Going to join this club very soon! My just-purchased BK is packed and on her way now....should receive some time next week! Original boards, early System 6 setup, Mayfair backglass, decent cabinet with only a few marks, good plastics and nice playfield for an un-retouched original. Can't wait...

Pack 01 (resized).jpg

Pack 02 (resized).jpg

Starburst or jeweled, it's still impressive what goes into designing and manufacturing a reproduction playfield.

http://www.classicplayfields.com/photo10.html

Finally arrived today!! Unpacked and staged, assembly / initial triage will have to wait until the weekend.

03 (resized).jpg

IMG_5722 (resized).jpg

I've got my new Black Knight up and running - after getting through some scoring issues (dirty or bent leafs on switches), burned out bulbs, and a pin not making solid contact with a Molex connector on the sound board it's playing pretty well. I will post some pictures after next weekend's project (LED conversion, polish/waxing of playfield, new legs, new plastics, new rubbers).

One issue that's bugging me: if I hit a ball too fast to the upper playfield Ball Lock Trough when it's empty, the ball will sail right through it without getting locked about 50% of the time. I took off the plastic over the trough and there is the steel plate between the top of the trough and the plastic, and the trough itself looks ok. Is this normal for Black Knight (I don't recall running into this issue playing thousands of games on BK in my youth)? Would adding a Cliffy Protector help stop a ball from passing through the trough?

Thanx for any insights....

Aha! I did not think about pitch contributing to this. I have my pitch currently set to a steep 7.8 (I like a fast game). I think most people in this forum have theirs set to somewhere between 6.0 and 6.5 - I'll play around with those settings this weekend and see if it improves the fly-through. I'm unable to find the BK Cliffy set at the usual online pinball parts sites so I sent an email to the contact on the Cliffy site itself asking if I can purchase it directly.

If I find the 6.0-6.5 pitch too easy/slow, I'm going to try this simple mod and see how it does at 7.8. Thank you for the link - I just joined this club a few weeks ago and after trying to catch up on 1100+ posts I'm sure I missed some things that would have been useful for me!

Thank you all for your feedback! Love this community....

Wow...I think even .6 degrees made a big difference. I lowered the pitch to 7.2 - the game is still pretty fast and I had 8 clear fast shots to the empty trough on the upper deck and the ball held each time.

I'm still going to put in the Cliffy there....he got back to me this morning and sold it to me for $27 including shipping. I should have it Wednesday.

I'm normally a traditionalist, but as I was cleaning up my BK purchase from last week (new rubbers, fixing some flaky switches, replacing bad bulbs) I decided to try LEDs. I put LEDs in my EBD and I really liked them, so I tried it with Black Night. Wow. Huge difference without being overbearing, IMO. I can post a before & after video if anyone is interested, but in the meantime look at the differences in the green Lock light....I thought I had finished replacing all the playfield lights and when I put the table back down and turned it on, I saw I forgot one light. The difference is rather striking. Even my wife liked it, and she just rolls her eyes whenever I'm spending time tinkering on the pins.

LED vs Incandescent (resized).jpg

As I was putting in new rubbers and LEDs this evening on my new BK, I noticed behind the blue drop downs on the lower playfield that there appears to be a red post missing given the hole in the playfield and the circular exposure of "newer" looking wood. Your BK's have this post? I'll have to pick one up from Marco's or somewhere.
IMG_5728 (resized).JPG

Is the white plastic lens above the left Magna Save markings on the apron supposed to be a credit light (it is on my Bally Eight Ball Deluxe)? There's no bulb socket or supporting circuitry underneath it on my BK.

0 - Credit Light (Top) (resized).jpg

1 - Credit Light (Inside) (resized).jpg

Great info - thanx, guys!

I'm actually doing the same thing - I also thought of purple in that spot when I saw the left arrow inserts lit up in blue after the conversion to LEDs. I ordered some purple LEDs from Cointaker on Thursday, should be here tomorrow.

I would like to add a couple of strip lights in some dark areas as well - one behind the outhole under the apron, and one in that plastic piece that runs on top of the ball shooter trough up the right side of the playfield. I've not added lights like that before - is there an easy way or guide on how to tie them into GI light circuit?

The Red/Blue targets are a really, really nice touch. Love them.

Newbie question - the bulb in my pop bumper was really dim and having changed out all of the other playfield and backglass lights to LEDs, I decided to do the pop bumper as well. The bulb was very difficult to get out....I wound up mangling it, separating the glass bump from the bayonet base. I then had to use needlenose pliers to twist the 44/47 base out of the socket. I put in a known working LED, and it doesn't light. This was working before I touched it, of course. The pop bumper itself still works, it's just the light. I don't see anything obvious underneath the playfield....doesn't look like I pulled any wires loose. I cleaned the contacts in the base best I could (the original bulb was pretty oxidized). Still no light.

