Ring Kits -- ARRRGGH!!!

sblair

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Alright, is anyone else besides me fed up with buying Rubber Ring Kits that are NEVER complete or correct??

Every damn kit I have ever bought has been wrong in some form or fashion. It's rarely off by 1 or 2, but more often off by a half dozen or more. Then I find myself having to make special orders to get the rest of the missing rubbers or trying to guess ahead and order random extras to have on hand to make up for them being incomplete.

I got so fed up with Marco that I stopped ordering ring kits from them as I had so many issues. Many of the issues with them I found was incorrect pulling of the kits.

I tried switching to Bay Area and both of the kits I got from them were wildly off by more than 10 rubbers each! What the F-ck?

Has anyone found someone that actually delivers COMPLETE/CORRECT rubber kits?

Before people lash back, yes I know all the standard disclaimers about the difficulty of being accurate, but we're not talking 1-2 small mistakes and it has literally been an issue in EVERY rubber kit I've ever ordered....over a dozen now.

Scott
 
Same problem here. Every kit I have ever ordered has always been missing something.

pbresource
marco
bayarea
ebay

Now I just buy the rings individually. Takes a little more time but I get what I need.

Worst was the one I bought off of ebay. Advertised as complete rubber kit for a High Speed. Was missing all the bumper posts, flipper rubbers, and 1 ring. What a joke.
 
I have only ordered 2 kits off ebay both from the same guy. PATELROCK PINBALL his are the only ones I have found that include the bumper posts. Everyone else its just the ring kits. When I have priced it out to buy everything seperate I get hosed because the short bumper posts are anywhere from 65 - 65 cents a piece and on my lethal weapon I needed 22 of them. CRAZYNESS!!!!
 
Lol, so its not just me having bad luck with ring kits.

Every machine I've ringed, the kits have been either missing one-three, or I have left over rings I can't figure out where they go.
 
I've order a few kits from Marco, they were perfect. 1 kit off Ebay was also perfect.

If I ordered a ring kit and it was missing 10 rings, I'll be damned if I went and ordered them myself...whoever sent me the kit would be getting an email, and asked politely to send me the missing ones.

If they refused, I'm getting my money back...one way or another. They all have the PF layout diagrams, so they shouldn't miss a single frigging rubber unless the diagram itself is wrong.
 
In the past I've used ring kits from Action Pinball, they seemed to be the best kits. He has verified them on machines and I had good luck with them, I think I found at most 1 ring in a set I did differently. The chart that came with them is helpfull if you're new at this. Now I just buy a bunch of rings from pinballlife and always have what I need, no reason for a kit.

Jerry
 
When I order kits they are either short or they have extras. In fact, a kit I ordered for a Cyclone had five shooter rod tips.


Long ago I ordered a large selection of rubbers and I have always had what I needed when a kit comes up short. I also add the extra parts to my large selection when I am done re-ringing a machine.
 
Extras I would be fine with. It's constantly being short or the wrong size that pisses me off!

I went a few rounds previously with Marco over it and they were apologetic and sent me another complete kit....of course it was wrong too. They kind of just gave up when I contacted them about that.
 
Just buy the pinball life bulk thing as suggested above, that's by far the best way to go.

That is the way we used to do it back in the old days when I did it all the time, before the pre-made kits existed. I guess I have to go back to that. The concept of the pre-made kits is great, but what is the the point when they are wrong 100% of the time? They have been nothing but misleading.

Grrr.....
 
That is the way we used to do it back in the old days when I did it all the time, before the pre-made kits existed. I guess I have to go back to that. The concept of the pre-made kits is great, but what is the the point when they are wrong 100% of the time? They have been nothing but misleading.

Grrr.....


Someone earlier mentioned the seller on Ebay who I've used a couple of times now and it's been perfect each time.

I always thought companies like Marco (who has sent me a ring kit missing pieces before as well) just looked in the manual or schematic and used that, even if that wasn't the same as what the machine actually used, if that makes sense.
 
I always thought companies like Marco (who has sent me a ring kit missing pieces before as well) just looked in the manual or schematic and used that, even if that wasn't the same as what the machine actually used, if that makes sense.

They do to an extent....and that is part of the problem. The manuals are often incorrect when it comes to rubbers. When these things were written no one was going by them as being gospel for building ring kits.

