I'm in the club as of last night. Traded for a Pirates for my BK2K which, quite frankly, got boring quickly. My Pirates has seen some use so I think it's going to need a stripdown to clean it up.

Right now I'm hurriedly identifying problems to get in on some Black Friday deals. The ship looks intact and the plastics are dirty but in good shape. No error codes so far but there are definitely some plastic posts and targets that need replacing.

Big question is whats the consensus rubber color? And titans or superbands preferred on this pin?

I like Titan Glow in the Dark

I saw that in the Titan kits section. Did you do that for the small post rubbers too or just the big rings? I have to get under the ramps to do some major cleaning so I figured I'd change out all the post rubbers while I was at it.

Also, what color are the L side lights supposed to be above the spinning disc? It looks like someone did a partial LED changeout on my POTC. They didn't change those bulbs however so now half of them are clear and half are clear red. The manual says all red

Finally did the pin normally come with a spotlight on the chest and if yes what color is it? In some manual pics there is a spotlight but in others there is not. My pin has a spotlight pointing towards it from the R orbit but it too was missing a bulb.

Now that I have the flipper working I've got some more time on it and can tell it's going to be a fun pin to play for awhile, much different than my other high paced flow pins.

I put Glow rubbers on my entire play field. The flipper rubbers snapped and I replaced them with yellow, because that’s what I had. I would also add 2 rubbers middle of the pop bumpers. That one is a pain to replace and likes to break. Additionally, I put frosted reds above the spinner and I believe the standard dome light was clear incandescent. If buying LEDs, get comet non-ghosting.

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Nice game! Is there ever a time where game lights dim and rubbers glow? Just curious if you ever see the glow effect during gameplay.

I’ve never seen them actually glow, haha. However, I am installing a black light above the machines, maybe that’ll bring a glow effect.

Would you mind sending a few more pics of your lighting? The person that had mine before me went full clown puke. I'm not completely anti-clown but they've got a bit too much blue behind the ship so the whole upper half is blue green. I don't mind the blue green on the ship itself but mine is a bit too far. I like what I see of your color choices.

Otherwise I have new rubber coming. Had some broken sling arms that are fixed, will be rebuilding flippers but mechanically everything else is good.

The biggest thing is its a former smokers pin. I realized this post purchase though I'm not sure it would have made a difference. There is soot in the pin everywhere so I'm tearing it down to clean all the inside. Also after reading some other posts I'm realizing I should definitely clean the outside, I suspect the Pirates color cabinet color scheme is perfect for hiding that lovely shade of tan of smokers tar.

Well cleaning the outside of the machine revealed more than I wanted. First there was a lot of soot which is just plain nasty but the machine legit looks better.

Second however is that I now know the machine is a likely re-import from Italy (may explain the smoke). All the serial number tags have Italy as the destination. I should have been clued in on this from the replaced cord. It looks as if someone simply spliced a 3 prong cord onto the original cord. I had previously planned on replacing that with a proper cord going to the power box but now I'm questioning what else may need to be changed in the power box. The machine turns on and has no issues so whoever changed the cord previously may have made all the necessary conversions. For those of you who have done re-imports what else needs converted besides the cord? I've done a forum search but there isn't a lot specific to Stern SAM games so any other ideas are appreciated.

You need to change the cord, the main fuse and rewire the plug to the transformer for US voltage. That will get you running.

To do a thorough job you need to change the MOV surge suppressor to a 130v device (not critical especially if you use a surge suppressor strip).

I would double check how they rewired the transformer to make sure they did it correctly. You can do it incorrectly and the game will function but it stresses the transformer winding. So best to make sure it was done correctly. Info is in the manual that you can download from stern’s site.

I don’t have the machine with me right now. It’s rented till the end of next week. These are all the pics I have now. I can get you more later if you want.
I puked the machine more than some might like. The key for me was to use Comet frosted ice blue bulbs (non ghosting). Also, frosted cool whites for the back of the machine, except red above the spinner

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It seems impossible to me that for such a beautiful and popular pinball machine as POTC no one makes a ship Hull 545-6179-00 As a spare part

Marcos has them. Out of stock tho. There is a part number you can research.
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/545-6179-00

I put in a order for some ice blue LEDs from pinballbulbs. Probably going to change the top part of the playfield to brighten it up as well, as I noted before that area is a little too blue.