Any suggestions on the next step in the triage? I have a DVM but not sure what to do with it.

Thanx!

Pop Bumper (resized).jpg

I'd like to see that as well (if possible)!

Looks for some technical guidance on my BK....not sure where to start. The first two two drop targets in the left bank of the upper playfield are not scoring or starting the drop target timer but the third target in that bank is working ok. All other drop targets in the other three banks are all working ok. The two targets in question work mechanically and the leaf springs are making contact. The scoring/timer doesn't start when I forcibly engage the leaf springs, either.

The problem must be electrical somewhere. If there was something electrically common between the those first two targets, I'd think other targets would also not be working? Is this just a coincidence that those first two targets are failing the exact same way?

I'm rather new at ownership, so I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction. I have a multimeter, but not exactly sure what I'm looking for. Red arrows in the pix point to the two suspect targets.

Thanx!
Kris

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Aha!! Can't believe I didn't see that before....the yellow wire is indeed there, and it's become disconnected from the good switch. I just need to re-solder that yellow wire to the tab on the good switch that has the two green wires then? Can't thank you enough....

IMG_5849.jpg

Solution confirmed! I wound up replacing the enter jumper wire from the middle switch to the working one as the original wire was stretched pretty tight...probably why it eventually became disconnected after me lifting the playfield a few dozen times replacing bulbs and fixing other things after I picked up this pin a few months ago. Thanx again, @gutz!

Kris

Here's mine...I did this a few weeks ago. 3 balls, single player (no bonus ball). I got two extra balls along the way for a total of 5 for that game. Took a little more than a half hour...I was actually getting tired and wondering when it would end! Ironically, when I snapped this photo, it also caught the high score on my Eight Ball Deluxe. My 16 year old son did that a few weeks ago (5 ball setting) beating me by 300K and ever since then I've been playing EBD 3 to 5 times a day trying to get my high score back!

High Score.jpg

My posts are topped with the rubber nubbin (which I prefer) except for one post - the bottom post over the trough in the upper playfield. I had to use an acorn nut there to secure the plastic. I found that if I use a rubber nubbin there and I hit a particularly hard/fast shot into the trough, the ball will kick up and hit the plastic sending that particular rubber nubbin somewhere on (or under) the playfield. The acorn nut secures it down better, at least on my game.

I prefer the white rubber in this game but as zacaj said, it's easy to swap out if you find you don't like the black or you sell your machine to someone who'd prefer it be white.

Looking for guidance on where to start. My Black Knight has been working well for months. Lifted the playfield to replace a burned out bulb on the underside of the playfield, and now none of the solenoids, except for the four flippers, are firing. Thinking I might have crimped a wire or jostled one loose during the playfield lift, I eyeballed each solenoid and surrounding areas and did tug tests here and there....nothing obvious. Since 1-24 went out all at the same time, there must be a common area to start (I do not have a schematic, but I do have a MM but not sure where to probe). Anyone have any guidance? All fuses, including F2 for the solenoids, look intact.

Fuse 01 (resized).jpg

Taking the fuse out of the game and getting a closer look, it doesn't look healthy. And mm shows 0....blown. Dang it...I should've caught that. Thank you, @eh97ac. Not going to find a replacement on Christmas Day, so the family will have to settle for ST Pro and EBD tonight.

Fuse 02 (resized).jpg

OK...plot thickens. Turns out I do have spares (I bought a BK fuse replacement kit months ago and forgot about it). Replaced the fuse and the solenoids worked for about 2 minutes and then the new fuse blew. Replaced it again, worked for about 2 minutes, and then that one blew. Ideas for narrowing this down?

Arrgh. Thought I could go thru the coil test one by one and see which one(s) are causing the fuse to blow, but the F2 fuse is blowing before I can even get to the coil test. I'm not starting a game at all...just turning on and going straight to self test. Gotta be a short somewhere but not sure at all how to proceed with the triage. Any ideas?

Thanx, @frunch and @zacaj....I'll be trying that sometime tomorrow after I venture out and pick up some more 2.5A fuses. I did have something interesting happen with my very last spare fuse tonight if it helps....I followed the coil wires as best as I could without actually clipping the ties holding the harness together and didn't see any nicks or cuts in the wires leaving it exposed for shorting out. I did move the wire harness around a bit during the inspection. I decided to try my last fuse, and sure enough it started working. I ran thru the coil test and manually fired each one 5 times...worked like a champ. I started a game and played 3 complete games with multiple 3-ball multi-balls going on in each of the games....everything worked. Somewhat satisfied but a bit concerned that it appeared "fixed" after simply handling the wire harness, I propped up the playfield so that I could re-attach the apron, put the playfield back down, powered on, and F2 blew again.

I'll try pulling 2j13 and the drop target reset tip after I pick up a few dozen more fuses and report back. Thanx again....

