I got the black drop targets (Centaur 2) from bestofpinball.com . I couldn't find anyone in the US who had them.

Got it, thanks.

If anyone's interested...

ebay.com link: Centaur Pinball Playfield Play Field bare wood w Insert Decals Star Inserts f

A foreboding yet cool look! Any trouble picking those up while playing the game in a dark room?

Yay I am finally officially in the club ☺
Proud owner of a Centaur 2 with rough cabinet and reasonably good playfield.

No doubt I will have a few questions over the coming weeks.
First one is what angle do you have your playfield?
I have raised the back levellers more than half way up and I am only up to about 5% gradient and it's playing quite slow. I will raise it some more and give the playfield a wax and see how I go.
Do most people have the back levellers wound right up?

Congrats! My restore is on hold (waiting on chrome parts) and I'm getting anxious to have it finished up so I can start playing it again.

Thanks SilverballNut ☺
I have wound up the back legs a bit more and now it's playing much better.
I have a huge list of improvements I want to make and parts I want to replace.

I would like to replace all the coil sleeves, from what I can work out online (away from pin atm) is Centaur has 18 coils and they use 1-11/16 #03-7066-2 which I have only been able to find at Marco none in Australia unfortunately.
Could someone please confirm that all the coils use the same sleeves? I hope it's that simple.

Bally Centaur uses the 1-1/16 coil sleeve OEM. Out side of
1) Knocker coil.
2) Drop Target reset coils.
3) Drop Target memory coils.

Thanks very much for that, could you please tell me what sleeves the drop target coils use?

The drop target reset coil sleeve is 5/8 O.D. x 2 inch.
Bally Midway # 0017-00041-0673.
Marco Specialties has them.

Awesome thank you

If you can't find 1-11/16" coil sleeves, just take the very common 1-3/4" sleeves used on Williams games and cut/grind/sand 1/16" off the end. Takes about ten seconds per sleeve.

Hi,

I am in the middle of a playfield swap and my tumbler died so I am taking time to sort out what hardware is original on this game.

1- I notice that the main hex head screw are 3/8 and 1/2 but i have a mix of #6 and #8. which screw is used for the lamps and diodes 3/8 and what is used for the standup targets mechs etc 1/2? Are they all #6, or #8, or a mix?

2-the playfield hinges...on my game I have the 1/2 #8 hex head on one hinge and a #10 x 3/4 slotted head screw on the other (goes through the playfield stiffener so could be right. Which is the correct screw.?I assume the slotted head screw is wrong. but any confirmation would help.

3-The clear tubing insulator on the drop target switches is really yellowed. anyone have a source for this or at least an ID or OD for it? Looks bigger than pop bumper tubing for W/B.

Thanks,

Kenny

Pinball makes her "Hot" !!!!
Enjoying cleaning and tweaking Centaur II, in places it's a bit rough, I would describe it as "players" condition, but due to the rough and tough theme I'm accepting of its battle scars, some I will cover or touch up and some I will leave.
The most important things are it plays well, its fun and sounds good. I have spent a couple of hours tweaking switches and cleaning the under playfield ball launch rails and solenoid etc. Now it's launching balls with gusto, time to "Destroy Centaur"
So I invited my Son (14) "do I have to?" down for a game which he dutifully did, he played well and seemed to enjoy it and even hung around to listen to me talk about it for 5min after, what a good kid, but he won't play it again.
Then it was my Wifes turn, she also seemed to enjoy playing, in fact she had a fair bit of action going on and said "it makes me hot" LOL. I think that was because the heater was on but I'm going to use that quote on her when I buy my next pinball. "But dear you said pinball makes you hot, so I thought you would be glad that I'm buying more"

20170808_112637 (resized).jpg

After cleaning and adjustment I find that I still get the occasional ball launched from under playfield ending up in the ball launch lane, most go straight to the upper lanes, about 1 in 10 goes down the right lane and maybe one in 20 or less goes to the shooter lane.
Is this normal? I'm guessing this is just due to the design of the game and that it's common for the occasional ball to do that, it doesn't ruin game play, but it does give the player it happens to an advantage over their competition.

Also the top star roll over, I have tweaked and cleaned the switch and its working but I can't get it dialled so that it works for a fast strong shot. Fast shots will go straight over without triggering the switch, should I keep tweaking or is this also common? I don't want to waste time chasing perfection that might be unobtainable.

You should have taken pictures and notes.....
1) stand up switches/brackets #6 x 1/2" long
2) lamps #6 x 3/8" long
3)playfield support hinge bracket #8 x 5/8" long (Philips pan head)
Note: For playfield support hinge bracket be careful, one can use two 3/4" long screw
------- with one 5/8" long screw for each bracket. The longer ones can go through the
------- playfield and into the side rails wile the other screw is used in the middle hole
------- and does not go through the playfield.
4) #10 x 1/2" long hwh sms can be used to beef-up flipper assemblies and sling shot
------ assemblies to the mounting of the playfield.
Note: The left sling shot assembly mounting screws have conflict with top spool mount
------ support post (brass hardware). One needs to grind down bottom mounting hardware
------ to help fit the two opposing sides. Be careful....

Thanks vec-tor for the answers especially the note about the sling and the hinge bracket.

Interesting to see all the non-original fasteners in this game after 30 years even with pictures and notes. Easily as many screws were #8 as #6

My first Bally swap and I didn't find this info, so now it is documented for the next person.

The switch is probably opening back up too quickly for the processor to notice. There should be a .047uF capacitor on that rollover switch to help hold the signal. I understand these sometimes fall off or are removed by operators to make the game harder.

