I have been beating my head against the wall for pretty much the whole time I have been in the hobby for two issues related to drop targets of Bally and Stern early solid state games.

1. The bricking issue. This is when a hard straight on shot to the target doesn't drop. like hitting a brick wall.

2. Upon reset, one or more drop targets fall down.

I know there are various threads on these topics, but it seems there is no sure fire way to eliminate these two issues for good.

My current issue is Flight 2000. The spinner drop targets on the right are dropping upon reset what I have tried:

1. tighter springs
2. shaving a couple MMs of the drop target off to increase the lip that rests on the target housing when up.
3. putting a tighter rubber behind the targets to make sure there is nothing impeding the targets from their up travel on reset.

Here are some things I noticed when tearing them apart:

1. all of the metal arms that attach to the bottom of the drops and run in the tracks that activate the switches on the mech have been beaten in a bit.
2. the metal plate that runs along the bottom of the targets and is the plate that pushes upwards and resets the targets has grooves worn into it from hitting the arms attached to the targets over the years.

Here is my question:

Do you think the issue in this case would be that those worn parts are not allowing the targets to travel quite high enough on some resets, thus they drop immediately? Just want to see if that makes sense to others before I tear these things apart again and try new parts there.

Thanks!

When I get these licked, we will move onto the 1-5 countdown drops as they brick and drop on reset.

I’ll post pics later today when I open it back up.

But this game has been restored. You can eat off the mechs in this thing.

Pictures still to come but I tried a couple more things:

there was some slop on the long arm that pushes up the targets on reset. I put an extra washer from spares parts from another game on it so there was less side to side play in it. that helped, but not full proof.

Then to test my worn parts theory, I put a long piece of think one-sided tape on top of this arm so that essentially the targets would be sitting up higher when the reset arm made its full travel. that improved things greatly and only got one target that still dropped upon reset (and it was only like 1 out of 5 resets).

So I am going to order new parts today.

Gonna try this too today.

Also, do parts guides for these games exist? I cannot seem to find any. I will ask PBR today and report back.

nope. I cut windings off the stock springs to make them tighter. Then went back to originals when there was no improvement. Anyone know what the proper assembly is for the various early sterns? I found a blow up of a mech on Marco and looked pretty different than my Big Game and also this F2K.

See this picture. Where my games differ is the target springs on on a separate rod that goes through the target bank assembly and do not attach directly to the metal arm at the bottom of each target as seen here:

Early stern drop target assembly (resized).jpg

So I am guessing this assembly was early EARLY stern, and F2K and Big Game were updated to shorter springs. I put an order into PBR and specified F2K so hopefully they can help.

Good tips by the way. I will look into those as well.

Great thanks. I’m gonna get a bunch of stuff from PBR and keep at it. I’ll report back ASAP.

Okay great. Those are the parts I have now. Thanks.

Wow! That’s pretty interesting. This issue leads to a lot of home made fixes it seems. Part of what makes it so frustrating. Haha

Had a breakthrough tonight!

So the flight 2000 was almost always dropping 1 to 2 drop targets above the right spinner upon reset. When I was looking for parts I came across this picture of the really old SS sterns and their first version of the drop targets.

I noticed those springs did not use the bar across the bank to attach the spring but extended all the way down and attached to the arm attached to the bottom of the drop target.

I decided what the hell and ditched my current setup by getting rid of the bar that the springs used to attach to and attached them where they used to go on old models just like the diagram pictured above.

Almost 100% fixed now!!

The only thing that is left is one drop target will drop sometimes on reset but only if all three drops are still standing at the end of the ball. I think I know what this is, but I’ll report back to be sure.

Yep. Here I just used the shorter springs. They seem to work fine for now. We will see long term. I’ll report back.

In my case, a shorter plunger would have the reset arm travel higher which I don’t need. Since when the targets are all UP, and the game goes through it’s reset sequence in between balls, the reset arm is hitting the bottom of the targets that are already up, and it’s causing one or two to fall.

If anything I may need a new coil stop to limit the travel of the plunger just a hair. That might be worn in just enough to allow the plunger to travel too high upon reset.

Crazy. Okay well good to know. I’m unsure of the history of the plunger and coil stop. I’ll check with the restorer, but I doubt they are new. Might get a couple of each to have them to try next.

Three bank on F2K fixed! Attaching the springs to the bottom of the drop targets combined with adjusting the reset arm did it.

Make sure that reset arm is level and hitting the drops evenly. Use the Allen set screws to adjust and get it lined up perfectly so that the arm contacts all the drops at the same time.

Now on to the behemoth 5 bank.....

Worked on the 5 bank too.

However, the 1 and 4 drops are not falling from the baby coils that fire when they are supposed to. This doesn’t affect scoring or the behavior of the drops or their memory so I’m calling it done. Haha.

Just had a bunch of friends over yesterday and put 20-30 games on flight 2k. Not one single dropped target on reset was reported and I had people looking for it. Seems to be working great! I’ll report back if anything changes.

Yes that was the proper fix for drops that fell upon reset. However, they brick like crazy so you have to graze them or hit them softer for them not to brick. Not terrible on that game since you really only need to go for the drops at certain times and there are other switches that spot you drops.

But I left it as the drops falling on reset was the major issue that needed fixed. Bricking I can just deal with. It’s not a game breaking issue for tournaments.

Early style. Hence bottom of the drop target attachment instead of the middle. Made the spring tension greater, eliminating the drop down upon reset issue.

I used the shorter springs. Just stretched them all the way down.