I picked up a Six Million Dollar Man this weekend from a bloke in Franktown. According to him, it hasn't been played in over 15 years, I believe him. The boards have pretty massive battery damage, but the battery was removed a while ago (maybe a year ago?). The machine does turn on, but nothing boots, nothing shows on the displays but the GIs turn on. Maybe there were problems because he turned it on in his garage which was well below zero degrees.

Cosmetically, the game looks really nice, IMHO. The backglass is certifiably perfect (gorgeous "manly" artwork by the great Dave Christensen), the cabinet and backbox are rather decent with only a couple scratches, and the legs are in great condition. The playfield looks to be in really good condition, none of the paint is worn off, and all the plastics are intact. The inserts seem a little sunken, but not too bad, probably caused by storing this in cold storage for 15 years. There is a missing post that guards one of the spinner's arms. It'll also need new rubbers. The silver ball that was in the machine was the worst I have ever seen. It was all lumpy with rust. I wonder if tumbling could even restore it.

The inside of the cabinet and backbox was remarkably clean! Cleaner than many other machines I've bought.

I have no idea if the displays work. This machine happens to have SIX score displays, for six players. I'm obviously never going to need all six working, so as long as a couple work, I should be ok, right?

I have some newbie questions for the elders of maaca:
-Should I buy a new MPU? If so, which one, Alltek? Where from? Or should I attempt a repair?
-Do I have to worry about the other boards?
-Does anyone have an Alltek board (or similar universal Bally/Stern MPU) that I can borrow to see if I need to also order other parts (like displays).
-Is there a way to test them without a working MPU?

I apologize for the lack of pictures, but I lost my camera's sync cable. I need to buy one on my way home today.

[Insert obligatory "www.pinrepair.com is your friend" comment here.]

Having said that, your biggest issues (other than the MPU) will be with the power supply and the HV section of the driver board. Whip out your meter and check the test points on the power supply compared to what the schematic (or pinrepair.com) say they should be. It's okay to turn on the machine if it's not booting as long as no coils are locking on when you apply power. Make sure the fuses are the correct value before doing this, though. If you find that the power supply is badly hacked/burned, you may want to consider the $55 repro from Great Plains. Money well spent, IMO. Rebuilding power supplies is a pain in the rear because removing and replacing the bridges, fuse clips and header pins and performing the recommended mods can be time consuming and will run you nearly half as much in parts as a repro board costs anyway. The repro board also comes with stand-offs, connector housings and enough trifurcon pins to do all of the power supply's connectors. GPE has outdone themselves with this item, but it is often out of stock. Check with Ed at GPE for availability.

You can also check the high voltage section on the driver board without the game booting. TP2 should be between 170 and 190 vdc. You can adjust this voltage with the trimmer pot on the board near TP2. Clay recommends setting the voltage to 170v, but I've also heard that doing so can cause the HV section to run hotter than it should, so I tend to lean more towards 180v or so. Factory setting was 190v. TP4 should measure 230vdc. If TP4 and TP2 both measure 230vdc or so, you have a blown HV section and it will need to be rebuilt. http://www.bigdaddy-enterprises.com/ sells a great HV rebuild kit for this purpose. Even if your HV section is pooched, it's doubtful that none of your displays work. If you don't want to rebuild the HV section, you can buy a repro driver board from Rottendog for about $90 - also a great deal in my opinion, although rebuilding the HV section and repairing the driver board in general is not very difficult.  

The Alltek MPU is a good board. Nice to have for troubleshooting other games too. It's a bit to swallow at $200, but a rebuilt and fully working board with the proper roms will probably cost you $85 - $100 US + shipping anyway. Rebuilding a badly corroded board is a crap shoot. If you've never done it before, you can spend a lot of time cleaning up the corrosion and replacing the crappy parts and you may still have to track down issues elsewhere on the board. If you go that route, you can get a corrosion repair kit at GPE, but I recommend the Alltek for the faint of heart.   

The only other real concern with these games are the connector pins on the power supply. Occasionally the .100 connectors on the driver and MPU need some attention as well.

And don't forget to rebuild the flippers.

Corey

EDIT: By the way, you can buy the Alltek directly from http://www.allteksystems.com or in Canada from http://www.flippers.com. If you're putting an order in with Marco or someone else, you can get it there without issue.

Quoted from jonny_eh

I picked up a Six Million Dollar Man this weekend from a bloke in Franktown. According to him, it hasn't been played in over 15 years, I believe him. The boards have pretty massive battery damage, but the battery was removed a while ago (maybe a year ago?). The machine does turn on, but nothing boots, nothing shows on the displays but the GIs turn on. Maybe there were problems because he turned it on in his garage which was well below zero degrees.

