Buying A Center With 82-30's

[FlaProprietor]

I am currently looking at a center that has 82-30's that are about 40 years old. My center now has Brunswick A-2's, so I am completely unfamiliar with AMF. I have some questions/concerns:

1. How is the parts availability for these machines?

2. How reliable are these machines when properly maintained and will they last at least 7 more years?

3. Visiting the center, I have noticed the machines make a click sound when idle. Can this be reduced or eliminated?

Thank you for your help.

[8270king]

Re: Buying A Center With 82-30's

82/30 will be around 40 more years.

Parts are available - some probably are obsolete - but can be bought used/rebuilt.

The clicking I believe are the toggle assembly in the pinwheel and can be eliminated with the magnetic clutch and some electrical mods.

Used parts are available - Hilltop Bowling 937.882.6605

merry x-mas
king

[GPS]

Re: Buying A Center With 82-30's

I worked on 30's for several years. Although they are not my cup of tea they will las forever if properly maintained. I would only have two areas of concern. How many lanes? !@ or 16 etc no problem but 48 - 50 lanes of those critters to keep running could be a problem. Number two, is the present mech qualified. If not you probably have 82/30's in poor condition AND you now have to go out and hire someone that is qualified. Most good 30 mechanics are either working on 70's somewhere or are making a ton of money because their present employer doesn't want to loose them or they are retired. I have a buddy that loves working on 30's, me, there isn't enough money in this world to go back on them. Don't want to sound negative, just trying to be factual. By the way what part of Florida are you in. Woke up today in Detroit to 1 degree BELOW 0. (Iwas hoping I had a canadian station on and he was talking centigrade) Good luck in what ever you decide.

Mike

[Ed Fox]

Re: Buying A Center With 82-30's

FlaProprietor, what ball lifts do they have? Vertical or 70 converted? This will be the biggest area w/problems if they still run with the vertical lifts! Your best bet is to have a Tech. check the machines out! If they have been let go it can cost a ton of money and labor to repair them! As far as how good can they run, they can run great with the right mech., problem is finding one, GPS is right on target, the good ones are going to cost you, there arnt to many of us out there!On the parts issue, the parts will allways be available,some discontinued, you best bet is to find a center thats closing and purchase the pinsetters and tear them out your self! I pay about $350.00-$400.00 a pair w/70 lifts. You will save a ton of money! There are some really good upgrades that are fairly cheap that will give them a new life, pin counters, chassis,upgrades with the scoreing, pin wheels, etc. IM not possitive, but I beleive Kegel has a few 30 mech. working for them, maybe they could recomend a service tech. to you to check the mach. out!
Good luck Ed

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[Guest]

Re: Buying A Center With 82-30's

I had 60 lanes of 82/30's with upright ball returns in my center. It took a massive amount of work to maintain them. We never had too hard of a time finding parts. There are lots of used parts still out there.
We slowly swapped out our 30's with 70's as the local military bases got new machines and we purchased their old ones. We now have all 70's. I knew 70's well too, so getting those 70's was like a gift from the Gods.
We installed all the machines ourselves.
If you keep your 30's, get a good tech and treat them well. Its hard to find 30 mechanics anymore.
I feel lucky to have many years of experience on the 30's but the 70's are much easier to maintain. Especially with 60 of them.
Good Luck

[Guest]

Re: Buying A Center With 82-30's

82-30's properly maintained are probably the cheapest to maintain machines out there.
I was at a house that had both Bruns. and AMF. If we spent 1000$ a year on AMF parts that was alot. And probably half of that was in two pit carpets.

[This message has been edited by The Ranger (edited 12-24-2000).]

[Lampie]

Re: Buying A Center With 82-30's

I think ranger is right about having 82-30 machines without spending a lot of money is an option. I've been working about 15 years on 82-30 and found out you realy need one real good mechanic, a lot of grease, and a lot of improvisation to have a good running machine working like a diesel for you. If you still can get the gearbox(in Europe it's no porblem any more because a lot of centers with 82-30 machines closed or changed to 82-70(I don't understand the last option-must be a lot of money involved).
So don't worry about 82-30, Rolls Roys is still driving too...

lampie

[weldon]

Re: Buying A Center With 82-30's

I worked on 30's for a number of years. I work in a 70 house near you. If you like I
can drop by your place and discuss 30's.
email me and I will give you my phone numbers,pager,ect.

