hey all you Diner enthusiasts - I finally completed my Diner corner !

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Well done. What is that at the front, stickers?

thanks - good catch about the stickers - one of the previous owners had bought the game from a dealer. The stickers are from that dealer - the stickers are kind of ugly, I should probably take them off

i went back to the washers under the switch bracket setup and just adjusted the switch. basically pushed it as flat as i could, so it wouldn't catch the ball on high speed shots. i think that may have fixed it, boys. ty.

my ramp-down started acting up tonight. the coil was firing, but i guess the catch wasn't dropping far enough to let the ramp-up holder tooth come back down. i cleaned off the mech with some naphtha. it's working again like it should. was wondering if you guys have to clean that off every once in awhile or is there a permanent fix for me?

These need to be adjusted just right. Just like Pinbot. You should be alright for a long time now.

just gotta get those flashers fixed. too lazy to open a thread in tech.

me and a buddy put her through her paces last night. to the best of my knowledge, she played as she should. he liked it a lot, too.

what are you supposed to do during multiball, lol? just go for the rush shots?

i put my new flipper bats on the other night; look good. i think the only cosmetic thing left i have parts for are new drop target decals. any suggestions on how to do that? i look at the assemblies and my head starts to hurt.

1st ball through the spinner (rush 1), then the second ball in the "today's special" (rush 2). Then you do ramps for 500 000.

tip: Never collects the cup bonus so you are 2 shoots away of multiball. Start multiball through the spinner as much as possible before relying on Today's special to award multiball. Leave it for your 3rd ball because it's an easy shot.

Bumping this random issue. It went away (seemingly) and then started happening again this weekend. These switches are not one the same row or column, so I'm thinking it's not a matrix issue. A short is a potential issue, but it's so random that I can't get it to happen at will.

You are 100% your switches do not need adjusting?

Not sure. The game's run like a champ for almost 2 years. The only switch that has triggered a phantom drain is the left lock shot, and then only (seemingly) at random. I have several players play the game and even with them all watching a game nothing stands out as a pattern.

i had a ball the other night drain so hard it bounced down the ball trough to the staging area, so it never actually triggered the outhole switch and kicker. the game sat there playing music like i had a ball in play for a few seconds, then ended the ball. anything like that?

change of subject: how about tearing out the drop targets? i have new decals to install, but it doesn't look very easy. someone told me pull the e-clips, remove the opto board, then they just come out. does that sound right?

I put new decals on mine,they didn't come on the game,but they went right on without teardown!!

oh, you just had the black plastic? mine has the original, beaten down decals on it, so i want to clean those off before i put the new ones on. you guys mylar the decals to protect them or anything?

No,I don't!!

I just got my machine so I am thoroughly cleaning everything and the middle drops needed new decals. I just removed the whole drop target assembly since I wanted to clean it out. Once on the bench, removed the E-clips top and bottom of each target, but at the top watch out for the little spring that will disappear forever if you are not ready for it. The visible spring is the one that pulls it down, the other one is pushing the target forward at the top and is not easily seen while in the machine.

Exactly! Take this time to clean up everything and wax the targets for nice snappy sliding.

I didn't and I wish I did. The red comes off a little bit when cleaning the target with novus2. Be gentle. so Yes extra protection never hurts.

Actually, that seems a little like what's going on with mine. It will accept the ball into the lock, sit there for a few seconds like nothing happened (doesn't actually say it's locked) and then award bonus and move on.

go into switch test and put a ball in that saucer. don't use your finger.

yeah, i took the whole mech out. wasn't that bad at all. old decals came right off, too, but left all the glue. i'm using a quarter to rub the old glue off. pitfa!

all done. looks pretty good. i opted for no mylar. we'll see how it goes. i reflowed solder on those 3-lamp pcb's while i had them out, too. the left one was definitely flaky.

my Diner is turning into a peach, boys. get my cliffys on there, then work on the shooter a bit. i think the rod is a bit warped, or maybe i just need a stronger spring.

