The Czarcade

09/22/2026

When I’m up for a project, everything’s a minor fix. When I don’t have time for projects, everything is a major fix. There’s a scene in the movie “Office Space” when the main character goes to a hypnotist. As he hypnotizes him, he keeps repeating the phrase “Deeper and deeper”. It’s a phrase I hear every time I go to fix something simple, but then it turns out that something else caused that problem, which turns out to lead to another issue… and suddenly it’s deeper and deeper.

Such was the case with Bowling Queen. The 10s reel was sticky, but was great after I cleaned and rebuilt it. I played a test game and noticed the hundreds score reel wasn’t turning over after the 9 on the 10’s reel. The 100s reel works fine, and resets to zero.. but is not turning over after the 10s rolls. I cleaned everything on the 100s reel, no change. 10s and 100’s relays work fine. I thought I checked everything on the 10s reel, but that has to be the issue. It also appears that the backglass bowling balls are not kicking up either (deeper and deeper).Then I notice one of the steppers has a broken ratchet arm that needs to be replaced. That was it. I called it. That’s an all day project and I had to move on.

I was hoping for an easier fix for Neptune. The top kicker is machine gunning and not kicking the ball out. Usually this is a bad solder joint or maybe a stuck relay switch, but both seemed just fine. The coil looks okay too. Something wasn’t making sense. Once again, this was turning into a deep dive. It’ll have to wait.

I moved over to the typically reliable Cowpoke. The start relay in the reset relay Bank is not activating and it won't start a game. It was pretty toasty, and should have been easily replaced, but I could not find a suitable replacement. 3 swings, 3 misses… not my best day.

Luckily Buccaneer was just a sticky relay, and it seemed to be playing pretty well after a few test games. Hopefully I didn’t miss anything, and while it needs some new number lights under the playfield, that’ll have to wait until my return.

And in Non-EM Pinball news, my Solid State counterpart Noah has (at my urging) has finally repaired the Bally Game Show machine! This is a personal favorite of mine. Great game play, challenging to complete, fun call outs, and of course your host… Keith McTeeth!! Be sure to check it out next time you’re at the HoF.

That’s it for me for a couple of weeks! If I come across any cool games on my travels, I’ll be sure to check in, but otherwise, hold down the fort for me, and I’ll catch you… on the Flipside!

09/16/2026

Hey there Pin-Friends! This Tuesday I was back at Flipper Parade to see if the silver conductive paint was any help, and while it had no ill effect, it did not solve the issue of starting with 7 or 8 balls. Tim jumped in to see what he could make of it. He decided to realign the stepper so that it started on 5 (but was still really 8) and then have me rewire the lights 8>5 7>4 etc.. so it ends the game on 2. You following all this? Anyway... yeah, that didn't really work out at all. It worked sometimes, but then it wouldn't reset correctly... sometimes... I was trying to avoid rabbit holes and here I was... I'm handing this one back to Tim. :/

I totally forgot to fix the Bowling Queen, so that'll have to be next week, but I was asked to look at some of the woodrails that went down. The '53 Arabian Knights was off, but it turned out to be a stuck ball, and it went right back to good. While I had Knights open, I had actually been meaning to get back to it after realizing that the Hole selector dial wasn't working.

So, a cool feature of Arabian Knights is that lighting all six gobble holes scores replays! The selector k**b on the front of the cabinet is used at the start of game to spot one, two, or three of the six gobble holes. The fewer holes spotted at the start of the game, the more replays are earned when all six become lit. Cool right? There's also the EYE replay (I'll put that one in the comments) Anyway... I hunted down a cotter pin and that took care of that, and the selector stepper was working just fine. The game needed a deep cleaning, so I took care of that as well. The Knights are looking and playing great once again.