Finding a 2.5A SB fuse locally proved fruitless - nobody carries them where I'm at (Lowes, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Radio Shack Express). All were happy to order me some, but no one stocked them. Pack of 10 arrived from Amazon today so I resumed troubleshooting.

- All coils moved freely when testing by hand. None stuck.
- None of the four target banks reset at power on.
- Before I tried pulling 2j13, I decided to do the following:

I thought back to when this started - I lifted the playfield to clean a contact in the turnaround (it would register a ball going thru about 50% of the time). After cleaning the contact and putting the playfield back down, that's when F2 started blowing. I went thru three fuses without moving the playfield. Then I lifted the playfield again to inspect coils and coil wires. In that process, I moved a cable harness around and put the playfield back down. I went thru the manual coil test one by one, all firing correctly. I lifted the playfield again to retrieve a flashlight I left in the cabinet (too far back to reach thru the coin door) and re-attach the apron, put the playfield down, and F2 blew again. This was all on Tuesday.

Flash forward to today now that I have some more fuses. I thought about the correlation between the cable harness moving and the solenoid fuse blowing coupled with knowing that none of the coils are stuck and all seem to be free-moving. I took a closer look at the cable harness location and decided to route it to the left of the transformer next to/on top of the cage instead of leaving it hanging/dragging on top of the components next to it (see photo). Since doing that, the game has played for 2+ hours without an issue, and I've lifted and laid back down the playfield several times. Note: the transformer has a very noticeable "hum" to it...pretty loud when you first turn the game on, then quiets down within a couple seconds, but still significantly louder than my EBD machine. Transformer looks original.

Next step is to rebuild/replace the transformer, but in the meantime BK is back to being playable.
Wiring Harness Move 02a (resized).jpg

I'm starting a topside tear down of my BK today to put in a new playfield protector. How to I remove the upper playfield, or at least move it high enough to get at the turnaround? I've removed what looks to be the screws holding it in, but it still doesn't budge. Thanx in advance...

Thanx, guys. Very helpful and I was able to get the upper playfield up enough to get at the turnaround. Playfield protector is in, and I'm quite pleased. I put it mainly to overcome the multitude of cupped inserts and it sure did...balls roll much truer now, no bizarre change of directions. I needed to make a few mods/shims to keep the balls from hopping when hitting the ramps, but all in all this is a great improvement. I can post some before and after pictures if anyone is interested....it looks like my semi-decent playfield has been clear coated.

I'm encouraged enough now that I'll probably do my Eight Ball Deluxe tonight as well. That should be much easier/simpler than BK.

Same here - I have a Cliffy in my upper playfield ball lock and no issues ejecting the ball out. In fact it's help cut down tremendously the "fly through" I used to experience when the first ball goes into the lock and it's traveling fast enough that it doesn't stay in and lock, it just flies through. Before the Cliffy, that would happen about half the time. After the Cliffy install, it happens maybe 1 time out of 50.

I used the one from these guys:

https://www.playfield-protectors.com/Home/Details/a--hn8cHiUai1PzL150V-g?categoryid=22&category=Playfield%20Protectors&name=Black%20Knight%20%7C%201980

They're in Germany, but they ship FAST. I ordered it over their holiday shutdown (they posted they were closed for a couple of weeks and would resume shipping on 09JAN). Mine shipped from Germany on 10JAN and it was at my door 15JAN.

Correct - that protector is non-adhesive and can be easily removed with no damage at all to the playfield. It's held in place by the way it hugs some of the surrounding topside hardware. You remove the plastics, rubbers, wire guides, flippers/shafts, ramps, and the like then lay it in place, then put your stuff back. You do have to separate the upper playfield from the lower so that you can get enough access to the lower playfield turnaround and get the protector over that, but it wasn't too hard to do. That was my first playfield top-side tear down....took about 2 hours to tear it down (including 45 minutes trying to figure out how to separate the top playfield from the bottom), about 20 minutes to put in the protector, and about an hour to put everything back.

Tips:
- Clean your playfield after it's torn down and make sure it's dry and dust free. Do not wax or it'll make the underside of the protector look smudgy.
- Lay the protector down without peeling off the top or bottom protective strips. Make sure it's going to go in/fit.
- Wear rubber gloves when laying it down. Getting fingerprints on top of the playfield is fine...they're easily wiped away. But you don't want to get fingerprints on the underside...it'll drive you nuts when you see them during game play and the only way to get rid of them is to tear everything down (again), lift out the protector, and wipe it clean.
- The ramp bottoms will sit a little lower than the playfield...the ball may hop or even get stuck there if it's going slow enough. Cut off some unused/unseen excess protector from an edge (scissors work) and use that as shims to put under the ramp bottoms and bring them up to the same level of the protector.
- I did not have to adjust the height of the drop targets - they still worked fine after install. Some people have reported that they needed to raise their drop targets a bit to accommodate the higher playfield with the protector.