Just did a bunch of switch testing and the under ramp switch never triggered the outhole.

Ok, and playing it several times now and there is a longer than normal delay when you drain sometimes. I think the outhole switch or the third trough switch is delaying a little as well. When you drain it takes a second to register that drain, but not every time. Works fine more often than not.

My Diner was pretty filthy when I bought it 2 months ago and I tore down the entire playfield (wow there are a lot of pieces) and am now putting it all back together. I swapped out all the coil sleeves and I have the PF only partially together but when I test the underside ball launcher it lobs them right out the back of the playfield and into the cabinet. I know once the back board is on with the juke box in place that won't happen but it seems like the juke box will take a pounding. It doesn't look like it has been beat up in the past. Is this normal?

I'm not in front of my game, but I'm pretty sure there's a stainless ball-guide in front of the juke box that deflects the ball left into the lanes...

There is certainly the shooter lane guide the turns the ball left as it reaches the back corner. I do not see anything to deflect a ball that is too high.

Ahh, I understand. The ball launcher should shoot the ball into the lane guide as well, not above it - that needs adjustment for sure.

Is there an adjustment? The ball is riding up the rails correctly it just seems to be too fast now that I cleaned up the mechanism.

I've seen photos on IPDB where there is a center pin. Williams apparently discontinued the pin on later runs. Which if a pity IMO, as one of the game's design shortcomings is that the ball can come dropping down right off your plunge SDTM. I can't stand when games punish the player when they haven't even had a chance to take a swat at the damn ball.

So here's an admission sure to raise the ire of the purists...I stripped my Diner down about a year and a half ago to install a new right ramp, replacing the one which some yahoo had "fixed' (read: semi-melted) through flame-polishing. While I was at it, cleaning, replacing pop bumper parts, the usual things - I added that center pin. Personally I think it makes the game fairer without making it unduly easier. it's a simple matter to install - for a one-off like this I just use a drill press to drill a hole through a piece of 1" plywood (though 3/4" would probably suffice). Then, transfer that bit to your drill and slide the guide over it (I forget what bit diameter off hand, but make sure it's a sharp brad-point). Center the bit on the dimple in the playfield and start the cut. Blow away the sawdust, slide the guide down to where it sits on the playfield surface, and, ideally, drill not-quite-through the playfield. It doesn't really hurt anything if you go through, but make sure you arent going to hit any wires on the exit, and it's good practice to put a block behind the exit so that the bit doesn't cause a blow-out. Now just take a pair of vice-grips and thread the post down until it's tight. Total time, 5 minutes. On older games with a torn-out or otherwise worn hole, us the same process but definitely do go through the playfield, and use a machine threaded post and nut rather than wood screw threaded.

I await the cries of outrage...

If the decals are from official sources, they should be pretty durable as-is. I have printed my own in the past, and those definitely should be mylared over - I like to stick the mylar down to the paper before cutting them out, then it's a clean process, once and done.

New member of the club here. Always had a soft spot for Diner and my wife and son think it's the best game we have.

Only issue is the ball eject. When not lit, and the ball goes in, it is fired out so hard that it hits the Juke box most times and falls right back towards the plunger. I am concerned it will break something. I have tried everything I know to do. I have adjusted the under playfield habitrail and feel like I have only made it worse, even going in both directions. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Kicker solenoid matches what it originally called for.

Same thing happened to me when I shopped mine. The new coil sleeve seemed to be the big difference, it would fire right into the juke box. I taped a 5/8" ring onto the coil stop. This reduces the stroke of the solenoid core just enough that the ball comes out fast but never flying too high. It also does not require any switch adjusting. When the coil slows down with wear, I can just pull the ring out again.

Here is a picture, the first ring covers the original stop, the second ring steps the coil plunger forward a bit. On my machine this works perfectly. I don't really get why its so powerful with just a clean coil sleeve though.

