After years of wanting my own machine I finally bought a cheap Chicago Coin Beatniks machine from a fellow pinsider. So far I’ve really enjoyed the game. I got into the cab and tinkered around with a few minor issues (rollover switch wasnt activating, was able to “bend” it back to make contact), and got into the headboard to resecure score reels.

One issue I’m having is flipper strength. At times when I hit the ball, it barely travels halfway up the playfield. It seems like I have to hit the ball just right to get some good distance out of it.

Would like to replace some of the parts as I’m sure it would improve game performance. My main issue is I do not know what parts to get and where to get them from. I found flipper repair kits on amazon but they range in the $50+ range. Any tips or suggestions for a novice?

Also, less important but the 1,000s score reel on my player 2 does not work. How difficult is it to get this fixed? Thanks in advance for any help and information.

So when player 2 goes from 999 to 1,000, the 1k score reel does not activate. So it only scores from 1-999. I just bought some wetordry sandpaper and will attempt to clean the switches.

Sorry man I feel dumb but I don’t completely understand what you mean.

So for a little update, I attempted to clean the switches and plunger for the flippers and improved strength slightly, but i really think i need to fully disassemble the bushing and plunger to see if it needs more cleaning or replaced.

As for the score reel, i was messin with it today and the player 2 1k reel moves when i manually pull the plastic tab thing, i can see the switches moving when it goes to 9 and 0, i cleaned them, but it’s still not working. I tried cleaning the player 2 100’s reel too and still nothing. One thing i noticed is the 1k reel is different then all other 7 reels on the machine. I’ll have to post pictures to better explain what i mean.

Yeah I read it and cleaned/tinkered with it but still nothing.