Joined the club and excited to get it up and 100%!
I have heard the shop out job is terrible -- I want to change to LEDs, anyone have any input/tips tricks on if it's really that bad?

Look up Sega pinball service bulliten 106

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Ty!

Needed to break down my Baywatch to get it into the basement. U-Turn stairs won't fit a folded cab + dolly.

Holy David Hasselhoff that playfield is HEAVY.

If you work methodically , taking things out in the correct order and taking pictures along the way, it won't be that bad. If you have the resources, I would install williams lamp sockets and toss out the stapled in sockets. At least the ones that require dissasembling the entire top-side to get to them.

Any idea on the part I should order/quantity? Have a few other things to pick up and could lump sockets in too.

Definitely put led rings in the pop bumpers. All new rubbers. Some may have never been changed without a complete tear down. Get a table and lay the pieces out in order as you take them out. Reverse it when you put them all back together.

I would recommend powder coating the wire forms depending on how they look.

I did colored led for the inserts and cool white for the gi. All from comet.

Do what you like.

Thanks, wondering about socket part # and quantity if anyone did this and had a learning experience

FYI - Caution Alert on Rotten Dog FLP023 flipper boards - They are much larger than the OEM boards and interfere with the Shark Hole Super Scoop VUK when lowering the playfield, so the front one needs to be mounted to the floor of the cabinet.

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And with that my Baywatch is finally ready to move out of the shop and into the collection! Still need to clean the outside of the cabinet and repair a splintered part of the head but that can wait - I need to play this baby!

My wife laughed at me a bunch of times when I first got mine because I kept calling it "a beast." For the record, I stand by that assessment.

Pages 54/55 in the manual have the socket types, part numbers, and quantities. If you don't have a hard copy you can download one at ipdb.org. I didn't replace any on mine though there are a few that I really should.

Also, for those with LEDs, Comet now has a model with colored lenses! No more boring frosted white or gross old colored bulb condoms over the ramps and in the Guard House!

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Funny, those are the last 2 pins i bought.
Baywatch and wcs.

I would use these .
https://www.pinballlife.com/bayonet-base-2-lead-socket-with-short-mounting-bracket-for-89-bulbs.html
How many depends. Just change the ones that are difficult to acsess. 20 or so.

If you are installing LEDs , you might be ok. They last a long time.

Yep - the playfield is loaded ! 4 flippers, drop target bank, multiple scoops/saucers/kickers/wireforms. Underneath the playfield is jammed with stuff

Thanks all - I have ordered some parts and am waiting. Sounds like it'll take a weekend to get it up and done, excited to refresh it -- really fun game as is and it'll be great to have it looking like it plays.

Any tips for wireform cleaning besides sending them off to be redone? Never-Dull and elbow grease?

I had really good luck with naptha (ronsonal lighter fluid) and a micro fiber cloth getting all the grime off, then a very, very, very small amount of turtle wax chrome polish on a terry cloth. YMMV. Good luck!

The wireforms are brass plated then clear coated. All they need is a wipe down. The spots that look dirty are most likely where the clear coat has failed and the underlying brass has tarnished, which doesn't easily come clean. I spoke with Chris at PinballPlating.com a few months ago about sending my set in through his exchange program. As you can imagine, he is WAY BACKORDERED. He had someone else ahead of me for the Baywatch set and let me know that it was going to be about a YEAR before he would be able to do mine.

I contacted two local metal plating shops (one named Art Brass Plating) and they both turned down the job. So I went to my powder coater and we picked out a brass-style finish that should have looked just like clear coated brass. Unfortunately it turned out more like a rich gold color. Not terrible but not what we were hoping for. I may still send them off for brass when the time comes but we'll see...

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Sounds like I am gonna scrub like hell and be happy with whatever I end up with, thanks all

I've pondered that as well...

CONJECTURE ONLY: I wonder if BW was supposed to be another theme (Star Wars?), and after a bunch of things came in prior to assembly, they had to change the theme/software last minute (the operator Portals menu is Star Wars "themed" moving forward on all Sega games until at least Whitestar). Replace the Guard Tower with the Deathstar, change the art, change the video mode to be a cycle run through the forest, and I could see it.

I mean, even for the time, BW as a pinball theme is/was rather odd. I know it was far more popular over seas than here in the US, but still. Somebody ask Joe Kaminkow and see what he says.

Or, MUCH, MUCH, MORE likely, they felt the brass plating looked flashy and would attract more players.

I put a color DMD in mine? It's f'ing awesome

I agree. Eventually, I would like to powdercoat my ramps to a teal or mettalic blue color.

I did powdercoated blue wire forms and apron

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Looks good! I'm thinking of a combination of red blue and yellow

Baywatch is just ramp and wireform overload - love it

Getting Baywatch adjusted now and it comes out of the launch ramp pretty slowly - slowly enough that it drops into the pops instead of continuing around and down to the shark flipper area. I'll up the coil power to high and see how it goes - any other advice?

It's got to be one of the best colordmd titles.

Mine came to me in similar fashion.

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I'm working on the same issue right now. But havent had luck. I strengthened the coil a bit by removing some windings, no luck. I think I need to take a look at the wireform itself and make sure the ball kicks out of it at a good angle, tough to get at it in the back though and this feels like a try for an hour and then move on with my life for a week before trying again kind of issue so I'm hesitant to pull too much out.