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Nice! I'll try it. I may try I tighter wound spring first and see if that helps but that is a great idea.

Quick update. It is fixed.

My issue was the "today's special" ejector hole and the wire form under the playfield sending the ball to hard and high into the jukebox and preventing the ball from going where it should.

I disassembled and pulled the habitrail out where I could visually inspect it. The crux of the issue was the angle where the wireform meets the playfield. It was too extreme. I gently pried the ends to flatten it out slightly. Maybe 2-3mm. It appears this was planned for as the holes drilled for the posts at the end of the wireform are very large and allow for some tweaking. Once flattened slightly, I reassembled it and have not had a failed eject since. Forgive me, but below is the worst drawing ever trying to show it. Just trying to help someone in the future. I didn't think to snap photos or I would have.

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Good job! Way to dig in and troubleshoot properly. Are you by chance missing the clear plastic with the records on it that hangs over the shooter lane near the top? That was intentionally placed there to help deflect "misguided" ejected balls from hitting the jukebox.

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Glad to join the club finally! Picked up mine locally which never seems to happen with games i'm hunting down lol. Actually hadn't played one before but i have (what i believe to be) a goofy sound issue. When i hit the left loop under cash register, or if i lose a ball (happens...) i hear Haji start to speak. He says "can you please..." then cuts out for a normal sound. Right when the tip is adding up he says it again. I don't think this is normal especially when he's not even one of the customers ordering food at the time.

Any thoughts? bum sound ROM?

Diner club ?? I have a Diner with a really nice original cabinet, lots of new parts, playfield had overlay in center ? What's it worth ? Was going to do playfield when it's made but thinning out the heard

Around 2k

Hello all! I've just joined the club after purchasing a Diner at the IFPA LA State Championships. What a blast to play. Thanks for the information in this thread. It really helped me with the purchase and knowing what to expect/protect.

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Congrats on joining the club!! I love LED's in the backbox to keep the heat out, but you should try incandescent bulbs in the four clear street-lamp locations. I really like seeing the bulb element in those spots - makes it look more like real street lamps in my opinion.

Like everything else in pinball, you can either do this quick and dirty, or you can take your time and do it right.

Sys 11C drops are nice because they're pretty streamlined, and unplug with wiring harnesses. Go ahead and remove the whole thing.

Popping e-clips is a simple matter. The drop assembly isn't very complicated, and once disassembled you can clean it up and make sure it's operating smoothly. It's really nice to buff that dusty oxidation off the metal and then shoot it with some clearcoat to prevent it from oxidizing more in the future.

The old target stickers are tenacious, so it's good practice to get all the old adhesive off. I think I used mineral spirits on mine; nail polish remover might work as well.

Before you reassemble the drop banks, put a bit of wax on the backside of the drop targets (which you cleaned off earlier with mineral spirits or simple green or something). Take note if any of your springs are looking funky. They're probably fine, but if any aren't you can replace them cheaply. And now that you've opened things up and learned how they go together, it will be a simple matter to replace them later if you don't want to leave the game disassembled while you wait for new springs to come in the mail.

Learning how to take things apart and put them back together is not only really helpful to pinball owners, it also gets us in the habit of cleaning and tuning the mechanisms. Chances are none of this stuff has been tuned up much in 25-30 years, so it's all overdue for some care.

Anyone have a old diner playfield ?
I have a nos diamond plate playfield
But has no dimples ,
Thanks,

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Wow -- that's an incredible find. Do you have a Diner? If so, might as well swap it out and you can use the original as a dimple guide and you can trace them, etc.

Doesn't Ron Kruzman provide dimple service?

If it’s a PF he’s done before.

Rons going to look and see if he has a old diner playfield, be great to have him dimple,paint the back or clear it and clearcoat the playfield.
I learned today that it was hanging in Mark Ritchie,s office then he signed it and sold it.I wish CPR had there version coming soon I would think about hanging this on the wall,its pinball history ,cool stuff

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That’s a great piece of history!