Cosmetically, the game looks really nice, IMHO. The backglass is certifiably perfect (gorgeous "manly" artwork by the great Dave Christensen), the cabinet and backbox are rather decent with only a couple scratches, and the legs are in great condition. The playfield looks to be in really good condition, none of the paint is worn off, and all the plastics are intact. The inserts seem a little sunken, but not too bad, probably caused by storing this in cold storage for 15 years. There is a missing post that guards one of the spinner's arms. It'll also need new rubbers. The silver ball that was in the machine was the worst I have ever seen. It was all lumpy with rust. I wonder if tumbling could even restore it.

The inside of the cabinet and backbox was remarkably clean! Cleaner than many other machines I've bought.

I have no idea if the displays work. This machine happens to have SIX score displays, for six players. I'm obviously never going to need all six working, so as long as a couple work, I should be ok, right?

I have some newbie questions for the elders of maaca:
-Should I buy a new MPU? If so, which one, Alltek? Where from? Or should I attempt a repair?
-Do I have to worry about the other boards?
-Does anyone have an Alltek board (or similar universal Bally/Stern MPU) that I can borrow to see if I need to also order other parts (like displays).
-Is there a way to test them without a working MPU?

I apologize for the lack of pictures, but I lost my camera's sync cable. I need to buy one on my way home today.

Thanks for the advice cooke! I'm gonna ask my coworker to see if he'd be willing to do these board repairs, he did a bang up job on my LOTR and T2. But reading through Clay's guide, doing the MPU repair sounds really extensive and tedious.

How does giving the vinegar bath work? Just pour 50% vinegar and 50% water into a corningware and let the board sit there for a few seconds?

The cold shouldn't have caused problems other than what can occur with condensation depending on the time of year. I boot stuff up in around zero temperatures in my garage all the time. Maybe well below zero you may have a problem. Anything electronic I have worked with in those extreme temperatures has always been Mil Spec and even at minus 25C they start to complain. The range of temperatures are as follows for IC's to be within their envelope of operation. Note commercial lower limit is 0 degrees C. The manufactures will note that operation is not gauranteed outside the range of temperature.

Class         Lower: Upper
Military     -55oC : +125oC  
Extended  -40oC : +125oC  
Industrial  -40oC : +85oC    
Commercial 0oC : +70oC  

Corey is right check the power supply outputs before hooking it up to anything else. The MPU will have to function for you to continue to test most other boards. Some boards like sound may have thier own BIT that does not require anything more than power to run.

Also on first power up pull any fuses that drive solenoids or flashers in case they are locked on by bad transistors or an MPU malfunction.

Thanks, once I get hippochrome to help me get this into my basement I'll do the power supply tests.

I also forgot to mention, one of the spinners is wrong (right size, wrong art on it), and two of the drop targets are wrong. Where do I buy replacements for these? Steve Young?

Small world !

I have fixed Andy's 1978 Playboy machine in his garage back in early November,
and quickly looked at the 6MDM as well. The LED on the MPU stayed on solid back
then too. It was me who removed the battery, but alas, it had already done a lot
of corrosion.

Although I had been tempted to purchase this exact machine earlier, I stayed away from
it due to the fact that it is not a pin currently on my want list & I already have too many projects.
...and also due to the asking price (was $400), high amount of work required, plus limited
future resale value ($675 US list in the 2009 Mr.Pinball). But I agree with you, cosmetics
are quite good. It will clean & shop nicely. I would have picked-it up if it was on my want list !!

From the look of the MPU, it might be repairable from what I can recall, however, as Cooke
pointed-out, this job is not easy to do properly for the board to stay reliable. Needs someone
with experience on board repair. Plus, it may need some sockets to be replaced.
I have done a lot of this in the past. Tedious, but rewarding job.

The typical issues in all these early SS Bally pinballs:
- cold solder joints on ALL boards and ALL displays, at header pins;
- corrosion on MPU;
- bad pins/connectors on power supply board;
- bad pins on connectors on MPU & lamp driver, if corrosion nearby;
- sometimes shorted bridge rectifier on power supply;
- sometimes shorted drive transistor on solenoid driver / check associated coil & diode;
- check all fuses for proper ratings;
- check for proper ground, from AC plug to inside harness/ground braids;
- bad caps on solenoid driver & sound board
- prior poor hack jobs by pseudo Mr.fix-it-with-a-blow-torch
- etc.


There is a lot of info now on the web, with the main reference being Clay's pinrepair.com.


Good luck !

Cheers,
- Sylvain.