Thanks for that Timmo (neee) I will check to see there are such capacitors present on my machine, I guess they are missing as I am finding fast balls are sometimes not registered by all the lane switches even though the contacts are close and have been cleaned.

I cleaned them with a cotton bud and isopropyl, a mate suggested 800 sandpaper but I have read many say that is bad as it removes the gold from the contacts.

The caps can also fail, so it wouldn't hurt to try replacing them too. They're cheap and easily found online.

Alright. So chrome is on its way and the build is starting up in earnest again. My Centaur will have a bit more punch thanks to a custom designed speaker enclosure, crossover and a decent amp.

Some pics:

IMG_3767 (resized).JPG

IMG_3768 (resized).JPG

IMG_3769 (resized).JPG

Looks like a Back to the Future scene is being made. I hope you
can post a video of what the finished product sounds like. :0)

Great job! Keep posting. Mine sounds good with sub-but yours will be awesome!

I'll try. Current plan is I will be taking it to TPF 2018 to show it off, so if you can make it you can play it and hear it. It'll be in Keith Holbrook's booth (he's doing all the major lifting and building). I'm a bit nervous about taking it, but it should be fine in his booth.

Base paint is on now and graphics should be going on this week. It's not going to be exactly stock...

Metallic black paint, chomish silver paint, candy apple red and then all of it is going to be clearcoated. We're trying to make something truly unique and a little over the top.

Paints done. I'll get higher res photos when it's all done.

IMG_3773 (resized).JPG

SilverballNut Can you post the paint codes you used? Or if already posted can you send a link

Thanks

I can probably get them, but Keith painted it. It's automotive paints and not exactly stock.

When we're done I should have all the details

Nice, looks great well done.

Are you going to get real Bally legs or are you going to keep
the black William's ones?

Those are just his shop legs. I have a full set of black chrome bally legs, chrome side rails, chrome coin door etc that will be going on it. We had Ron plate it all for us.

Keith got most of the wiring in today. The big box in the back is the speaker system.

Made me start thinking. Has anyone out mirror blades on their centaur? I'll have to see if they make them.

IMG_3783 (resized).JPG

Does the speaker box clear the pitch of the playfield when up?

Is Abe here? seems he got a huge score on my pinball in 1984 and he was quite proud of it, I would like to congratulate him and ask if it was on factory settings 3 ball or 5 ball ?

20170816_203944 (resized).jpg

That reminds me of a service call on a Bally Captain Fantastic I did many years ago.
The game came from a pub in England and it was completely carved up with high scores.
The owner thought it gave the game 'character'.

Mine is "players" condition and I won't be redoing the outside artwork, I actually like that mine has this bit of history and character but I wouldn't want more all over it.

I had a couple of pinhead mates visit tonight and they noticed that one of the rubbers on my slingshots was almost broken at the top where it goes around the steel post. They wondered if there should be a plastic post there but I just checked on IPDB and it shows the same as mine a steel post.

So does everyone go through slingshot rubbers quickly on Centaur?

Nobody makes them for classic Bally single level games because there's only 1 inch of cabinet visible between the top of the rails and the playfield glass. Won't get much mirror effect, unfortunately.

Yeah that's what I realized. I was playing Flash Gordon when I was thinking about it and there's more room there because of the upper playfield.

I haven't personally tested it yet, but it's designed to fit right. A few risks doing something like this, but that's part of the fun.

Could someone please tell me if the nylon bush for the under playfield ball launch mech is the same as the flipper shaft bushes? If not do you know the part number and where I can get one?

I'm away from my machine at work and can't check for a few days and want to finalise a parts order.

I don't have a part number but it definitely looks the same.

Thanks I will take the chance and order one, not an expensive risk.

Flipper bush fitted my ball launch thanks

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0tKYkpAaQsQZGNLaVJmZkZFVmc (me pressing switches with glass off)

Can someone listen to this ^ sound file please and tell me if the sound effect at 11sec and again a few times at 21 to 24sec is normal? I have watched Centaur videos online and I don't remember it happening on other games, I can't work out what triggers it, seems that sometimes it will play that effect for whatever I hit and sometimes it will make that sound quite a few times in a row especially noticeable during multiball.

At first I wondered if it was because the bonus was maxed, but no then it did it early in a ball, there doesn't seem to be any logic to it so I'm thinking it might be an error sound signifying an issue?

Mine does that on occasion.

My Centaur makes that sound too randomly . It must be a flaw and I think it's in the sound board.

OK thanks, it's a strange and mildly annoying sound and I don't like that it's random and doesn't have meaning but it's good to know that it's normal Centaur behaviour and not a fault in my game I need to troubleshoot so I will relax and get used to it.

I wonder if it's a software bug or if the programmer wanted it to have some randomness to the effects.

I think the laughter call out added in the home rom is great, I don't understand why that was left out of the original code either, perhaps a few mistakes were made?

My Centaur makes that exact sound randomly, it didn't make that sound at all for the first few years, then it started, it's a weird glitch for sure, I find it annoying. I am going to replace the caps in the S&T board in a hope to get rid of it.

My S&T has been recapped and I have a new repro SAI board and mine makes the random sound. Good luck tracking down why it happens, I assumed from the other responses that they all did it.

Ok, I was hoping that might get rid of it. Weird how mine didn't do it for years then started the random noises? maybe someone might know what's going on, or it may just remain a mystery.

Yes, the laughter call is a great addition.

The home roms on Fathom are great too adding some extra speech phrases that were not originally used. I also can't understand why it was not all used when it was there to use.