Black Knight
Williams, 1980
Black Knight Limited Edition
Williams, 1981You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider vec-tor.
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Quoted from frunch:Otherwise, it's plunge/lock ball 1... Plunge/lock ball 2... Plunge/lock ball 3... Multiball! Too easy
One must remember, the game was on location at 3 balls
and 50 cents per game. Setting the game to 5 balls makes
the features seem easy. Adj.#37 was for 5 balls.
Note: for those upgrading trough assemblies
----- change the ball kickout plunger to the
----- slightly longer one that is used on games
----- like Addams Family. ( Top and bottom ).
----- This upgrade will save the playfield from
----- the ball pounding while the ball is ejected
----- from its locks. You might have to have
----- the plunger made from old flipper used
----- stock.
Quoted from mof:Who are these people?
Any buddy how bought or acquired a Williams Black Knight and or
a Williams Fire Power that did not have the upgrade kit installed
back in the 1980's when they were available from the distributors.
Quoted from Farmboss:Does anyone know the recommended playfield angle?
From the factory, the Black Knight was not a steep game.
The game had short leg levers on the back as well as the front.
Quoted from gutz:I am in the market for a unpopulated used lower playfield that is restorable, and possibly an upper. My lower playfield is too far gone, but my upper might be salvageable.
Hopefully, there might be an overlay for the game.
Quoted from hawknole:I have purple, purple/blue, purple/orange, purple/black & purple/gray. If someone could kindly check the order of their purple wires at the top I would greatly appreciate it. Apologies for my stupidity.
O.K. .....
pin 18 Violet commas 1 & 2
pin 17 Violet-Blue strb 14
pin 16 Violet-Black strb 15
pin 15 Violet-orange strb 11
pin 14 Violet-Gray strb 16
Quoted from Black_Knight:The uppers are wired directly to the lowers on the lower coil tabs.
The issue will be bad solder joints on the coil, the coil itself, or something mechanical.
Also, check the connector between the playfields and the cabinet flipper switches for bad contacts.
Quoted from frunch:Awesome, good to know! In the meantime i Frankenstein'd a couple brackets and came up with a working solution (for now at least):
Note: Change the plunger from 02-2364 to a 02-3407-2. You would thank me.
Quoted from Yelobird:the game will suddenly just reset?
Power supply caps & or flipper diodes.
It goes off when you get an extra ball, or when you collect bonus but you've already maxed your bonus.
+ multi-player games... one with the high score gets bonus round.
Quoted from Spacemanratso09:Don’t ever...I mean ever send a fucking backglass with Fedex
Ditto...I just lost a Ball Evil Knievel backglass.
Note: the company that supplied Williams with the color inserts and lane guides
----- from that time period went out of business in the early 80's.
Note: Black Knight has four lamps not used....
------ Back box wiring color is mismatch for the lamps....
------ If done correctly maybe the "player 1-4" lights would work...
------ the holes are above the score displays.
Quoted from northvibe:the new cap uses screws.
Go to your electronic store and get some solder lugs...
Screw the lugs to the capacitor and then solder the wires to the lugs.
The size of each lug hole might be 8/32 or 10/32.
" ____ "
" ( 0 o ) "
" ----- "
Best I can do to draw on the key board.
Pinside editor changes the dimensions. 
Quoted from SpaceAce:WHAT is that horrible white dot on the left part of the apron about? Why white? Who thought that this was a good idea?
That is the credit indicator that is leftover from the EM period of pinball machines.
In some states to avoid gambling you had to coverup the credit display and only
have a credit lite to signal that you have a credit/credits on the game.... How many?...
You have to press the start button to find out.
Quoted from northvibe:seems like the wrong coil?
Ummmm... Yea.. 50volt coils on a 28 volt circuit.?????
Carefully tap the threaded bottom side with a hammer.
Then, you can use a round punch to get it through the playfield.
1) Check the bridge diodes... are they even ? or are some diodes way off?
2) Replace the caps that control the +5v reg. IC... The caps go bad causing irregular power ups.
Quoted from WonderMellon:The power supply caps were replaced less than a year ago. They are good.
What do you mean about checking the bridge diodes?
Sometimes a diode on the bridge gets to be leaky and lets AC voltage mix with the DC voltage.
The small power supply caps can go bad... Sometimes by bad manufacturing process.
You should have approximately +14.6 volt dc to the anode of D1.
You should have approximately +26.2 volts dc to pins 11&12 of IC 1.
