Or should I just cut the unecessary jumper cable first and see what happens?

I have two adjustment questions. The first one is the ball is getting stuck on the u-turn on the bottom playfield. What's the best way to adjust this?

The second one is the ball is blowing past the ball lock on the top level. If it's fast it goes right through it, and if it's slow, it will lock.

Thanks!

Dug into this a little bit more today and found the center metal piece was installed upside down. Switched it around and ball moves smoothly around the u-turn.

I clipped that jumper cable off and still doesn’t light. I’ll trace the wiring and see if there’s a connection broken somewhere. I’m starting to wonder if it’s the lamp socket

Got it! The prong from the lamp socket on the yellow/green wire side is broken. I tried to take a pic but it’s too hard to get the right angle. It looks like an entire piece of the prong just broke off. I don’t think I can get to it with my soldering iron so I think I’ll just replace the entire lamp socket.

Thanks again for the help!

I have a system 7 BK and wondering what type of coils should be used for the flippers. I have three different ones installed in my current game, and was curious to know what is the correct ones.

One other question...my player 3 and 4 commas are always on. Where to I begin to troubleshoot this?

Thanks!

I’m no expert but I dug through my photos and found a couple of them. The bottom pic is the bottom flipper solenoid and the upper pic is the pop up/jet bumper in the upper playfield (sorry part of the number got cut off). By all means if someone else wants to comment please do

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I checked the manual (you can download it at ipdb.org) and here's what it says:

101699770.png

Look up vid’s thread on updating flippers. It includes coils and new mechs.

I highly recommend it to freshen up the feel of the machine.

Wouldn't this game use the same coils before and after the mech update?

no

Per vid's guide: "So we need a SFL 19/400 - 30/750 coil. Often used in games like Black Knight"
?

You are right, I did use the 30/750's. I normally don't buy coils unless they are needed, but these came fully assembled so it was easier to buy them that way.

I'm thinking of converting mine to 50V flippers and coils...

Does it make more sense to replace just the lower flipper mechs and rebuild the uppers? After all, how much power do you really need on the upper playfield? Shots don't really have to travel that far or go up any ramps?

The upper is probably fine but even with brand new modern mechs the lowers just aren't that strong. Steve Ritchie said in an interview that he regretted putting the game out with 25v flippers, so I'm curious to try it with 50v like was 'intended'.

I'd hate to have flippers that acted and felt differently on the same machine, so I did both upper and lower and dont regret it at all.

Both the upper and lower playfields are pretty small, so not sure the 50's are needed - but I'd like to play one that way.

I've got my pitch pretty steep, so the left ramp has to be perfect to make it. Every other shot is great with the upgrades. I'm sure if I lowered the pitch to what it was designed for even the ramp would be easy.

I've got mine as steep as possible, same with the left ramp, all original rebuilt mechs. They're all makable when you hit them, but they never feel good as they go up, just limping over the edge. My rebuilt originals are stronger than modern mechs imo, and if I pitched it down it'd be okay, but i want the speed.

I would love to at least see a video of the higher power flippers to see how it affects game play. Does anyone know of a video? I rebuilt my flippers and the left ramp shot is pretty regular, but it still feels so much weaker than my other games of that era.

I'm not aware of anyone ever having done the 50V modification before, but it'd be cool to see. I still need to get ahold of a 50V transformer

Anyone know a good pinball repair person in North GA? My BK keeps blowing the F2 solenoid fuse randomly. Could last a game or two or a week or two.

Where are you? Ernie Liffers is in Cumming ‭(770) 889-3000‬.

Schwaggs and I are in north ATL and have BKs if you need help.

Have you done any troubleshooting?

Awesome. I am in North Forsyth county (Dawsonville address).
Ernie came out once and replaced the 4 chip connectors on the CPU board for me. I have called him a couple times since for this issue, have not heard back from him. Figured he must be covered up with repairs.
I have reflowed the connectors on the CPU/driver boards, but still blows the F2. Since it is so random, not sure what to try next.

For something like this it’s best to drop it off at his house.

