Update: I replaced two of the plastics today (6/27) See the new pictures below.
I purchased this Target Alpha for my personal collection. Although I have had a great time with it, my garage is full, so it is time for it to move on. This playfield design was so popular it was made into 5 different themed pinball machines: Target Alpha, Canada Dry, El Dorado, Gold Strike, Lucky Strike, and Solar City. It was designed by Ed Krysisncki who was a prolific designer with Gottlieb churning out hundreds of machines. He is famous for Sinbad, Spirit of 76, Royal Flush, Joker Poker, and 2001. This unique design has 4 flippers, two 3" and two 2". It has alternately placed bumpers but a standard bottom. You can earn extra balls by knocking down all of the lower targets or all of the upper targets and then rolling over the extra ball lanes. You can score a special as well by knocking down all of the upper targets. The 10 point switches on the machine alternate the 5000 point yellow lights for the outlanes and upper lanes.
This particular machine is a nice example. The backglass is in nice condition. It has some paint wear in the lower right corner and a couple of spots in the center. The #44 bulbs burned too hot and would eventually damage the paint. The playfield is in nice condition with no serious paint wear. There is a small area of discoloring above the lower left flipper.
This game was completely not working when I bought it. It was full of kids toys, trash, and Legos. It had a nice base to work from, so I cleaned it up and learned every inch of the schematics as I chased problem after problem. The machine now works like a champ, but everyday was a new list of things going wrong and a new adventure. I must have put over well over 60 hours into this machine to resurrect it. There is just something magical about Gottlieb chimes and drop targets.
Playfield with new left slingshot plastic and new lower drop target plastic.
Here is the back of the backglass. You can see the black foam material that was used to pad the glass against the light panel. It faded the glass a bit on the opposite side.
This machine has amazing flipper power when you consider how small these flipper coils are.
Each machine seems to bring a new challenge. The bottom right relay in the backbox I had never seen before. It is like a combination of a rotary unit and a relay. Once it was cleaned up the lights would alternate again.
Ah, Gottlieb chimes. This machine still has its original coil box. I always save original parts (I'm not sure why. I guess I figure someone may want them.) This machine had brittle pop bumper caps that were crushed when they were removed to replace the bulbs. Even though I was very gentle with the one that is in the coin box, 3-4 tabs still broke off. The new ones look great.
Every relay is like a puzzle. Fun when it is fixed, but quite an adventure when something isn't working.
I'm guessing this wear is from the light box. Perhaps the glass rubbed there when it was removed?
Small spot on her helmet where the paint has flaked away. Removing the light bulb right behind this damage makes the glass look better.
Small flake on her leg. I'm not quite sure what the girls job is in this game. None of them are shooting.
This is the opposite side of the foam protective sections (above and below)
Tiny flake in Gottlieb.
Strange faded mark on the playfield. Perhaps something spilled when someone repaired it? Left slingshot plastic has been replaced (see above).
Usually flippers leave an arcing wear mark. This one dug in to the playfield in the extended position (perhaps a burned coil at some point?)
There is some wear to the upper section of the playfield. Not too bad.
This one is cracked
Piece broke off and was taped back on. Hard to tell when you are playing,
The left corner (actually lower corner) of this plastic is broken off. They sell circular plastic washer now that you can add to protect the plastics from this type of wear.
I was recently the recipient of a Black Knight 2000 in need of repair. I was asked to clean and polish the playfield, replace the rubber, and repair the right flipper. Little did I know how big this little job would get.
The following is a photo journal of my repairs.
The first pictures are detailed pictures of the playfield condition. I don't think it had been cleaned in many years. The balls were pitted and had removed much of the paint off of the upper level. The rubber was dry and cracking. Many had already fallen off and were replaced by white rubber.
Before (top) and After Cleaning (bottom)
Accumulated dirt in the shooter lane.
In this picture you can see the bubbling under the playfield mylar.
The magna save logo has some paint missing in the center due to the movement of the ball there.
The bare wood on the edge of the upper playfield and the ramp entrance.
Paint wear on the upper playfield.
Paint wear under the upper habitrail where teh ball drops from the plunge. The wood here was also worn away causing a small divit.
