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Re: LW3 home, pictures attached diagnostic underway

Posted: Mon May 13, 2019 8:51 pm
by ralphwiggum
If you end up tackling the board repair yourself and need components, just hit me up. I should have at least 1 of everything populated on that board. I dont think I am that far away from you either- I work in Whitewater.

Normally I would offer to fix this for you, but time is at a premium right now.

Re: LW3 home, pictures attached diagnostic underway

Posted: Tue May 14, 2019 8:48 pm
by max242
Looking for some direction

1) I purchased a .062 4 pin connector setup to replace the transformer 4 wire molex plug wiring for the power supply (see pic). It was replaced with butt connectors. Looks like I made a mistake and purchased a way too small connector. Is the correct Data East connector the .093 size or? I Would like to avoid the bubba look of wire nuts.

2) My game does not have the blue light on top. The wiring is there but it has black blank off card screwed over the hole as if it was that was original. Any thoughts? Were some games shipped without blue light? I may want to find one to install. Thanks Max

Re: LW3 home, pictures attached diagnostic underway

Posted: Tue May 14, 2019 9:10 pm
by ralphwiggum
1) If you are talking about the yellow wires, personally, I would solder them together, and then heat shrink them. I dont have schematics on me, but the only reason I would make another connector, would be just in case it was directly attached to the playfield, and it prevented you from removing the playfield if needed.

2) all of them came with the blue beacon. I have seen a ton of them with busted beacons. Look at the schematics and see what voltages are driving it. I would find a suitable LED beacon to replace it.

Re: LW3 home, pictures attached diagnostic underway

Posted: Wed May 15, 2019 8:22 am
by max242
Thanks Ralph - Soldering and heat shrink was on my list of options. I'll start snooping around for a light.

Re: LW3 home, pictures attached diagnostic underway

Posted: Thu May 16, 2019 7:37 pm
by max242
New Power Supply board and Display Molex connector arrived and are installed. It worked!!! :D. Had to play a few games even being dirty. Then I disassembled the start play switch as it was sticking. A good cleaning with Novus 1 and it pops in and out perfect now. The Freeway for Millions extra ball assembly switch was loose and both wires are broke off. Just need to solder those. Something I found interesting with it though. The is no trim piece or cover for the switch. The tall gray post looks like it should have something. I looked on Google images and did not find anything conclusive. I'm guessing I have a missing plastic or trim. Can anyone provide a closeup of their game switch and or trim? Special thanks to Ralph and the forum for help so far. - Thanks Max

Re: LW3 home, pictures attached diagnostic underway

Posted: Thu May 16, 2019 7:52 pm
by ralphwiggum
Awesome... Congrats!

On a lot of games (like this one for instance) they will add a plastic post after play testing, as that area was known to have a ball get stuck there during the testing. Instead of delaying a release, they would just address this with a post. There are quite a few games out there with random posts like this.

Here is a good pic of that area for comparison-
https://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=1433 ... 685&zoom=1

Re: LW3 home, pictures attached diagnostic underway

Posted: Thu May 16, 2019 8:26 pm
by max242
Thanks for the pic. Funny how the wires are just exposed. Tis what it tis. On to the cleaning and rubber replacement.

Re: LW3 home, pictures attached diagnostic underway

Posted: Fri May 17, 2019 8:16 pm
by max242
I have been reading on cleaning playing field. What type of surface/paint does this game's playing field have? Reading that Naptha, Novus 1 or a Simple Green is recommended depending. Also waxing - boy can a guy spend time on reading about playing field wax. For this game type of wax? Thanks - Max

Re: LW3 home, pictures attached diagnostic underway

Posted: Fri May 17, 2019 9:07 pm
by ralphwiggum
It has a clearcoated playfield. It will hold up to anything you throw at it. I am huge fan of Scrubbing Bubbles for all parts of this machine, including the playfield. Just be careful with the plastics if you use SB.

I hit it with SB, then Novus 2, and then wax with a hard Carnauba, not wax paste.

Re: LW3 home, pictures attached diagnostic underway

Posted: Wed May 29, 2019 8:04 pm
by max242
Ralph, starting on the cleaning. It is going to take a bit to complete with the weather changing, some outside projects are taking priority. I'll reply with pictures when I get closer. Thanks again - Max

Re: LW3 home, pictures attached diagnostic underway

Posted: Mon Jun 24, 2019 8:28 pm
by max242
Ralph, I have been reading that some guys are updating software on the on their CPU or display boards. The label on one of the chipsets for the CPU board is "LW3 C5 U 42.00 61692". Display board chipsets say A201 Rom 0 and DISP A201 Rom 1 on the 2 chips. My machine works and I am just starting the cleaning process just wondering if this is something I should plan on doing? Thanks

Re: LW3 home, pictures attached diagnostic underway

Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2019 6:22 pm
by max242
All, Back to working on my LW3. Does anyone have a source for the ramp entrance switch 180-5087-00? including arm? Thank you Max

Re: LW3 home, pictures attached diagnostic underway

Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2019 7:02 pm
by ralphwiggum
https://www.pinballlife.com/data-eastse ... 87-00.html


Terry at Pinball Life has them. He is an awesome guy, buy with confidence.

Re: LW3 home, pictures attached diagnostic underway

Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2019 7:37 pm
by max242
Thank you Ralph :)

Re: LW3 home, pictures attached diagnostic underway

Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2019 1:06 pm
by max242
Well, I completed the repair and cleaning of my LW3. New display board, various connectors, ramp switch, contact and switch cleaning, playing field wax, new rubbers, bulbs, & balls. I may look to repair the original display board, not sure. The best thing is I was not in a hurry. Family is coming for the holidays and they will have fun. We are re-arranging basement to place all 3 machines in row. It will be a good time to clean/wax the others. Is there room for a 4th? I wanted to thank everyone for the help and answers to questions. This is a great site. A special shout out to Ralph :) . Again, thanks everyone.