Quoted from jonny_eh

-Should I buy a new MPU? If so, which one, Alltek? Where from? Or should I attempt a repair?

Do not attempt to repair it if you are not experienced to do so. Save yourself a shitload of pain and send it to Mindstorm88. In fact, send him all the boards including the power supply. He can upgrade everything and get everything working for less than what an Alltek board alone will cost you, unless your boards are really FUBAR. And to help us diagnose your MPU, Turn on the game and tell us how many times the LED flashes on the MPU... it is supposed to flash 7 times.

Quoted from jonny_eh

-Do I have to worry about the other boards?

If the machine has been sitting for 15 years, yes. Chances are you have corroded header pins, dried up capacitors and a few other bugs.

Quoted from jonny_eh

-Does anyone have an Alltek board (or similar universal Bally/Stern MPU) that I can borrow to see if I need to also order other parts (like displays).

Before you start testing MPUs and displays, concentrate on the most important thing first... the power supply. If you are not getting 5 volts to the MPU properly, it doesn't matter what you put in it. On the cab, check your plug... if you have no ground prong, that is the first thing to fix... in fact, replace the power wire entirely first. Then head for the power supply. Chances are that if it has been sitting for 15 years, it is because something broke. Again, send the power supply to Mindstorm... there are newer updates that can be done to it to reinfore it.

Quoted from jonny_eh

-Is there a way to test them without a working MPU?

Yes, easy... take them out and give them to someone with a working Bally SS pin. That is the cheapest, best test bench there is.

As for shipping it all to Mindstorm, who lives in Blainville, I suggest the MAACA relay system, as power supplies are heavy as hell and expensive to ship. If someone from the Ottawa area is coming to ontreal, drop the boards off at my place... I will try to get them to Bruno, or even better, if Mrhide makes his January meeting, Mindstorm lives 10 minutes away...

Quoted from Sparky

As for shipping it all to Mindstorm, who lives in Blainville, I suggest the MAACA relay system, as power supplies are heavy as hell and expensive to ship. If someone from the Ottawa area is coming to ontreal, drop the boards off at my place... I will try to get them to Bruno, or even better, if Mrhide makes his January meeting, Mindstorm lives 10 minutes away...

I'll totally take you up on that offer. If anyone is going to sparky, let me know. If minstorm can fix all of the boards for less than the cost of an Alltek, I'm there!

Yes, the power cord is missing the ground prong, I'll have to replace that. Where do I buy a replacement? Home Depot/Rona?

Quoted from jonny_eh

I'll totally take you up on that offer. If anyone is going to sparky, let me know. If minstorm can fix all of the boards for less than the cost of an Alltek, I'm there!

Yes, the power cord is missing the ground prong, I'll have to replace that. Where do I buy a replacement? Home Depot/Rona?

Best bet is to use an extension cord for car engine block heaters (they are heavy duty...), cut the female end off, strip the wires a bit and solder them in place of the old cable. It is what I do. 10$ at Canadian Tire...

Quoted from jonny_eh

Yes, the power cord is missing the ground prong, I'll have to replace that. Where do I buy a replacement? Home Depot/Rona?

If the existing AC power cord itself is in good condition, not damaged and long enough,
I only replace the AC plug itself with one that has a ground prong.
Any hardware store will have them.

Tuborg used to have a nice avatar about these plugs .


Cheers,
- Sylvain.

I think I won "most anal restoration" or something like that from MrHide.   Johnny there are in the electrial isle at Rona / Home Depot.   Along with the light switches, receptacles.   Just be careful they have a few commerical / industrial ones which won't plug into a home outlet.

Thanks too for buying this.   Jen had inquired and wanted it.  But, there were already others ahead of us.   Played this a lot as a kid, so can't wait for you to get it working.

Good luck!

Quoted from Tuborg

I think I won "most anal restoration" or something like that from MrHide.  

I think Meat-Popsicle should be up that award to, I remeber talking to him about restoring games and he said he replaces every single coil, even if they still work with brand new ones rather then use the old ones because they are dirty, I thought that was a new level on insane   

Quoted from Vengeance

I think Meat-Popsicle should be up that award to, I remeber talking to him about restoring games and he said he replaces every single coil, even if they still work with brand new ones rather then use the old ones because they are dirty, I thought that was a new level on insane   

I don't know, man... I have reused older coils... after I removed the paper around the coil, cleaned the coil, scanned the paper, cleaned up the image, reprinted them on the proper paper and glued them on. I did that once on an older game.

And on my old Lightning (that Cooke now has), I polished EVERY part on the coindoor. The thing looked better than it did new. I haven't had the chance to restore a game to that extent again, but I plan to.

Why?

Because we can.

