Star Tech Journal
Issue: 1984-May - Vol 6 Issue 3 - Page 5
srAR*,ECH ~
_ _ M_A_v_1_98_4 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
ON THE SERVICE
TRAIL ...
* THE BAME THAT HAS NEVER WORKED
PROPERLY
BY TODD ERICKSON, PRESIDENT, SUMMIT AMUSEMENT, ST. PAUL, MN
B
efore modern electronics, the pinball
machine had a multitude of electrical
problems with coils and relays. The games
didn't have as much mechanical power as the
modern pinballs of today either. The present
electronic pins have eliminated most of the
electrical problems, (the most serious problem
electronically is generally the replacement of
a solenoid driver transistor or a burnt power
plug) and have increased the playfield power,
much to the dismay of the service tech.
Mechanically speaking, the games are
bordering on being a minor disaster! The
excuse that the games are mechanical so
they can't work reliably is complete nonsense.
The games also lose their action in less time
than it takes to pay for them. To start with, the
flipper assembly has more service calls than
any other part of the game. The end-of-stroke
contact assembly is probably the mosttrouble-
some part of the assembly. The contacts
should be made of tungsten. OnlyWico makes
a good replacement end-of-stroke switch (for
Stern and Williams games). The tungsten
contact lasts much longer.
The conventional method of breaking
them has been done for years. Misadjusting
them is easy if the technician/mechanic holds
the flipper all the way up to adjust the con-
tacts. (This can be done if there is no play in
the linkage.) After much play, the crank arm
goes further up than it should, naturally,
resulting in the contacts not opening. A better
way would be to have a double lobe cam
between each blade to break them. Each
bladewould movepossiblya30/1000". There
would never be metal fatigue in the blades.
Absolutely no adjustment needed.
Coil stops are the next accidents waiting
to happen. Number 8 screws have never
worked with a hot flipper assembly. Many coil
stops are made as narrow as possible to save
a little money. They should all be wide with
three #1 O screws. The most reliable coil stop
was on the old Williams flipper assembly. The
only problem was that if it broke, it meant
replacing the whole bracket.
The plunger is another critical item. It
should have a micro finish or be polished. I
have purchased some that I could file my
fingernails with! A rough plunger in a plastic
sleeve doesn't make a lot of sense. On Bally
games, notice the front of the plunger that
goes through the front brackets. The lathe
marks are still on the plunger! Return springs
must never be allowed to make contact with
the plunger. At least one manufacturer has
yet to upgrade the plastic flipper to molded
nylon. The smaller playfields, like Baily's Baby
Pac-Man, and the tops of double-decker pins
VALUE-PACKED
COfflPOnEnTS.
In just a few years NTE replacement
semiconductors have become the
electronic games industry standard for
quality and value!
And to back up that claim of quality,
we back NTE replacement parts with an
exclusive two-year warranty.
So, next time you need a quality
semiconductor, look for the big green
and white NTE!
QUALITY REPLACEMENT SEMICONDUCTORS
FOR THE ELECTRONIC GAMES INDUSTRY,
INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING
MANUFACTURERS:
• ATARI
• GREMLIN
• BALLY
• MIDWAY
• CINEMATRONICS • STERN
• EXIDY
• WILLIAMS
• GOTTLIEB
Available from your local NTE distributor
should have a weaker flipper coil so the
playfield assembly doesn't get a lot of excess
damage from the ball. Weakerflipper coils are
available for both Stern and Williams games.
Balls lost on the playfield are an instant
service call. The game could be set up so
there are one or two extra balls that are not
used. If a ball gets under a rubber, the game
can be turned off and on and then will be back
in service again. How neat and easy!
Bulbs burning out are another minor
problem. A 10% over voltage will cut the bulb's
life in half! With the price of bulbs and the
labor to install them, it has become a serious
problem. If you have a machine that burns out
a lot of bulbs, check the voltage. The backglass
will tell you who to call next. A correctlywound
transformer will eliminate the problem. Shop-
ping of pin games generally takes the better
part of a full day. One thing that would help
would be to silkscreen the rubber sizes under
the playfield plastic. It is too easy for a novice
to install the wrong size rubber. Too often the
technician/mechanic will take a rubber off,
then go through the bag of rubbers for the
correct size. This wastes a lot of time. Playfield
posts come out of the playfield often when
trying to remove the playfield plastics. It's one
little problem after another.
