Coelco battery compartment spring repair

ShadowFlame76

Hi, i got my Ms. Pac-Man game today and it does work as long as i put some sticky tac on the inside of the battery cover to hold the batteries down, i noticed that the reason this needs to be done is because one of the springs is missing half of itself.. so it doesn't make a snug fit, anyways how could this be fixed (if i decide to in the future) can i just break that spring off and solder any spring to the metal part?

you may recall that i needed a battery cover for Ms. Pac-man.. funny thing was when i went to test it, i grabbed my Pac-man game to use its battery cover.. and when i looked at it, it was really for Ms. Pac-man.. so i need a battery cover for a Coleco Pac-man game, but i will use any of them from any Coleco tabletop game.. if i can ever find one.

Rik · Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 8:29 pm Post subject:

You can't really solder to the chrome plated steel the battery contacts are made out of... You could probably get away with just squeezing a new spring between the battery and the metal plate, but it would fall out every time you remove the batteries. If you notice, they are hold on with rivets of some type, that's what you have to reproduce. Sometimes you can 'undo' the rivet and then 'redo' it on a new spring... It's usually a little looser than it was originally, but it works.

You can get new springs out of anything, or buy a battery holder from Radio Shack or someplace and just rip it apart. That's usually what I do if I want to fix a rare game.

A better option for you might be to try and buy/find a completely trashed Pac-Man, but that has good springs and just swap them. The catch is you have to open the game which requires peeling back the control panel sticker a little at the two upper corners. I have a bunch of Coleco shells somewhere, if any of them have good springs, I can send you one if you want it...

In the mean time, try pinching a nickel or two in between the broken spring and the battery... That helps too. Cool

Rik

ShadowFlame76 · Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 9:00 pm Post subject:

ooh thanks for the information, i see what you mean about the way they are attached to the battery contact plate..

what i did is i stretched out the spring that is broken so it's not as coiled and it makes it a bit tighter with the batteries in, but not enough that they don't move just a bit to lose contact..

if i get a regular metal spring that is longer than the broken one, and pretty much jam it inside of the broken spring so the broken spring is its "shell" and the broken spring is still making the connection with the battery contact.. i wonder if that would work..?

ShadowFlame76 · Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 9:20 pm Post subject:

Fixed..

i just got some aluminum foil and put it inside the broken spring and some inside the non broken spring, now the batteries are very snug and it doesn't even need a battery cover to hold them in now lol

course i still need a coleco battery cover for Pac-Man.. any chance you may have a spare one Rik (from any coleco tabletop) that you wouldn't mind parting with? for a price of course Smile