[Universal Revolutions]

Re: Buying A Center With 82-30's

F.P.

As pointed out by others in this thread, the number of machines might be a determining factor in your decision. If it's only a dozen or so, that would be manageable single handedly (if your ambitious) with help from a pin chaser or two, assuming you can figure them out. Considerably larger numbers would most likely require greater commitment from your staff.

The click sound as King has pointed out is most likely the pin clamping devises in the elevator wheel. They can be somewhat annoying, but never bothered me. The assemble includes some rubber bumpers which cushion some of the noise, if the rubbers are hammered the noise will be elevated as will the life of the assembly be reduced. Piece of cake to put new rubbers in.

If you do elect to invest in the 30's house, I for one, with the use of this wonderful web site, will offer assistance whenever possible, with the exception of the wiring, not my strong point.

Speaking of wiring. 30's is what I now best, A-2's not much. But for comparison reasons I'm wondering, which is simpler/easier in the area of wiring. I'm just guessing but isn't the A-2's electrical system more simple? Anybody….?

Good luck

GPS…… Your in the motor city! Cool…. I have been considering visiting your city to see some of the automotive related attractions. Do you think it would be worth the trip? Would you know where the best points of interest would be if I got serious? Maybe I would bring my bowling balls and come visit you. I don't have a sponge with studded snow treads, and hate it if the thing won't hook. Or should I stay home and give up the entire idea? lol

[KL Kevin]

Re: Buying A Center With 82-30's

Bulldog:

As far as the A-2 end of things goes, contents of electrical system listed below:

8 switches (4 control circuit, 2 jam protection, 1 cycle start, mechanic's cycle)
1 transformer
1 rectifier
2 relays (motor start and reset button)
1 time delay module (on the later ones)
1 contactor
1 cycle solenoid.

Interconnection stuff: 2 terminal strips, 1 10 terminal, one about 8 terminal

Mine are cable trigger, I lose the cycle start switch, time delay module, and cycle solenoid.

Electrical component failures in the last 5 years ... 2 motor start relays, 1 transformer (40 years later, none of them owed me anything)

It would be like "junkyard wars" for you guys to even run the table or sweep (not both) with the guts of my electrical system

Kevin

[Guest]

Re: Buying A Center With 82-30's

IMHO, The brunswick electrical system is much easier for a hack and slash mechanic to totally screw-up and have the machine work.
Here is what I found in a box at my last place.
1) 1 selinium rectifier (Dead and disconnected)
2) 2 silicon rectifiers (1 D+D, 1 connected)
3) 3 cannon plugs bypassed by hard wiring
4) 1 cannon plug missing, bypassed with hard wiring
5) Old style relays, motor start and cycle, Both D+D
6) 2 solid state relays to replace above relays, Both loose, not mounted in box
7) Between 35 and 40 wirenuts of various colors
8) assorted jumper wires to bypass various jam switches that didn't work
9) Fuses, they didn't need no stinkin' fuses. Both missing, LV fuse holder gone.
10) Cover. nicely sanded, painted and sitting on the shelf.

I don't think it would be possible to totally FUBAR an AMF electrical box to this extent. I worked on the 4400 model of the 82-30's. the only thing to ever give us problems besides the stepper was the RSC circut. Everything else is built to last, and was very modular and easy to replace.

[This message has been edited by The Ranger (edited 01-03-2001).]

[A(8)2-30 Techy Boy]

Re: Buying A Center With 82-30's

amf 82-30 are cheap to maintain. You should replace your toggle assy with magnetic clutches. It saves wear and tear on your pin wheels. i.e. pin wheel not constantly running. in my 30's center in austalia, when we started on these, they were the worse machines in the country. now, they are running better than most 82-70 machines. 1000+ f.p.s not a problem. Basicly everything is very simple to rectify. But make sure you have plenty of chassis. Its hard to find someone who can repair them these days. If you want a good 82-30's tech im available, just an idea..... any machines that are still running after 40 years cant be that bad!! ours are 45 years old.

wiring on these machines will never be a problem if you have the right tech.

[cobow]

Re: Buying A Center With 82-30's

jason
what do you find hard to repair on the chassi
cobow

[kryley]

Re: Buying A Center With 82-30's

Jason:

Which centre do you work in in Australia? I work at an 82-70 centre in Toowoomba, Australia.

Have fun!!