Location: Up Poudre Canyon, west of Fort Collins, Colorado.
Symptoms: Needed to be “shopped” (basic restoration).

This pinball machines gets the award for the worst leaking batteries I’ve ever encountered.

Forgotten batteries causing a lot of damage.  Click for larger.

The corrosion was so bad that the battery holder nearly fell off the board when I started cleaning it up.  The corrosion had eaten through the metal pins that hold the battery holder to the board.  As you can see from the photo above, the corrosion was also affecting the nearby circuitry.

I finished removing the battery holder from the board and flushed the board with white vinegar and scrubbed with a toothbrush.  The vinegar helps to neutralize the alkaline. After letting the board dry out for several hours, it still was able to boot up.  I installed a remotely mounted battery holder on the inside of the backbox, where if the batteries leak in the future, it won’t damage anything.

I “shopped” the rest of the machine, replacing rubbers, cleaning the playfield, and replaced the bad bulbs.  The machine is working great and looking great.  I’ve now worked on more Funhouse pinball machines than any other model, breaking the previous record held by Star Trek: The Next Generation.