Each section was completely disassembled. All metal parts were thrown in a vibratory tumbler with walnut media for a thorough cleaning. Plastic parts were cleaned with Novus 2, a polish specifically designed to remove fine scratches and haziness.

Cleaning the playfield was a multi-step process. It was initially cleaned with Simple Green cleaner. After that, I cleaned the playfield lightly with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. Be very careful with the Magic Eraser! If you have areas of wear, which I certainly did, the Magic Eraser will continue to eat paint off of these areas. Do not go crazy with it, but it’s great for removing ball marks. Following the Magic Eraser, I buffed the playfied with Novus 2 polish and finally 4 coats of carnauba wax were applied.

Below is the lower portion of the playfield, before cleaning and after cleaning. In the before photo, the dirt and grime is most noticeable in the right side exit lane, near the “300 Down Post” exit lane. It’s also pretty noticeable around the right side kick area and around the flippers. Most of this dirt and grime is gone in the after picture:

In the middle of the playfield, the clean playfield is most noticeable at the exit of the right side lane behind the drop targets. In the before photo, you can see a trail of dirt headed from the exit of this lane, across the Blackhawks flag and towards the flippers. In the after photo, this dirt and grime is gone:

There’s not a whole lot of discernible difference on the top portion of the playfield. The biggest difference is the installation of brand new plastic caps on each pop bumper. However, if you look at the latch that keeps the ball rolling back down the shot lane and the metal on the rebound bumper (upper left) in both the before and after photos, you can see the difference that the vibratory tumbler makes:

You’ll notice that I also replaced all of the white rubbers on the machine as well as the red flipper rubbers. I also replaced two solenoids on the underside of the playfield, one for the upper left flipper and one for the left side drop target bank. The right side upper flipper was rewired to remove about four wire splices. There is still one splice, as the wire was too short to attach to the solenoid, but I put a plastic wire cap on it to keep it from shorting against other wires.

The left side drop target bank is still not functional. I traced the problem back to a fried resistor on the solenoid driver board. In the picture below, the fried resistor is just below the “9″ on the tape piece:

I have replacement parts ordered for the fried resistor, but they haven’t arrived yet. I will actually be replacing every transistor, resistor and diode on that board. As it stands right now, I have between 25-30 hours invested in the disassembly, cleaning and reassembly of the playfield parts. I can tell you this….pinball machines are much more work than arcade games. That’s all for now, I’ll wait for my proofreader to send me edits to this post!

Placed in the backbox and illuminated, the backglass shows a lot more wear than it does out of the cabinet. The biggest thing I plan to do right now is apply some Krylon Triple Thick clear glaze to prevent further damage from occurring. The artwork on the cabinet is in decent shape, but the entire thing still needs a good cleaning, as does the playfield:

Right now, the only items still not working on the playfield can be seen in the 4th picture above. The left side drop targets do not work and the center pop bumper is not working. All of the drop targets need to be replaced as they don’t match and two on the right side have broken connectors. Underneath the playfield is where things get interesting and where most of the problems reside:

If you look closely at the blue wires in the last picture, you’ll quickly notice the problem.  Instead of making proper connections to the components, someone hacked a wire to a wire to a wire to connect the component and then left the soldered bare ends of the wires floating around in the cabinet.  The fuse holder that I mentioned in my last post is located directly above the blue wire rat’s nest.  When I changed the holder, I apparently bumped these blue wires causing two of them to short together, which in turn caused the left side flippers to quite working.  I’ve found at least 3 other spots in the cabinet where the wiring has been hacked just a bad, so I’m not sure if my non-working parts are part faults or wiring faults.  I’m not going to work any further until I repair all of the faulty wiring I can find.  That’s all for now…

I sent an inquiry to the seller and learned that the machine was a Power Play machine manufactured by Bally in 1978.  The seller also gave some additional information on the condition of the machine.  It would power on, and the lights would come on but the rest of the game was essentially dead.  The machine was complete with the exception of the glass, which I discovered I could replace for about $45.

We reached an agreement on price and I picked up the machine on Monday (my Christmas present to myself).  Power Play is a solid state game with a hockey theme featuring then Chicago Blackhawks player Bobby Orr.  While it’s a solid state game, it has the look and feel of an electro-mechanical game.

Cosmetically, the machine is in decent shape but needs a good cleaning.  All of the playfield rubbers need to be replaced and a few bulbs are burnt.  The backglass has some flaking but is in decent shape.  I’ll take some pictures this evening and hopefully have them posted tomorrow.

Once I got the machine in my basement, I began to try and track down some of the issues.  I started by checking the voltages on the various boards in the backbox and got decent readings on all of the test points.  I checked all of the fuses in the backbox and determined they were all good.  I powered on the machine and could start a new game, however, the only thing that worked on the playfield was the rollover buttons and the flippers.  I located a fuse on the underside of the playfield and upon visual inspection, it looked good. 

As I looked closer at the fuse holder, I discovered that one of the holder legs was broken and not making contact with the fuse.  I did a continuity check from the wires leading to this holder and confirmed that there was no continuity.  I had a spare fuse holder handy, so I replaced the broken one and powered the machine on.  It sprung to life…with only a few elements now not working.  The left side flippers aren’t working, the left side drop targets aren’t working and the center pop bumper is not working.

I’ve already ordered a batch of parts for the machine, including a new pinball, some playfield cleaner and a new rubber set.  This will be a learning experience for me as pinballs are quite different from arcade machines with all of the coils, switches, etc.  It should be a fun project.

In keeping with my tradition, here are the original marketing flyers for Power Play pinball: