Hey everybody!
I've been given the task of restoring a BK for a friend, and it looks to be quite a project. I've done some pf restoration in the past, so that's not terrifying to me, but the first thing I noticed on this game is that most of the inserts have sunken badly. So, that's a ton of work right there...I was hoping there would be an insert kit available but haven't been able to turn anything up. Are there resources out there for this?

Those look great! I'd say the one where the graphic is up highest looks best to my eye. Share the file?

Oh holy CRAP, I was just replying to your initial post of the knight head. Those "triptych" ones are KILLER.

The BK I have currently is for a friend; I tried to talk him into going with a hardtop, but instead he opted to track down a CPR. New plastics, even! I'm gonna do the pf swap for him, and am *definitely* going to use your drop target decals.

It might be a while before I get to it, as I'm currently in the midst of restoring my F-14 and can only handle having one project going on at a time. But once I get in to it I will thoroughly document the process.

I don't know what he paid for the CPR but I'm willing to bet it was at least $1K. If it were me I'd absolutely have gone with a hardtop, they are clearly a far better option than those gross full playfield decals. Nice thing about the CPR, though, is I can take my time with trying to do a playfield restoration on what is there (not nearly so beat as a lot of other BKs I've seen). This guy just went with CPR as it would have been a comparable amount of labor to do a full restoration as doing a playfield swap.
Hardtops are a great looking product! I love that there's a relatively economical way to salvage old games that would otherwise have been considered goners.

Cabinet switch question...the game i'm working on has no capacitors on the cabinet switches. Were those introduced when flipper coils went to 50V? Is it a good idea to add capacitors anyway, and if so, which ones?

So, I'm coming to the end of a BK playfield swap, and have done all the things you're supposed to do but have no power to the right flippers. I can't figure it out and it's making me nuts!

There's current going to the switches, there's equal voltage to all 4 coils, I've got good continuity from the cabinet switches to the coils. The right flippers *initially worked*, but quickly died completely. I don't have the wiring reversed (Upper right - BLUE to banded side of diode, BLK/YEL to non-banded. Lower right - BLUE to banded side, BLU/VIO to non-banded), and the flipper fuse in the backbox is fine, as are the fuses under the playfield (checked continuity through the fuse holder to be sure the old holders were getting good contact. They are.)

The boards are new. I have also done a continuity check from the power lug back to the driver board, and from the ground lug at the cabinet switch back to the board, just to be sure there wasn't a problem with the connectors themselves. Also have continuity in those places.

I am completely stumped. It's probably something dead simple staring me in the face, but I've checked through all the things I can think to. Very strange problem. Help?

Neither. They seemed fine for a few flips (I just plugged in the playfield to the cabinet for the first time since the swap last night, but the playfield is still on the rotisserie). Then *poof*, they just completely died.
The switches are brand new and I've checked the soldering on them (solid), and the wires are on the correct lugs. I got continuity when checking connections to the board as well, but I suppose in theory if the connectors at the boards aren't making good contact I could try replacing them. It feels like I'm chasing my tail at this point, though.

I powered upnthe game today, and all of a sudden both sides are flipping just fine.
Weird. I assume it won't last.

I need to test resistance along the wiring, but this makes me think there's a damaged wire. When I first took the game in, the RH flippers weren't working, but the game was such a wreck I figured it just needed new boards and rebuilt flippers. Interesting to note, only one flipper had been rebuilt (badly) - the lower right hand one. Which makes me think somebody tried a rebuild and then that didn't work and then they lost interest in the game.

My hypothesis is that the connectors between the upper and lower playfield put stress on the wire which may have broken internally, leading to flakey behavior. Either that or it's a cold solder joint at the coil lugs. If it's the former, I guess I'll be cutting through the zip ties and running a new wire to the coil.

OK, so, RH flippers still seem to be working, cool, and I've got the whole game re-assembled. But...now the stupid game will not start.

3 balls in trough. No stuck switches. Coin door closed. All switches working in switch test. Setting #18 set to 0. Game goes into test mode just fine. Boards are brand new. There shouldn't be a problem here.

WTF??

Brand new Shwimmer board. Unless it's defective, this should not be a problem.

Yep. Shouldn't me a matrix issue, as I have gone through and adjusted all the switches and verified that they are all registering in switch test mode. I always run the tests before putting the playfield into the cabinet.

It's driving me bonkers, as it's got to be something dead simple and stupid that is staring me in the face.

I *still don't know*, and am expecting the flippers to stop working again at any moment.
Just shooting the ball around, the flippers don't have enough power to get the ball all the way up the spinner ramp. I ordered replacement flipper assemblies from Pinball Life; the coils in there now are SFL 19-400/30-750. They're all dialed in nicely as far as EOS adjustment and the solder joints are good - should there be a more powerful coil in there?

Yep, I did the same. But for some reason, they are underpowered. Can barely make it up the right hand ramp, and can't make it around the spinner ramp at all. Somehow they aren't getting full power.

Yes, just trying them out while in switch test, since the flippers have power during the test.

All the switches are working, nothing stuck, tested them all with a ball. Have 3 balls in the trough.

Yes - all solenoids work. But press "start" and nothing happens.

It is showing 60 credits on the game, for some reason. I can manually hit the switch and add more - just did, now it's 61.
But when I go into the settings and go to #18, which shows zero in the player one display, I can't change it because...the start button isn't working. Same if you try to change setting anywhere else, like 3 ball vs. 5 ball. Nothing from the start button.
I reiterate, the button functions when I'm in switch test mode, I get the sound same as the rest of the switches.