You should have approximately +6.27 volts dc at pin 10 of IC 1.
IC 1 output:
Pin 2 approximately +4.95 dc
Pin 3 approximately +5.05 dc
Pin 4 approximately +5.02 dc
I would check the power supply with out the CPU/SND/Display boards plugged into the
--power supply.
You do not want to short and blowup any boards; it happened to me a very long time ago.
I had to change a capacitor that was already changed before... the game was spastic and
would not boot correctly...
Quoted from PinballConspiracy:Can somebody pls give me a lead for part number of plug type i need in my pic a few posts up where previous owner soldered wires to the power supply?
Thankyou!
You need to amend the GI wiring... The input connector, I believe, is no longer available.
Best to copy High Speed wiring setup.
1) Add one heavy duty wire to each existing ( white and yellow ) wire from the transformer to
--- power supply; four wires total.
- 1a) need a .93 heavy duty four pin Molex: male and female.
- 1b) remove input connector, and add for more extra wires to the input power board.
- 1c) again copy High Speed GI power setup.
2) get a four fuse, fuse-block. fasten to side of back box...
-2a) get a nine pin .93 connector with key pin; if possible.
-2b) add white-x wires to connector; this would be an extension of the GI wires...
-2c) fasten one OEM white-x wires to each fuse holder on fuse block.
-2d) add return white-x wires to the other end of fuse block.
-2e) again copy High Speed GI power setup.
3) remove 20 amp fuse from power supply and fuse clips.
- 3a) add jumper wire where old 20 amp fuse is located.
-3b) again copy High Speed GI power setup.
4) Add four 5amp slow-blow fuses to fuse-block.
Note: Check High Speed back box photos. Check High Speed manual.
Quoted from PinballConspiracy:Need part # information for this ball gate bracket please. .
[quoted image]
1) 12-6484 switch wire form rod.
2) 12-6505 roll under wire form actuator.
3) 01-6644 roll under bracket
Quoted from zacaj:Do the work in test?
Maybe a break with the common black ground to the switches?
Quoted from Turdbol:Does anyone know if this wire location is correct? I can't believe it would be. This is a wire from a GI light on the left side of the playfield. It illuminates here and then the two wires run right into the drop target and go under the playfield. Where should these wires really be located?![quoted image][quoted image]
Someones custom mod...No wires should ever come up from behind drop targets. 
If you like it...replace with longer wires and have it in a black sheathed and dress the wires
further back on the left side then under the playfield... If you want a "clean look" or you can
drill a small hole next to the first lamp socket and feed the wires up/down from that point
and tap back into the GI string. I used to do stuff like that many years ago...
Neat find.
Quoted from PinballConspiracy:I opted to go with Williams center plate instead of the Dollars yellow. was lucky to find one! My BK is also wired for a lamp socket in the middle but I came across some post on flippers.com about a recently found BK that was NIB! loved the pics and am restoring mine off what i can see there.
www.flippers.com/nib_bk.html
Thanks for posting... What a great ref. for a OEM Black Knight.
Thanks to flippers.com for documenting the game.
Maybe to make better contact to ground?
Maybe one wire has a male or female connector bad on the intermediate
connectors in the back box?
Quoted from EilersPark:Question: Is this Bumper Post supposed to be exposed or remain hidden behind the metal guides?
I adjusted mine so that the rubber bumper can be touched by the ball.
I believe I pushed the top side wall back a little, that helped expose the post.
Quoted from gutz:It doesn't look like factory wiring to me.
It is... The E.M. games had it too.
Quoted from Tomass:So should this have non ribbed legs like Firepower or the double ribbed legs like the system 11's?
1980's Black Knight has regular non-ribbed legs.
The first game by Williams to have any "ribbing" to the legs was High Speed 1985.
Quoted from HHaase:A LOT of variation due to quality control though.
True,true,true....Many subcontracted manufactures putting parts out to meet the demand.
Quoted from Michel_K17:Here's mine: 1/4" thick foam seal with sticky back. It prevents fly-throughs 99% of the time, so yours is better. Just using what I have around the house. [quoted image]
You have the upgraded micro switches! Excellent.
Quoted from KnockerPTSD:What is the proper pitch for these older titles?
Black Knight used the 2" leg levelers...
All of Williams double playfields had 2" leg levelers.
Quoted from HHaase:I never did get the original CPR plastics sets because I was afraid of removing the riveted standoffs from my originals, and I don't have any broken ones.
I hear you could just screw the plastic pieces on top of the metal return lanes.