The instruction cards also accumulated a lot of dirt, grime, and wear
Missing rubber.
Something like peanut butter smeared on the face of the Black Knight on the glass.
The condition under the upper playfield.
Inside the loop. The mylar ends at the beginning and end of the loop, so this section remained unprotected from wear.
Next I'll move on to specific areas in need of repair.
In these two pictures you can see one of the issue with the right lower flipper. The spring is broken and folded over itself. I needed to replace the spring, replace the coil sleeve and clean all of the parts.
The next few pictures show the right sling shot coil. I had no idea there was anything wrong until I inspected the machine further. The link between the coil rod and the kicker arm had broken through. this caused the spring to become mangled as well. I had to replace both and the coil worked fine.
Here I ran into the second problem with the flipper coil. The owner thought the coil was burned, but it was just dirty contacts. Once I replaced the parts, the flipper was still sticking. I couldn't figure it out as the flipper switch wasn't the cause, and the coil wasn't locked. Further inspection found that the end of stroke switch had worn through on the depression tab due to the arm not having a protective sleeve like the left flipper. I replaced the end of stroke switch and the problem was solved.
Minor issue. The beer seal on the lockdown bar was pretty toasted. Replaced.
This pop bumper coil burned during a test run. You can see it here in it's locked position. I replaced the coil and a fuse under the upper playfield. The pop bumpers would still not register with ball hits. it turned out that there was a deep layer of grime inside the cups which restricted movement. All three were cleaned and the switches were adjusted.
Tip 102 Transistor that needed to be replaced on the CPU board. This was tied to the Magna Save which had stopped working. Replaced. Problem solved.
I installed a remote battery pack to eliminate the chance of board corrosion in the future. The board didn't show any sign of corrosion even though it was stored for quite some time. Perhaps the batteries were removed.
Here is the board with the missing battery mount.
When I started to disassemble the playfield for cleaning, I found that many of the post bolts had been glued with locktite or a similar product. Some broke loose and others broke. What a pain!
When I tried to break the locks, some of the lock washers under the playfield just spun. this created posts that were too loose to leave alone. I had to cut the protruding bolt ends and then drill out the lock nuts. This left some small abrasions underneath the playfield unfortunately, but all worked out in the end (several hours and new parts later).
Above you can see the repaired slingshot coil link. The link is blue and is just above the yellow coil. The re-manufactured parts are thicker to avoid future breakage.
The upper playfield general illumination lights were intermittent. Further inspection found burned plugs and spotty patchwork done on the interconnect board. I connected two lugs that both came from the same wire and the lights started working. As soon as I moved the machine to take a video for this blog, the lights went out again. I jiggled the board and the came back on. A few minutes later they were off again for good. I worked on several on the connections checking for continuity. All of them showed continuity, but I assume some of them are just too weak to pass the 6V needed to power the lights. 6V comes to the board, but doesn't make it to the exit plug. The owner decided to hold off on either replacing the interconnect board or patching (hacking) the wires to make it work. If it gets repaired later, I'll post the pictures to this post.
Here I continue to disassemble the playfields and clean and polish. I put two coats everywhere. I put a third coat of wax on the damaged section of the upper playfield.
Here I start disassembling the ramps on the upper playfield.
Here is everything off and the first coat of wax after it was cleaned. The screws holding the little habitral leading from the lower playfield were frozen with stripped heads. I decided cleaning around it would be best.
Here are some pictures of the dirt that accumulated under the slingshots.
All of these clear posts were incredibly grimy and probably should have been replaced. We cleaned them with alcohol and cotton swabs trying to get most of it off.
These bolts were locked with Locktite, but came free and were easily replaced.
Wax on the lower playfield and the third coat on the upper playfield in the damaged sections.
Reassembled and looking beautiful. With some adjustments, the flippers are more powerful, the ball rolls smoothly, the pop bumpers and slings are hot again. The microswitches are correctly signaling again. The flasher bulbs (#89) make a huge difference.
Here you can see the new replacement cards.
Backglass is all cleaned up and ready to shine.
Black Knight 2000 is a great playing game. Watch the videos to see some examples of gameplay. Definitely a game to watch for to add to the collection.
