Holy cow! Taking my first full cab to pieces

I have got to say that all respect is due to the designers, constructors & service engineers responsible for putting full sized arcade cabs together!

At present I am in the middle of taking apart and attempting to repair a Namco Ridge Racer sit on unit. The lights are all gone, but I have replaced the starter motors today and managed to get 1 back to life. No image as of yet, but I can see the problem and have disconnected the massive 33" CRT.

When powered up it turns out that it's actually got Ridge Racer 2 onboard. I've taken the entire PCB assembly to bits and cleaned everything out.

I remember a thread regarding the mess people find inside their consoles. At the time I mentioned a couple of Xbox & PS2 fans I had cleaned and found disgusting. Well, nothing quite prepared me for the utter filth inside the fan units of an arcade system.

2 very large industrial sized fans caked in black, charred gunk the consistency of cement and greasy fluff. It took me hours to clean it all.

Sheer brute force has been required to break into the cash drawer, and also detach front end of cab from the seat end. The gear stick has been snapped off just at the plate level. It's an awkward break, not clean and not straight. It looks like someone dropped something onto it and the force pushed the stick over. It'll run in automatic however until I can find a solution.

The gearing isn't too complicated, I could repair it I think, but the bolts are so tightly situated I may never remove them!

1 broken speaker, easy to replace.

Let's see how far this one goes. May need to employ the services of a my uncle who used to repair CRT TVs for Focus. I am NOT keen on messing around with monitors. They remain one area of this whole shebang I normally steer away from.

(Poor images due to camera battery running out)

The cab is complete. This is mid disassembly & clean


33" screen from the rear. System 22 PCB removed


Plastics removed. Have an accident in this, there is no airbag - you face is MINCE on all that sharp metal!


PCB More than double the size of the PS2 Tool PCB, stacked in 2 with 2 additional ROM boards. All marked RRS1, however 4 ROMS are RRS2. Share data?

 

I can imagine all the filth on old arcades :noooo:
Just watch out so you don't touch the monitor at the wrong place.

 

There was a feature in Retro Gamer magazine following a cab restored to former glory while ago, the state it was originally in was shocking! Things you can expect to find from a really old cab are rotted wood, insect nests and just 'gunk' that has no obvious source.

It must be a hell of a lot rewarding to finally repair one to its former glory - good luck Parris!

 

The reward thus far has been $10 in loose change rattling around the broken gear box... wonder how the gear broke?! :-(

 

I found spider nests inside my Neo-Geo...

I had no idea how old they were.

I did find some spiders in my room afterwards....

I hate spiders. I was paranoid for a while in my room sleeping after I got my cab.

 

Sadly not found any wildlife! Money, sweet wrappers, pen, broken assortment of metal items (unidentified), foam (?) and what smelt like cat sick!!! (We have a cat, so a familiar smell)

Broken gear lever from above


Broken gear lever from side


System 22 PCB assembled again after clean. Not moved onto the monitor above yet.

Almost fully reassembled:


Spent the evening cleaning those gears and reassembling as it was fully of old grease compacted with shards of metal. Looked like iron filings and I can only assume they are from the gear mechanism itself. All the switches and wiring is back together (hopefully in the correct order).

Anyone got any ideas on the gear lever. My only thought being to buy a genuine gear stick, create a metal sheath and slip it over the top of the existing lever. Not sure how secure that would be.

 

I have removed the two PCB relating to the monitor and frankly I immediately noticed 2 burnt components. Thus, I have located a manual & schematics diagram for the manufacturer (Hantarex Polo 33") and have decided (on seeing the implications of getting this wrong) that I'm taking the boards to a TV repair store on the other side of the city. Let him ensure I don't end up with a mobile X-Ray machine!
;-)

 

well there is an upside to the filth in old cabinets.. sometimes theyre full of money ;-)

a friend of mine drilled open the coinbox to his cab and found almost $200 inside in coins.. paydirt!

