Flipper issues make me want to light things on fire..

Frax

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Flipper issues make me want to light things on fire..

Makes me wonder if I'm really cut out for this, I swear...

Flipper was weak. Coil, channel plastic, switches...all burned from sparking over probably 15+ years. I've now got it to the point where the flipper action is good and strong, but now the flipper itself will NOT extend fully when triggered. I know for a fact that the pawl is going all the way, beause the lane changes are STILL triggering. What the hell?!?! When I reassembled everything last night, it worked fine for two or three games. Then noticed it not coming up all the way, maybe 1/3rd of the way through the stroke. When you hold it up, the flipper is almost flat horizontally.

I've rebuilt this damn flipper from the plate up. In fact, the mounting plate is the ONLY THING just about that has not been replaced. Replaced all of the following:

Flipper rubber (DOY!!!)
Coil and sleeve
EOS switch
lane change switch
pawl/plunger assembly
return spring
nylon through-playfield plastic channel thing

I haven't replaced the actual flipper itself, but I have one that I'm going to go ahead and try it tonight...the existing flipper metal is pitted, and I'm just wondering if this thing isn't getting enough friction when it's locked down or what. I know there's something simple and stupid here that I'm missing, but it's extremely frustrating. It's the one thing keeping this machine from being fully playable and fun until the reproduction playfield shows up.

What the hell could be causing the flipper to not extend all the way, but the pawl is going through the full range of motion!? It's aligned properly against the support pin when it's at rest!

I'd pull my hair out if I hadn't cut it off a few days ago. >=|
 
How tight did you clamp down on the flipper shaft?

Did not have time to make too many further adjustments last night. We live in Dallas and our A/C got knocked out by a brownout, so had to deal with all that mess. Before I replaced the coil, I'd tried it looser, in the middle, and oh-my-god-I'm-going-to-break-my-hand-before-I-can-get-it-tighter.

Currently, it's set pretty tight, but there's still a little bit of up/down motion of the flipper and the pawl itself. I guess I could eliminate that "jiggle" by putting the pawl up higher on the pin of the flipper...but I thought there was supposed to be a small amount of leeway there.
 
The up and down is OK, you want a little play so it won't bind. But I've always had to clamp that thing down to the point where you see the two ends of the clamp bending towards each other to keep the flipper from moving.

Wait, does the flipper in question not extend all the way up, but come to rest in the same place as the other flipper?
 
Wait, does the flipper in question not extend all the way up, but come to rest in the same place as the other flipper?

Yep. Action is strong, and like I said, pawl still has to be extending all or most of the way because lane change switch is still getting activated.
 
Are you sure lane change isn't a second switch at the flipper button switch instead of a second switch at the EOS....?
 
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I'd offer to post a pic, but I'm not paying for tapatalk, lol.

There's two switches on the right flipper mech, the EOS switch, then the lane change switch which has the triangle plastic divider that pushes the leaf for the lane change up, so yes..I'm pretty sure. The lane change also doesn't instantly occur when the cabinet button is pressed.

It's a Space Shuttle, so pretty old design. No fancy fliptronics or anything here. :)
 
I had a Space Shuttle, but it's been a while.

Welp, yeah you got something weird going on there. I'd be interested to see what you find. It's worth it. It's a great game.
 
Were the flipper linkages the same? When I upgraded to ne linkages on my Black Knight, the link part was a much different shape, and thus hot before the flipper was fully extended. I needed to do some careful sculpting with an exacto knife on the nylon linkage so that it could have full travel.

Check that as well.


Chris
 
Were the flipper linkages the same? When I upgraded to ne linkages on my Black Knight, the link part was a much different shape, and thus hot before the flipper was fully extended. I needed to do some careful sculpting with an exacto knife on the nylon linkage so that it could have full travel.

Check that as well.


Chris


I still have the old ones, but they were kludged together in the first place, as evidenced by the wrong coil being in there.... The replacements I ordered from Pinball Life appear to be exactly the same for left and right. If they're not, I don't know how I'd ever tell which is which. They don't label ANYTHING they ship out..
 
Fucking a. I just got home, lifted up the playfield, and the plunger is halfway in the coil. Flipper is dead against the pin. S--T. This is what happens when you don't have time to look at things when problems come up.

I'm still absolutely mystified as to how it happened in the first place, because it was right when I locked it down, and you would think with the flipper only travelling that far how the heck is the lane change working? Did I resolder it wrong? If I did...did I just find some awesome way to bypass the mechanical part of the equation on these machines?! :p

I'm gonna give it a run when the kids are more asleep, and make sure it's really fixed. I went ahead and put a new flipper in there...had to actually widen the hole in the pawl because the old flipper shaft was worn down and smaller. Maybe that this one is bigger and has more surface area will keep it where the hell it's supposed to be!
 
It's STILL f'ing doing it. Played one game, and immediately, flipper is not secure. It's like the thing is getting rotated in the pawl and then not returning all the way.

I don't get it. Why the hell is this thing not getting enough friction to hold the shaft on there so it doesn't rotate in the pawl when it's flipping/catching the balls? What can I do? :|
 
Dunno what you mean by hooped, but it's brand new. Less than 15 plays on it new?

Old flipper shaft was gouged, that's why I put the new one in there tonight.
 
Sounds to me like the pawl wasn't tight enough to the flipper shaft.

If that's not the problem then maybe you have some wrong parts or something. Hard to say without being there...

I might get a chance to play around with it tonight, maybe. Kind of hard to work on this stuff when you live in a tiny rathole condo and the kids can't sleep through a light breeze, much less a few flipper noises.
 
If the flipper bat is moving around inside the pawl, then the pawl isn't tight enough. You have to tighten the shit out of the pawl nut. If the ends of the pawl are already touching each other, then you may need to enlarge the space between them with a Dremel equiped with a cutting wheel. If you don't have the ability to do that, then you may just want to replace the pawls. I try to keep spare pawls on hand for this reason.
 
Wish I had the money to have extras. *shrug* Can't afford anything right now. I'm fighting nail and tooth to keep the money in my savings account for the repro playfield and I'm not winning. Sucks. Like I said...hopefully will get a few minutes tonight to look at it..

I work 9a-9pm tomorrow. :[

*Edit* I do have the dremel and cutting wheels left over from a case mod I did about 10 years ago...so at least there's that. :)
 
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I'm ecstatic to report this is officially...

FIXED.

I used every ounce of nerd rage and fat white guy geek muscles I had to tighten down that sucker with my socket driver. It has NOT reoccured and the kids have been playing it. Flipper is fantastically strong and it's like a whole other game now..plays much faster with both flippers at full strength. Lots more ricocheting, jets fire off a lot more because the ball is moving faster in general...just a lot more fun to play.

Did have some funny issues due to how strong they are now though. Right after I had tested it the first time, the left kickout/lock hole was continuously firing with no ball in it. What the.... Couldn't get to it until late last night, pulled up the PF, and the leaf from the switch, which is kind of a L shape with the part at the end very short, had gotten hit so hard by a ball that it wedged itself UNDER the plastic in the hole, and was causing the thing to fire over and over again. My wife said that while I was gone, before I fixed it, the machine was also kicking out an extra ball after the first one left the shooter lane, but I wasn't able to replicate it, and the machine is detecting all the balls just fine.

I don't really see how the two issues could be related, but what she described hasn't happened when I'm around!
 
If all you are using to tighten it down is a nut driver, which looks like a screwdriver but with a socket on the end, then it may happen again. Use a small-average length 3/8in. wrench or a ratchet with a 3/8in. socket. I'm just not sure you will be able to tighten it enough to hold long-term with a nut driver :(
 
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