This will be the biggest project that I've undertaken, which isn't saying much since everything that I've worked on has been working 90% or more. The game traveled from Texas to Wisconsin and has years' worth of dust, dirt, and grime. All the rubbers were brittle and fell apart, and the bulbs were black from being left on all day long. I'm sure it had a hard life in the wild.

This log is more for me to lay out the issues that the game has, so it'll serve as a checklist and a troubleshooting thread for me. Hopefully you all can come along for a ride and help me out! I'll need it!

First things first. Back box didn't have a key so I had to drill out the lock. It was my first time drilling a lock, and I have to say, it didn't go super smoothly. The back glass, though I could move it up, did not want to come out. After about an hour of babying the thing, I was finally able to pry it out and not damage anything in the process. Whew! Took out the latching bar, and will have to order a new tumbler. I found out that the ones used in the coin door are too short

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Pics of the dirty, tired, worn, playfield.

It's going to need a lot of love. Been thinking about going the overlay route, since there aren't any CPRs available...I guess I'll see how well it cleans up.

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New game: Name The Drop Targets? Hint: they're not FG targets

After everything was reconnected, I powered it on for the first time...I was nervous.

The list:

First thing I noticed was that there was no sound. Ok: seller disclosed that info to me when I bought the game. It did work on the 3rd or 4th time i powered it up, but then went dead again. U11 LED light is locked on upon powered up, no flashing or blinking. Seller thinks a capacitor kit will resolve, and after a little bit of searching, I will try that first. GPE has the cheapest kits (by a long shot). Anyone know how long it takes before it gets back in stock?
The speakers work, and I can turn the volume pot up and down to hear volume go up and down also. Reflowed header pins on the boards, but will also probably re-crimp all connector pins on all the boards...just for fun

Second thing I notice, and it wasn't until after a while, was that I can feel current running through the side rails. At first, I thought I was imagining things. But when you slowly touch the side rails or the coin door, you can definitely feel a "vibration." Well, shit. That's not safe. So I'll probably replace the power cord with a 3-pronged power cord. Anyone know how to do this? I'll do a bit of research. Will be #1 on my priority list. Unplugged.

Next is the right flippers don't work. I ran through the solenoid test and all the solenoids fire, and I can hear the flipper relay ticking during test. Left flipper works. I cleaned the flipper switches. Nope. Then I swapped left and right switches. No go. I'll next reflow solder to the header pins in the solenoid driver board, then recrimp the connector pins.

From what I could see, GI was working, about half of the controlled lamps were working, only a handful of the back box lamps were working. So not sure if they're bad bulbs, bad sockets, bad SCR's, bad whatever else you can think of. I've read the sound board draws power from the GI? Who comes up with these things? Anyways, they may be related.

Because I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere, and it was late, but I had to wait for the clothes washer to finish, I started wiping down the plastics with Novus 1...because dirty...and so that I wouldn't feel like I didn't accomplish something. They are yellowed and crusty, but they'll do. Only one was broken, but nothing a little mylar couldn't patch together. Also did a wipe of the playfield with a little simple green and naptha. The pf is still dull. Novus 2 brought back a little color ( I just did the left outlane). So when I get it stripped down, I'll probably have to go in with Novus 2 after the initial wipe down....unless anyone else has other thoughts on this. Will lay down a layer of wax when it gets to this point.

I'll work on it more when I get home, maybe...

Oh, and I've been hacking up my lungs with all that dust. I hope I don't die before it gets cleaned up. Vac'd and wiped the inside of the cabinet. I could probably build another pinball machine with all that dust, and the random bulbs, rubbers, and hardware inside.

I have a feeling I will be pasting a lot of Vid's guides. What a pinball treasure!
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/replacing-line-cords-plugs-wall-sockets-vids-guide

I beat you to it

Problem is, GPE is out of stock, and I'm impatient! and I don't want to spend $20+ on other kits, since GPE is only like $7. I'm too cheap for this hobby.

Going to stop at HD or HF after work and pick up a black extension cord or IEC cord, and solder that in. Making sure all of the grounding braid is attached securely. Going to follow Vid's guide to the letter.

yep, got that. There was a screw in the head slightly raised on a ground braid. I attached it there.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-8-ft-16-3-Extension-Cord-Black-AW64003/206029137

I'm assuming this will work, rated at 13 amps, black, grounded. Let me know before I travel back to the future

Brand name vs generic? Who knows. It's all in the marketing. I hear there's an expert marketer that does a podcast. I digress...

