Working on my silverball mania tonight made me think about some stupid designs, from a repair perspective.

I was wondering if anyone else can add to this list?

Here are my two favourites:

1. Gottlieb System 1 power supplies.  You need to disassemble the entire thing just to replace components.  Having the transistor through the mounting plate was pretty short sighted.

2. Bally power supplies (early solid-state).  Why would you solder directly from the transformer to the circuit board?    

Gottlieb System 3 - Why run a bunch of small grounds to a common ground point from the driver and lamp boards instead of a couple of big ones?
Williams System 3-7 mpu-driver board interconnect. Need I say more?
Bally/Stern onboard MPU corrosion factory (AKA the battery)

Quoted from Monkeybug

1. Gottlieb System 1 power supplies.  You need to disassemble the entire thing just to replace components.  Having the transistor through the mounting plate was pretty short sighted.

Sys 80 has the same issue as Sys1 in terms of the rear mounted transistor on the PS.  But, even though it's a DUMB design, I understand why it was done.  Necessary evil.  Yeah it probably could have been designed differently, but it would have probably cost them more than twice the price.

One thing that really ticks me off is when a MFG will put connectors on 98% of the things you'd need to disconnect when removing something, but that last 2% they solder direct even though you have to cut or de-solder it to remove it.

D

Quoted from Grauwulf

Bally/Stern onboard MPU corrosion factory (AKA the battery)

Depends which side you're looking at it ... I'm sure the money men thought it was pure genius

Bally ( and others ? ) wooden playfield siderails....WHY ARE THESE STAPLED ON ???  I can SEE the pre-drilled holes where screws should go, yet they put in a couple of screws and about 2 dozen one-inch staples that are a super hassle to pull out and can never be put back in again ( not that you WANT to ).  Almost makes me forget about clearcoating a playfield altogether !

the ringmaster...

Quoted from Mrhide

Depends which side you're looking at it ... I'm sure the money men thought it was pure genius

It was more than likely the engineers thinking it was a fantastic idea, backup batteries that didn't have to be changed for the life of the machine......when the machines were only supposed to last 5-7 years. They never expected these machines to still be around 20-30 years later.