Somebody Screwed Up These Spinner Mechs! - 1976 Williams Grand Prix Pinball Machine Repair 5

[@Skully317]

Williams "Lady Luck" circa 67ish was my favorite EM game growing up! Love this channel, keep up the great content!

[@LyonsArcade]

I own one of those, one of these days I'll do some videos of it when we fix it. It's in ROUGH shape though :) We'll save it eventually. Thank you for watching Skully!

[@davidgreer4790]

I love old-school electronics. Conceivably you could rebuild nearly any component in the machine.

[@LyonsArcade]

Yup, once you learn how they work they're much easier to fix than any of the others mainly because there's not much to them that can't be repaired or replaced...

[@markjackson1444]

The washer on the flipper shaft is a quick, easy and effective solution to scraping flippers. I’ve also done this several times and it just works a treat. Not everything on a pinball has to be a big, complicated deal. Great job, Ronnie.

[@heppo6]

Love all your pinball videos. I just bought a very beautiful Grand Prix. It has problems with the left bonus lights and bonus points. With your helpful videos I am sure to be able to fix it. Thanks.

[@fred_derf]

I've been in the hospital! Hasn't stopped me from keeping up on your epic pinball repair series -- in fact it's one of the things that keep me from going insane due to boredom. Thanks Ron, Joe and anyone else involved.

[@LyonsArcade]

Thank you for watching Fred, hope you're back on the mend!

[@smittyt414ify]

Ha! I just got out of the hospital and agree. Only thing is I bet your hospital is a lot better than my hospital. Take care!

[@gregm1457]

I've seen simpler schematics on old elevator controllers :) very cool pinball machine, thanks!

[@gorillaau]

I have seen less switches in a small country telephone exchange. :-P

[@SpearM3064]

That's a nice machine. Unlike a lot of other EM pinball machines, I actually remember this one, probably because (as you pointed out) it came out so close to the first solid state machines. I played it in the arcade at a KOA Kampgrounds in Oklahoma. EDIT: I can just imagine if Joe owned a Motel 6 with a pinball arcade. "Joe's Motel 6: We'll keep the lights turned OFF for you." 🤣

[@LyonsArcade]

Damn Skippy :) I just played a pinbot with the lights on for a video, it was like torture. The game literally is half as fun with the lights on, people must be touched or something if they like them better with the lights on WTF

[@MrRTVtech]

34:46 "And i caught it!" This is why i'm addicted to your video's. Troubleshooting 2.0! 👍👍👍

[@PlasticImaginationWorkshop]

Excellent video, thanks for recording this. Have a great day.

[@LyonsArcade]

Thank you Plastic Imagination Workshop, we appreciate you watching!

[@richardsensabaugh1312]

Wow, that was a tricky one! The old switch the rotor trick and they maid the same mistake not once but twice! You found it quick too. Very good grasshopper. Very gooood.....

[@LyonsArcade]

It's fun when you track one down. We've been working on a Pinbot lately and found a bunch of weird stuff people had done to it...

[@bogleman]

Love the content and electromagical explanations. Old school mechanical workings; visually you can see what is wrong, new stuff just replace the board. PS request for Come on people shirt; LOL every time you get going

[@cthlhu]

another great video! Ron you brought back a classic from the pits to the checkered flag! Awesome job.

[@LyonsArcade]

We're getting there, thanks for watching!

[@arnaudmorand7183]

Th1nk's for these video. This is my pinball 🎉

[@jamesf1795]

Thanks for filming it !

[@LyonsArcade]

Thank you James we appreciate you watching man

[@DonnyHooterHoot]

LOL! You said Motorola! I heard you. Great Video!

[@LyonsArcade]

I don't have anything against Motorola, they're a good company :)

[@DonnyHooterHoot]

@@LyonsArcade Oh I love Motorola they made my old Amiga computer possible!

[@pauz2175]

Learned a lot on this one. Thank you sir.

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks for watching as always Pauz!

[@kandyvickers2626]

This game was in my Dads store back in 1979.

