Work continues on Secret Service

I plugged in the Data East secret service pinball and it wouldn't work.  The previous owner thought transformer so I swapped the transformer from it into my Data East 35th Anniversary Playboy. The Secret Service transformer powered up the Playboy with no issues.

So I swapped the Power Supply board from Playboy into Secret Service.  The Secret Service fired right up.  So there are obviously issues with it's power supply.

But none of the flippers work and none of the coils fire.

I checked the fuses and replaced the 3A fuse in the Flipper Board.  Now I have the flippers working.  But the top right flipper is erratic and best.  I will have to trouble shoot it and replace the coil or whatever is faulty.

The coils I can't figure out.  I will have to dig deeper.

There are also a few switches not working and the right spinner is missing.  The bottom half of the display doesn't work - so I transferred the Playboy one in to use diagnostics.  I found out that the diagnostic service switch doesn't work either.

Lots to do...

Racing is life - Everything in between is just waiting....

So said the great Steve McQueen.

So when I was at the sale last week in Bellingham WA I was a little disappointed.  Everything was crazy high priced - pinball machines for $3800 bucks...  kinda out of my league.  I'm not that desperate to buy stuff.

But like my dad says, you go to sales without any expectations and then you won't be disappointed. Just look around and have an open mind.  It's when you plan on buying something that you tend to over spend.  Make sense?

So at the sale as I walked around I spied an old video game tucked in the back.  I walked past it 3 or 4 times before realizing it was for sale.  A Manx TT motorcycle racing game.  And the price tag read a hundred bucks.  I played this game when younger - lots of fun.  You sit on the small motorcycles and race each other.

I asked the guy if it ran and he said last they plugged it in it did.  He offered to run a cord to it and power it up once things calmed down at the sale.  I said don't bother and asked if I could come back in a week to pick it up.  I handed him $100 when he said yes.

So Yesterday I went and picked it up.  Here is a shot of it in the garage...

I have 2 bikes for it.  One needs a part fixed because it just flops on the stand.
But the game is all there and should fix up nice.  I will plug it in later and see if it works.

It has a ton of potential and could be a lot of fun at parties.

The garage in Vancouver is now officially full.  Lol.
  

Dracula - 1979 Stern

Was planning a trip down to the States to go see a big arcade sale that was happening in Bellingham, WA.  I decided to drive to Portland on Friday and look at a 1979 Stern Dracula Pinball machine for sale.

It was a little rough and I got a pretty good deal on it.  I brought it home on Sunday. 

It's the fifth pinball machine I now own.
1979 Stern Dracula
1980 Gottlieb Amazing Spider Man
1987 Williams F-14 Tomcat
1988 Data East Secret Service
1989 Data East 35th Anniversary Playboy

Like all the others it needs some TLC.  And the sound card needs some repair.  But it is a solid foundation and I will have fun playing it until I can get to the repairs.
Overall a good purchase.

The garage is starting to fill up fast though.

I bought a surprise machine at the sale in Bellingham.  I will pick it up next week Thursday and Blog about it then.

Royal twin

Over the weekend I went to Victoria to visit the island. I had not been there since I was 18.
It is beautiful.  Took the ferry to Nanaimo and drove to Duncan.

I had a mission in mind. When I bought the small chrome Enfield Bullet back in August the guy who sold it to me said he had imported 2 of them from India when he came back to Canada. He kept the chrome one and sold the black twin to his brother in law. When the brother in law decided to sell his machine he called me up.

So I went to Duncan to pick it up.

It is the standard old style of bike.  It shifts on the right, has points, and drum brakes.

You can tell it lived in a wet climate because the cases are powdery and the chrome is a bit rusty,
But overall its a solid little bike.  And it runs like a top.

Not sure what the plan for it is yet.  I will keep you posted.

Data East Secret Service

Found a pin on Craigslist here in Surrey BC.  It was a Data East Secret Service.

The playfield looks pretty good and it is from the same era as the Playboy - I can swap boards and some other parts.  Which is good because it doesn't run.

I had a good rapport with the seller but I always cringe when they tell me "it doesn't work but I think the problem is....".  Why didn't you fix it then?  I always lowball at that point. 

And it turns out the seller of this game was wrong.  He thought transformer.  The power board isn't working.  I swapped in the Playboy board and the game fired up immediately.  I'm going to try my hand at trouble shooting and repairing the board.

But the game looks cool and I think it will play nice.

Here it is in all its glory.

More pins from the USA.

I really enjoyed fixing the Amazing Spider Man pinball machine I picked up. It was a nice chance to get to tinker on a project. The layout is really old looking and captures the comic styles of Ditko pretty well.  I think I will be keeping it for a while and slowly returning it to restored condition.

I caught the bug for pinballs though. And started looking to expand my collection. Shortly before the long weekend I found 2 machines for sale in the US. I called and set up times to go look at them.

I left Friday morning right after shift at 2am and drove to Portland. The first machine was a Data East 35th Anniversary Playboy. It was made in 1989.

