Need help with a broken Jr....

[pinball22]

(Sorry to start a second topic, but nobody replied to the one I bumped so I was hoping this would get more attention, since I was hoping to give this Jr. to somebody for Christmas. )

 

I've just picked up a Jr. at a flea market, and the Select and Reset switches don't work... I pulled the mylar thing out of the slot on the board and put it back in, but that didn't help. I saw in another thread where people solved this by putting little switches through the ones that are there, but I'm a little confused about how that works... there are some sort of squishy buttons in there that make a connection to the mylar, I guess? If I put different switches there, won't I need to wire them to that connector on the board somehow? If so, how? Can you get a replacement for the mylar ribbon? And if so, how do you get the plastic apart on the switches to put it in?

[+save2600]

Uglier than sin website - but Brad's a great guy. E-mail him with your quandary. I bet he has original mylar switches for those...

 

http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/

 

Did you try cleaning between the mylar yet with rubbing alcohol or contact cleaner?

[pinball22]

No, I haven't tried cleaning the mylar... I'll try that. I'm not sure I get how I would go about replacing it completely if I had a new one, though -- how do you get the end under the switches out?

[+save2600]

It's been a coons age since I had to repair a Jr., but I remember the last one I did... trick was to slide the mylar out one end. It's all one strip IIRC and do not remember there being any screws either. Re-installing a new one was harder since the buttons themselves get in the way. I think I had to hold the top of the system upside down and let gravity do its thing. Maybe someone else with a more recent recollection can help you out...

[djmips]

It's been a coons age since I had to repair a Jr., but I remember the last one I did... trick was to slide the mylar out one end. It's all one strip IIRC and do not remember there being any screws either. Re-installing a new one was harder since the buttons themselves get in the way. I think I had to hold the top of the system upside down and let gravity do its thing. Maybe someone else with a more recent recollection can help you out...

 

I've just recently repaired a bunch of Jr.'s

One of them didn't respond to any of the usual repairs. I had several working Jr's and I swapped in the motherboard of the one that only had a reset/select problem. This showed me that the problem was on the circuit and not with the switch hardware. I still haven't determined the problem but in the worst case it might be a bad IO chip.

 

That unit is working perfectly otherwise.

 

Regarding the switch install/removeal. There are three pieces sandwiched together. They are all registered with each other with small plastic pegs. When you take it apart you flip them up off the plastic pegs and pull out. Keep in mind the sandwich order. When reassembling; you may put them back in one at a time and hold them on the pegs until the last piece is on.

Edited December 8, 2009 by djmips

[pinball22]

Hmmn, OK, sounds like I may just not have tried hard enough to pull the mylar out from the switches. Anybody happen to have a spare lying around? Best has a like $20 minimum order, right?

[BigO]

I don't have those spare parts laying around, at least not where I just looked. I did find some other Jr. parts (main board, plastic buttons) but I may have tossed the mylar as I didn't see that part. I have a whole spare Junior that I'd sell for less than $20, but that kind of defeats your purpose I think.

Edited December 8, 2009 by BigO

[pinball22]

Regarding the switch install/removeal. There are three pieces sandwiched together. They are all registered with each other with small plastic pegs. When you take it apart you flip them up off the plastic pegs and pull out. Keep in mind the sandwich order. When reassembling; you may put them back in one at a time and hold them on the pegs until the last piece is on.

 

I guess I should be starting from the bottom (the inside of the top of the Jr.)? It wasn't obvious to me that there was a way to get it apart... which part should I be trying to take off?

 

(And yeah, Big0, that would kind of defeat the purpose... but I may find myself interested if I can't get this one fixed.)

Edited December 8, 2009 by pinball22

[pinball22]

Hey, wanted to bump this in hopes of getting more clarification... it's still not clear to me how to get the plastic apart on the inside of the top under the switches... am I missing something obvious?