Bally Eight Ball Deluxe in Golf MK6

[2huwman]

I've found a nice project Eight Ball Deluxe locally. It's only a couple of miles away so ideally I'd like to pick it up in my car (Golf MK6). I found this thread which suggests a standard pin will fit if the header is detached and slid down (although still wired up):

Will a standard pin fit in the back of a Golf

I'm taking a pin to the Replay show in a few weeks, but have just changed my car to a Mk6 Golf. Has anyone managed to get a normal sized pin in the back of a Mk 6 Golf?

www.pinballinfo.com

So my questions are about whether this would be possible with an Eight Ball Deluxe - i.e. is it fairly standard size, can the header be detached and slid down while still wired up? Or should I just rent a van!

If anyone else has done this or has any insights please let me know. Thanks!

 

[Deleted member 2463]

The head is huge on it so you might get the body in but maybe not the head also.

 

[JT.]

It's very tight in a golf - you'll want multiple people, ideally 3-4 (two through rear doors and 1/2 at the back) so you can lift it as it goes in/out - I managed to damage a standard cab just pulling it out due to the friction on the boot carpet.

 

[kev a]

Keeping the wires attached and sliding the head down seems a bit risky to me, would be tempted to label up the connectors and separate the head completely, as its close by could make another trip back for the head?

 

[Deleted member 2463]

Is this the one with the ugly shaped head? Because you have no chance with that in a golf

 

[Deleted member 2463]

Does it look like this?

 

[2huwman]

Here she is:

 

[2huwman]

And thanks for all the suggestions so far. I'm leaning towards renting a van! It's only £100 so I can stretch to that!

 

[AlanJ]

Just remove the head completely. all the wires plug in - take pics of which goes where - although that’s not even necessary as each plug is keyed to only fit in one place. but pics take no time to do, so may as well.

 

[2huwman]

Just remove the head completely. all the wires plug in - take pics of which goes where - although that’s not even necessary as each plug is keyed to only fit in one place. but pics take no time to do, so may as well.

That sounds good, then I could just make two trips. Had assumed it would be a nightmare totally disconnecting the head, but sounds not too bad.

 

[astyy]

If of any use, I could fit a *similar* era Bally Vector in a *similar* Golf MkV thus

 

[stevebm1]

Another alternative is to take cars if local and put the backbox in one car ,and main cab in the other

 

[2huwman]

Thanks everyone, great information. Removing the head and either one or two trips looks the way to go. Any particular tools needed to remove the head other than a spanner set?

 

[AlanJ]

head has 2 or 4 bolts down into the neck. imperial sized heads

Remove all the connectors that go down into the cabinet (not all do, so leave those connected). you will need a philips screwdriver to loosen the cable clips.

some of the in-line box connectors can be tight after 40 years or so of being connected, but they will come free with gentle wiggling and pulling, but do t pull in the cables, just pull on the connector housings.

Also unscrew the earth braid that comes up from the cab,

With the insert door open, the head will try to tilt forward as you unbolt it, so have someone holding it as you remove the bolts.

Once it’s free, close the insert door and put the glass back in (safest place to transport the glass is in the head).

if the are tilting the cabinet vertical during the move, make sure anything loose in the bottom is removed, and remove the ball.

 

[2huwman]

head has 2 or 4 bolts down into the neck. imperial sized heads

Remove all the connectors that go down into the cabinet (not all do, so leave those connected). you will need a philips screwdriver to loosen the cable clips.

some of the in-line box connectors can be tight after 40 years or so of being connected, but they will come free with gentle wiggling and pulling, but do t pull in the cables, just pull on the connector housings.

Also unscrew the earth braid that comes up from the cab,

With the insert door open, the head will try to tilt forward as you unbolt it, so have someone holding it as you remove the bolts.

Once it’s free, close the insert door and put the glass back in (safest place to transport the glass is in the head).

if the are tilting the cabinet vertical during the move, make sure anything loose in the bottom is removed, and remove the ball.

Thanks very much for the detailed info - I got the head disconnected and home without issue. Had to leave the main body for a few days as there is scaffolding down the side of the seller's house which makes it impossible to get through. A nice surprise is that a KISS playfield is included which looked to be at least mostly populated and in good condition. The seller said he thought it was a conversion kit. I'll go back with some help this week when the scaffolding's down. Thanks again for all the advice. I'll probably be requesting some help in the tech/repair section as there are a few faults that need fixing!

