Star Tech Journal

Coil, Coil Who's Got the Coil?
John Coccioletti
Jeannette Vending Co.
Champion, Pennsylvania
For those of you who own Pennant Fever, by
Williams, you must know how hard it is to
find the bat coil (H23-870). This is the en-
lightening saga of how one ambitious
operator kept his game running.
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9
ONCE UPON A TIME
Last summer I had one of these bat coils go
bad, so I ordered several replacements from
my local distributor-from whom I received a
back-order notification in return. I was
lucky, however, to find one in our archives of
old coils that someone had taken out of an
old 1960 World Series game -so I wasn't too
concerned at this time. I figured by the time
the coil wore out, Williams would have
shipped some to their distributors (a reason-
able assumption).
Today it is 8 months later and they still
haven't shipped any, and the coil is worn out
again. So I started a telephone marathon
trying to track them down. I first called my
local Williams distributor. He told me they
had coils on back order and that he could
put me on a list when they came in. I
declined. So I next decided to go to the
manufacturer direct: Williams Electronics.
They put me through to the parts depart-
ment where I was informed that they don't
manufacture parts for games that are over 5
years old and my game qualified for this. I
informed them that printed right on the front
of the Pennant Fever manual was a manu-
factured date of May '84 and to my knowl-
edge, it wasn't May '89 yet!
At that point, I was put on hold. After several
minutes, they returned and told me that
they were waiting for an outside manufac-
turer to build them for Williams and it would
be at least another month. I don't know how
many days they have on their calendar, but
it definitely does not correspond with any
I've seen, since I've been waiting for at least
8 months already. So anyway, parts trans-
ferred me to a service tech who informed me
that the coil couldn't be cross-referenced to
any other coil and told me Wico manufac-
tured this coil for them. I decided to call the
source, (Wico in New Jersey), who informed
me that all special orders come from Wico in
Chicago. So I called Wico in Chicago and
they told me they didn't have it listed but
they would check it out and call me back.
This took place about 5 weeks ago and I am
still waiting for their return call. They must
be doing some thorough checking.
In a last ditch effort, I decided to call a non-
Williams distributor; Banner in Pittsburgh.
I talked to a gentleman in parts whose name
was George and he told me he had one in
stock and could get several more to me in a
short time, (which I have received). I asked
him where he got them and he told me he had
them made special. Here's a man who cares
about his customers and has some ingenu-
ity ( and perseverance) to get a job done. Con-
gratulations George!
I don't know where he had them made, but
I'll bet is wasn't from the source(s). I know
they said this business wasn't going to be
easy, but it's the detective work that's getting
me down. Oh well, this story has a happy
ending ... gotta go, it's my up.
***