I'll poke my nose in just to clarify a few things. I have been asked for many years and by many different people to investigate the possibility of re-making power transformers for older pinball machines as they were getting harder to find. Being in Taiwan, and already dealing with a very established and competent transformer winding factory, I figured I would ask the questions and see if we could put a package together. There are always many things to consider with any aftermarket part and these transformers are no exception. Reality told me that it was unlikely anyone else would step up to the plate and make these. It required a massive amount of time and money to bring these parts to market so I hope they help save some machines from the tip!
The Bally transformers are supplied bolted to a new stainless steel mounting plate and pre-wired to a new, heavy duty rectifier board. They are also factory wired to the destination country - in this case 240V.
The reason for the complete package is that modern transformer lamination's differ in size from ones made 50 years ago! The new transformer is very slightly larger in one directioon (a good thing!) BUT that meant it wouldn't bolt directly to the original Bally plate so we made a new one in stainless steel. The finished assembly bolts directly into any Bally machine with no modifications needed to the machine.
ALSO, and more importantly, the original Bally transformer would never pass any modern electrical laws as the original TX mixed some secondary windings with primary windings on the same side of the transformer - this is an immediate FAIL if you want to meet modern electrical standards. This meant we had to place the wiring lugs in physically different places for the transformers to comply. This then meant that an end user could become rather confused if they tried to wire the new TX as the terminal placement differs from all Bally documentation.
This transformer, and the WMS one described below, are fully compliant with Australian electrical design regulations and that means they also exceed UK/EU (CE) requirements. I will add that they are 100% constructed from materials made in Taiwan, Malaysia & Japan. There are NO Chinese parts at all in these transformers. (for those interested the breakdown is enameled copper wire from Malaysia, Iron lamination's from NEC Japan, nylon bobbin from DuPont, Taiwan and insulated hookup wire, connectors and other insulating materials also from Taiwan.) The packing box is also custom made here in Taiwan!
All connections and wiring pinouts are detailed in the booklet that comes with each TX in the box and downloadable here: (note - this PDF is paginated for the printers because it's A5 - please observe the page numbers, they are NOT in order in the PDF)
WMS transformers have been scarce for many years now. The main issue with these is that there are two types. The main difference between them is the secondary winding for the audio is center tapped 12-0-12V OR 18-0-18V and they are NOT swap-able between all machines or damage to the audio section will likely be the outcome.
We solved this problem by having additional windings added to our transformer and we wire a "voltage change socket" into the TX harness so the end user can select between 12 or 18V simply by plugging in the appropriate link plug (both are supplied with every TX). Again, this is all explained in the booklet which can be downloaded here:
The second problem was lamination sizes again (same issue as the Bally TX). Our replacement transformers are slightly larger than the original in one direction (again, a GOOD thing!). BUT this means the 4 x mounting holes don't all line up with the original cabinet mounting holes and two new holes need to be drilled in the base of the cabinet. I personally don't see this as a major problem but it was mentioned to me by one of our agents that end users wouldn't like having to drill new holes in their machines and so that agent decided to make adapter mounting plates for these transformers. Homepin does NOT make these adapter plates and likely will never make them. I drilled two extra holes in the base of my Getaway and, once the TX is bolted down, the two old (unused) holes are UNDER the TX and therefore NOT VISIBLE.
I hope the above answers a few questions but ask away if I haven't mentioned something.
