My Special Force had displays that noticeably flickered. They were flickering so much that it was distracting and almost seizure inducing! I had read generally bad opinions of the 6803 hardware and wondered if this was just one of the things that went along with it. I had read another post somewhere, maybe on another forum, indicating that you can replace the filter capacitor for the displays and that will eliminate the flickering. I guess they were assuming that everyone reading it would know what they're talking about.

I had an "Electrolytic capacitor set for Bally AS-2518-22 Solenoid Driver / Voltage Regulator Module" kit from Great Planes Electronics since I have so many classic Sterns. Even though Special Force has different boards, capacitors from this kit can be used, and I'm happy to say that replacing the large capacitor at C2 on the power module board eliminated the flickering for me. I also replaced the small capacitor at C3 which was also available in the kit, so not sure if that helped or not.

The original capacitor at C2 was 350v 160uf, but the one from the classic Bally kit was 350v 150uf. I read on the classic Bally/Stern repair guide at PinWiki that this is within spec for the classic boards, so assume it should be for the 6803's as well. If anyone knows otherwise, please chime in.

Anyway, thought this would be useful info for anyone with a Special Force (or any 6803's) with flickering displays.

Jim

_{Post edited by winteriscoming : Corrected capacitor #}