What exactly is an Overhaul and why should I consider it?

We call this our ‘standard overhaul service’ and suggest this option for a number of reasons. Faults can generally be fixed but if the machine has only had scant care and maintenance over it life, it is quite common for there to be more than one fault on a machine and the more faults there are on a machine, the more time is spent in trying to either fixing it yourself or having to continually call an engineer out which can become expensive for you. Bear in mind that when these machines were in service, repair and maintenance could be scant at best or perhaps non-existent.

Quite often, trying to fix one fault can highlight another, unknown one. For an example, replacing a burnt-out coil. The new one will still not work, because something else in its chain was ‘bodged’ to compensate which can require extra labour to get it working correctly so it is not cost effective.

Therefore, many games, as they are some 40 plus years of age, really do benefit from a full ‘top to bottom’ overhaul instead. It allows for hidden faults or something about to fail which are remedied during the process. We have many examples of machines where owners, upon receipt of the game once again, cannot quite believe how well it plays with certain features now working correctly, sometimes they never know of when they had the machine running originally!

So please give this some thought should you be wanting us to look at fixing a fault on your machine. Taking all the above into account, It might well be far cheaper to have this process instead to enjoy playing your machine for many more years instead of experiencing irritating and costly breakdowns.

 So this is why we like to offer this service. A vintage machine working in tip top order gives you both lots of enjoyment and helps maintain its value. Remember too that all machines that we overhaul includes re-delivery and set up if you are in our service area once work has been completed, so you can rest assured that we are taking care of you.

 I like the sound of having my machine overhauled but what exactly do I get for my money?

To begin with, once we have the machine in our workshop, the machine is cleaned and vacuumed and carefully examined for parts that are broken or missing. Many of these items are replaced anyway as standard; any other necessary parts required will be notified to you for approval before work commences. A written pre-process report is also supplied for your records.

• Starting with the motor board [ the large board on the inside base of the machine]

If your machine retains its original factory 2 core mains input cable, we replace with a new 3 core mains lead and a supplementary earth cable up to the front metal door, and if necessary, the lock-down bar frame assy as many machines were not earthed.
The relay, stepper and reset bank units are carefully removed from the board, so that it and the wiring loom is carefully cleaned and wiring inspected.
All stepper units are completely stripped down de-greased, cleaned and rebuilt with new springs where required.
Every relay unit is dismantled and cleaned and its coil is checked for correct resistance. Contact switch blades are cleaned, burnished and re-gapped correctly upon reassembly.
Reset relay banks [where fitted] are cleaned, coil sleeve/s replaced as necessary, inspected, contact blades cleaned, burnished and gapped correctly.
As standard, the power hold relay coil is replaced [this coil remains constantly energised when a game is in use and often fails.]
The entire board unit is then reassembled and placed back inside the machine.

Then we move onto the head unit.

Score reels [single and multi-player machines] are removed from their cages. These are dismantled, cleaned, and tensioning springs replaced as necessary, coils are checked for correct resistance and fitted with new sleeves as required. The reel cages are also cleaned, reels are refitted and their switches cleaned and adjusted.
The wiring loom in the head unit is carefully cleaned and inspected for damage. All relays and stepper units are cleaned exactly the same way as those on the motor board. Animation units -where fitted- are cleaned and lubricated as required and fitted with new springs as required.
‘Jones’ Plug connectors [ these are where the wiring looms from the motor board and playfield connect to the head’s electrics] are inspected and cleaned.
Any burnt or dead bulbs are replaced and defective lamp sockets are repaired or replaced.

Moving onto the playfield:

The playfield is dismantled, cleaned and wax polished, playfields plastics and their mounting posts are also cleaned and polished. On the underside, the pop bumpers are rebuilt with dedicated kits, the ring/rods are replaced with new ones plus the plastic bodies and their skirts.  Pop bumper coils are fitted with new sleeves as required. Note: Pop bumper coils receive a lot of use so are often burnt out or worn. New ones are not included in this specification as standard as they might not be necessary but we stock new replacements should they be required and cost around £20.00 each to replace. We would advise you should this be necessary.  All relays and stepper units are cleaned, etc as per those on the motor board.

The flippers are rebuilt with new linkage kit parts, coils are checked for wear or damage. Note : As standard, Gottlieb machines are fitted with uprated flipper ‘ orange-dot’ coils. These give better performance as compared to other machine brands. There are even more powerful  ‘Yellow dot’ type flipper coils. We can fit these if preferred though please be aware that you risk damaging your playfield plastics due to their higher powered ball velocity. 
The playfield is then returned to the cabinet and carefully re-assembled, all switches cleaned and gapped, a new set of rubbers fitted, plus new pinballs and shooter springs.

We refit the original ’10 points when lit’ type pop-caps unless it was agreed they be replaced during our initial inspection and reported to you. Some people like to retain some originality, some prefer new reproduction ones instead so it’s entirely up to you. New licensed reproduction caps cost around £20.00 each.

This list is not exhaustive, please bear in mind there are hundreds of moving wear and tear parts in a machine but from our experience, generally all the above work is quite sufficient.

Interested? Then we would be pleased to receive your enquiry and give you an estimate* for the work you would like to be carried out. If possible, please supply us with an email/Whats-App set of images to help us get a good idea of what work is required.

Costs:

For guidance, the cost to carry out a standard overhaul on a single player machine as detailed above, costs around £1500 for a single player machine INCLUDING PARTS as mentioned, import duties, etc. Multi-player machines will incur additional labour charges, due to their complexity and we will advise you upon inspection though generally you should budget for around £2000.00

Any additional work is charged at £40.00 per hour. 

* Your estimate price is set as per our initial inspection report; any other work required found during works will be notified to you for approval.

We are not VAT registered so there is nothing extra to pay.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need any further information or advice.