Cleaning the pinballs becomes a frequent
maintenance item. It is my feeling that most of
the dirt comes into the game via the playfield
glass channel. A dirt deflector would help in
this area.
Cash flow will not put an end to the oper-
ator's problem today. Profit is what is needed.
Money down the drain for worthless service
helps no one except payroll, the oil company,
and the auto industry. Enough said for now.
Here are the phone numbers for help:
Bally: 800/323-3555
Williams: 800/572-1324 (IL)
800/621-1253 (outside IL)
Mylstar. 800/942-1620 (IL)
800/323-9121 (outside IL)
NEW-TONE ELECTRONICS, INC.
DEPT. STJ
44 Farrand St. •Bloomfield, NJ 07003
(Formerly TCG)
•
ft'
(\\\0~ ~:t\\
l\.\\ee,a\ed ~roe(\••·
~o\t\09.
c.e
se<"~ Get your
equipment back
in operation
quickly and keep
it going with
MOTION FLUID 60
Equipment downtime costs your customers
money in lost sales . We've been servicing the
hotel/ motel and coin-operated laundry indus-
tries for 25 years . Motion Fluid 60 is
recommended by servicemen for Whirlpool ,
Maytag, and Speed Queen . It lubricates, cleans.
protects. and displaces moisture. Motion Fluid
60 will even help remove chewing gum . It is the
best product available for the mechanical
portions of equipment. Motion Fluid 60 forms a
dry protective film which will never build up or
gum up. It is non-conductive and contains the
environmentally safe CO 2 as the aerosol
propellent.
5 oz. net wt. - $17.40 case
12 oz. net wt. - $24.60 case
(F .O.B. Doylestown, PA)
Jobber and Distributor inquiries are invited .
TDP Industries, Inc. • 603 Airport Blvd.
Doylestown, PA 18901
215/345-8687
_ _ M_A_v_1_98_4 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
ON THE SERVICE
TRAIL ...
* THE BAME THAT HAS NEVER WORKED
PROPERLY
BY TODD ERICKSON, PRESIDENT, SUMMIT AMUSEMENT, ST. PAUL, MN
B
efore modern electronics, the pinball
machine had a multitude of electrical
problems with coils and relays. The games
didn't have as much mechanical power as the
modern pinballs of today either. The present
electronic pins have eliminated most of the
electrical problems, (the most serious problem
electronically is generally the replacement of
a solenoid driver transistor or a burnt power
plug) and have increased the playfield power,
much to the dismay of the service tech.
Mechanically speaking, the games are
bordering on being a minor disaster! The
excuse that the games are mechanical so
they can't work reliably is complete nonsense.
The games also lose their action in less time
than it takes to pay for them. To start with, the
flipper assembly has more service calls than
any other part of the game. The end-of-stroke
contact assembly is probably the mosttrouble-
some part of the assembly. The contacts
should be made of tungsten. OnlyWico makes
a good replacement end-of-stroke switch (for
Stern and Williams games). The tungsten
contact lasts much longer.
The conventional method of breaking
them has been done for years. Misadjusting
them is easy if the technician/mechanic holds
the flipper all the way up to adjust the con-
tacts. (This can be done if there is no play in
the linkage.) After much play, the crank arm
goes further up than it should, naturally,
resulting in the contacts not opening. A better
way would be to have a double lobe cam
between each blade to break them. Each
bladewould movepossiblya30/1000". There
would never be metal fatigue in the blades.
Absolutely no adjustment needed.
Coil stops are the next accidents waiting
to happen. Number 8 screws have never
worked with a hot flipper assembly. Many coil
stops are made as narrow as possible to save
a little money. They should all be wide with
three #1 O screws. The most reliable coil stop
was on the old Williams flipper assembly. The
only problem was that if it broke, it meant
replacing the whole bracket.
