KINDA FIXED - Attack from Mars - Slow Flipper Return

I was playing AFM lately, and I noticed the left flipper was "slower" to return to its resting position than the right flipper.

If I cradle the flipper, the longer I cradle it, the more the flipper "sticks" in that position and takes longer to go back to its resting position. Testing this with the PF up, you can see the left flipper takes longer to return to starting position and doesn't even make it all the way back in the video below:

Thinking it was mechanical and having rebuilt flippers before, I was happy to order the assembly from Pinball Life. After swapping my old one for the new one, I thought the problem was gone, but alas, it has returned.

I have noticed that there is a "humming" noise that comes from the coil once I release the cradled left flipper button. See the below video from today to showcase what I am trying to explain:

I noticed this game has no fliptronics board, so it looks like it draws power directly from the PDB, which is a bummer considering this game has a RottenDog board in it from 2016.

Ready to learn how to diagnose and troubleshoot this one....! Any ideas?

Paging zaza ; ).

You know, I tried that today with this item:

https://www.pinballlife.com/fliptronics-type-2-opto-board-replacement.html

Installing those did zero to help me. In fact, when I pushed the flipper button, nothing would even happen. I had to HOLD that flipper button a good 3 to 5 seconds, and the flipper would finally engage but extremely slowly. Almost like it was fighting an upstream current (think swimming upstream). I even had two of them so I could see if I may have gotten a bad one - nope - both Anarchy Flipper Opto boards displayed the same weird behavior.

For everyone else, I ordered one of these from Pinball Life - hand-built by Terry:

https://www.pinballlife.com/full-flipper-assembly-for-williamsbally-machines-from-021992-to-101998.html

Yeah, I know, I should have done it myself, but I didn't want to. Rebuilt flippers before, and I wanted to know it was "done right" by him. Ordered it exactly to spec from the AFM tech manual. Used the spacer tool to ensure the correct gap was made between the bushing and the flipper bat.

I will certainly give this a try and report back sometime tomorrow. Thanks, Lloyd. I didn't even think of that!

I did this, and so far, the problem has vanished. So weird. Dunno how that is possible, but here I am with an AFM that has not been silly since I swapped the boards. I didn't even clean the optos yet....!

What do you use to clean these "slotted" optos? Traditional isopropyl alcohol on a Q-tip? 70% or 90% or it doesn't matter?

Copy all, Lloyd. I'll use my de-oxit cleaner on the pins and plugs to be safe. Great stuff that gets rid of varnish that wire brushes can (or shouldn't) get to!