This is making me crazy.

The power board is Rottendog and lists off all the games it is compatible with, so that's not really relevant. The CPU/Drivers are Schwimmer and unless I'm missing something it simply depends on what ROMS you have installed.

Yep. How's that for maddening?

Initially I had *no power at all* to the RH flippers. Was puzzled by this, then, magically, they started working again. I've checked all solder points and they're good, nothing loose. They have continued to work, but they are clearly not getting full power.

I've surmised that the problems I'm having are most likely the connections to the board.
If you're observant, your game will tell you its history...the righthand flippers had been "rebuilt" (meaning they messily swapped in new parts, but the flippers weren't set up or adjusted very well), which leads me to believe a previous owner with a little knowledge but not much technical finesse was trying to address their flipper power issue by rebuilding. (A defensible first course of action - though every old game needs the flippers rebuilt no matter what, so...) Anyhow, now that the boards have been replaced and the flipper assemblies are also brand new including cabinet switches, the only remaining original parts in that circuit are the wiring and the board connectors.
So far in my pinball maintenance/restoration, I've just been lucky or inherited nice board work from a previous owner. But those IDC connectors are an obvious failure point, especially on a 38 year old game which was stored in a wet environment. I've ordered new connectors and pins from GPE, and am planning to pin all the wires and change out all connections. I'll report back on the result next week!

Clive RULES. So often I see people struggling over board issues, and god love 'em, if they get something out of that process. But I have sent boards to Clive on several occasions and his thoroughness is without peer. Old boards need rebuilding by somebody who is solid on it. I send people his way all the time!

Allan is also great! (Says another Pinsider from MA). And he is very generous with his knowledge. Allan has walked me through problems over the phone more than once. And he diagnoses board issues for free all weekend at Pintastic New England!

Following up on my previous posts:

OK, this BK is now fully operational!
Flippers: everything works now that I have replaced the IDC connector with pinned connectors. Vid's right; everybody should plan to do this on games of this vintage.

Weird switch issue: this is bizarre. Somebody tinkered with some wiring somewhere along the line, and I had wiring going to the wrong place. Swapped out the wires and voila, everything is fine now.

Will post some photos soon. If anybody reading this is able to visit western MA, the game will soon be available to play at Mystic Pinball in Turners Falls, MA. (Currently available to play at my shop, 7 minutes away in Greenfield MA). It's pretty sweet; freshly clear coated CPR playfield, everything cleaned and adjusted nicely. I haven't played a functional BK since I was 10 years old, so this is really satisfying.

Thanks to all those who chimed in to help me out. I definitely learned some new stuff working on this machine!

Ooh, didn't know about that...saves the transistors, does it?

Did you replace the IDC connectors at the switch row and column connectors to the board? I had issues with some switches not registering after I had tested them all and found them working, then realized those connections to the board weren't making consistent contact. I had been reluctant to do those over because the IDC's have a number of "pass-through" contacts, but Allan advised me to go ahead and crimp 2 wires into one Trifurcon, just do both crimps on the wire and don't worry about crimping the insulation. Works just great.

Question: When the ball comes tearing down the righthand ramp, and you have to stop it with the RH flipper, do you find that the flipper "gives" a little? It doesn't seem like it should, but I'm new to these 28V flippers so maybe that is normal with really high speed impact?

Hey, just realized I never followed up on my flipper power issue back a while ago...the game I was working on had tons of corrosion at the IDC connectors, so I replaced them all, which eliminated some of the problem. But, the *lower* flippers still felt sluggish. The problem area turned out to be on the pins of the block connector between the upper and lower play fields.

There's no good way to replace both the male and female pins, short of replacing the whole connector plug and every pin. The guy I was doing the work for didn't want to get into all that unless it was really necessary, so we took a small file to the pins and wiped them clean with alcohol, rinse, repeat, like that. It worked! Game plays solidly now.

So, if you have any issues with your BK, don't make the mistake I did and fail to consider those playfield connectors! Major potential failure point!

Another avenue to consider is getting your playfield clear coated. This depends on your being able to find someone who will do it, but a woodworking shop or auto body shop - any place with a spray booth - would probably be willing to help you out.

It isn't a whole lot more work than what's involved in installing a playfield protector, and you get the advantage of a playfield where the art has been locked down (no flaking paint, for example, especially if your playfield has any planking), and if you ever want to restore the playfield, you've got step one taken care of and can play the game without deteriorating it further.

I have a playfield protector on my Diner because I was curious to try it out, and it really does play nicely. They seem to take a while to "break in", I think because of a residue from the film you have to peel off. I keep mine waxed; many people would debate me on it, but it definitely makes a difference in terms of speed - but the downside of the protectors is any dirt or hair (or stray wax) that gets under the protector is there to stay until you depopulate the playfield again and pull up the protector to clean. So, to my mind, shooting the playfield with clear is a tidier solution, but you have to be able to spray the clear safely.

From the "too much information" file...

Nothing wrong with that...I like going for full restoration, but my *VERY* player's condition PinBot is as much fun to play as my totally restored F-14. People who visit are always surprised by that!
"She may not look like much but she's got it where it counts" and all that...

Local cabinet maker? I could build you one but I'm in Massachusetts.

The value of BK lies in how much we enjoy playing it.