Embryon upper ball guide loose

dasvis

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I have an '81 Bally Embryon & I have finally gotten it to 100% working, but have one little issue... the ball guide across from the upper flipper is loose. In my opinion, Bally should not have placed a flimsy guide in this location, as it can receive a full power shot from the upper flipper. The guide is supposed to be just that, a "guide", not a bumper.
Anyone else have this problem & what is the best fix? I am thinking about getting a couple of mini-posts & putting them in, but would rather not modify the game unless I have to.
 
Exactly which guide are you talking about, the one just to the left of the upper 3 drop targets? Do you have a pic?
 
Exactly which guide are you talking about, the one just to the left of the upper 3 drop targets? Do you have a pic?

ballguide004Small.jpg

ballguide002Small.jpg

Yes, that would be the one. I attempted a temporary repair by tapping a small brad in next to it, but that did not hold up. Don't really want to epoxy this in, but I am at a loss on how to fix it properly. You can see where it has popped out & scraped the playfield.
On a side note, I had one display that was flickering, checked Clay's site for possible fixes & he was dead on... a few of the header pin solder joints were cracked. Reflowed the connections & replaced six common to fail resistors& all was good. Gotta love those .50 fixes!
 
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You don't have to epoxy the guide itself inplace. What I have done in the past is mix sawdust and wood glue to make a paste. Fill in the hole w/ the paste. Let dry for several days, then redrill the hole to the right size. Thats what I have done, but its usually on pieces that don't take such a beating. You may want to try this method w/ the epoxy to fill the hole. As always try it on a scrap piece of wood before you try it to your game.
 
You don't have to epoxy the guide itself inplace. What I have done in the past is mix sawdust and wood glue to make a paste. Fill in the hole w/ the paste. Let dry for several days, then redrill the hole to the right size. Thats what I have done, but its usually on pieces that don't take such a beating. You may want to try this method w/ the epoxy to fill the hole. As always try it on a scrap piece of wood before you try it to your game.

OK, that sounds reasonable. I would assume that the correct hole size would just be exactly the diameter of the wire itself....
 
This might sound "chintzy", but if you had the proper sized rubber ring, you might could go around the two posts, and OUTSIDE over the metal guide. It would help at least some if it absorbed some of the ball's impact.
Nobody'd notice but you.

Ive had several pins over the years with a flawed "ball-n-metal" shot. Usually try to fix it some harmless way like that.
 
This might sound "chintzy", but if you had the proper sized rubber ring, you might could go around the two posts, and OUTSIDE over the metal guide. It would help at least some if it absorbed some of the ball's impact.
Nobody'd notice but you.

Ive had several pins over the years with a flawed "ball-n-metal" shot. Usually try to fix it some harmless way like that.

The mounting holes were eggshaped, so I ended up drilling the stock mounting holes oversize & filled them with epoxy (after taping all around the holes). After a 24 hour set, I re-drilled the holes to the proper 3/32" & re-installed the guide. So far, so good. It makes a nice solid clunk noise when the ball hits it with force & has no signs of movement.
Looking forward to my next project.. I think that I have more fun working on these than I do actually playing them.....
 
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