Love your blades and alternate translite, may have to consider that as well. I was going to do my standard mirror blades but those are pretty slick

Thanks for the help. I checked and the varistor has not been changed so I'll be replacing that. The fuse also is only a 5A 250V, it also doesn't appear to be a slow blow. The size of it is one of the small ones, 5mm x 20mm(ish) as well. Going to change that out to the 6 x 30 size with a 8A 250V.

I also confirmed that the previous owner just tied in a new cord as the wire colors to the line filter are European.

It does look like the previous owner switched the jumps to the transformer but I need one bit of help on that. It appears the black wire is going to position 3 on the Molex with jumpers at 1 and 2. The white wire is going to position 9 with jumpers on 7 and 8. The manual has this opposite, black to 1, white to 7. On the male side the white connects to various combinations of white orange wiring. On the black side connections are to combinations of black orange. I believe the wiring, although out of position, is still correct. Can anyone snap a pick of that 9 pin connector from the power box to transformer to confirm the transformer side wiring coloring? Much appreciated.

Unfortunately it has been out of stock for years, both on Marco and on all the other sites... No one produces this spare part anymore

Has anyone considered trying to mold a version of it? It's pretty intricate so an exact reproduction may be tough but with decent painting and lighting some of those blemishes can be hidden (that's what the wife says about me anyway).

Or is a 3D print doable? I just bought a 3D printer and may try to scan my ship as I clean it. Maybe a good way to start playing with the printer (although pretty complex).

A person a few pages back bought one of the last ones found and contacted a bunch of mod makers and no one apparently was interested in trying to reproduce it. These days an iPhone with the lidar chip could probably get a decent scan of it for 3d printing and there are really nice scanners out there but I don't have any of that stuff.

A cast of it would probably be the best option as you could then choose the material to mold it.

I haven't played my POTC in months, so I decided to play a game this afternoon and I put up a new Grand Champion score. I made it to Four Winds, which I haven't done in a year. Still loving this game!

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Congrats! Same thing happened to me. After a few months of not playing, I set a GC score.

My POTC has been down for a few weeks now. Missing it. Went in on an order for a C-DMD with a friend since he was ordering from them. Sold my original DMD the next day so don't have one in it. This was 3 weeks ago. I was supposed to go over to pick it up today but he found out he has covid. Guess I'm waiting another 2 weeks to get it now. LOL

If I understanding you corretly, that wiring arrangement wouldn't work with the stock wiring to the transformer. A jumper on 1-2 does nothing. Black on 3 is one end of one of the primary windings. The problem is white on 9 is the other end of the other primary winding which would not result in a complete circuit. If you are reading the Molex pin numbers correctly, it shouldn't work unless someone re-wired the transformer side of the connector. That will be hard to correct as the manual doesn't have wire colors for that side.

Oops, wrong Pirates club...

Agree, the manual doesn’t give any info I can find on the wiring colors on the transformer side of that 9 pin connector. Other than incorrect positions the wirining on the power box side matches the “domestic” jumps. I’m in seattle til tonight but will snap a pic when I get home

PinMonk this is the poor mans Pirates group, I think your post is meant for the jjp folks who at this point are actually likely counting their gold

That being said if you want to make this group replacement pirate ships (see above) we would certainly welcome your skills

Haha! Thanks for letting me know. I didn't read carefully enough. I'll relocate the post.

That ship hull or a reasonable approximation will probably be pretty expensive to reproduce. Injection molding isn't cheap. Weird that Stern wouldn't just make more. They have the mold, that's the expensive part. Maybe a licensing issue?

That was my guess, considering it’s Disney.

Alright here’s some pics of the power box to transformer connection. If anybody could send a comparison pic I’d be grateful

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Ne’r too yung to earn yar sea legs, matey!

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Just joining the club with a new machine just pulled out of the box. I expect it to be delivered right around January 1st, so as I started looking at finding a tastefully updated gamecode. Not surprising for a game this age, I find FIVE different ones available. This custom code images I found are from:
mbott1701 , teddyb73 , JimB , PeterG , B25846
and it appears that some of them are mods to the other people's mods.

Obviously choosing which one is a matter of personal taste, but if I was looking for something that was true to the ride original soundtrack experience itself, does the B25846 version make a good starting point?

Any guidance on the pros/cons of any of them would be welcome.

I am on Teddyb73 code. It has the songs from the ride. I think it is perfect. Sound levels are perfect and no pops or distortion.

Can you explain how you install the Teddyb73 code? I would love to try it.

