Troubleshooting a Rocky & Bullwinkle Pinball Machine - Part 1

Cary Hardy·video·19m 50s·analyzed·Aug 2, 2022

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.014

TL;DR

Cary Hardy troubleshoots and repairs a Data East Rocky & Bullwinkle with corrosion and mechanical alignment issues.

Summary

Cary Hardy documents the initial troubleshooting and repair of a Data East Rocky & Bullwinkle pinball machine acquired without keys. After power-up reveals the machine is largely functional, Hardy systematically identifies and begins fixing mechanical issues: a stuck diverter rod (corroded from ocean proximity), a misaligned buck coil, a loose backglass mount, and missing playfield stands. Primary focus is mechanical restoration and switch alignment rather than electrical failures.

Key Claims

The machine had been stored near a window but blinds were shut, preserving cabinet condition
high confidence · Hardy's visual inspection during initial assessment
Loose backglass mount caused rubbing damage to the mirror due to lack of locking mechanism
high confidence · Identified when removing backglass and observing the unlocked pivot point
The diverter rod had significant corrosion and buildup, likely from proximity to ocean environment
high confidence · Visual inspection during disassembly; Hardy notes 'this machine at one point in time was pretty close to the ocean'
The buck coil required hardware tightening and switch repositioning to function properly
high confidence · Direct troubleshooting and adjustment work shown in video
One DMD dot was non-functional on initial diagnostics
high confidence · Hardy's observation during switch testing phase

Notable Quotes

“I have a talent for purchasing games where they don't have the keys and I don't like drilling out the locks on site because that could be a good thing and a bad thing”
Cary Hardy@ 0:54 — Establishes Hardy's purchasing pattern and approach to machines with unknown condition
“Son of a biscuit. Let me get the camera so you can see that. I got one dot. One damn dot.”
Cary Hardy@ 9:01 — Humor/frustration at discovering a single non-functional DMD pixel
“This machine at one point in time was pretty close to the ocean because we got a lot of build up and everything on a lot of the metal parts in this machine”
Cary Hardy@ 16:08 — Identifies environmental corrosion as the root cause of mechanical issues
“Make sure that's completely flush up against it it ain't going nowhere now good to go”
Cary Hardy@ 17:44 — Documents the precise alignment requirement for proper diverter function
“I think this is all kinds of whacked up. So we're going to start disassembling and getting things all cleaned up and see what all is broken.”
Cary Hardy@ 19:03 — Indicates additional problems identified that require deeper disassembly beyond what was shown

Entities

Cary HardypersonRocky & BullwinklegameData Eastcompany

Signals

?
product_concern: Environmental corrosion and mechanical degradation issues indicating storage/transportation challenges for vintage machines
high · Significant buildup on metal parts, loose backglass mount, corroded diverter rod suggesting ocean proximity exposure
?
technology_signal: Documentary approach to machine restoration showing detailed diagnostic methodology and repair techniques for Data East systems
high · Systematic testing of all switches, coils, and DMD elements; documented repair procedures for mechanical components

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.059

0:00

just got back from a couple of hours drive so it wasn't that far away but I have got a data east rocky and bullwinkle so I'm going to go ahead and set this thing up and we're gonna see if there's anything wrong with it let's go okay now that we are all set up on all fours i just plugged it in let's turn it on i turned it on whenever before i bought it guys i'm so i know that getting power to it it shouldn't give me magic smoke unless something happened in transit but i will go ahead and just turn it on and we'll give a quick little tour of what it looks like and what we're seeing on first boot up because once again i have a talent for purchasing games where they don't have the keys and i don't like drilling out the locks on site because that could be a good thing and a bad thing so depends on the situation but majority of the time i'm willing to just take it as is and sometimes you can get a better price by not drilling because you kind of have it open for mystery you could open the back box and the boards could be all covered but i'm not getting any kind of like you know errors upon boot up except that it's missing two pinballs so hopefully the batteries that are on the mpu are still intact but i don't know yet all right let's see what we got all right so we have an intact topper so that's a plus typical dust and dirt take a look at the cabinet very little to no fading even though I think the last year or so it was near a window thankfully the blinds were shut but uh everything looks to be intact got some minor scuffs and everything a little bit of damage right here as far as the back glass goes the mirroring is intact I think the spot that I saw yeah right here the DMD was in good shape I know I've got audio on boot up majority of the lights turn on but that's all I've got to go on so let's turn it on all right so for all I know maybe moving it might have jostled something and a ball might have freed up and hopefully the balls that were missing when I was there are now free and I can start a game but let's see here so yeah The DMD looks good. Nice and bright colors on that. Let's see if it still detects a missing ball.

3:08

Ha! Alright. So that's pretty sweet. That flipper works. That flipper works. Looks like they're working up here.