Kris

That looks really nice....and I'm tempted. Oy....decisions, decisions. I'm putting a hard top on my Mata Hari restoration now so the timing is bad! I just put a playfield protector on my BK and it's a dramatic improvement on play (cupped inserts). I'll get back to you if it's still available after I think about it a bit.

The bayonet lamp socket in that pop bumper is really fragile. I had a similar problem - when I got my BK, the bumper itself was functional but not the light no matter if I put in an LED or incan. I wound up replacing the socket with a wedge type.

Pop bumpers are kind of a pain - you indeed need access to the underside of the playfield to unsolder/clip the old lamp socket (the leads feed thru the topside of the playfield to the underside) and to solder in a replacement one. Do a "pop bumper replacement" search on YouTube and you'll see several video examples of the procedure. The procedure is basically the same no matter if it's Bally, Williams, etc.

popbumper.jpg

Before tearing apart the pop bumper, there are a few things you could also try:

1: If you have a spare lamp socket (any socket) you could desolder the lamp socket pins currently in the machine, alligator clip the lamp wires to the spare socket, and see if the lamp lights.
2: If the spare socket lights, you know the wiring is good and be sure that there's something wrong with the pop bumper lamp socket.
- If you get lucky, it's a cold solder joint and re-reflowing the solder on the pop bumper lamp socket makes it work again.
- If reflowing the solder doesn't help, you need to take the pop bumper apart and replace the socket
3: If the spare socket doesn't light, perhaps you have a broken wire or corroded pin in a connector. Confirm where the wire goes with the schematic, check for point to point continuity, and repin the connector header if necessary.

I like leaving it on - during the rare times my son and I play at the same time, it reminds me of my youth when I'd compete with my friends in the arcade.

New personal best this afternoon - set to 3 ball play and picked up 3 extra balls along the way. Maxxed out the bonus on 3 of the 6 balls. Took 25 minutes. The bell was ringing so long and so often the wife was yelling from upstairs "what the heck is going on down there???".

New PB.jpg

I'll be curious to know if/how you track this down. My BK blows F2 every once in while - it's done it 3 times in the last 2 months (almost daily use). The first time I encountered this it blew F2 every time I power on, 5 or 6 times in a row, until I pulled the playfield cables up out of the cab area away from the transformer cage and up into the backbox. My voltages are within the norm on the power supply.

What's the difference between regular and glitter versions? I couldn't find a description your website.

Even tho they have repair prices posted on their website, I was sad to learn this weekend that The Coin-Op Cauldron no longer repairs early Bally MPUs even if they're free of corrosion and previous non-professional repairs. Here's a portion of the email I got after I inquired about sending one in:

"We no longer repair -17 or -35 CPU boards due to their age and always recommend Altek boards as a replacement."

They still do Williams boards, so you may still be in luck!

Looks like it may be A-11622. Out of stock at Marco's, tho. https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-11622

Mine has that, too. I've seen it on every BK - no idea what it is/was for.

Right here. I also bought that "missing" piece about a year ago and I still haven't put it on yet! Next tear-down and wax, I'll get it on there....

BK Missing Plastic.jpg

Nice. How well did your hardtop installation go? Did you have to make any modifications? I put one in my Mata Hari a few months ago and it went great - only issues with fit was that I needed to dremel out several holes in the hardtop that were mis-aligned and a couple that were missing altogether. I'm thinking about putting one in my Black Knight now, but I'm worried about the smoothness of the transitions from the base of the ramps and the hardtop (as demonstrated in Cary Hardy's YouTube video) and my limited abilities to overcome them.

How was the alignment of the hardtop insert areas over the inserts themselves? Any bare wood showing or did you paint around the inserts first before applying the hardtop as insurance?

Those are decals on your cab and not a stencil repaint? Where did you get the cab decals?

Maybe for someone not experienced with paint work and the typical pitfalls (sourcing the correct colors, having a place to paint, overspray, drips, equipment - use cans or compress air?, time, potential for screwing up a layer and needing to start over, clearing, etc) applying a vinyl decal is attractive if there is no significant cabinet repair work needed. I myself would think about it if the economics worked out in the decal's favor and the end result had the look and feel of a modern Stern pin. The one pin I stenciled a while back took me over three weeks to do while I combated weather and temperature conditions and the little painting hiccups that you encounter along the way. I don't see more than a couple hours of work applying 5 decals (cabinet sides, backbox sides, and cabinet front) including trimming.