Cool. I didn't realize this was a thing!

Greatness??? Let be real here. I'm shooting for mediocrity at best.

Already bought a 15' cord from the big orange store....but believe me, once Ive finalized the plethora of parts from PBresource, they can close down for the rest of the year

Black, white and....blue?

Using my superpower of deductive reasoning, i concluded that the blue wire was the ground. So...in it went.

And no more zappy mczappyface!

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Dang boy! Look at those joints!

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This resolved the flipper issue, so now both sides flip. Yay! Next is sound and lights. I might buckle and buy the more expensive cap kit from Marcos to do the S&T board.

With the lights, I'm going with good ol' Comet LEDs in warm white. No wedge bulbs to flub up so I can't blame them when something gets shorted.

Let's see how many actually work and if I'll be doing all the SCRs...

I think I gotta go with the overlay. The pf feels rough, and it aint pretty! I don't think I would be really happy with it unless I had a better playing surface. Plus, there are a few inserts that are cracked, and I might as well go the full 9 on it. But thats down the line I think. I need to get it playing 100% first.

There's no rush right now to do the overlay or the hardtop (I'm assuming that's what you're talking about).

Just throwing out my thought that after I clean it and get it working 100%, that some new playing surface is in its future I guess we'll see what's available whenever that time comes.

If anything, I would do overlay and clear coat, with just doing a topside teardown. But that's off off off...Im not sure if CPRs would be even available for this game anymore. One in a million??? But it wouldn't hurt to start a WTB thread.

Right now, like you said, a deep clean and 100% running machine. I may just enjoy it for what it is too! Man though, it is dirty!

Thanks for the SIP sockets! Will get a bunch of those. I like that you can cut to length. So I know for sure, which IC's did you replace?

Worked on it quite a bit today. LOTS of cleaning. Stripped it down and busted out the Novus 3 because it was bad. Short of Magic Eraser and rubbing alcohol, it did a pretty decent job. Went over again with Novus 2. Then a coat of wax. All of the posts and hardware went into the ultrasonic. I feel a LOT better about the playfield now. Also removed the ramps and sanded them down with 100, 320, then 600 grits and also sanded the stainless guides in the back.

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Anyone know where this spinner came from?

I ended up throwing this in the ultrasonic too and cleaned off the paint. I'll find some spinner decals to replace it with.

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Another bit of good news is that all the GI and controlled lamps work! Woohoo! One less thing to troubleshoot.

But a bit of bad news is that I'm going to have to replace a few star rollover inserts.

Advice on the best way to go about This? I'll probably replace them with red since PBR says the orange ones don't match.

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Titan rubbers were supposed to show up today but it looks like they got lost or something as the tracking information has been generic for the last two days. . Otherwise, i would have been flipping the Ball! Waiting on more packs of LEDs.

Will also have to order the siegecraft boards for the controlled lamps. Otherwise it seems like everything else is basic shop out: rebuilding pops and flippers, cleaning all mechs, replacing drops etc. Fingers crossed, hopefully the S&T board is the only real issue!

Going with NVRAM. Will place an order with barakandl soon! Just wanted to make sure I didn't need to order anything else at the same time.

Another day, a bit more stuff done. Cleaned and resleeved the slings and the saucer kicker (cool mech btw) nothing too special...but I did remove my first inserts today! They were so brittle, it took barely any force for them to crumble. 2 out of the 3 came out mostly whole. The 3rd one crumbled to pieces and left a ring inside the playfield. A little more heat and a flat screwdriver took care of it though. The others seemed to be replaced already. I just think it's funny that they would only do a few and not all of them. Ordered a bunch of parts today too. Now the waiting...

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That looks great! Mine is probably better off without me doing 2nd grade art on it . I can live with it. If down the line I decide to keep it, I'll do the cabinet repaint and overlays with clear on it. I still haven't even played a game on it yet, but it'll great when i finally can.

Not sure what hard deck is. I know CPR won't be doing another run. I was referring to people selling their playfields. Do you have a link for hard deck?

That's pretty bad lol. Would much rather have the bare wood than a headless Ming! I've seen good results with the ebay overlay that some other people have documented. I wouldn't replace every single insert (but who knows, I might just be crazy enough to!) But yeah, there are other alternatives to CPR playfields. That's what I was trying to say earlier

The bare wood is growing on me. There is a ring of glue near the top bumper when the mylar was removed. I haven't tried to take it off yet, as I don't want to remove any paint. I was thinking a bit of goo gone on it....