Or, put the plastics on standoff and mount them with longer screws.
Quoted from frenchmarky:I figured putting them on top would be the way to do it, otherwise all you have is the plastic and I could see them getting chipped or broken by the ball. But maybe not since my EBD clear inlanes seems to hold up fine and plastics are sturdier than back then.
I always wanted to see what the return lanes would look like with the plastic mounted
with standoffs would look like. I know Williams had a metal bell spacer that was a low
profile than the normal sizes that are used on the games back then,
I have the size as 21/64" tall; Maybe someday.
Quoted from frenchmarky:Does anybody know if there is an actual backstory to these prototype plastics? All I have found is everybody just calls them prototypes. They weren't on the game on the flyer. Were they simply included in original replacement plastics sets by Williams and that's all anybody knows, or were they really used on a prototype at the factory and if so, how did they mount them (?) Seems strange that they were even produced to begin with, the other Wms games during that era only had the stainless steel return guides not plastic ones, nor decorative plastics on top. Might be more understandable if BK was the first to use steel guides and they'd put plastics on top to jazz them up but it caused issues so they dumped the idea for good. And then on top of it they print the friggin' things upside down, the whole thing is weird.
As far as I could remember, is that the plastics were extras and were flawed...
OEM parts were up side down... the parts are in the same category as the small
plastic that went to the top left of the playfield.
Production was high and it was faster to omit frivolous stuff. The game did not need it...
and if you did not know, you were not going to miss.
As with Williams High Speed... the game had helicopters that were on the playfield.
The production/sales engineer at the time, told me that the plastic would hit the side
of the cabinet and break. So out the part went... boost productivity and you omitted
the nag calls from distributors/operators.
Quoted from HHaase:I have a guess what that add-on board is for. I'm betting it eliminates the 2nd switches on the special solenoid controlled coils..... meaning the pop bumper and slingshots.
Two way to tell. One is to check if those spots still have the dual switches in place. Another would be to disconnect the board and see if those mechanisms still score points with it disconnected. Interesting concept for sure.
-Hans
That is what I was thinking...
I think it might have to do with the
coil stuck switch type stuff.
KnockerPTSD
Left wire are the flipper return ground.
2J12---2P12
pin 2 ORN-GRY
pin 1 ORN-VIO
Mounted to the back of the flipper relay
on the IO board.
Quoted from vec-tor:graysonsdad
Left wire are the flipper return ground.
2J12---2P12
pin 2 ORN-GRY
pin 1 ORN-VIO
Mounted to the back of the flipper relay
on the IO board.
That board is a switch doubler.
The drop targets are to be independent of each other.
They are now tied to each other.
There are no settings to make the drop targets extra easy.
Quoted from KnockerPTSD:I wrote Cliff an email about this upper guide piece. Anyone elses pretty mushroomed? Mine has alot of hop when hitting the rubber. A fast shot up the left ramp can hit the rubber and bounce straight down the centre ramp without touching the flipper. Curious if there are others that would be interested in replacing this piece.
[quoted image][quoted image]
Note: if you change the plunger to the top kickout to the medium size length,
( kickout that is used on Adams Family), it saves a lot of the wear and tear on the playfield.
Quoted from frunch:Do you have a part number for that plunger? I was looking in the Addams
Family operators guide and there's a few different kicker/kickout assemblies on it. Is it the one for the electric chair?
Edit: would a higher resistance coil be an alternative solution?
Ball Shooter Lane Feeder
pg. 2-18
item #5.
A-8050-1 Coil Plunger Assy, 2-1/8"
Quoted from frunch:does the GI circuit a 20 amp AGC/fast or an MDL/slow blow fuse?
OEM 20 Amp fast-blow AGC.
Quoted from thetonywarren:Ok, do you have any examples, or locations where I can find these documents....I did run a quick search and couldnt come up with anything that related to this......
Sadly, you had to get them from the game distributor back in the day.
Black Knight:
after Gorgar SS20
SS21 ,SS22 missing
SS23 Black Knight Mylar Protectors
SS24 Reinforcement plates
SS25 Hyper Ball
SS26 General Illumination
Summery: GI bulbs age, current draw increases
20A fuse may melt, pins on connectors 3P8 & 3P9 overheat.
XX games affected...
Part kit #1
P.N. B-9865 [fuse block kit]
4fuse holders with 2solder lugs on one block.
SS27 missing
SS28 Improve Switch Performance
SS29 missing
SS30 shuffle alley
SS31 Firepower II
SS32missing.....