The '57 Carnival was down as well. This time it was ending after two balls. I'm not sure how I missed cleaning the ball stepper on this game, but I must have. It was skipping past the 2nd ball, into the 3rd, then Game Over. That's no fun! It didn't need a full teardown, so I cleaned the various parts with alcohol, added a drop of oil to the metal to metal friction points, cleaned the rivets and wipers with purple Scotch-Brite, and applied a thin coat of Super L**e across the rivets, and it was as good as a 1957 Woodrail can be.

I was on a tight schedule today, so I wrapped it up, totally forgetting to replace the 2nd ball lamp in the backglass. Hey, at least you get all 3 balls now! I'll be back next Tuesday to fix that lamp and Bowling Queen at the very least, so be good to each other, play more pinball, and I'll catch you... on the Flipside!

09/12/2026

I had a great time hanging out with Todd and Chuck from TNT Amusements Inc. last month, and enjoyed giving them a tour of my "Wall of Fame" Pinball history display as they toured the Hall of Fame (Fame Fame Fame)!

Join Chuck and Todd as we explore the Las Vegas PINBALL HALL OF FAM...

09/10/2026

Happy Thursday to all! I got back from my latest repair-adventure last night, and was kinda running on fumes today, but hey… there was work to be done!

I started where I left off at the 61’ Flipper Parade. The burnt Pop I repaired was in good shape, but the relay was still locking on. The Relay looked fine, and the Pop I fixed was fine… but these older Gottlieb Pops can share a single relay, so I started checking the other Pops… and there it was. A wire had come off the other coil, which locked the relay, and burnt up the other Pop. I put on a new solder joint and everything was back to good. Almost.

So months ago Parade was starting with 8 balls. The Ball stepper contacts were gouged by the 1960 “snowshoe” contacts, so I tried some silver conductive paint to repair the gouged contacts. It worked for a while, but I didn’t let the paint cure long enough, and the shoes gouged the paint, and it’s starting with 8 balls again. So this time I did a better job with the paint (it’s kinda gooey and not easy to apply), and I’m leaving the game off for now so it can cure better and harder this time. I’m hoping it can be a long term fix so we'll see if it's working on my next visit.

I did some disappointing work on the ‘68 Mini Pool. I swear this thing is haunted. Sometimes it works, sometimes it’s stuck, sometimes the game starts, sometimes it just spins… One score reel won’t reset to zero, but the game starts anyway… Every time I thought I made progress, I didn’t. I wasn’t up for a fight today. I’ll hit it again when I have a little more pep in my step.

The 1972 King Kool was off, but it turned out to be a stuck ball at the top of the shooter lane. I used some mylar stickers to smooth out the wear and help prevent the ball from sticking. I noticed that it needed a bunch of cosmetic stuff, and that was more my speed for today, so I swapped out a bunch of burnt lights on and under the playfield, as well as new pop bumper lights. It's real nice now!

I’ll be at the HoF next Tuesday, and then I’ll be away for 3 weeks!! BOOOOOOOO! I know right?? The good news is, after that it’ll be October, and we’ll be on to Chicago! And there might even be a few surprises after that so stay tuned! I’ll catch you… on the flipside!

09/09/2026

Conveyor belt repair. Did it work??

09/09/2026

'63 Rumpus Belt drive broke... I think we can fix it.

09/04/2026

I'm on the road this Labor Day holiday, but that won't stop me from fixin stuff! How about a reel cleanup on this '63 United Puck-Skee-Ball game?? Hey, why not??

09/02/2026

Happy Tuesday Pinball friends! I'll leave it to the videos to tell the next chapter of the Sky Divers saga... [grumble grumble]

Since I'll be away for a bit, I decided to put up some new toppers as I try to complete the set for all the pre-2000 pins. Starting to look a little edumacational if you ask me. ;)

I also figured I should fix what I can while I can.. If nothing else, there'll be fewer things broken when I get back, I hope. The '71 Dimension was down again, another ball stuck in a cup, but this time it burnt the 100's reel coil and slagged the sleeve. These old "Decagon Reels" are particularly difficult to disassemble when the plunger won't go down into the coil, but I finally got there after much effort. I grabbed a new coil, cleaned everything, put a drop of oil on the metal to metal parts, set the reel to the 9 position, and reassembled the post clips. That reel glides like buttah now. I'm not sure why the kick out cups keep sticking, but now that I think about it, I should check the relay. Next time...