Mine launches great but gate opens a second too late for the ball to get to the 2nd and 3rd skill shotz... sux

It's quite tough to get the timing down correctly with the power and gate opening, doesn't always work. Best thing I found was adjusting the bolts/washers under the plate to make sure the plunger hits the ball in the middle

I've found that there are 5 main issues getting the skill shot to work correctly:

1: Make sure the game is pitched correctly. 6.5/6.6/6.7. Make sure the game is level side to side as well. The playfield on mine is ever so slightly canted in the cabinet, so the game looks slightly unlevel in the lineup compared to other games when viewing the back boxes in a row, but the playfield is dead nuts 0.0.

2: Make sure the ball is being struck dead center by the launcher. A hair off center puts spin on the ball and/or causes it to jump/deflect slightly (similarly to how a jump shot is made in billiards) off the shooter lane causing the ball to strike the launch wireform and robbing it of momentum.

3: Make sure the ball launch wire form is clean and free of any bumps, burs, or crud. I even wax mine every so often.

4: Possibly the most important: Make sure the launch ramp is shimmed/adjusted properly where it attaches at the back near the guard tower. This can make or break the skill shot functionality. Here you can adjust the timing of the ball hitting the gate or clearing it by adjusting it towards the backwall slightly, or towards the front of the machine. Your particular machine my need to have the ball slightly bounce off the back wall to slow it down for the timing, or have a clean exit to speed it up to clear the gate. Use a phone in slow-mo to film it and see what it needs.

5: Make sure the gate itself is as clean as a whistle. Unfortunately, this pretty much requires a full shop-out/tear down to get to the coil that controls it. Make sure the coil is clean and the sleeve is new or at least super clean. You can try flicking it by hand from the underside of the playfield a bunch of times to free it up as well. Also make sure the spring isn't bound.

Good luck! BW is so satisfying to play when everything works and is playing fast!

6: Install version 4.01 of this code update as it tweaks the gate timings on Skill Shot to be more lenient. https://www.pinballcode.com/

I've been battling with shooter launch power for a loong time. I also feel it may be a corroded switch in the launch button that I need to maybe take apart and inspect.

I'm missing the diode on lamp socket for D insert. Can anyone give part number for the diode?

Much appreciated.

Hell Yeah, I can't believe Stern didn't put color DMDs in their pins before the LCD switch. It is the number one best mod.

Having an issue getting the ball up to the launcher. I just replaced the trough up-kicker coil (AE-23-800) as it stopped working and after inspection realized it was not the correct coil (J22-550). I'm actually not sure if the coil was bad or the diode but after seeing it wasn't correct I just replaced both. Before it stopped working it would get the ball up to the launcher every time. Now that the correct one is installed it doesn't have nearly enough power to get it up to the launcher out of the trough, ball only comes up about 85-90% of the way up the shoot. Any suggestions or people with similar issues before? thanks

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Im having an issue where when i power on the game the launcher starts activating and continues to do so while playing. Other things that are happening are when i drain it takes like 10 seconds for the game to realize that its in the trough.

Im guessing its a switch issue in tge trough or shooter lane but not sure where to start...

Go into switch test and check those switches out. Sounds like a stuck/failed trough switch to me.

That weird stuff could happen with a short somewhere. It's amazing how one little think can cascade to ghosts in the machine.

Hey, team Baywatch!

I just posted a topic looking for some tech help on my Baywatch:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/backbox-fan-mystery#post-6367808

If anyone could provide photos inside your backbox and maybe let me know how things are wired, it might help me figure out what's going on in my game. Thanks!

On going issue so just made a topic. any help appreciated! thanks

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/baywatch-trough-coil-issue-or-ppb-board-

Just finished shopping this game. I did Theatre of Magic in a night last weekend. Baywatch took three (including polishing ramps).

Phew!

Now to plug it in and find all the switch errors I created.

Hey Baywatchers. I'm almost done with my overhaul and am now in the tweaking and adjusting phase. My main issue is that the ball is getting hung up on the launch ramp just before it drops onto the playfield above the in-lanes. It is hitting the guard tower exit wire ramp bracket above (pics below). I have tried raising the guard tower assembly but there isn't enough clearance until it interferes with the glass above. I have tried bending the assembly but it quickly moves back into the same position.

Any ideas or advice? I'm going to post a separate thread to maybe get LTG input as well. He is the omniscient wizard!

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Just finished shopping mine and had the same problem. Fixed it by adding a nut to raise the ramp sligly.

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That did the trick, @isjack. Thank you! Now to get the ball to consistently continue through the gate to the upper ball launch/shark flipper, get the right side of the back box GI working, and figure out why the right flipper sometimes goes dead... Ain't pinball grand?!

For the skill shot, center the coil, replace coil sleeve. If that doesnt do it try turning up the coil power. There are a few other adjustments and tweaks to get it to line up properly.

Thanks, again. I may bend that end point mount for the skill shot ramp to lower the exit even more. The shooter mech is completely cleaned and I have aligned it as close to center as possible but the mount holes need to be filed larger to allow more adjustment. I'll do that tonight. Chad's code seems to have made the consistency better and I believe turned the power to the coil up.

Everytime!

I added the “Anti-Sway Stand-up Target Bracket Kit For Data East/Sega/Stern” from Pinball life to my Baywatch and after a month I have not had to take the glass of once to adjust the yellow standup targets in my Baywatch. These really should be on all standup targets. I did add target backing foam (cut in half for a more sensitive target from Marco) because without the backing the shots came off the targets way too fast. With a full size piece of backing foam I found the targets didn't register the shots as often as they should. Cut in half the backing works well, but if you ask me its just weather stripping. Next time I will try the stuff i buy at Home Depot.8B05F766-3A22-444D-9D72-C1336E24F503 (resized).jpegBE543B38-87BA-47D9-8DDB-2E61AE600672 (resized).jpegCE879B28-5F0C-4343-B8E9-F1732188A58D (resized).jpeg

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