What i thought would be less than an hour’s work to adjust the flipper bats and start playing the game became a few hours of work.
First, after adjusting the flippers and starting to tighten the bats in place, i realized that on two of the flipper mechs i accidentally got the bushings wrong, putting the bottom bushing on top (creating the gab you can see in the bottom right photo). So i had to take the mechs off the playfield and flip the bushings for these two, then redo the bat adjustment and installation. They are adjusted perfectly now so that’s great.
I plugged everything in and turned the machine on. Lights, chimes and the attract light show started. I pushed the start button and NOTHING. I checked to ensure that all the connectors were connected to eachother and to the boards. I tested all the fuses. I checked a bunch of connections. Finally, I realized that i had missed one connection to the MPU. Dum dum move. Yay! It works.
Then a bunch of switches weren’t working or firing off right away. I had to adjust almost all of the drop target leaf switches and a couple of the star rollover switches. Got that fixed pretty quickly.
The ball got stuck on a little rollover lane in one of the first games. I adjusted the metal guide and the lane plastic and i think it’ll be good now.
Then the ball advance mechanism that kicks the ball from the outhole to the shooter lane stopped doing its job. I realized that there was a little friction and readjusted the plastic piece inside the hole so that it wasn’t rubbing anymore, and that MOSTLY fixed the problem. I think i’m going to have to start over with a fresh install of this mechanism so that it works in the long run.
FUN PIN! Here are some early thoughts:
Pops and drops
The pop bumpers are popping great and it makes the game a lot more fun. In a few short games i noticed fewer center drains because the pops get the ball moving randomly better now. The drop target rebuild is awesome—drops are dropping every time they are hit, not sticking anymore. LOVE IT. I think i’m going to do the same rebuild to Surf Champ ASAP for drops and pops because it really makes an enormous difference.
Rings and rubbers
I put the Titan Competition Silicone rings on everything and they look great, but i think i’m going to switch the flipper rubbers back to standard red rubber because the Titan ones don’t seem to have quite as much bounce. I have the Titans on Shadow but haven’t noticed the same thing but that game plays a lot differently anyway.
Spinner
The spinner ink is gone, so it’s boring white. I was considering painting it, but ultimately i think i’ll do a sticker. I’m going to redesign it though, because it seems a bit dumb to have a fencing sword on the spinner when all the playfield, cabinet, and backglass art shows a different sword design. I’ve got to order a whole sheet so i’m going to experiment with a few to see what looks best.
Lastly, i really need to adjust the playfield angle.
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