Yeah, I think you are correct and was leaning in that direction myself. Outside of drilling holes to push them a bit further up....

not really sure I want to do that to a 50 year old playfield, and I'm not sure the plastics would look right with the upper posts extended, even a little bit.

I think I'm going to clean the spinner cogs. There was a lot of gunked up grease globs on there. They have a black look to them. I changed out the ball plunger spring yesterday, and even it had a greasy feel to it, all the way up the rod to the tip. Somebody really liked grease.

Yep, I meant the gears by that. They have a lot less grease on them now. Damn, what a mess. They're actually starting to look like brass again. When I had the motor off the machine yesterday to clean it, I added a couple of drops of 3-n-1, wiping away excess. I don't know how long it has been since the last lube so I played it conservatively. I'm going to establish a plan going forward, but right now still working to form a baseline.

Got the armature plate installed today. Works well, although I had to play with the adjustment. Seems if I set it all the way in, so the flippers close as tightly as possible, it has trouble opening. Opening them up by about 1/8 of an inch (guesstimating), resolved the issue. The game is playing very well. Took this shot last night
88888 (resized).jpg

I put a new coin door skin on, looks great. Don't know what dented the one that came with the machine, but it had to be a hard hit to bend it that way. Installed a Sega knocker assembly, and now it makes noise when getting or adding a credit

Also, on the inner side of the cabinet, near the play counter to the right and above it, back towards the door, there are two bolts with nothing attached to them, spaced about 3-4 inches apart. Any idea what those bolts are for, or what may have been there?

Thanks everyone for the help that was provided, that got me moving in the right direction. Much appreciated, all of you

Figured I would ask here, since this is still an active topic. I'm trying to configure the coin door to credit 1 play for a nickel and two plays for a dime. Reading the manual, and playing with the plug settings is going nowhere. I can get it set to give 3-6 credits depending upon the plug configuration, but never 1. I believe I'm following the instructions, but just can't get it to work. Can anybody give me an illustration, or the rough equivalent in explanation, for what plugs go where on the game to achieve 1 play or two play depending upon the coin I drop.

edit to add:

found a similar post in the 72 Fireball club thread. Will follow-up with it there, instead of here. But if somebody knows, and runs across this post first, please feel free to respond

Mine is very very clean now, but still working sections at a time to clean up whatever exhaust was created by that crap being on there in the first place. I pulled the bumpers today to make it easy to clean the metal rings. I have pulled a lot of the metal parts off of the cabinet, sanded them with 200 grit sandpaper, and polished most of them. The metal bar under the backbox at the back of the playfield, and the playfield support, including lock bar were sanded and painted. There is a whole big list of things I've pulled to clean.

The smaller parts, I treated in an ultrasonic cleaner, which took care of about 75-80% of the crud and rust. Then polished with steel wool, and wiped clean with 91% alcohol and/or naptha. The game looks much better inside, but still have a lot to clean. Two steppers are done, the player up unit in the backbox and the ball count unit in the cabinet.

The game is playing very well, notwithstanding the fish paper incident yesterday