Quoted from Tuborg

I think I won "most anal restoration" or something like that from MrHide.   Johnny there are in the electrial isle at Rona / Home Depot.   Along with the light switches, receptacles.   Just be careful they have a few commerical / industrial ones which won't plug into a home outlet.

Thanks too for buying this.   Jen had inquired and wanted it.  But, there were already others ahead of us.   Played this a lot as a kid, so can't wait for you to get it working.

Good luck!

Cool, good to hear that there's local interest in the game. I really hope to get it working, it seems like a fun game. Obviously, I'm WAY too young to appreciate the theme, so maybe when I get bored of it, I'll give you first dibs. I definitely do not expect to make a profit on this one like I did the Mars Trek, for reasons Sylvain mentioned. I also don't want to lose money either. This machine is really nice looking and would be a very good candidate for a SPR, something to think about for the future.

Quoted from Sparky

Why?

Because we can.

"We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better, stronger, faster."

Quoted from Sparky

unless your boards are really FUBAR.

Gee that's when the fun starts fixing them yourself, When no one else will touch them for less than replacements.

Quoted from necro_nemesis

Gee that's when the fun starts fixing them yourself, When no one else will touch them for less than replacements.

Want to have some fun?

Quoted from jonny_eh

Want to have some fun?

Hmmm. It's not a system I have worked on. To be honest I don't think I am motivated enough to learn another system right now. System 7 was a stretch to keep me motivated enough to learn and work on and only for the fact I really wanted to play Hyperball (yeah that's a crazy amount of effort for what it's worth). I enjoy working primarily on my own stuff on my own schedule. I also don't have a complete test fixture for games so beyond the bench testing I am able to do the game itself often is my fixture. Other than helping a little here and there on stuff I already have knowledge on, I really don't have the time or motivation to be a board guy at this point.

I just talked to a co-worker who does board repairs as a hobby, and he recommended that I use 99% alcohol to clean the corrosion, not vinegar. Does that make sense with you guys?

I'd also just get him to repair the board, but he's really busy at the moment. I think I'll attempt my own repair  

Personally I prefer alcohol to vinegar. Just get the area wet and wipe it clean with an old t-shirt. It works for flux, battery mess, and all the other stuff that accumulates on these old boards.

Quoted from jonny_eh

I just talked to a co-worker who does board repairs as a hobby, and he recommended that I use 99% alcohol to clean the corrosion, not vinegar. Does that make sense with you guys?

99% alcohol is great to clean the solder flux and dirt from boards.
But it will *not* neutralize the corrosion on a board, caused by a prior leaky battery.
If it is not neutralized, the corrosion tends to slowly continue, even with the old battery removed
and the board cleaned-off.

...That is why you need to use vinegar to neutralize the corrosion on the affected section of the board.
Then, rinse, and finish off with alcohol.


Good luck & Cheers,
- Sylvain.

So I've got Steve Austin in my basement and all wired up. I tested the rectifier board, as per Clay's instructions. It doesn't look good, at least 3 of the 5 test points are showing either no voltage, or the wrong amount. I think it may be best to send it to a professional. Does the rectifier board come off on its own? Or is it attached to that transformer?

Who's willing to bring this to Sparky/mindstorm88?

Quoted from jonny_eh

So I've got Steve Austin in my basement and all wired up. I tested the rectifier board, as per Clay's instructions. It doesn't look good, at least 3 of the 5 test points are showing either no voltage, or the wrong amount. I think it may be best to send it to a professional. Does the rectifier board come off on its own? Or is it attached to that transformer?

Who's willing to bring this to Sparky/mindstorm88?

I will be heading to Gatineau in the next 2 weeks. Hold on to it.

Quoted from jonny_eh

So I've got Steve Austin in my basement and all wired up. I tested the rectifier board, as per Clay's instructions. It doesn't look good, at least 3 of the 5 test points are showing either no voltage, or the wrong amount. I think it may be best to send it to a professional. Does the rectifier board come off on its own? Or is it attached to that transformer?

Who's willing to bring this to Sparky/mindstorm88?

The rectifier board does not detach from the transformer without unsoldering all the wires.

Remember also that one of those test point voltages is AC, not DC (for GI).

Quoted from jonny_eh

How does giving the vinegar bath work? Just pour 50% vinegar and 50% water into a corningware and let the board sit there for a few seconds?

And don't forget to keep the left overs to make pickled eggs.

Just take everything out... MPU, lamp driver, solenoid driver, and the transformer with the power supply board. I will take it all to Mindstorm88. I have to bring him stuff soon anyways... another crazy idea of mine brewing...

Cool, thanks Sparky. Let me know when you're coming.