[@edptrs9040]

Nice, thank you. Notice the drop target mechanisms look a lot like Chicago Coin. Interesting

[@LyonsArcade]

I haven't paid much attention to the Chicago Coin ones but I'll remember to check that out when we get to this Rawhide we're going to be working on soon... I wonder if the Sam Stern connection had anything to do with that? (was the president of Williams, then bought Chicago Coin years later)

[@simondempsey1]

As you said Ron a very complex EM. Looks good and sounds great. Nearly done now. Nicely repaired.

[@LyonsArcade]

next video we're going to figure out the bonus units once and for all

[@NotsureOk]

Awesome it's alive:)

[@LyonsArcade]

It's getting there :) Thanks for watching A Janitor!

[@Petri547]

Nice video. I like lot of these old EM.s Keep up your good work.

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Petri547!

[@kandyvickers2626]

I own this game it is a fun game to play.

[@KentDiego]

Great video. Learned a few new things. Never saw a washer in Williams flippers. I think the real issue was the bent foot you discovered. I would have just bought new flippers but the washer worked too. Looking forward to next video.

[@LyonsArcade]

It dragged at the bushing, not just at the end so it wasn't from being bent... I think that style of flipper must be for a different machine that has a different bushing that sticks through another 1/16" or so.... Thanks for watching Kent!

[@yuwish6320]

I think I posted it in another video. But I'll repeat here for other viewers who may not have seen it. Contact cleaner is great for friction switches, like linear volume sliders. It doesn't do well on simple post contacts like relays. Ron's got it right using some sort of mild abrasive to clean relay contacts.

[@EsotericArctos]

I am wondering if the same switch you messed with on the left Bonus is faulty / misadjusted on the right bonus unit. It seems it works when it is using the left unit, but not when it switches to the right unit. I agree with you on the contact cleaner in this situation. I think you need an abrasive cleaner when they are this sort of switch. Contact cleaner is more for switches you can't physically clean due to them being sealed o difficult to access. I will watch the rest of the video now and see how things go :).

[@paulvernon4160]

An alternative to those sanding blocks would be an old fashioned double ended eraser, the one end was made for fountain pens, it contained abrasive and actually rubbed the paper away, ideal for hard to get to places and uneven surfaces

[@LyonsArcade]

You could also use sandpaper, that would be great for thinner clearances

[@doctoribanez]

I was thinking about one to polish guitar frets

[@samuelcolvin4994]

Those spinner units vaguely remind me of 8-track track changer units...

[@patrickradcliffe3837]

As much as I love watching these videos, my suggestions is get a video capture setup for when you're referencing schematics on your computer instead shaky cam'ing it. My favorites have been the astroids repair and bride of pinbot.

[@LyonsArcade]

I won't be doing that, thank you for watching though!

[@scottgm321]

I may have missed it, but did you ever find out where that broken switch, that was laying in the cabinet , came from? Love the trouble shooting and solutions. Thanks for the video.

[@LyonsArcade]

No I never found where it went.... it looked just like the brake switch on a score motor but it wasn't from this machine. Maybe they're reproducing when nobody's around????

[@pcachu]

@@LyonsArcade When a mommy brake switch and a daddy brake switch love each other very much...

[@vincediesil]

The more videos I watch, the more I think I might be learning how to actually read the schematics. Thanks! I've only been watching your videos for about a year, have you ever said how you got into fixing these machines?

[@LyonsArcade]

When I was a teenager my brother and me used to go to the arcade all the time, one day they had a game for sale in the back so we called our dad and he said we could buy it and he'd come pick it up in our van. So we had an arcade game in our house as kids, it broke, we figured out how to turn it into another game and then years later I saw an ad in the paper for a job collecting money from arcade games. I sent in my resume and they liked that I had one at my house, hired me, and I learned a lot more working for them running a route with stuff breaking all the time. As the time went on I worked on more and more of them, bought more, etc. and eventually started making videos. Thanks for watching Vince!

[@vincediesil]

@Joe's Classic Video Games Cool story! I gotta know what was the game you dragged home?

[@davidewhite69]

Williams really cheaped out on playfield 'art' in that era. that said, Spinners are probably my favourite pinball feature. especially with advancing lights

[@LyonsArcade]

Your comment sucks. That said, I like spinners too

[@Jeroen_a]

@25:11 would a (permanent) marker work to mark the plastic thing and the shaft?