The machine was in good shape but not running so I picked it up on the cheap. The board had fried but the previous owner had bought and installed a new board. I figured I could get it running. It took soldering in a new power supply pin and some work on the switches in the playfield.  But it works, and is hella - fun to play.

The second machine was a Williams F14 Tomcat. Super fast game - #94 on the top 100 pinballs made listings. The guy selling it owned a company that supplied pins to bars. He seemed like a good guy and I paid an ok price for the game, figuring I could sell it later if I didn't like it. It was missing the red white and blue lights on the top but had LEDs in the play field. Super bright. It plays 100%

P.I.N.B.A.L.L.

The safety work I am doing in Vancouver is on the Expo Line for Skytrain.  While we were working one of the Skytrain employees mentioned to me that he had a pinball machine he wanted to sell.

Upon review it turned out to be a Gottlieb Series 80 Spider-Man.

I bought it - Duh....

Moved it into the townhouse with the help from my friends.  It is heavy.
I bought the machine being told it was working.  But I never actually plugged it in at time of purchase.  Ooops.

Because it wasn't working.  And for arguments sake lets just say maybe it got jostled a bit in the move and that's the reason.... Whatever.

So I bought a digital multi-meter and sourced the issue - turned out to be the power board.  I took the board in to John's Jukes here in Vancouver for repair.  But once the board was back in the machine other problems surfaced.  So I bought a board from Flippp.fr
Once that arrived and was installed the game fired up and worked electronically. 

I repaired the pop bumpers with boards from RottenDog.com.  And repaired a kicker bracket.

And, finally, it plays correctly.

It is a lot of fun.  Quite a bit older and thus slower than new games it none the less has a certain charm.  I'm unlikely to sell it quickly so I don't mind the parts and work that has gone into it. 

I also found I enjoyed the process of repairing it.  I may look for a few more pinballs in the future.

Yay! A new hobby.......

Royal Enfield - From India with Love?

I was cruising Kijiji and found a gentleman in West Vancouver who had listed a 1965 Enfield Bullet for sale.  The pictures of it looked good so I called and drove over to take a look.  He was a police officer who had bought 2 Enfield motorcycles in India and had brought them back with him when he returned to Canada.  He kept on and sold the other to his brother in law.

I don't know about you but I enjoy finding a sale that happens easily.  The seller seemed genuine.
Once I had made the purchase he pulled out a bunch of spare parts for me, including 2 spare gas tanks. Wow.

His brother in law showed up while I was loading the bike and told me all about his Enfield, the intricacies of ownership, and how much fun it was.

So now I am the proud owner of a 1965 Enfield.  It's 350cc, kick start only, single barrel, shift on the right, points and condenser, drum brakes, old school fun.  The bike wasn't running so I need to get it repaired. But it should start with a little work.  I just need to find the time.

In case you are not keeping score I now have 3 bikes in the garage.

Triumph Thruxton - Yamaha R1 - Enfield Bullet

Triumph in the family

While in B.C. in May, 2013 I found a 2012 Triumph Thruxton with low km.  I always liked this particular model so I decided to pull the trigger and buy it.  Here's a shot of it at the dealership.

 

 

So I added a Triumph to the stable and now have 2 bikes in the garage in B.C.

I rode it quite a bit and even did a quick trip to Seattle.  A bit different because it has no windscreen but overall I would say it has some great charm and fantastic curb appeal.

Back at it - New Location, New Attitude, Same Old Junk.

So I had a lot of life changes in 2012.

I went to work in Esterhazy Saskatchewan on a short term contract and was away from home quite a bit.  Then I got shipped to Prince Rupert B.C. on another contract and was away from home more.  The Rust Bomb and all my bikes sat for a year because I literally was not around.

I sold Project Retro in 2012.

The rest of the projects are sitting in the Edmonton garage waiting for me.  The Rust Bomb has been outside under a tarp. 

Fast forward to 2013.

I moved to Vancouver B.C. to continue work on another contract that should last for a year and a bit.  It is a temporary move and I have a place in Cloverdale.  Luckily it has a garage.
I brought the 2004 R1 with me.  I finished getting it to look like Rossi's MotoGP bike.

I will continue to update the blog now that I am settled.  And I have a few other projects I am doing in BC that I will document as well.

I will say that my life right now is excellent.  I am really liking BC and the place that I am in is fantastic.  The garage is big enough that I can still do a bit of work on bikes. I can't do any really large repairs like I can at home in Edmonton. But I can tinker.

 The Rust Bomb will have to wait.  But I will get back to working on it when I can.

Rust never sleeps - why should I?

In keeping with the grand tradition of having a ton of projects on the go I bought a 1991 Chevrolet step side half ton.  It belonged to a friend of mine.  We put a ton of km on it riding around the country.

I won't bore you with details but I bought it in Edmonton and trailered it out to the farm in Lloydminster where it is in storage. 

Here's me dragging it home.  It needs some TLC.  I would like to do a frame off once the Rust Bomb is completed and out of the way.

We will see what time has in store.