I've got the exact same problem , is the rubber the wrong size or are some rubbers just a little bit fatter than they should be .

Here's a black nickel.

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Same here. I was used Titan rubbers which are a little stiff. If I remember right, the size the manual states was too tight. Tried a size bigger but had the problem you guys are talking about. Put single rubbers on each post and that worked best.

I did this tonight and I'm back in business, thanks everyone!

Went to play a game and the fish wasn't kicking. After a while of trying to figure out the issue I decided to look a little closer and turns out one of the wires broke off. Good thing I have some security bits to get the dome off. The game just doesn't have the appeal and charm to me without the fish kicking.

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Mine stopped about a week ago. Havnt had a chance to check it out yet, but I bet it's the same problem. I'll do the mod to help quiet the fish while I'm up there.

How do you do the "quiet mod"?

Well, I read a few different things about adding rubbers here and there. Once I took the topper apart and figured out how the mechanism worked, I did a few things that I thought would help. I cut down a shooter rod tip and put it on the shaft that hits the fishes tail, added a rubber ring where the plunger slams into the coil body, and added a thicker bump stop to the back of the mechanism where the coil hits. These three mods have made my fish TOTALLY SILENT!! You still get the shaker effect. Heres a pic of my assembly before and after I reinstalled it on the backboard.

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Awesome work, I'm definitely going to have to do this!

You guys should trade for a whitewater.... That topper is nice and quiet!

Done. Just traded with myself.

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I don't know that I would want my Fish Tales to be less obnoxious.

Never considered the dome part of the sound package but wow it sounds like crap without it. Click, click, click. Haha

I got the new fishing reel launcher from Pinball Life, this is going to be a huge improvement!

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Fucking awesome this has happened. Friggin years of guys putting launch buttons on FT and rigging other shit to plunge. I hope lots of guys/gals discover these

Now order up a new decal set also!!!!

looking to join the club, really excited about FT being my next pin! it's the only theme my dad has expressed interest in, so I'm hoping we can get some quality father son time in over a cold one.

any common issues I should look out for? thanks

-Matt

No issues I'm aware of. Just general overall condition vs. Price paid.

I got a weird problem going on with my fish tales. Seems like the some of the control lights are lit up when they arnt supposed to. When I go into light tests. I can select 1 and it will light up 3 light. As I move down the line sometimes 3 will light up together other times 2 will light at the same time. I have check diodes and they all seem to be fine.

Any sign of battery leakage on the CPU board?

If you compare lamps that light together to the lamp matrix diagram, you may notice those are on the same row or column which might help diagnose.

Boards looks good. Remote battery pack was added a while back. I will do that tonight. Maybe I can find pattern

The project FT I bought had problems with both the castor's club drop target and VUK, I'd make sure those are working properly. Beyond that, only normal WPC problems that can happen over the years.

Needed to buy a new plunger coil so I though why not. Picked up one of these.

Yeah - Some jokers will sell you one with a Disabled Fish Knocker

Fix that shit.

Play it Loud

Play it Proud

Yep that's the way the game was designed I love it

Does anyone know if there are some decals available that would go in the inlane drop/wear spots? I recall having bought some many years ago but do not currently know of a source.

Check the European pinball sites, I recall buying my last set on one

https://www.ministryofpinball.com/en/game-specific-items/williams/fish-tales.html scroll down the page.

LTG : )

Hi,
Can someone show me a nice picture of this connector please, I think mine have the wires at the wrong place, thanks.

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If you have lights not lighting. I would reflow the pins on the board the connector plugs onto. Gravity and vibration are hard on them.

LTG : )

There you go
Yellow green
yellow red
Key (empty)
red grey?
yellow orange
red black
red yellow
yellow black

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This may help you. Red arrow points to a missing wire on yours.

LTG : )

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I don't think any wires are missing on my machine.. The boat plays and lights exactly as it should.

Think he's referring to the other poster.

Yours is perfect.

I used your picture, and photo shopped in a picture of his connector next to yours, to make it easier for him to compare and see the difference. I put a red arrow on his where it's an empty spot.

LTG : )

After looking closer, I think there's more going on there than just a missing wire. Look closely at wire positions. Something is definitely wired incorrectly. But, then again, my eyes aren't what they used to be. Lol

Thanks, that's perfect!
Yes, that's right, you don't see clearly buts 2 wires were connected together on 2 spots..

Hehe, the wine must have already been kicking in because reading back LTG's post, clearly it wasn't meant for me .

lanfeust if you need any more pics, or need me to trace the wires let me know I'll be glad to help some more.

Bonne chance! (good luck)

yall are too nice. Owners threads are where it's at.

Its really an amazingly fun game. Your dad should like it. For me personally, what keeps me coming back again and again is this:
The game is hard enough to keep you on your toes, yet the rules/modes are easy enough to figure out. I know what I need to do at any given time, its just a matter of accomplishing it. Don't get me wrong, I do own some newer games, but half the time, I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing on them. The ruleset is just way to deep. Fish Tales hits that sweet spot for me of complexity/difficulty vs. Being too simple or boring. If that makes sense.