 

[Jay Walker]

Is that your actual purchase in reply No.7 above? Mention of 'conversion' brings to mind the Bell Games copy of Eight Ball Deluxe.

One thing you could get on with is to check (and most likely remove) the battery on the Mpu board, notorious for leaking corrosive stuff onto the circuit board.

 

[PinballDaze]

Is that your actual purchase in reply No.7 above? Mention of 'conversion' brings to mind the Bell Games copy of Eight Ball Deluxe.

One thing you could get on with is to check (and most likely remove) the battery on the Mpu board, notorious for leaking corrosive stuff onto the circuit board.

Pinball Pool?

 

[2huwman]

Is that your actual purchase in reply No.7 above? Mention of 'conversion' brings to mind the Bell Games copy of Eight Ball Deluxe.

One thing you could get on with is to check (and most likely remove) the battery on the Mpu board, notorious for leaking corrosive stuff onto the circuit board.

Thanks, yes that is the actual machine. I've attached a few more pictures I took after removing the head. Fairly dirty but hopefully will come out nicely.

I think the conversion thing was to convert it to KISS from 8bd. It had Bally branding on it so thought it was original. The seller said it had come from a recording studio in London, where it had been in a games room for the various bands.

Luckily the MPU has been replaced with a new repro one so no damage there that I could see.

 

[Jay Walker]

I wouldn't be too sure about that, I don't think Kiss had the hinged back box that this 8BD has. There'd be a serial number stamp for Kiss on the woodwork, too, rather than 8BD.

PS - I should've paid attention, the idea was to fit the Kiss playfield into an 8BD.

 

[2huwman]

I wouldn't be too sure about that, I don't think Kiss had the hinged back box that this 8BD has. There'd be a serial number stamp for Kiss on the woodwork, too, rather than 8BD.

Sorry, I'm probably being dense, but not really following you!

My assumption was that the machine was originally and is 8BD (that's what's painted on the side). The KISS stuff is a separate playfield (not pictured) that I thought came as a kit that could be swapped into the machine too convert it to KISS. Am I way off?

 

[Jay Walker]

I'm confusing you, I think. Bally produced a lot of Kiss machines, 17,000, with even a special German edition, earlier than Eight Ball Deluxe. These didn't have the hinged back box. With so many units produced, I don't see Bally offering a kit to put a Kiss playfield/backglass/back box insert/software into a later cabinet. 8BD was popular enough in its own right to have a re-run, and a Limited Edition, as Neil McRae posted a picture of.

I'm sure this has always been an 8BD, there may still be a label inside giving the serial number (near the cash box). And the number stamped into the cabinet and back box, on the l/h side. And labels on the original circuit boards

8BD's popularity saw it become the subject of a conversion manufacturer, Bell Games, who made such kits (a playfield, backglass, hard/software additions and stick-on graphics), to produce a similar product at a lower price, given a suitable base machine to fit it to. Their copy of 8BD was called Pin Ball Pool. The fact that earlier games the kit was likely to be used on had 6-digit scoring rather than 7 was worked around by adding a back-lit '0' in a frame to the l/h end of each score display, and writing to the 6-digit displays to suit.

 

[2huwman]

I'm confusing you, I think. Bally produced a lot of Kiss machines, 17,000, with even a special German edition, earlier than Eight Ball Deluxe. These didn't have the hinged back box. With so many units produced, I don't see Bally offering a kit to put a Kiss playfield/backglass/back box insert/software into a later cabinet. 8BD was popular enough in its own right to have a re-run, and a Limited Edition, as Neil McRae posted a picture of.

I'm sure this has always been an 8BD, there may still be a label inside giving the serial number (near the cash box). And the number stamped into the cabinet and back box, on the l/h side. And on the original circuit boards

8BD's popularity saw it become the subject of a conversion manufacturer, Bell Games, who made such kits (a playfield, backglass, hard/software additions and stick-on graphics), to produce a similar product at a lower price, given a suitable base machine to fit it to. Their copy of 8BD was called Pin Ball Pool. The fact that earlier games the kit was likely to be used on had 6-digit scoring rather than 7 was worked around by adding a back-lit '0' in a frame to the l/h end of each score display, and writing to the 6-digit displays to suit.

Thanks - that makes sense!

I'm looking forwards to getting to grips with it - there are some nice looking examples on YouTube so hopefully I can get this one to a good condition.