That would be this one - indeed a gorgeous example with a lot of nice little touches (blacked out chrome pieces, black flippers with purple rubber, black targets, black pop bumper skirt, and black powder-coated lockdown bar, legs, etc). I played it a lot, and interestingly the wireform across the playfield didn't bother my view.
IMG_5410.JPGIMG_5411.JPG

Andy_B - Did you have any issues with the smoothness of the transitions from the base of the ramps and the BK hardtop (as demonstrated in Cary Hardy's BK hardtop installation YouTube video series)? He got the transition smooth with epoxy to raise the ramp bases, shaving/trimming the epoxy, and shims, but with my somewhat limited skills in this area I'm worried about that part of the install if this common. Without making that transition smooth, the ball could hop going up or coming down the ramp, or (if floating slow enough in that area) get caught and stuck there.

Here's a 4-part series of videos documenting a hardtop install on a Black Knight. The hardtop install I did on my Mata Hari came out fantastic....I think the artwork looks awesome and I'm looking forward to taking the hardtop plunge on my Black Knight soon.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Barring that, I picked up a sheet of this last year for $10 - has come in handy with hardtop and playfield protector installs. Just cut out the shims you need:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015H2UMS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00

I'm hoping that shims alone will take care of the BK ramp transitions. I'll probably take on that hardtop install project later this summer.

Thanx for the encouragement! I do tend to over-think stuff like this - I'll get it in my head that the pin is working 100% great now and worry that I'll ruin it and won't be able to get it all back together after I've taken it all apart. I hit road blocks along the way doing my first hardtop on a Mata Hari and got by them, and looking back it really wasn't so bad. Research and patience, research and patience.

I haven't bought the BK hardtop yet so maybe mine will come with extra pieces. I'll probably buy it later this summer...I'm working on Black Jack project at the moment. Got it functionally working 100% - playfield is a bit faded but not in terrible shape for 40 years old. The big challenge with this project is that it'll be my first cabinet repair and paint.

I have this same bricking problem on my BK upper playfield targets. I've tried different size springs, different targets, and even raising the targets. I more or less gave up and now treat that as a type of skill shot....hit those targets softer and/or at an angle.

I got my BK about a year ago. When I got it, all that was needed were some leaf switch adjustments, some new bulbs (I wound up going with color matched LEDs), and flipper rebuilds to turn it into a nice player. It's been working fine since.

I finally decided to take care of one thing that's been bugging me since I got it - no coin slot lights to illuminate the red "Quarters" plate. One of the previous owners cut it out...literally. No lamp socket on the coin door, and I found two cut wires in the harness (solid yellow and yellow striped with white) that I assumed was for the coin slot lamp.

So, I spliced in some new wire, ran them to a spare lamp socket and mounted it, and sure enough the slot is now lit. Nice! My question:

When the lights on the pin go out during attract mode, and when they flash during the launching of multiball, the coin slight lamp does the same. Is that correct, or should the coin slot light remain illuminated solid during these times? I'm thinking that it's supposed to flash/go out like the other GI lights, but I honestly don't remember the coin slight light behaving like that when I was younger and playing BK in the arcades.

Hmm...interesting. I'll trace those wires back later this evening and see where they originate from. My schematics don't show the coin door, either...need to search around the internet for them.

epeabs - I don't suppose you could look at the lamp socket on your coin door for me? I'm wondering if there's supposed to be a capacitor across it - I looked on ipdb.com but still can't find a schematic or wiring diagram for the coin door. I checked a few different ~1980 Williams games on there including BK but none had the coin door.

Thanx for the info, @epeabs. It's going to take a bit more sleuthing on my part.

I do have that cabinet wiring diagram in my stack of paperwork...I had dismissed it earlier because at first glance, it looked to be all switches and no lamps. It wasn't until I looked at it closer after you posted it that there's a GI lamp circuit toward the bottom with three lamps - that must be the coin door slots. No indication of any caps there, either.

I'm wondering if there is something special with the lamp socket itself. Thanx to your picture of the inside of the coin door, I can see that your lamp sockets look different than the lamp sockets on the playfield (at least on my playfield). The lamp socket I'm using on my BK coin door is a spare I had from one of my older Bally games (my BK had no lamp sockets in the coin door when I bought it last year). Maybe the Williams coin door lamp sockets have some sort of capacitance built into the base? I'll do some more digging, and I may still try putting a cap on the suspect lamp socket leads just to see what it does, if anything.

Thanx again....

These are nice: https://classicplayfields.com/shop/pinball-backglasses/black-knight/

I've got a Mayfair one myself and can vouch for how good it looks. Didn't think he was still selling them, tho!

BK.jpg

Looks to be in nice shape, too. I don't see much playfield wear at all....that's rare. The yellow skirt on the upper playfield pop bumper is a nice touch...I've seen only white ones there before (including mine).

Mine's centered....

BK01 (resized).jpg

I put a Cliffys in the upper playfield ball trough - cut down fly-throughs by at least 90%.

OK, I'll talk about it.

Yikes....what's up with that?