I did make a little more progress since my last update. I switch over all the lamps to LEDs, and found that I only had about 15 or so lamps that were strobing. Score! I added resistors to each socket, and now I don't have to sweat about spending another $75 on Seigecraft LED boards. Also did black Titan rubbers. I didn't realize that the slings called for 3" rubbers?? That felt way too loose, and I didn't have 2.5" on hand so I went with 2". I'll have to change it out to 2.5" the next time I place an order. Not sure how long the 2" rings will last.

Cap kit and NVRAM arrive today. Hoping my PBR order arrives before the weekend, got a few things arriving tomorrow too! I love getting pinball parts!

That looks really great! You did a nice job matching color. I'm a little artsy, but not that artsy. Did you put some kind of protection over the touched up areas?

Nice! I have some red and black at home. I might just do the solid parts, whenever I get around to it. If anything, it'll just wear back down and be no worse than when I got it

Got the cap kit today. Got my station set up, ready for battle. This will be the biggest board repair I've attempted. I know you're thinking, easy peasy...well, with a real risk of damaging the board and me doing this for this first time, i was a bit nervous!

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Capacitors installed. I triple probably quadruple checked to make sure the polarity was all correct.

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And.....it works!!! I now have sound! I didn't replace the socket, and probably won't but awww yeah! I feel like I took a big step today

SIP sockets were ordered and I will be getting them today. I was only going to replace the socket at U11 as suggested, but I did inspect it and it looked fine to my untrained eye. If the sound goes wonky again, that'll be my first thing. All speech and sounds work. I even replaced the little pot dials...I was feeling ambitious!

I reflowed the solder joints at J1 (I did all the header pins on all the boards). The pins looked clean and are holding strong, plus I don't have any spares to replace it with!

So as of right now, everything *cross my fingies* is working as it should. The three star rollover inserts are out, otherwise I would have played a few games! C'mon PBR!!! Waiting for parts is the worst.

Parts come today, so it'll be a busy Easter weekend! YASSSS!!!

I have the csi8900 desoldering gun. It worked well for the most part. i did lift a pad on the printed side, but the other side was ok. Whew!

Overall I'm extremely happy with my first foray into board repair. I'm not extremely worried about replacing the socket and can do it if needed!

Another thing to add to the list is that the tilt bob isn't working so I'll have to dive into that later.

Hooolllyyyy CRAP! I am tired. I did 3 drop target mechs, 3 flipper rebuilds, and 3 pop bumper rebuilds, with cabinet buttons and switches, switch cleaning and adjusting, and some other tweaking...and it's mostly playable! Still waiting on Cliffy lane guides and hole protectors. There's pretty bad ball hop coming down the inlanes but the new guides should fix that. Also have to sort out game settings as it's giving me a replay on the first score I make, even though i thought i had it set to 550K. But that's minor stuff. For all intents and purposes, this game is up and running!

That is wierd. I'm sure you've done this already but I would check the switch gap. My left sling machine guns after it activates and I have to open up the gap a bit more. Have fun!

Can anyone tell me what this is and would it be a reason why the tilt bob isn't registering? It doesn't show continuity and I'm assuming it would.

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Ok so found it was a ceramic disc capacitor and a replacement was suggested. Would this be the culprit?
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/y5f-12v-caps-found-on-bally-machines

So what happened since I last updated...I started a couple other troubleshooting threads. One was for because the right sling dropped out of its mounting holes (yeah, I know) and shorted out the controlled lamps. A new 20A fuse on the rectifier board fixed that. The strobe light also went out when this happened, but I putzed around with the Aux lamp board and the strobe board (basically inspected and cleaned) and not sure what I did, but it started working again.

The other thing was the tilt bob not registering. After some fine detective work by @quench, he saw that the diode was removed to disable the tilt. Replaced the diode and Ming now laughs at me...

I ordered a few more parts that I didn't know about until going through the mechs, ordered thin Titan flipper rubbers to help with ball hop, also have Cliffy lane guides and hole protector coming soon (*wink*wink @cliffy) then I think I'll call it done and done for now!

Have played several games up to this point, and I'm loving it! Just a few more kinks to work out and Flash will be ready to save the universe

I actually had a 1.3 million game the other day! This was with mostly (I think all) conservative settings and no extra ball awarded (was still messing with the settings) even though I "earned" an extra ball on the right inline drops. I set it up to the "Recommended Settings" in the manual, but wondering what other people have done. Will post in the Club thread Will need to increase the slope as well. It's right around 6.5 degrees right now.

