Star Tech Journal

STAR*TECH JOURNAL/FE BRUARY 1984
12
TROUBLESH OOTING
WILLIAMS'
GAMES:
SERVICING FLIPPER MECHANISMS
JL
WHAC
A
MOLE
Everyone loves Whac-A-Mole!
Customers love to play, and
you'll love the way it pays.
Call us and let us
tell you more.
Bob's Space
Racers, Inc.
427 1 5th Street
Daytona Beach ,
Florida 32017
Telephone:
904-677-0761
Manufactured in the U.S.A.
Makers of amu sement games since 1970
O.E.M. Replacement
Monitor
13"-$170
19"- $188
Guarantee 90 Days Exchange
FACT: Ifflippers are weak or malfunctioning,
players are not satisfied with the game. Effective
troubleshooting and maintenance procedures
can rid games of this problem. In addition,
certain mechanical improvements made to the
flipper assembly first used in FIREPOWER II
can be incorporated into older games.
When troubleshooting weak flippers, it is
best to use a test procedure to verify what is
failing rather than changing parts to see if it
solves the problem. Test to verify if the cause is
a mechanical bind or a weak electrical circuit
The equipment needed is a voltmeter and a
long length of 20-gauge wire with a spring clip
at one end.
First check for low voltage at the coil
terminal with the banded end of the diode. If
the voltage is less than 32vdc with reference to
ground, trace through the flipper power wiring
for loose connections or bad power supply.
Next, if the voltage is correct, connect the
jumper clip to the center terminal of the coil
and insure the connection is tight. Then with
the playfield down, energize the coil by
momentarily touching the jumper to ground. If
the flipper is still weak, then a mechanical bind
exists which can be caused by a worn or
damaged plunger, plunger link, crank arm,
flipper shaft bushing or coil sleeve. Also check
that the flipper shaft is not bent.
Finally, move the jumper clip to the coil
terminal with the unhanded end of the diode
and touch it to ground. If this does not restore
full power but the second test did, then the end-
of-stroke switch circuit is faulty. First check
the connections between the coil and switch
and if they are good, then closely follow this
adjustment procedure.
File the contact points until the surfaces are
clean. Then adjust the blades toward each
other, making the contacts touch with a fairly
heavy amount of pressure. Next, move the
flipper to its up position and check to see if the
points open 1/32 of an inch. If they open too
far, move both blades outward by adjusting the
inner blade only. If they don't open enough,
adjust only the outer blade inward.
If both the second and third test restored
full power, then the ground applied by the
flipper button switch is at fault. Check the
wiring through the button switch to the relay on
the driver board and inspect the relay and
button switches for misadjustrnent and dirty
contacts.
The new flipper assembly used on
FIREPOWER II has many improvements
that help prevent a weak flipper condition and
breakage. If desired, the sub-assemblies that it
uses can be directly installed in previous games
back to Firepower.
Here is a list of those parts:
Plunger and Crankarm - B - 9937-1..(R)
Coil Mounting Bracket - 01-7695
Plunger Return Spring- 10-376
EOS Switch - 03-7811
Lane Change Switch- SW-IA-150
Flipper Shaft Bushing - 03-7568
If there are any questions about flipper
troubleshooting or these new parts, please call
Williams' Customer Service Department -
800/621-1253. In Illinois 800/572-1324.
Reprinted courtesy of Williams "Logic Supply"
ATARI
STAR WARS MODS:
* HANDLE ASSEMBLY WORKING LOOSE
* COIN DOOR- FREE CREDITS
* ADDING A MONITOR FAN
By Sam Cross, Godwin Distributing, N. Little Rock, AR
ATARI STAR WARS HANDLE ASSEMBLY
Problem: Handle assembly works loose because
of extensive game play. This is because many
of the screws are placed under a lateral force
which has the effect of working the screws out.
Superior
Brightness,
Clarity, Sharpness.
For Info. Call: (213) 768-7144
•D spectra
Cl
VIS/On
=
Sun Valley, California
Solution: Obtain a bottle or tube of thread
locking liquid such as Loc-Tite. Remove the
screws from the left and right handles and coat
the threads with this compound Also, coat the
well in which the head of the screw lies.
Reassemble the screws into the handle assembly
tightly. The small screws are hex-headed with
a pin in the center of them. These can be
modified to use a conventional hex wrench by
breaking the pin out of the center.
ATARI STAR WARS COIN DOOR NOTICE
At the shop, we have seen two cases where
players were able to get free credits by pressing
the coin return switch. We found the problem
to be located in the wire harness which travels
over the right coin channel guide. The wires
had been bitten into by the sharp edges of this
coin channel because the harness had been
dressed too tightly. Loosening the harness will
keep these wires from being shorted against the
sharp edges.
ATARI STAR WARS/TEMPEST X·Y
MONITOR FAN ADDITION
A fan of closed field design can be added to the
Star Wars cabinet to blow upwards over the
fins of the large black heat sink which draws
heat from the output transistors on the main
X-Y chassis. Doing this will allow the pairs of
X-Y output transistors to keep cooler as opposed
to just letting convection cool them.
This really should be issued as a separate
service notice, but it will be included. Tempest,
as most operators know, was quite prone to
short output transistors and other components
on the monitor chassis. After-factory modifica-
tions (X-Y input protection) seemed to help
some, but we still received here in the shop
many that had even failed after that. Only when
a closed field fan was installed did the failure
Continued on next page.