Most of my problems in the past with Marco were them not even pulling the correct things to match their own paperwork.

Doing an analysis today, I can see that Bay Area just went by what was in the manual but then shorted even more. For Wipe Out, the manual states (4) 5/16" and the Bay Area paperwork only shows 2. They also omitted a 1.5" listed in the manual.

For Xenon the problem is even WORSE. They manual is widely known to be incorrect. When I made the order in the comments section I included the following:

Special order instructions:
Please verify the Xenon Rubber kit contents against this list as the manual publishes an incorrect ring list. http://www.ipdb.org/files/2821/Bally_1980_Xenon_Corrected_Rubber_Bumper_List.txt No. Req. Size Usage ---- ------- --------------------------------------------------------- 4 2 ½" slingshots; behind target bank; above left bumper 1 3 ½" above right bumper 2 1 ½" below right bumper; below left bumper 1 2" below left saucer 2 ¾" between yellow targets; below target bank 1 1" above top yellow target 5 27/64" for metal mini posts 3 5/16" single blue posts; above right and left out lanes; between left saucer and lower yellow target 1 rubber shooter tip 2 flipper .

Which they COMPLETELY ignored! Angry phone call to them in 3....2...1....
 
Angry phone call to them in 3....2...1....

They have a phone number but apparently don't take any phone calls....just messages saying to contact them through their website. Even more infuriating!
 
i've gotten two kits (TAF and FH) off ebay from thepinballwizzard in the past couple of months and both were good - only a few small post rubbers off (and on the good side of off - there were extras :)).

the tub 'o rings at PBL is a good option too.
 

+3

Action Pinball has the most accurate kits because he actually looks at a game to verify that the kit is correct.

Most of the ring kit makers look at the manual and make the kit according to the ring chart in the manual. Unfortunately for us, most of these ring charts are just flat out wrong. The main reason for this is that most ring charts are based on a pre-prototype machine that was subsequently modified in the factory prior to becoming a production model. The machine was changed, but the documentation was never updated to match the new layout. For example, on LW3 the right ball capture, the #3, origonaly ejected straight back down to the flippers, and not into the pop-bumpers. How do I know this? Look at the manual, it shows a rubber that, if installed, would go across the exit for the kick-out hole. Obviously this was a change that never made it into the documentation. As a result any rubber ring kit that is based on the manual diagram will be wrong, period.

Either buy the big tub-o-rings from Pinball Life, or measure and count all of the rings on the machine as you take the machine apart, then order from that list (and add a couple of extras). Either way will save you a lot of frustration.
 
Is there a site out there that has the rubbers already measured out for all pins? Then, it would be easier to put a kit together...
 
+3

Action Pinball has the most accurate kits because he actually looks at a game to verify that the kit is correct.

Most of the ring kit makers look at the manual and make the kit according to the ring chart in the manual. Unfortunately for us, most of these ring charts are just flat out wrong. The main reason for this is that most ring charts are based on a pre-prototype machine that was subsequently modified in the factory prior to becoming a production model. The machine was changed, but the documentation was never updated to match the new layout. For example, on LW3 the right ball capture, the #3, origonaly ejected straight back down to the flippers, and not into the pop-bumpers. How do I know this? Look at the manual, it shows a rubber that, if installed, would go across the exit for the kick-out hole. Obviously this was a change that never made it into the documentation. As a result any rubber ring kit that is based on the manual diagram will be wrong, period.

Either buy the big tub-o-rings from Pinball Life, or measure and count all of the rings on the machine as you take the machine apart, then order from that list (and add a couple of extras). Either way will save you a lot of frustration.

Thanks Geese,

I've never understood why the manuals are almost always wrong. This makes a lot of sense.
Is there a site out there that has the rubbers already measured out for all pins? Then, it would be easier to put a kit together...

I would love to get this going. Everytime I do an order for a game, I have the manual in hand while looking at the playfield. Every damn one I've done I count more rubber in the game than is listed in the manual. I agree with ordering a big bag of assorted rings, but it would be nice to know the exact count as it sucks being short a few when you thought you had plenty.
 
Bay Area Amusements gets an F from me on customer service.

No one there answers the phone and I entered "helpdesk" ticket on their site 24 hours ago and still no response.
 
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