Bally Solved Paragon (Bally, 1979) Wasp's nests in Pinball machine--Can I save it?

[Jick Magger]

Greetings!

So, I was recently given a Bally Paragon machine by my grandpa. It was originally his brother's; he died about 25 years ago, and this machine has been sitting in a barn or open garage or something since then. Basically, people had forgotten it existed until my great uncle's wife died this year.

ANYWAY

Hoping to get it back into working order, I took the machine, and started trying to clean it up. I opened the backbox, and much to my horror, found that wasps had made it their home at some point in the past.

There's at least 4 or 5 old nests in there. A few are on circuit boards, one on a heat sink, one on one of the hi score things.


Other than it being quite dirty, and having had wasps living in it, there doesn't seem to be much obvious damage. But then again, I don't really know much of anything about this sort of stuff.
Googling "wasps nests in my pinball machine" didn't turn much of anything up, so I'm asking here: do you think this would have ruined the machine? Is there a chance it might still work, or would it just be a waste of my time?

 

[Itchigo]

Definitely a posibility of saving it! Get it out of the barn and clean the living hell out of it. The heat sink can be replaced as the same for the digitals. To clean the boards of the nests use something made of wood (toothpick,stick, etc) so you wont scratch any connections. Don't use anything metal unless you have to and then be careful. Take a shop vac with a brush on the end and get as much dust as you can, and don't forget to "dust" the boards as well. When it's as clean as it can get, then fire it up and see what happens and we'll go from there. If the game wasn't in use (plugged in) the nests should do much damage in terms of corrosion, I'd more worry about moisture.(Winter, Summer, etc. By the way don't forget to clean under the playfield as well with the brush because spiderwebs can bridge a circuit.

 

[sleepy]

Are the circuits corroded-looking or?
If the copper still looks like copper instead of like mud and the parts are more-or-less intact then it *might* work, though you should know that capacitors tend to disintegrate when they haven't been used/powered up for a long time, kind of like old unused batteries, so you might need to replace those at a minimum.

There are also replacement boards available from parts dealers, or should be.

 

[sleepy]

Did you happen to take pictures of it?
Post them here.

 

[Jick Magger]

Thanks guys.

I posted this on another forum as well, and a guy there said basically the same thing; just clean the hell out of it, and probably replace the batteries/capacitors, and I should be good to go.


Also, when I went down to take pictures of the nests, I found out that they weren't nearly as big as I thought I'd remembered. I was imagining baseball sized nests, but really they're rather tiny.

I was also given a link to this:
http://www.pinrepair.com/bally/index1.htm
Which seems to be a rather comprehensive teardown of Bally machines from this era.

Unfortunately I won't be able to get to cleaning it up until next week probably (I've got far too many projects going on :/ ) I'll let you guys know if I run into any more problems.

 

[faralos]

you can also use canned air to blow the dust out of the contacts and boards! you can buy this stuff at most computer stores now or Radio Shack also carries it. but I agree pick up the playfield and check under it for bridged contacts that may cause a short or a blown fuse at initial power-up. make sure you have a nexternal cut off switch to turn the pin off just in case. (you may not want to reach under it to turn it off if it's sparking or on fire!)

 

[Jick Magger]

Hmm, my previous post didn't get posted, it just said I had to wait for it to be approved...

Anyway, when I went to take pictures of the nests, I found out that they weren't nearly as big as I thought they were. I was "remembering" softball sized nests, but really they're quite tiny.

Someone on another site gave me a painfully comprehensive guide on cleaning up and working on old Bally machines.

Thanks for all the advice, guys. I'll certainly let you know if/when I run into more problems.


As far as the not plugging it in yet... Well my grandfather said "we plugged it in and it still lights up, so that's good. Right?" So it didn't burst into flames. Hopefully he didn't leave it plugged in for too long.

 

[Jick Magger]

:C
It looks like the boards are in pretty bad shape. I don't have the time to replace all the corroded parts, and I don't have the money for new boards, so I guess I'm gonna have to give up the dream.

 

[sleepy]

Where are you located?
I would think about having a pinball tech check it out first to get an estimate,
but I would need to trust the guy.

 

[Jick Magger]

I'm in St. Louis, MO.

But honestly, I'm probably going to look to sell/give it to someone else who knows what they're doing.