The plunger is another critical item. It
should have a micro finish or be polished. I
have purchased some that I could file my
fingernails with! A rough plunger in a plastic
sleeve doesn't make a lot of sense. On Bally
games, notice the front of the plunger that
goes through the front brackets. The lathe
marks are still on the plunger! Return springs
must never be allowed to make contact with
the plunger. At least one manufacturer has
yet to upgrade the plastic flipper to molded
nylon. The smaller playfields, like Baily's Baby
Pac-Man, and the tops of double-decker pins
VALUE-PACKED
COfflPOnEnTS.
In just a few years NTE replacement
semiconductors have become the
electronic games industry standard for
quality and value!
And to back up that claim of quality,
we back NTE replacement parts with an
exclusive two-year warranty.
So, next time you need a quality
semiconductor, look for the big green
and white NTE!
QUALITY REPLACEMENT SEMICONDUCTORS
FOR THE ELECTRONIC GAMES INDUSTRY,
INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING
MANUFACTURERS:
• ATARI
• GREMLIN
• BALLY
• MIDWAY
• CINEMATRONICS • STERN
• EXIDY
• WILLIAMS
• GOTTLIEB
Available from your local NTE distributor
should have a weaker flipper coil so the
playfield assembly doesn't get a lot of excess
damage from the ball. Weakerflipper coils are
available for both Stern and Williams games.
Balls lost on the playfield are an instant
service call. The game could be set up so
there are one or two extra balls that are not
used. If a ball gets under a rubber, the game
can be turned off and on and then will be back
in service again. How neat and easy!
Bulbs burning out are another minor
problem. A 10% over voltage will cut the bulb's
life in half! With the price of bulbs and the
labor to install them, it has become a serious
problem. If you have a machine that burns out
a lot of bulbs, check the voltage. The backglass
will tell you who to call next. A correctlywound
transformer will eliminate the problem. Shop-
ping of pin games generally takes the better
part of a full day. One thing that would help
would be to silkscreen the rubber sizes under
the playfield plastic. It is too easy for a novice
to install the wrong size rubber. Too often the
technician/mechanic will take a rubber off,
then go through the bag of rubbers for the
correct size. This wastes a lot of time. Playfield
posts come out of the playfield often when
trying to remove the playfield plastics. It's one
little problem after another.
Cleaning the pinballs becomes a frequent
maintenance item. It is my feeling that most of
the dirt comes into the game via the playfield
glass channel. A dirt deflector would help in
this area.
Cash flow will not put an end to the oper-
ator's problem today. Profit is what is needed.
Money down the drain for worthless service
helps no one except payroll, the oil company,
and the auto industry. Enough said for now.
Here are the phone numbers for help:
Bally: 800/323-3555
Williams: 800/572-1324 (IL)
800/621-1253 (outside IL)
Mylstar. 800/942-1620 (IL)
800/323-9121 (outside IL)
NEW-TONE ELECTRONICS, INC.
DEPT. STJ
44 Farrand St. •Bloomfield, NJ 07003
(Formerly TCG)
•
ft'
(\\\0~ ~:t\\
l\.\\ee,a\ed ~roe(\••·
~o\t\09.
c.e
se<"~ Get your
equipment back
in operation
quickly and keep
it going with
MOTION FLUID 60
Equipment downtime costs your customers
money in lost sales . We've been servicing the
hotel/ motel and coin-operated laundry indus-
tries for 25 years . Motion Fluid 60 is
recommended by servicemen for Whirlpool ,
Maytag, and Speed Queen . It lubricates, cleans.
protects. and displaces moisture. Motion Fluid
60 will even help remove chewing gum . It is the
best product available for the mechanical
portions of equipment. Motion Fluid 60 forms a
dry protective film which will never build up or
gum up. It is non-conductive and contains the
environmentally safe CO 2 as the aerosol
propellent.
5 oz. net wt. - $17.40 case
12 oz. net wt. - $24.60 case
(F .O.B. Doylestown, PA)
Jobber and Distributor inquiries are invited .
TDP Industries, Inc. • 603 Airport Blvd.
Doylestown, PA 18901
215/345-8687
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).