5 ball? Im sad such an option even exists!

Knock on wood, everything is working right now. Just waiting on the finishing touches. Just gotta say again that I really love this game! So fun. I want to make it a bit steeper, but I'd like other people to be able to enjoy it too

It took WAY too long to Frankenstein this switch together but I did it. At first I installed a double contact switch so the when i pressed the Start button, it would also add credits. Well, the blades were way too short, and I didn't realize until after I put it up to the screw holes. So I decided to just use half of the switch and smack it together with the original switch. But imagine me with my fat fingers trying to pry apart the new switch to hobble it together with the old switch...yeah, that took like 2 hrs...

But it's done now. I adjusted the first switch to activate on a short press of the button, without adding credits. On a full press, it will activate the second switch to add credits. This way, i don't have to hear the laugh and coin up sound every time I start a game. When this happens it interrupts the normal starting sound sequence. Now I can enjoy the game starting as normal.

Came across two minor issues today. One of the pops have phantom switch hits, and the vibration of the upper flipper is causing the upper drop target to slide backwards and drop....more fun to deal with!

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I haven't looked into it yet. I'll check for the switch gap first since I did adjust it to be very sensitive. I'll probably back if off a touch, and that will probably help. If not, I'll replace those disc capacitors or cut off one of the legs as a short (or long.... ) fix.

I'm not too worried about the cosmetics right now. TBH, I don't even notice it when I play If I decide to keep it long term, I might consider painting the cab, and doing an overlay, otherwise, it's just as fun as hell as it is!

So the shooter rod that I ordered from PBR is quite a bit shorter than the old rod with the flattened tip. I haven't re-checked their website agsin, but does this game require a special long rod? *insert rod jokes here*

New one is on the left

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I would not be able to wait a week much less 2 years!

The tip was mushroomed and I took a dremel tool to grind the edges down on the old one. I'm used to a tapered end, and wasn't sure with this game, so I decided to replace it. I'm working with PBR now with it. Marco shows both a 7-3/8" rod and a 7-13/16" rod. The shorter one (on their website) has a point on the know that is rounded off. The longer one has a point that comes to a tip. The rod from PBR has a pointy tip (not rounded) and measures 7-1/2" so it's like a combination of the two different rods? The one in my game now is just shy of 7-13/16". It seems though that the plunge is weak but it puts the ball into play, but it seems like it should be stronger. Again, just my inexperience with this game, but I thought a new plunger would help that. I have a stronger spring that I'll try as well. Hopefully that will help.

PBR is sending me a new shooter rod. I'll measure it when I get it. Jimmy said that they changed the website but I didn't see it. I guess what I'll do in the future is measure my old shooter rod and confirm the length before placing the order.

Also got confirmation from Cliff that my order is fulfilled...so new ball guides in the next week or so. Can't wait!

They won't fit into your Flash Gordon, that I can tell you! I haven't tried to swap it into my Paragon yet. I'll have to take a look at it, I'd like to try to use it if I can.

I'd post a pic of your rod of choice, but I don't want to get ejected from my own thread

I'm getting a replacement, so we'll see if it measures up. I told Jimmy the measurements of the different lengths of rods. I wonder how they came up with their 7-1/2 measurement, and if they manufacture some of their own parts? Not sure where it comes from. He said they changed their website, but I couldn't find it. I'm going to need to put a new spring in it too, because the rod I have now needs a full plunge to make it all the way through and I have to make sure the playfield is pulled tight to the cabinet.

Cliffy to the rescue! Now the ball rolls smoothly to the flipper and I can (attempt to) hit shots on the fly! How much difference removing the ball hop makes! Also installed the double saucer protector. Looks and fits perfectly as usual!

I also replaced the disc capacitors and diodes on all the pop bumpers and the diodes on the left bank of drops and the inlane and outlane switches. I noticed the phantom pops stopped from the few games I played. I was getting a bonus 5K at the start of the game when the ball gets kicked into the shooter lane. I was hoping changing the diodes would help but I still get it every once in a while. Any thoughts on this?

Otherwise game is pretty darn near complete!

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I've gone through most, if not all of the switches cleaning and adjusting gaps. When I replaced the diodes on these switches, I checked the gaps again and they're all good. I'm not overly concerned with it. I'm going to check the outhole kicker to see if it has any diodes or disc caps and replace them, as it only happens when the ball gets kicked into the shooter lane. Idk, lol. Just doing what I think *might* help.

