I bought an 8 Ball Deluxe, 1981 version I think, a few months ago. Photo included for identification. I'll list current issues first.
1. One odd thing the machine does every time I turn it on is it says "Eight Ball Deluxe, 3 Ball". Why does it say 3 ball? That can't be normal, can it? There is no issue with my 3 ball that I can tell.
2. Sometimes when starting a game, player 1 will get 30 points before launching the ball. I am thinking this is a switch that is very sensitive, but what has a value that low? Or is this something else?
3. When the ball hits the bumpers fast, I get dimming of the lights on the board. Is that normal? Do people upgrade the power supply to eliminate that? If so, what do you use?
4. I've had a couple times when the machine has been running a long time that the voice stops. No fuses blown, I just shut it off and on, and it's good again. Is it Just a standard heat issue, or should I be careful of a larger problem looming?
5. One thing not an issue, does anyone know if this pinball normally has any magnets under the play field? I don't see any, but some areas are a bit buried. My playfield is not perfectly flat, so the ball moves strange at times anyway.
I think that covers the issues I still have, anyone that wants to learn from my limited knowledge of this machine so far, read on.
I had issues with the audio failing,(and some other things failed to work) and tracked it to a blown fuse. I replaced it with the same size fuse, and it happened a few times after that. Rookie mistake, I should have looked in the manual for the correct fuse size, as the fuse in there was actually too small. It was F5, and they had a 10amp fuse, and it is supposed to be a 20 amp. Been good since.
I had trouble with the upper left rollover not triggering all the time, especially if the ball was traveling fast. I first bent the contacts so the switch was more sensitive, but then it would trigger randomly when the ball hit something hard, or you bumped the cabinet. I found that my aftermarket playfield had a bump just before the rollover, so I had to literally beat it down and then readjusted the switch so it wasn't so sensitive. Good now.
The left Slingshot was triggering several times most of the time when the ball would hit it. At first I thought it might be a bad diode, but found that it was actually that one of the two switches was too sensitive. It was almost completely closed in it's static state. I opened it up a bit, and it's good now.
I had the left flipper fail, replaced the solenoid, no biggie.
I've had a couple wires come loose that just had to be resoldered, wires loose in a connector, standard for something of this age. I am debating on replacing all the connectors next winter when life slows down a bit.
My game is set for a free game at 600,000, and 1,100,000. The card on the front says 1,000,000 and 2,000,000. What is the standard? I know, it really doesn't matter too much.
I am assuming you can only get one free ball per ball. One time I played I got a ball after the 3rd ball, and it actually said ball 4 in the display, how does this happen? It hasn't happened since.
I love the game, and enjoy seeing the level of technology they had back in 1980. The simplicity of the tilt sensor plumb bob is awesome. Hopefully I can add to the community in the future, for now I have a 99.9% working machine, and I am happy with it. Brings back childhood memories!!!
Hopefully somebody can answer my questions, or at least send me in the right direction. Thanks for any help!
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