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I got a BK hardtop a couple of months ago for a winter project. I've put in hardtops previously for my Mata Hari and EBD...the colors have always looked vibrant to me (not the scanned/reprinted look). Here's the bottom playfield for BK....the colors might look slightly muted because the protective plastic layer is still on. When you peel it off after it's installed (as I've experience on MH and EBD), the colors really pop.

HT01 (resized).jpg

FWIW, I was getting the 2500-4 code consistently on my BK last year. I was told that's usually indicative of memory problems. My board still had the original battery on it, and after I removed it and replaced the memory chip with a socketed Weebly NVRAM I haven't had that error code since.

In a couple of months, I'm going to be doing a complete teardown of my BK and installing a hardtop. For those of you who have done BK restorations or deep shop jobs, would you by chance have a list of all the playfield lamp socket part numbers and counts for the various types? I've got many "lazy" lamp sockets in my BK and figure I'll just replace them during this process and have enough on hand to do them all if necessary.

If you have a list already, it would save me much research through part manuals and I'd be much obliged if you'd share. Thanx!

I was getting "2500 4" (indicating some sort of memory error) on my BK last year myself. Changing batteries did not help. The machine was new to me and I wanted to convert to NVRAM anyway, so I did and that made the "2500 4" error go away. Since changing the batteries didn't help initially and now it works with an aftermarket NVRAM solution, I can only assume that one of the CMOS RAM chips on my MPU is bad.

Welcome to the club! Lots of dirt, but that playfield doesn't look too bad! Very little wear, and hardly any at the Magna Saves (which usually have white marks or bare wood showing at the center of the green).

If you start a resto thread, please be sure to post here so we can follow along with your progress!

Maybe the dirt protected the playfield from wear, lol.

It may take some searching around, but you should have that gate for the middle ramp. It looks like this:

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/12-6505

Marco's is out of stock on it but I haven't looked at any more places.

More importantly, do you have the hardware/bracket for the gate or is that missing as well? On the underside of the playfield in that area...is the wiring and switch for the gate present/disconnected? That's what tells the game to award the Bonus/Mystery scores....the ball goes up the ramp and enters the upper playfield passing thru the gate, the gate activates the switch, and scores.

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You can find a lot of good stuff here: http://www.pinballrebel.com/pinball/cards/

If you're looking at a project to buy now, have you noticed anything blatantly damaged or missing?

Backglass and plastics can be gotten from CPR. Drop targets, most playfield parts from Marcos and other sources. CPR used to have playfields but they're out of stock now....be willing to bet they'll make another run in the future. In the meantime, Micro still has playfields I think. Another playfield option is Outside Edge's hardtop - applies right over your existing playfield and make it look (and play) like new. Reese Rails makes beautiful looking rails for BK if yours are old and ratty (like most originals are).

Magna-Save assemblies, if you need them, might be hard to come by from the regular shops but I see them pop up on pinside parts once in a while. Same for power transformers.

If there are issues with any of the boards and they can't be repaired, there are clone options out there (expensive) so unless it's totally acid damaged, it's usually best to stick with the originals and have them professionally repaired/updated if that's out of your wheelhouse.

Credit button.

After 2 years of procrastination, I'm finally getting around to restoring my player's condition Black Knight. If you're interested in following, my resto thread is here:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/1980-black-knight-player-s-condition-to-something-better

Here's a picture if you need it.

IMG_1494 (resized).jpg

I've lost the two hard, foam-like "stoppers" that are attached to the Playfield Glass Channel. Would anyone happen to know the dimensions of these blocks so I can try to recreate them? Or better yet, if you have a couple spares I'd be glad to buy them and save me the hassle of remaking them. Thanx!

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If it helps, here's mine.....

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I'm refreshing the tilt board in my BK while repainting the cabinet, and I noticed a leg broken on the cap for the bell switch. I've had the machine a couple of years and never experienced any bell issues, but none the less I'm going to replace the cap.

Can anyone suggest a suitable replacement cap? Best I could find so far is this but I'm not 100% sure:
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Vishay-BC-Components/S104Z93Z5VL83L0R?qs=MZE%2F3ll%252Bp%2Fba6C%252BzoK7Jpg%3D%3D

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I think I can use this guy: https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/C.1M500VR

I've never tried doing that while the mech is still in the machine, but I have found during my BK restore that the drop target mechs are much simpler and easier to disassemble/reassemble vs. early Bally and early Stern (IMO).

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Marcos. $12 for a complete set. https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/30-7603

Same here. I'm in the middle of a BK restore as I type.....hardtop/playfield finished, working on the cabinet now. Can't wait to play it again!

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I also use a small piece of foam like Michel_K17 which does radically reduce the fly-throughs. Cliffy makes a protector for that edge and I put one in my BK as well....that, along with the foam piece, pretty much eliminates all fly-throughs. Every once in a while, if I hit it just right and wicked hard, it'll still fly through but it's rare. I say maybe 1 or 2 times out of a hundred.

