Holy cow! Taking my first full cab to pieces

Well done! Seems like a lot of work but I'm sure it will be worth it when you play it

Quick question, are Hantarex monitors/TVs worth a lot? I noticed my uni was getting rid of some..

 

It's been a bit of a pig to deal with. Everything that could be wrong...was!

Hantarex monitors have been fitted to all sorts of arcade machines and may be useful for spares if they are in good condition. Had there been a 33" screen I'd have taken it so long as it had no screen burn.

Anyway, here is the final result of all that effort. Many thanks also to the bloke that works in the TV repair shop around the corner from me. I did loads of hunting down tech references, speaking to people who know Hantarex monitors and Namco, but he was the one who soldered the chip & LOFT into place. My soldering skills not being good enough for that. All in it still cost less than buying a new chassis - just!

There is something satisfying about reaching behind the coin mechanism, flicking the TEST switch and selecting 'Free Play' or just pressing a coin select piso switch for 1 free shot.

 

It's alive, IT'S ALIVE!! ray:

Seriously i'm happy for you Parris. After a lot of searching, it's working again. :thumbsup:

 

Congratulations Parris

 

Nicely done! I love seeing old hardware repaired.

 

Thanks folks! I've got a few more things to sort out before it is fully refurbished. I had to remove the coin mech & coin drawer locks, whilst the rear panel (main PCB panel) lock was damaged by the previous owner. I've located a supplier in England, but they might not have the correct barrel lengths in stock at present. Until then I am using lots of tape and being very careful.

The gear lever is still needing replaced, as is the leather shoe surrounding it. I want to replace many of the screws and bolts as they are rusty (I have started but this thing has hundreds of them). Lastly there are patches of rust and missing paint needing dealt with.

It would be awesome to find a genuine Ridge Racer left hand side vinyl, but I doubt that will ever happen.

The astonishing thing is that I have all the paperwork for this beast.

I was given a ratty Instruction Manual, which I have reprinted. I've got the original schematics. I have a receipt for it's sale from Brent Leisure to the company that bought it 'Codona Entertainments' (incidentally that means 1 owner prior to me) and I've got an original Hantarex instruction manual. This unit really is as complete as I could hope for. Now I have created an A3 folder and added my receipts for genuine Namco parts bought from Brent Leisure and also third party supplied Nikko. Like a full service history from it's purchase way back on January 16th 1995 for the princely sum of £15,000.

I also discovered that the same company purchased the Full Sized version. Perhaps I can establish where it has ended up.

 

Maybe you cand find help for the restoration here:

http://www.arcaderestoration.com/

As for the side art, look at the flyers for guidance. Maybe someone can make new ones based on those flyers:

http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=a...year=&manu=&source=&submit=Search+the+Archive

 

looking nice so far and its great you've got the game running, i'm sure with a bit of patience you'll get it fully back to how it was when it was made.

been watching this thread since you started it but i got no worthy advice and anything like this but its nice to see you getting it fixed.

 

Well it's been a few days now and the best I can manage is coming in second. I keep missing that blasted yellow car! Must try harder.

Minor electrical fault to be repaired: The marquee on top has some unknown fault. I think the PSU must have blown as I changed the starter & tube (however I had to modify the wiring slightly as the tube was about 5cm too long - cannot find the exact bulb anywhere, but it is the same rating).

I need to respray the black metal gear surround as it has become rusty and is so bad that the paint is lifting off in large chunks.

Just as I am typing this the 3 cam locks landed on my doormat. Quick inspection; they are all the correct barrel lengths! The ones I originally purchased from Maplin Electronics were all wrong in every way.

The gear lever was located in England, but the supplier was having a laugh regarding price. It was going to cost more than the price I paid for the cabinet in it's original state! I politely declined.

I'm still thankful of OE's suggestion, but I have not exhausted the genuine parts search. There are a few people who hold older arcade title parts. Just trying to find them.

Thanks for all the encouragement, advice, site links & enthusiastic support!

 

All very impressive and a fascinating read. I've never really though about what happened to all the arcade machines when they went to out of date heaven.

 

Try replacing the choke, thoses damn things usually fail after about 10 years

Typical of maplin


I wish you good luck with fixing the remaining faults

 

In test mode I can test all of the switches throughout the entire unit, plus the extreme right & left of the steering column. Everything appears to return OK so the only thing needing done is the length of the stick - it literally appears to have broken in two! Imagine the force required to sheer off a 12mm thick steel bar? Some big kid must have been really wanting to win!

 

yay, when can i come around?

 

Breakout the passport and fly over ;-)

 

Out of genuine interest how much did the total cost of repairs work out to be, including a breakdown of parts, and the cost of the guy from the electrical shop who fixed it?

 

I was quoted £120.00 plus £20.00 P&P for a suitable 33" Hantarex chassis, so a total of £140.00.

Having decided to attempt to recondition the existing chassis it cost;

2 x TDA1675A (Nikko electronics) £10.40 including VAT & P&P
1 x LM1203BN (Nikko electronics) £8.39 including VAT & P&P
1 x LOFT (Brent Leisure) £58.75 including VAT & P&P (I think I could have obtained a cheaper one, but then again I may have ended up with the same issue. This is guaranteed by Namco)

Plus the repair guy only charged me £20.00 for fitting the parts.

Total price £97.54

Oh and I forgot the £8.00 or so I found in the gear, chassis and coin box in the end. So, £89.54 really lol.

I was told I could have used a second hand 23" chassis, but that the geometry would have been wrong and I'd have to have adapted the board at roughly the same cost as just reconditioning the unit about.

A second hand 33" monitor turned up via a seller on eBay and I would have had to have spent £50.00 on P&P plus £100.00 for the unit. He also couldn't confirm the condition of the screen or LOFT etc (untested) so I still think it was worth the hassle.

Including a few other minor costs and the purchase of the cabinet in the first place, I am still considerably cheaper than he wanted for his second, fully working cabinet. I noticed the poorly listed Namco Ridge Racer unit on eBay sold for £200.00, but given that even colleagues have offered more than I have spent I think I could get more than I paid easily.

If I was ever to place it on eBay, I would NOT be taking a leaf out of this sellers marketing skills. His title neither mentions Namco or Ridge Racer! DOAH!
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SITDOWN-ARCAD...oryZ3945QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

So, now I am moving onto the gears.

A replacement set would have cost £270.00. They are no longer available from Brent Leisure, so I am going to have to recondition what I have.

Here are the gears pulled & cleaned up a little. They are in working order, but 2 switches are a little unresponsive and might need replacing, plus the gear level is about 4" shorter than it should be!

 

The switches look like they should be an easy fix anyway. But yeah, Id just find someone to weld a stick right on

 

for a quick fix you could force some tight fitting metal pipe onto the broken shaft and insert the stick into that until you get it welded

 

I thought about that, but there is actually a shaped plate that sits directly on top of the gear assembly. It's shaped in such a way that by adding any additional girth to the gear shaft would mean you'd not be able to select the top & bottom gears.

Either welding or tapping the gear shaft would appear to be the only reconditioning options.