weak upkicker

Went back to repair the Dirty Harry from hell..
it's a game on location where a lot of kids come, the machine isn't in the best condition, and many kids flipping the flippers all the time... well, kids can break anything. really, anything.

If you don't believe me, take a look at this.. on two popbumpers the whole assembly was broken. On both rings, both screws/nuts had just broken off from the popbumper ring, and the metal and bakelite piece had also broken, parts were in the cabinet..

First problem was a wire broken off from the upkicker coil that brings the pinballs onto the ramp of the gun. All 4 pinballs were stuck in there..

Next problem was a melted flipper coil, replaced it with another, the flippers work fine. Adjusted the eos switches so they close halfway the stroke, but probably the kids will melt this new coil too.. just put kids for a few hours behind a pinball machine and let them flip all the time so the coils don't get time to cool off..

Next problem, a weak upkicker in the back. Disassembled the part and noticed why - part of the plunger that kicks the ball up the ramp had broken off. In the photo you see how little was left when with the plunger was raised, only about half a centimeter that extends the coil and tries to kick the ball in the air. Normally this part is 1,5 to 2 centimeter, so the pinball gets a good kick in the air.

I didn't have a replacement upkicker plunger with me, so this was a bit of a problem.
Tested it, but the pinball really didn't have enough power to get onto the ramp. This was a problem as pinballs get stuck there, or the coil can overheat or a fuse blow because the pinball machine continues to fire the coil over and over again in an attempt to kick out the pinball.

So, being creative was the only solution.. had to get this game playable, at least for a few days, until I could come back with the correct plunger.
Real operators would use wood screws but I don't want to damage a playfield :)
So wire straps were the best thing to use.. I just blocked the entrance so the ball couldn't get stuck.

Played a few games and it seems fine.
I do wonder how long it'll last.. not sure how strong these are because the flippers do kick the pinball quite powerful into them.
They're quite fun actually as the pinball is returned VERY fast, sort of a kicker on the latest Stern machines (like Iron Man) that also catapult the pinball back to the flippers, only this is my lowcost version ;-)

And this is not the only feature that's blocked on this game btw..

Another scoop had been blocked with clear packing tape, as pinballs got stuck there in the past.
Not the best solution, but hey, if it works for them, it works for me. At least that's one place where the pinballs won't get stuck anymore, so kids can continue playing pinball..

Happy new year

Happy new year everyone :-)

Check you have the correct part.

Another thing I learned yesterdat evening (or should've known as it isn't the first time something similar happens to me..)

Always check the replacement parts are absolutely correct before installing them.

I'm restoring a Bally Future Spa. This pinball machine has a row of 4 droptargets behind each other. The first one was broken. So yesterday evening I decided to replace it. Had a droptarget bank from a Stern machine that was parted out.. the parts seemed similar/identical enough. Paid a lot of attention to the bottom part of the droptarget, to make sure the shape where it mounts and where the screw goes through was correct.

Replacing droptarget isn't a task you do in a few minutes.. you have to disassemble half of the metal frame where they mount into. First removed a target to use as replacement part. Made sure I didn't lose the spring or C-clips involved.
Then I disassembled the droptarget bank on the Future Spa. Removed the broken part.
Put in the new part. The drop target was identical at the bottom, but the way the metal rod that holds it and pushes its up again is connected was different, as here the droptargets are behind eachother, and on the original part they were next to each other.

All goes well, about half an hour later I'm ready and want to screw it into the playfield again...
and then I notice it doesn't fit ?!
The new droptarget I used is a bit wider at the top and doesn't fit through the hole in the playfield ! :-(

So there's half an hour of my life wasted.. next task is to do it all over using a droptarget that is a bit smaller..

Grand Champion on Theatre of Magic

Visited someone yesterday evening to pick up some parts.. played a few games on his pinball machines, talked a bit, ..  I haven't played Theatre in a long time and I don't consider myself to be a very good player (just average), so I was amazed myself by how well I played.
I like Theatre of Magic a lot - I love all John Popaduik games. This machine was playing very well, you could loop the centre ramp over and over, the flow in this game was unbelieveable. And that's the type of game I like - no stress, no worrying about the rules and what shot to make next - just letting the pinball roll around the playfield over and over, letting the shots come naturally. In the end I noticed I got quite far, the clock was at 10.. so then I only started to concentrate on adding a few hours.

I think it was only the third time ever that I've reached the wizard mode on Theatre (Grand Finale), and even got it whilst Tiger Multiball was running (have no idea of the game was a bit confused because of this).
Anyway, final score on 5 balls (and got 2 extra which I lost very soon) was over 3.5 bill..

custom bingo machine

New article, at the rock around the jukebox show Henk de Jager presented his latest game, an electro-mechanical bingo machine !