Teddyb73 used pinball browser to change the songs around. He created an new BIN file. You take this BIN file and update your game with a USB stick, like you would normally do for any Stern update.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15MC96a1rL6MvhDor9eZuMmBHWc8IkVED/view?usp=sharing

This is where I got the Teddyb73 file

I tried something similar to this with Stern Jurassic Park and couldn’t get it to download. However JP had video added as well and I’m not sure if it was a BIN file

Doing some Pirates maintenance today after getting a lot of play in (loving it) but quick question. When a ball is coming out of your orbits does it get directed to the sling? Both my left and right orbit direct the ball into the mid sling which doesn't seem right. Most orbits on pins will send it back to the flippers. I tried to see if there is any play in the flat rail but there isn't. If I were to try to get a better drop from the orbit what have people done? I was thinking just a thin bit of mylar to redirect it. Thoughts?

Solved my own question. A small pieced of mylar at the end of the rail changes the drop about 10 degrees which sends the ball to the flipper instead of the sling.

If anyone in this group is ready to sell their POTC let me know…

Just picked up a minty PoTC tonight! Now to figure out this Pinball Browser thing...

Aaaaaaand of course! After a couple of dozen plays all the floods went out and now the upper half of the playfield is unbearably dark. I assume this didn't come stock from Stern with floodlights installed, right? It looks like they're tied to the lights across the top of the playfield at the back (which are also out, and stock, as far as I can tell), but I'm not seeing those under the lamp test. Everything else seems to be working fine. Anyone know which fuse the back playfield lighting is on?

Look at page 99 of the manual. That shows the GI/fuse layout. When I was rebuilding my machine one of the add on spotlights (alligators) someone before me added must have shorted and I blew out the F1 fuse (upper left GIs). The f2 fuse is upper R GIs. Might be something as simple as that.

I saw your post on facebook as well. I just finished the saga of cleaning mine up so I'm not quite ready to part with it but since you live so close I'll definitely add you to my list, even for a temporary trade. We're in Seattle all the time (kids sports ) so would be easy.

Keep me in mind - I am hoping something will come up - I just parted ways with a Getaway and Johnny Mnemonic and I think I am suffering from withdrawl symptoms. Who would have thought a game with 6K produced would be so hard to get. I see a few come up from time to time and I am talking to people but nothing firm yet. I may have a deal soon - of course paying more then I want. I have to remember that patience is a virtue....

Please let me know PDX is just a hop skip and a jump down the road when it isn't snowing. I used to drive to PDX every month.

Hello all and Happy New Year. Cleaning some part bins and found this. Does anyone know who made it and what it costs? I want to list it for sale

Thanks.

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Back Alley Creations and I think it was going for $225. I will check and see.

Back Alley Creation web site is closed for the holidays but I think I gave the cost for the topper. Sorry about that, so I’m guessing it was around $85 to $125. Just check the web site at a later date.

https://www.pinballlife.com/potc-shooter-lane-cannon-black.html

This was the regular black one, the believe the Davy Jones one was a bit more

$80 Shipped if someone wants it.

Hi,

The spinning disc on my POTC has started spinning considerably slower than it used to. I have followed the service bulletin instructions on lubricating the disc motor bearings but this has not improved things.

Any suggestions would be appreciated?

Thanks

Has anyone installed the "new" Pinshaker Premium kit into their POTC yet? I wasn't able to find the original standard kit anywhere (not even on their own website), but found ONE of the fancy Premium kits at PBL. The Premium is setup via a smartphone app. (Ugg). I was wondering if anyone has installed it, and if they had any advice on all of the settings that will be staring me in the face next week. It looks like there are a handful of settings for each of the 24 control lines.... won't that be fun trial-and-error?

Hi everyone, I need to replace the 4 screws that hold the 2 plastic slingshots with 4 screws longer than the original ones Because I have to mount convolux plastics under slingshots. Can you tell me which is the size a little longer than the original? Being in Italy I do not know the American measures. I took pictures in inch if they can help

Thanks

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That looks like a 2 inch long screw. Next common size up would be 2 1/4 inch.

Are you sure you measured the diameter correctly? 0.1 inch is a #4 screw which I know isn’t right for a sling screw. It is probably a #8-32 screw which should measure 0.164 inches in diameter. If it’s 0.138 inches in diameter, it’s a #6-32.

Thank you very much, I will check the diameter better