Repairs to Hootin' Hollow House by Marx

[Frankenmarx]

I posted a photo of the house yesterday, but now I'm looking for anyone who has any experience at opening one of these complicated tin houses and fixing them.  The one I bought works, mostly, but the sounds do not work, and one or two other issues.  If anyone has any expertise, I'd like to discuss your experiences.

[Monster Bob]

Send it to a pro. That is known as an extremely difficult toy to work on and fix.

[Frankenmarx]

I do my own work on everything from classic cars to Coke machines and electro-mechanical pinball/baseball machines and jukeboxes from the 40s and 50s.  I'll fix it.  You know the old maxim:  Cheap-ness is the mother of invention.

[Monster Bob]

So do I, and I haved fixed some tough battery ops (a mangled "Feeding Bird Watcher" and several tough robots come to mind), but the Haunted House (unless I got it really cheap) I myself would pass on. Just too complicated.

[Frankenmarx]

I got it cheaper than any I've seen sell in the last few months, but it only has a couple of non-working elements.  I'll figure it out.

[John Pertwee]

If only a few things are broken, I would be worried that opening it up would cause even more things to break. Good luck with it.

[Frankenmarx]

That's a reasonable concern with an item with this many moving parts.  Thanks.  I'm going to try using a hammer and large screwdriver....maybe a torch.

[fmofmpls]

That's a reasonable concern with an item with this many moving parts.  Thanks.  I'm going to try using a hammer and large screwdriver....maybe a torch.

Lol! Love it.


Sent from my iPad Mini using Tapatalk.

[Frankenmarx]

Update....
I got this today after work and started in on it.  I took a lot of photos, since I couldn't find a single photo of the insides of one of these things, and I wanted something to reference when it was time to put humpty back together.  It is an amazing little toy that was cheap and meant to last about a year, I think.  In fact, I would guess many of them never worked exactly as they were meant to.  Everything runs from one motor, and it gets a workout.  It was an ingenious design.  I'll post some photos later if anyone cares to see them, but it's back together now and operating as it should, but with the primitive and low quality gears, cams, clutches, etc inside, some functions work well at times and not so well at other times.  The root problem with mine was the contacts/brushes on the motor, which is common on small electric motors.  Of course, the thing had to be almost totally disassembled just to access the motor, then it had to be removed, opened, and one of the contacts inside soldered then cleaned and lubed.  Putting it back together was like an awkward, fragile, puzzle.  I see why everyone told me I was stupid to try it, and the guy at Randy's Toy Shop simply said I should NOT try to fix it myself.  I will say, it isn't as daunting as a pinball machine, but it requires patience like repairing a watch (not a clock...that is much easier).  Sadly, now that it's done, I think I will sell it.  After seeing all the moving parts, I don't want to ever have to work on it again, so I'll let someone else enjoy it.  Another learning experience.
Here it is working     http://youtu.be/4WZTa2n51ds

[yendor1152]

You said lube. Heh-heh.

[Frankenmarx]

Shut up, Beavis.

[Kevwolf69]

Just joined this forum because of this thread....I'm considering what to go for, a cheaper unit that needs work or a unit 3 times the price that is reportedly 100% working. For me this a grail piece and I have the skills to repair but would love to see the pics of the internals. Cheers for any info....