Here's a shot of my Cliffy before I tore down my BK for restoration. And yes, I removed the protective film from the Cliffy during the restoration, lol.

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Looking for some ideas on what might be wrong with my newly-restored Black Knight. I've had a players condition BK for a few years now and it's been great other than cosmetic condition - first thing I did when I got it was bullet proof the boards, rebuilt all 4 flippers, and fixed an intermittent grounding problem in the lower cab. After that, it was a solid player for years.

I spent the last several months tearing everything apart to clean/rebuild assemblies, fix and repaint the cab, and put down a new hardtop. The pin looks terrific now and I started flipping games last night. I'm in the final stages of tweaking things now that everything is put back together and working.

Here's the last issue on my punch list: my left flipper no longer has the "ooomph" to get up either of the two right ramps. Ball gets just about to the top of the middle ramp before rolling back and maybe up to the halfway point on the right-most ramp. Sometimes if the ball is coming down the left inlane fast enough and I time it right, I can get the ball up the right ramps. But from a position where I'm holding the ball with the left flipper and then let it roll down, there is just not enough energy to make it up those right ramps. I used to be able to fly that ball up there without a problem before I tore the pin down for the restore. And after the restore, the right flipper can get the ball up the big left ramp with relative ease (and it can even backhand the ball up the middle ramp).

I rebuilt the flippers a few years ago and they still look good - the only thing I changed during this restore is I put on new flipper bats since the originals had cracks in them (OEM Williams, same size/type/style as the original). And of course a new rubber set. Here's what I've checked for the left flipper:

- EOS switch is operating properly, i.e. the coil is at full power when you hit the flipper button and then the EOS disengages for the lower voltage hold power.
- The EOS switch is not kicking in too early, i.e. the switch contact points become separate at the very last point where the flipper is fully extended.
- There is no drag of the flipper across the playfield.
- Voltages look correct across the coil lugs for rest, initial flip, and hold
- I've tried various set positions of the flipper bat thinking maybe the flipper angle would affect hit power (it didn't in this case)
- I cleaned the contact points on the cabinet flipper switch

The SFL-19 400/30-750-DC left flipper coil looks like it's the original. Do coils get "tired" after 42 years (I don't think so)? Could it be the coil?

Thanks in advance for any additional insight...

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The bat isn't dragging on the playfield if that's what you mean? I've got about a credit card width of clearance there.

Wait, I think I know what you're saying now. I will check when I get back home this afternoon.

This is starting to get frustrating. Additional steps taken (thank you @gjm7777, @zacaj, @billc479):

- There is 1mm of play pulling up vertically on the left flipper with 1mm between the bat and the bushing
- All four flippers have new switches for the coil
- Even tho it was clean and less than 3 years old, I replaced the coil sleeve for the left flipper
- Cabinet flipper switches cleaned with alcohol and a burnishing tool
- 3J3 reseated several times. The male headers on the PCB were replaced a few years ago during board bullet proofing. Female connector looks good and clean, no corrosion, looseness in the pins, or burn marks on the connector.

I thought I might've been on to something when I noticed that the there was slightly more tension from the left plunger spring vs. the right thinking that if there were less tension, perhaps it will flip harder. I still have the box of old parts from tear down, and I put the original plunger spring back in (indeed, the spring that came with the rebuild kit was a little longer). But even with the original, less-tension plunger spring, I still can't get the ball all the way up the middle or right ramps to the upper playfield.

The SFL-19 400/30-750-DC left flipper coil looks like it's the original. Do coils get "tired" after 42 years (I don't think so)? Could it be the coil?

Staple repairs/hacks by previous owners resulted in some unstable (loose) ground connections at the two circled areas where multiple ground straps came together. If any of the ground braiding in that area moved or were touched at all, the game would reset. This occurred most often if the playfield was lifted into the service position with the game on. During game play, a decent nudge would also trigger the game reset.
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During the restore, I ran all new ground braids and made sure all points of connections were secure.
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I gave cleaning the switches at the flipper coils a shot, no change.

Earlier I tried cleaning up the cabinet left flipper switch as well....but it still looks 40 years old and could be suspect (tho it worked before the restore).
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Anyway, I don't have the right parts on hand to build a Make-Make double flipper switch stack so I ordered a new one tonight....probably will have it in hand by Thursday. After that....I'm not sure what the next move would be if I still can't make it up the middle and right ramps.

I was thinking the same thing (swapping coils around) while I'm waiting for a new cab flipper switch. I'll probably give that a go tomorrow night.

I don't have BK leveled at the moment - just finished getting all the rollover switches working, rebuilding the pop bumper (I neglected to do that during the tear down) and now getting this last, finicky flipper to work. Last bit to do is the disassembly/clean/polish/rebuild the coin door. I'll start that after I get this flipper fixed.