F2 is for solenoids but doesn’t include flippers or magnets.

You could run through the coil test a few times and see where it fails. Might take a few tries and fuses.

You should visually inspect all the coils and look for any issues like bulging wires burnt paper or bad diodes.

Could be physically shorting a coil out so look for anything loose or close to coil tabs.

Black_Knight has some good suggestions.

Do you hear any of your coils fire momentarily when you turn the game on by chance? I had a gorgar that would "wear out" the solenoid fuse over time and it was due to the blanking signal not working properly at power-up.

Also, you are using 2.5 amp slow blow fuses in F2, right? Do you know the difference between slow and fast blow fuses? (sorry, not being a jerk, just trying to be thorough and don't know your skill level )

Schwaggs and I could be neighbors!
Thanks for the tips. I’ve ran the coil tests a few times, but can’t get it to blow the fuse. I’ve done a few visuals, but didn’t see anything “obvious” to me.
When I power the game on, I only hear the click come from the coin door. I have a 2.5 amp slow blow installed.
I talked with Ernie, he said replace the 2.5 amp with a 5 amp and start sniffing! Hoping that will turn the intermittent issue into a hard failure that can then be fixed.

I'd assume your pop bumper or sling is locking on

What is “sling”

Indeed, welcome neighbor!

Very surprised Ernie suggested over-fusing the circuit.

Do you have a meter (DVM)? If so, go around the game with the game off and measure the resistance of every coil, and report the lowest few measurements.

The kickers above the flippers.

The intention seems to be to cause something to fail, so I guess it makes sense.

Wednesday I'm going to check out a BK, anything I should look for specific to BK or sys7 board set?

hawknole, maybe a 2-2.5 amp fast blow and run the solenoid diagnostic again. Sounds like a great idea.
Neighbor Schwaggs, I do have a meter. I will test the resistance of all coils tomorrow and report back.
zacaj, yea make the intermittent fail hard and replace. Just not sure if that would do damage to any boards, or make my basement smell like smoke!
Thanks all for the advice. Will try the fast blow fuse and the coil resistance tomorrow.

Measured the coils
The flipper coils (sfl-19-400) upper were .9 and 1.1. Lowers were 1.9 and 2.0.
The sg23 were all 4.0-4.1.
The sm35 were 265-268
The sg29 was 15.3.
No 2-2.5 fast blow on hand. Will have to run out and grab a few.

Thanks, I was hoping one or more of them would have measured lower.

Might be a good idea to start your own thread asking for help. You will get more people looking at it vs this club thread and there might be someone that has encountered this or something similar before.

Picked up BK today not working
Cab and playfield seem to be very nice
Boards all that real clean
Hoping the repairs are cheap!
My question was about the backglass
I know they are hard to get
This one has some cracking at the bottom and a little in another area the size of a baseball
Only on the back but it’s cracking
My question is are these like just impossible to find?
Thanks
Really excited about the game

Thanks!
Thank you and wow man that’s beautiful
I will post some pics when I go back couldn’t get it out of the basement kinda fell in my lap really good deal
Always wanted one love Ritchie games

Sorry I was trying to respond to hawknole never really have got the hang of the block quote thing!
Thanks again!

I also just picked up a non working but clean BK!

Game starts and he showed me video of itnworking but currently it looks like it hangs in test mode, similar to johns arcade YouTube guys BK.

Even has the local operator sticker on the apron this is getting cleaned and fixed and going on route, anything awesome mod or update wise that makes it better?

Ha ha Nice! It’s a bad ass game
Congrats

You too! Funny we both got similar deals the same day! I’m excited to get the game going!

You have any plans for it?

Fix it up and play that beast!!!

Any mods or leds? I see some laser cut ramps with back lit to them that look cool. Otherwise ya, I’d rather just play the sucker and get pissed I drain all the time

Do you have a thread somewhere with more pictures? I'd love to see what else you've done!

where did you get that emblem sticker for the 1 way gate cover?

Thanks! I'll check mine. I see there is a post with a small rubber ring, not sure how far mine sticks out...