[@LyonsArcade]

Absolutely, that's what people do a lot of times but for whatever reason they never marked this one when they took it off! Thanks for watching Jeroen!

[@deborahchesser7375]

There’s a machine that was notorious in my circle for eating quarters without many rewards. It had a red turntable type component in the middle and made it impossible to judge the balls direction after it came off that spinning disc. If you figure out which one it is I’d love to see a vid on that beast.

[@gopernoperstrains3160]

Might have been a Bally Fireball or a Williams Triple Action

[@deborahchesser7375]

@@gopernoperstrains3160 Fireball ! I think that’s it ! Oh yeh Gorgar was badass and The Black Knight also Funhouse what great old machines.

[@ocsrc]

The balls wind up all the way on the right and left an awful lot going down those out chutes, where they drop into the drain

[@LyonsArcade]

Good point, you watched the whole video and found something you don't like.

[@ocsrc]

@@LyonsArcade I just noticed that it seems like they built it like that. Some games do that a lot more than others. I wonder if they were designed to do that. If the economics change or the vendors get requests for machines that don't play as long. On video games a lot of them have difficulty settings in the dip switches or software. So if an arcade wants people playing shorter games, having to spend more, the company or vendor might have had a sheet that said these three pinball machines have the shortest play time because the ball goes in the out holes quicker. I don't know if they did that, but it makes sense they would have to please their buyers It is a great game, with a lot of cool features.

[@elysiom_original]

The washer is a good quick fix but I wonder if it's got the wrong bushings installed - like from a Bally or some other machine.

[@LyonsArcade]

You must have skipped the part where I put new bushings in :)

[@waynegram8907]

JOES CLASSIC, I'm confused why does the Bonus Unit have 3 coils instead of 2 coils? Coil#1 steps up advances up the bonus unit, Coil#2 resets the bonus unit one step back, Coil#3 resets the whole bonus unit. I'm just not understanding why they added a 3rd coil when most Bonus Units have 2 coils. What do you mean by when the pinball game is computing or counting because "without" the score reels the score motor would just be sending impulses so the only thing that is keeping track of the score motor impulses is the score reels. So really there is nothing really computing or counting because its just impulses sending to the score reels. The Score reels is what is counting all the score motor impulses? nothing else is sending impulses to the score reels to count only the score motor?

[@robertsaw841]

Hey Ron, really enjoying your videos! I love your relaxed style of teaching. You've given me the confidence to buy my first pinball which should turn up in a few weeks! Do you know where I could find the schematics for a Williams Teachers Pet? I feel i'm going to need it! Big thumbs up from London England

[@LyonsArcade]

I have never seen that one, but that's my style of game. I like those the best. I'd have to order the schematics to fix that one, they don't have them on IPDB.org which has a lot of the Williams ones... you can order new ones for about 15 bucks from www.PBResource.com though, they have pretty much every schematic. Here's the thing though, although you'll be at a little bit of a disadvantage because it's your first game, as you probably know they're all similar, especially by the same company around the same time. for instance, schematics are online for "Full House" which came out 3 months after that one... www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=961 Lots of the main 'workings' will be exactly the same as Full House, since they're both Williams 1 players made 3 months apart, they were probably sitting on the line next to each other. The two player and four player games will be fairly different though. We did a video on that one too, I really like that era of game. kzbin.info/www/bejne/b4PVamZrZ5yYfpY Thanks for watching!

[@robertsaw841]

@@LyonsArcade Ah thanks so much! Great info, and very appreciated. I can't wait to get started. Thanks again for the in-depth reply. Have a great day

[@douro20]

Looks like a game targeted to girls.

[@bobcorwin9314]

Where is the best place to buy parts for this machine?

[@GHILLIESARCADEANDMORE]

Cool

[@katenunyabizness9221]

It was probably Joe that screwed them up ;-)

[@LyonsArcade]

He doesn't mess with the pinballs much :)

[@lileveretteyoakumiii]

Yodelayheehoo

[@robertcecil7329]

Come on, now, people. :D

[@AaronYeoman]

Wow first comment. Can't wait to catch up on this 👍