 

Ah the Polo chassis are quite prone to dying and burning up a resistor on the board. :lol: Thankfully they are simple enough to repair just need a few parts...

Lovely screen burn you have there.

 

Yeah, the screen burn is gorgeous eh! lol Almost feels like there is no need to get it working again, all I require is presented even without power applied! I did look into the cost of a new screen, but the largest I can obtain at the moment is 28" and £80.00 without S&H. I'll just have to keep a look out for a better screen.

 

i got a few quarters. I think the guy emptied it out that sold it to me because he said he had it in a bar fora few weeks and kids were playing it. and the keys he had did go to the coin door.

 

I could make you a new gear lever and effect a proper repair if you are interested.

 

Hi OE, I have contacted Happ Controls UK distributor (Suzo) in order to establish whether they have any remaining parts in stock. According to their website they still have a few other random bits and pieces for the cab, but probably only potentiometers and the like (which are common to a lot of units).

If I have no joy from them I would really, seriously appreciate the effort. I'm aware that due to the location of the break (clearly at the area that you can expect the greatest stress) that my own repair efforts may not be sufficient. I was considering sawing the gear off lower to the base and tapping a thread onto a suitable piece, but frankly your engineering skills are bound to be far, far better than mine and I am not equipped to do much metal work here. I think a quick job (such as the sort of repair I could perform) would only result in it being broken again.

So, I'll await the reply from Suzo (which I expect to be negative), plus I shall get the screen repaired and then contact you! No point putting anyone to any trouble if the screen is not going to work again.

Many thanks! :thumbsup:

 

No prob's, lmk if/when you need it sorting, my dear 'ole Scottish cousin

 

I suppose you not contacted Brent Leisure Electronic? As they are the spares distributor for Namco and Taito. In fact once you get the game up and running, you'll see a lot of adverts from Brent Leisure in the game. :lol: In the 80s and 90s Brent Leisure were the main distributor of Namco arcade games before Namco bought them out.

The part number of 6 Speed Gear Shift Assembly is 88300672 and if you want the Gear Shift Leather Boot then that is 88300672, the Monitor 33" Hantarex Polo is 84000015 but that won't be cheap. You also might want the sticker for the bottom part of the gear stick which is Gear Shift Lwer (B) 40000189.

Note : Website embedded in the message. Although don't got to Video Game Controls and click Gear Assemblies as you will be disappointed. Just ring them.

 

Hi thanks for the in depth information. For some reason the PDF I found of the arcade unit and it's spare parts didn't include the gear shift. I wondered whether as it was clearly manufactured to order that it was supplied by Happ and not Brent. I did see a sticker for Brent Leisure, but had found the Happ Control sticker on the actual control unit and decided to go that route. Will contact BL tomorrow. ;-)

Edit* However it does say "6 Speed Gear Shift Assembly", which sounds like the entire gear assembly huh!

 

The guy at Brent laughed! He actually laughed, can you believe that? :lol:

They last stocked the "6 Gear Assembly" 7 whole years ago and it originally cost £270.00 +VAT and it was the entire gearing system, not just the stick.

OE I shall be in touch!

 

That wasn't very nice of him, ah well you'll have to for the weld a new stick in place. I've looked around and I can't find anyone who has the assembly in stock. What did Suzo say?

 

Thus far the email has gone unreplied. Thanks for having a look however. Appreciated. Welding arc ahoy! ;-)

Just stuck the PCB for the monitor into a repair store close to where I work and the owner had a fairly good idea of what was going on with it. Apparently he has repaired arcade material for the arcade owner I obtained this unit from so was bemoaning customers who place open cans of juice or beer on cabinets as being the most common reason for PCB issues.

He'd let me know this week whether the board was viable. If not, back to hunting down the correct board for a 33" unit.

 

WOW!!!

havent ben on in ages due to a new job and such and i am amazed Parris.. thats an amazing acquisition!