9:36

okay I don't know we'll see but that was that was different that was a little weird all right so we're just going to check every switch that needs to be adjusted kind of wonder how i don know if this diverter is going to work that seems pretty iffy we have to see what it looks like down below So it looks like every switch that I able to access with ease is working on the top side let's pull this playfield up and see what we got all right playfield is up I have found both of my playfield stands right here for whatever reason they were taken off I found the tilt bobber because that was missing so I got the wing nut for that as well flipper controller board cover that's supposed to go right there pieces of hardware overall down here at the bottom it looks pretty darn good though shop back should take care of all that alright so I'm going through my coils making sure everything's working then I get to lion insert which is this one right here and it looks like we've got an issue right here things are not in the place they need to be that's working so I need to finagle some stuff around here but uh this needs to be somewhere else than what it's at because that's not right if I test it pretty sure it's not supposed to just be up there and stay like that so that needs to be in the correct orientation so that's another thing I need to work on all All right, another issue is the super buck, which is that one. You can't see Jack Bidley from here, but it's the buck in here. I test it, but if I put my hand down there and kind of push it up a little bit, the rod, then it works. So it's another thing I'll have to tinker with moving on. All right, so it looks like I'm going to have to like disassemble this and get it all cleaned up and just kind of like rebuild it because it's like it's like it looks like it's a number of issues it may only work in because it's getting stuck and it's just that's gonna have to be all nice and cleaned up now the rhino that works like it's supposed to so that's one less thing and just as i thought the ramp diverter now if I do that hey it works but I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to be freely being able to do that so that's going to have to be looked at alright so going through all the coils and all the flashers work the GI relay works except for all the things that are bad are the things that I pointed out to you mainly up here on the back glass and this diverter that is not working 100% and the buck down here that's not working 100% but everything else seems to be working pretty good the saw motor over here I can see it moving a little bit so I mean that that seems to be going all right now it's just a matter of a starting a tinker and get it all working all right we're back at it I have got the play filled stand up rails right here so at least now i can rest the blade fill in the cabinet when it comes to this buck we are missing hardware right here which is a contribution to why this thing is not working 100 so should not be loosey-goosey like that i'm gonna take this thing apart get it all cleaned up and then tightened up and see where we're at all right so after getting everything all tightened up and adjusting that switch that switch needed to be pulled further into that buck rod so now took a little longer than I'd like it to there we go we go up here with it all right so I want to say play field wise everything should be working now I guess let's start working on this correction I still need to fix this looks like it's all you know connected and everything down there it's not loose it's just that it's probably it's just binding up on something so I just need to take it apart and make sure everything is nice and straight and not bound up on anything that's usually why we have this problem right here is whenever something is not aligned correctly so let's pull the hood up again all right so the coil in question is this one right here if i flip the diverter over if i can find it there we go it should push back up on its own but it going down and staying down so all i really going to have to do to figure out what going on is just loosen up these screws right here and seeing it wiggling around gives it to function and then just basically tighten it up get it nice and straight should not have to add any kind of lubrication to anything all right so if I push this in wiggling this around doesn't allow me the ability for this thing to spit back out so that tells me that there is a restriction more than likely in here it's probably pretty gunky and dirty but that should push back willingly something needs to be adjusted so disassemble all right so by loosening the grub screw right here for this which I'm pretty sure that is not the correct screw for this rod but that allows free motion right there so that tells me the restriction is within this unit right here so here we go all right so one of the issues I'm seeing is that this rod it's got all kinds of gunk and everything on it I think this machine at one point in time was pretty close to the ocean because we got a lot of build up and everything on a lot of the metal parts in this machine but what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna get it all nice and cleaned up as a start and then I'll clean out the other portions of everything but we'll start right here make this thing look a little better alright so to get this looking a lot better took 1200 grit sandpaper to the rod first to get all the heavy buildup off of it and a little bit of Rouge and my polishing wheel right there and god this thing wasn't want to focus and it looks a lot better than it did so let's put it back in the game and see what we got all right after getting everything all cleaned up we have a fully free flowing rod well we'll see when I go when it's resting down okay when I had to pull it up and adjust that so it's not a hundred percent just yet all right work to go there we go just need to make sure that this is pushed all the way and flush against the plastic sleeve if i can get an angle on it right there if there's any kind of gap between this and the plastic right there then you're going to get play for error so make sure that's completely flush up against it it ain't going nowhere now good to go so i think the bottom side of the plate field is working now i believe so i had to adjust this switch outward so that way whenever the ball goes down this switch kept on trying to fly up on top of the yellow plunger portion right here so i moved that bent it over so that way it went down whenever the ball lands on there it's going to hit that switch no matter what so that should fix that problem for those that are curious this method works for data east if the hardware is just like this you've got these that should keep this play field from moving forward and back so it works the same way and you have complete access to the entire top side of your game all nice and secure with the slope so you still can play test it all right so i just got finished playing the game everything looks to be working this diverger is working the way it's supposed to so that's always a plus buck is working just fine everything looks to be doing good so now it's on to getting this all built correctly and stuff. I think this is all kinds of whacked up. So we're going to start disassembling and getting things all cleaned up and see what all is broken. I know we got some broken parts. I just hope it's nothing too major. But I think there is, because I know I saw some plastic parts down here. We'll see.