The '61 Flipper Parade, which has had a ton of play since my last fix, had a pop bumper lock on and totally fry. No burnt coils for weeks and then two in one day. This one was a lot less complicated to fix and the new coil and plunger were easy to find and readily available, which was nice. I cleaned the spoon (that's what the skirt rocker on the Pop uses to set off the switch from any direction, neat design actually) and I added a drop of CLP oil in the spoon to make sure it wasn't sticky. After a new fuse, I turned it back on and it played great, until something else got stuck on and started buzzing. And it's probably the Pop relay. Drat. My time was up. It stays down for the holiday. Sorry folks.

That's it for me for a bit. I'll be travelling for the Labor Day holiday, and I'll be helping a friend out with his game too, so I may check in... And who knows where else I may turn up!

So Flip it Fast, Flip it Hard, and I'll catch you... on the Flipside!

08/27/2026

It was a short day for me today because two of my best buddies were in to visit. They wanted to see what I've been working on... and play some Pinball of course!

So I was getting close enough on Sky Diver that I wanted to see if it would start up. But first, I checked the reels and 10s was too sticky, so I cleaned that up, as well as the steppers seeing as I was there. We put the playfield back in place and fired it up... the score motor turned, it kicked out a ball!! But that was it. The playfield was dead. No love.

We spent some time troubleshooting, and I was hoping the broken wire on the hold coil was the fix, but it turned out to be... the Start coil again!! For some reason, it is not locking on. When you lift it, the playfield and flippers energize and the game plays! I'm not sure if it's mechanical or electrical, but I didn't have that kind of time, but I am VERY close to a) having this thing Solved or.. B) I'm about to take apart that entire relay bank again. 😆

The HoF is CLOSED this Friday for a special event, so have a great weekend, play some Pinball, and I'll catch you on the Flipside!!

08/26/2026

Happy Tuesday Pinball Friends!

So my main focus today was going to be Sky Divers, but I needed Tim to give it the once-over. So, while I was waiting, I opened up the '67 Williams Base Hit Pitch n Bat that needed some work. I thought I had made some progress on it, but after fixing some broken solder joints and cleaning pitch motor switches, I put it all back together, and now it won't pitch at all! The pitch motor pitches, and the relays pitch the ball when tripped, but neither Tim nor I could figure out what was killing the controls. Since no schematic was available, we put it on the back burner, but I think we made actually some progress.

Tim and I finally made it back to Sky Divers, and Tim checked the wiring, which was correct (AC is easier than DC like that). What was INCORRECT was the burnt spring that Darren and I found rolling around the cabinet; it should have been put back into the relay bank on the burned relay coil, and I missed it. That was going to cost me. As soon as I figured out where it came from, I realized I'd need to completely take apart and rebuild the relay bank... Again. [sigh] This was not the day I was hoping for.

As my Pin-Friends suggested, THIS TIME I took out the whole motor board so I wasn't killing my back all day. I took everything apart again and spent more time than I'd like to admit trying to hook this stupid reset spring back onto the relay bank correctly. Even with the board out, this was no fun at all, and it was still a back killer! Finally, I got it hooked on correctly and it was working right again. It was already past my usual time, but I don't like leaving things a mess, so I stayed to put the relay bank back together, re-soldered the coils, and reinstalled the motor board. Nice n clean.

This time I decided I'd check the power real quick before I left. I had to replace a missing fuse, but after that, it powered up, the score motor completed a revolution, nothing was buzzing, nothing was smoking, and I was feeling pretty good about how everything was looking. Much as I wished I had time to finish it, I had to pack up for the day.

I have friends in town on Thursday, and this Friday the HoF will be closed for a special event, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish it this week... but maybe I can sneak in for a bit over the weekend. We'll see...

Stay tuned!