SS40 Space Shuttle
Quoted from mof:Fascinating you mean you think the tiny rubber ring was involved in redirecting the ball upwards to break the plastic?
The plastic end is cut that way. The ramp plastic is not broken.
Quoted from Charles_Kline:Its not going to move that much with play in the screw hole.
Williams added a washer to the lower bottom trough plate.? I forget which side.
Ball is kicking up.
Ball striker should be just under the trough bottom plate.
1) OEM Short 2" plunger #02-2364 [Assembly A-5103]
1a) you are missing the trough extended cover on your game.
--------------------------
Revision trough
1) B-8623 Upper Trough Baffle Assy
2) 01-3569-1 Ball Trough Runway
3) C-8235 Lower Trough Baffle Assy
4) 12-6542 Multi-Ball Return Gate Wire
5) Revision 2-1/8" plunger #02-3407-2 [Assembly A-8050-1]
Quoted from KnockerPTSD:Replacement playfields.
Mirco or CPR for this one?
I did a CPR playfield transfer when the item first came out. I had to dowel cap the predrilled
holes in some spots so I can better align the posts and "T" nut holes.
Quoted from jibmums:Anyone have an early build BK (serial #455XXX or thereabouts) with a master display board that looks like the one on the left? Both of these are original BK boards, same Williams part number, but the early one on the left only has jumpers next to connector J5, and does not display commas in the scores. The one on the right, from a much later BK, has the jumpers in a slightly different spot, a 47k Ω resistor added right next to each one, and does correctly display commas. Tested both with the same MPU, so I know it's not an MPU problem.
If anyone's got an early build machine that has the same jumpers and no resistor setup as the board on the left, but still displays commas, please let me know. Trying to figure out if it's not displaying commas by design, or if some other component might require replacement.[quoted image]
OEM Pharaoh board has the extra resistors and shows comas.
Quoted from jibmums:Had no idea there was such a thing as a Williams System 6A, nor that leftover parts would be used for early Black Knights. Pinball archaeology!
BK was made with two different power supplies and has miss match
lamp matrix wires to back board.
I think the extra lamps where to ID player up. [lamp holes are in the top middle of each display]
But made the display flash and strobe instead to signal plyr up.
Quoted from jibmums:Yeah, looks like Williams was swapping everything from 6/6A over to 7 during the early Black Knight run. The one I'm working on has the transformer in the head and earlier power supply board, and the comma-less display board, and my second one has the system 7 power supply board and transformer in the cab, and comma board with jumpers and resistors, and who knows what else different between the two. Has come in ver-rrrry handy having a second machine to swap parts to check stuff though.
Quoted from pindude80:I've recently brought a Black Knight back to life. It is very difficult to make the right ramp that goes to the upper play field. Yesterday I took the lower flipper assemblies apart to inspect them and see if they were wore out. It appears someone has rebuilt them not too many plays ago.
I was looking at the coils and noticed someone added a wire between the left and right coils that I do not think is supposed to be there.
Can someone please provide a couple pictures of the correct wiring of the coils?
[quoted image]
No speaker harness jumper wire.
Gry-Yel left magnet flipper power
Blu-Yel right magnet flipper power
Quoted from pindude80:there are only two wires coming out of the harness, one blue and one blue with magenta stripe. Does the wire with the stripe go to the power side of the coil?
Blu-Vio wire goes to the return driver board special solenoid connector.
Wire goes from flipper to cabinet switch and from cabinet switch back to the driver board
The return wire goes to ground from the relay on the driver board.
Solid Blue/ Blu-Yel wire is power +28 volts.
--------------------------------------------
Flipper grd [2J12 driver board] Orn-Vio wire to cabinet flipper double contact switch.
Right flipper cabinet contact wire, Blu-Vio,to playfield right flipper assembly.
++++++++++++++++
Flipper B+ power supply +28 volts
Solid Blue wire [3J3 power supply] to 8J2 connector to 8J5 connector to relay fuse to right flipper.
Note: Schematics on pg.23 have power wires, Blue and Grey, switched from physical wiring.
Note: I would reset power connectors throughout the game; it could be a bad pin in the housings.
Quoted from pindel:Before and after Picture for Swapping out “Lower eject hole” switch for a microswitch. I needed to cut switch bracket and tnut for it to fit.
[quoted image][quoted image]
Stern's Elves eject Mini Micro switch fits perfectly.
I do not know if Marco Specialties still sell the part.
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Newcastle, OK