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 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.

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.

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.

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).

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

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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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.

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.

Did the mods sell out already or am I just an idiot and unable to figure out how to buy it off the marketplace?

thanks, the mod looks amazing.

So you mean I've been blaming the wax I used this whole time? I put a new decal on with my teardown and now I know where its coming from. Those flakes get everywhere but especially on the rubber (slings, flippers). Learn something every day on this site. Thanks

If you do a teardown everyone on here will agree that you can't possibly take enough pictures. Take them with some order of teardown in mind so that you know to go in reverse order on the rebuild. I found that I needed more broad regional pictures than I took during my most recent teardown. That helps identify which screws and posts were where before you pulled them.

Where's that translite from?

Most importantly when you get it dialed in post your settings so when the rest of us buy a Pinshaker can errr... see if we agree.

I like that green, didn't think of that. I did primarily blue except for red on the slingshots and flippers. Titan actually has a old yellow that matches that area really well as well.

I see you have the white "dandruff" of a new compass decal as well.