Coils rarely go bad. It seems to me a list of common replacement coil sleeves would be a little more useful.

I have a junk Bally playfield and it would have been great not to spend 60 bucks on new Williams coils if any of them would work. Facing it again with steel sleeves that won't come out, sure would like to use those old Ballys. Same thing with Gottlieb, don't plan to purchase any more and would love to use up some new coils in Williams projects.
Common coils that work across Manufacturers would be great.

This table is a great help for comparing coils: https://www.flippers.com/coil-resistance.html

That's a great reference that I have used before.

So which would you want to satisfy the term "most common", the coil that appears more in the games, or the ones that get replaced more often?

I have close to 500 coils in my inventory yet every time I turn around I for a coil I need I don't have in stock. I think at least part of my problem is I work on stuff from as early as the 1930's all the way up to DMD machines so the range of coils used is totally insane. Then a second problem I have is dozens of certain numbers I rarely use and one or two of some of the more common coil numbers. Other than Gottlieb A-9738 I don't know of any other single number coil I would keep on hand if I didn't "harvest" these coils from junk machines and warehouse buyouts.

In the 10+ years we have been in the hobby I can count on one hand how many new coils I have had to buy but it has been more luck than having a great inventory.

I've only been in the hobby for around 7 years, but have had around 19 machines, of those I rebuilt about a dozen or solid state pins that started as neglected projects. The only coil I have had to replace was a burned out knocker in an early Bally - AR-26-1200. As far as EMs go, I bought replacements for all the coils in my shuffle bowler. Never had to use them, probably never will.

I agree. I would say if you want to stock the most common coils for pin repair calls, you should ONLY stock spares for the two most common flipper coils from Ea. manufacturer. They fail most often.

Also, you will NEVER need to replace a "coin lockout" coil unless it's a routed game taking quarters. Not much sense in stocking those.

On the occasion that I have to replace a coil, it's usually a flipper coil or a VUK mech coil. Surprisingly, I don't actually have to replace pop bumper coils all that often.

However, I would have to say that I find myself replacing WPC flipper coils on early 90s games more often than anything else. So, if you work on those types of games a lot, it might be worthwhile just to have a flipper coil or two around for games from that era.

I have a handful of various coils on hand just from scavenging and acquiring parts lots, but I don't generally buy a coil just to have on hand unless it's one I actually need to replace.

I have a full compliment of sleeves on hand organized in a stack of small bins. When I get low on certain ones, I just stock up in the next order I place. I use them on every game I work on.

I work on a lot of project games, and I still don't need to replace coils too often. Maybe around 1 out of 3 games. Yes, sometimes you get unlucky like with your Gorgar, but that's usually an exception rather than the norm.

Plus, PBR can usually get an order to me in 2-3 days. It's not worthwhile to me to stock a large pile of coils since the cost does add up.

That's not typical. I've gone though over 100 "project games".

I recently rebuilt a 1977 Bally. Installed a PBR complete flipper kit. Set eos switches at 1/8. Also installed flipper button switches in the cabinet and while flippers were good, just didn’t have the kick I was hoping for. Decided to replace the coils, which were working but appeared old, and the flippers had the kick I was hoping for. Not off the charts different, but better. Has anybody experienced this?

No

LOL sorry couldn't resist!

Send Steve at PBR a copy of your post in an e-mail, assuming you are willing to actually buy based on his recommendations. He will definitely know what Gottlieb coils go bad and I'm sure he sells his fair share of all the other brands also. I'll bet he will have an educated guess at least as good as anyone here.

No problem.

looking for coils for a bally citation or at the least a cross reference guide. the one on flippers.com is incomplete. It only list one of the coils.

I work on a lot of EM projects and by far the most frequent coils that need replacing are bell, chime, & knocker coils, followed by score reel coils, and occasionally relay coils. Typically this is caused by a stuck 1 or 10 point switch, locking on the coils until they melt. Proper fusing should prevent this... but you know... people.