When I had BK running in my rec room as a player, I kept the slope at 6.4 which is just about the max I can go with the old leg levelers I had on it. But....after a few test games the other night with the game back together, I may experiment with 5.5-6.0 as it is wicked-fast now with the hardtop. No more floaty ball action.

In fact, now that you mention it, I have brand new leg levelers on the powder coated legs now and they're maxed in the back and lowest in the front. I don't know what the slope is currently since I haven't checked....if these levelers are higher than my previous ones, perhaps I'm > 6.4 and maybe that's another variable for "not getting up the ramp". I'll have to look into that tomorrow.

If you want to check out the restoration, I have a thread on it (https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/1980-black-knight-player-s-condition-to-something-better).

Well, so much for that. My new leg levelers are actually shorter than the originals, and with the back maxed and the front all the way down, the slope (measured on the playfield, not the glass) is only 5.2. Even at 5.2, the hardtop is playing wicked fast with no floaty ball action. But at only 5.2, I don't think the slope is playing a part in the ramp issue.

Back to swapping L/R flipper coils to see if the issue follows the coil or stays with the left flipper while waiting for the new cab flipper switch stack to come in.

I'm willing to try anything at this point and 3J3 is only 9 pins. If I get some time tonight, I'll give it a shot.

Well, I couldn't wait - it's only 6 pins on a 9-pin connector so it took me only a few minutes to repin the 3J3 IDC connector to Molex. No improvement. Will try swapping L/R flipper coils tonight, fingers crossed that or the new cab flipper switch (which will arrive by Friday) will be the answer.

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Interesting development for those of you following my weak lower left flipper saga in my recent posts here....

I put a piece of paper between the contacts for the left upper flipper so that it does not engage, and now I can consistently make shots up the middle ramp with the lower left flipper. It's as if the switch for the upper left flipper is "stealing power" from the lower left flipper. I still can't make it up the right ramp all the way (it's better), but there's something definitely going on with that left flipper cab switch stack that cleaning and burnishing won't rectify.

USPS tracking says new switch stack arrives Thursday. Crossing my fingers.

If that works (and it probably would) that's good for getting up the middle ramp now, but I still can't get all the way up the right ramp even with the upper flipper switch contact blocked off entirely. Hoping the brand new switch gives me more power, Scotty. I'm givin' 'er all she's got now.

I think that's my next move if the new cab switch doesn't help my issue...

There is an end to my weak flipper saga! But it's not what I thought it would be....

New cab flipper switch arrived today, I swapped it out for the old and crusty one, AND......same weak flipper problem.

Just to cover all the bases, when I bought the new switch I also put a new flipper coil in my basket. And after the new switch didn't resolve the problem, I figured what the hell - I took out the 42 year old coil, put in the new one, and bam....there's so much author-A-TIE in that left flipper now I'm getting up the middle and right ramps with EASE. And not just the middle and right ramps....in my practice game, I even backhanded the ball up the long left ramp with that left flipper with power to spare. And to top it off on that backhanded shot....the Extra Ball light was lit at the top of the ramp and off went the bell. Couldn't be happier.

I'm sure the original coil is fine - coils don't go weak. If anything, if a coil starts to fail, the resistance will go down and the coil will get stronger or short out / fry. Resistance won't be added.

So the issue, in all likelihood, was the coil sleeve (the new coil came with a new sleeve which of course I left in when I installed it). I rebuilt these flippers a couple years ago and when I rebuild flippers, of course I always put in new coil sleeves. Except apparently in this case, I did not. And now, 2 years later, I had assumed I did back then. So during this triage, I didn't bother to check.

Well...the end of that coil sleeve at the coil stop is indeed a bit mangled. And mangled just enough that it's putting just enough drag on the plunger to sap a little bit of power.

This is one I won't forget! Appreciate the help and advise along the way, guys.

Next up: restoring the coin door and then this project is done.

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Here are some lighting mods I did on my BK during a refurb/resto.

Even tho the LED strips were warm white, I still wound up putting a dimmer on to tone them down a bit more:
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I also found an unused hole in the upper playfield (at least it was unused on my original playfield) so I put a socket and LED there:
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I went with Reese Rails (in black) instead of the original blonde. This pic was before I put in the brightness control for the Comet LED strips:
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Overall really happy with the way it turned out. Ironically, it's not complete yet - I have the coin door parts still out for powder coating. I'm using alligator clips to coin up / start a game in the meantime, lol.
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I think you're right! Here's a pic from my original tear down - the red arrow is the original empty hole (at least it was empty on my original playfield) that I used for the LED strip wiring, and the green arrow is the hole (under the guide) where the original wire loom came up for those three GI lights.

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Here's the post: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/black-knight-clubmembers-only/page/25#post-4543759