Not sure why someone decided to install this L bracket in the casters club lane, but seeing a Robertson screw head definitely doesn't sound retail. From pictures I've seen, there should not be anything in there at all. I've only owned my fish tales for 2 weeks, and had not played on real hardware in forever, but I really didn't remember the casters club constantly bouncing my ball out as often as it did. At least 50% of balls would bounce out. The wire frame door was also stuck in the up position. I slightly increased the bend on the wire frame so that it's a bit closer to the drop target and removed the L bracket. No direct shots in the club are rejected now.

I also burned and installed version D-6 (the game came with L-4) and it did fix the ghosting, although I have a GPI OCD on the way.

I had my left flipper sometimes not working or at times it would rattle. I first tried to redo all the solder joints on the fliptronic board, then the ones on the flippers opto boards as well, but the problem persisted. In the end the problem was the connector on the right flipper board. After cleaning the pins properly on the right connector, the left flipper was fixed. So I cleaned both to be sure. Some solder joints for the connector were cracked on the left fish target and some lights would be intermittent. Are there any known weak spots in Fish tales, or pinballs in general that I should be looking into? I noticed at least one connector that seems darkened. I'm not 100% LED, most of the playfield is, but I will soon change that.. I'm hand picking all the LEDs but have no experience with LEDs on a pinball.. Wish I just had a whole bunch and just experiment.. I found a guide here with a bunch details on what to expect from different led types or locations so that will help. Kits are double the price..

Should I swap sram for nvram? To me, nvram would be a logical upgrade, what's the consensus for that in the pinball world?

I'm thinking of touching up every solder joint on all the main and maybe each connector on the other various boards. Would that be overkill?

I've already adjusted the switches for the slingshots, pop cap bumpers. Next I'm going to go touch up the fish targets. When we adjust 30 year old switches, do they tend to keep their shape for a few more years? Should I consider changing the most common leaf switches? My overall adjustments to the game really improved the gameplay so far. I will be taking the entire playfield apart to clean it and change the long cast mylar because dirt settled underneath. I ordered a ton of parts (all metal and plastic posts,sleeves, springs, rubbers, plastics, boat and ramp, etc..) but I did not order any leaf switches.

I got tons more to say about this machine.. I'm on such a high for finally owning it. I wanted this game for the pas 25 years at least.
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Welcome to the club! "Diving in" head first with Fish Tales as your first pin. Nice choice. (same as me 5yrs ago)

The burned connector is likely J120 which is the playfield GI (general illumination) which is not to hard to replace. Get a new .156 size header and connector from great plains electronics. (if you buy a header that is too large, you can trim the extra pins off to use for another connector)

The leaf switches should be adjustable as necessary, typically no need to replace working ones.

Frosted LEDs are definitely recommended for the GI bulbs in the playfield, backbox, and topper. I used cool white which have a bit of blue hue. Sunburst white is popular now, which is a nice midpoint between bluish cool white LEDs and the yellowish incandescent bulbs.

It is optional to replace the flashers and inserts with LEDs. (they are not lit constantly so they don't get particularly hot and make too much heat under the playfield or cause connectors to fail) Sites like Comet pinball have a list of Fish Tales recommended bulbs, so no need to buy a kit.

Make sure to label connectors and take photos of everything for your teardown/cleaning, and take note of what spacers and screws go where and it will go fine.

Nvram upgrade is recommended.

Start making room for pin #2.

...and #3 as well.

I've been updating my games lately with frosted LEDs in the GI. Some games seem better with warm (sunshine) white, others with cold white. I've just kind of been going by gut feeling. I put cold white GIs in Fish Tales, but I have decided to take them out and put in warm white - just my gut feeling. Not sure why, but I have been thinking since you generally go fishing during the day in the sunlight, it fits better to have a warmer white. Maybe I'll change my mind again. That's the joy of older games - you have the choice.

Comet is where I was making my list until my cart was emptied after a few days of bein left alone. I searched high and low again on comet, but I don't see any recommendations for LEDs for Fish Tales, just kits , with and without flashers, for 209-249$ .. Which is almost double the price of hand picking them.

Well I went crazy and ordered a bunch of LEDs from comet and both a GI and LED OCD. The LEDs themselves added up to 155$ , but I did buy a bunch extra so real cost should be around 140$ for the entire set of LEDs (backbox, topper included).

The last thing I need to order are the various connectors and pin headers on the main boards, not sure if I absolutely want to keep the exact same parts (the white connectors with orange marks) or just use a different manufacturer's versions. The original connectors would make it look closer to retail but are harder to find in Canada.

Which cards do you guys have in your machines? I bought the rule card from marco specialties , but would like to cover the other hole as well.

Some options:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/custom-apron-cards-printable-versions-only/page/10#post-5231520

Search back in this thread fro Soulrider911 's he made.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/fish-tales-casters-club/page/65?gallery&&&galleryp=9

My mate printed these ones up for me .

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