%?

Some people believe that 99% is better, since there will be no water left behind when rubbing.  It will all evaporate.

Jabba,

I picked up a williams phoenix about 6 months ago too, and have been slowly working on it myself.
I gave up on the old MPU and Driver boards and bought brand new update ones from Kohout Enterprises - http://www.pinballpcb.com/index.html.

I am thinking about changing the theme to something new and rearranging the targets on the play field, I might even add a ramp Of course the programming and rules will remain the same.

Good luck with your project

Bowman9