Yes. The sound effect that accompanies it, I believe, are the inlane switches. They award 5K when unlit.

Yep, I've done that also

Yep, just replaced those, but there are other switches that I haven't replaced them on either, so it could be one of those. idk. i'm sure I'll find it eventually, and it doesn't have a huge impact (negligible really) on gameplay. It's only at the same moment that ball 1 gets kicked into the plunger lane, so there's a link there somewhere.

Yeah, I know! I'll look at the schematics. I think of it as Emperor Ming giving me a 5k point handicap

Got the new shooter rod installed that is the correct length. Also replaced the spring and it launches much better now. I'm not a fan of the knob finish though and will probably order the proper pointy knob from Marco the next time I need parts, but it's functional 100%

Unless someone knows how to swap out knobs?

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I didn't see any pins in the knob. I'll try to grab a pic of it.

Yeah, I'm a little disappointed with the chrome knob...

Wow, it's been over 2 years since I got the game. I'm necro-bumping this thread back up because I was able to get a copy of a CPR digital print this week and a new set of plastics, so my first pf swap/restore will take place! It's not going to be anything crazy. A cabinet repaint, some new rails, legs, and lockdown bar. Since I already went through all of the mechs and replaceable plastic bits, I won't have to do anything above the playfield really. Just can't wait to get rolling on this game. First will be sanding, prepping and painting the cabinet. Likely in a couple weeks once I order a set of stencils and the weather starts to cool down a bit. Plus it'll give time for the pf to fully cure.

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They did a short run using their digital printing process a few months earlier. They may do another short run since there seems to still be some demand for it.

Haven't gotten around to the swap yet as I've brought in a few other games that have since gone into my lineup. But hoping to get to it this winter yet. Planning on redoing the cabinet when the spring rolls around in 2021.

The swap begins! Topside is pretty much stripped. All the posts went through several cycles in the ultrasonic cleaner and will be nice and clean when I start to repopulate the topside. Ordered a tumbler, so metal parts will be getting a polish when it (hopefully) arrives on Monday.

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So I just realized today that I don't have any staple down sockets . Pinball Life is on vacation until Jan 4, so that means my whole plan to get the playfield swap done is pretty much delayed until after the new year, and after my vacation as well

Kind of bummed, but I'm willing to wait to do it right and doing it bit by bit after work. In the mean time, I can get things labeled and the new playfield prepped as much as I can.

I think I have inserts, switches, and coils labeled. I know its probably overkill, but I'm not going to wash the harness, and I'm not going to doubt my stupidity, so I took the safest route for me

I think that's all I can do until my new sockets come. I'll start next by hammering T-nuts, nails, and guide rails on the new pf, and prepping screw holes with Kruzman's pf prep kit.

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Did some polishing...

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Bottom side removed. I left all of the mechs in place and connected since it's all been gone through already. I had the hardest time removing the flipper bats, of all things. I used a literal 5 lb hammer to get them out. I never would have gotten them out while in the game. All new parts too.

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Holy shit....I just spent the last 2+ hours cleaning out the clear from 5 of 7 star rollovers. The first one took a while, as I didnt quite know what I was doing, but then I started to get a feel for what to take off and where. It's not perfect, but hopefully once new star rollovers are in, it wont be noticeable. But damn...that is a lot of tedious work.

This kit from Ron Kruzman is a must have.

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Rails got a fresh coat of black lacquer and are back on the game. Gotta say, it's starting to look pretty darn nice.
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I suppose I could start to repopulate the topside while I wait to order the.reat of what I need from the bottom side.

More progress. Parts order placed yesterday, hoping to get it by Tuesday so I can start repopulating the bottomside

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Yay for progress! Braid has been laid....

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Need to do a little bit of rework. After I had soldered all of the wiring to the brackets and tabs of the staple-down sockets, I realized that I didn't pay attention to the orientation of the tabs on the staple-down sockets when I was stapling them in. I learned in another thread that GI is fine and that the orientation doesn't matter, but that feature lamps/controlled lamps do matter. So since some of the staple-down sockets are controlled, it looks like I'll be doing some rework to correct that. Pay attention to tabs! For next time.

I'm pretty sure I bought the braid from Pinball Resource. I had bought it a while ago, not specifically for this project, so I can't recall, but I'm pretty sure it is from there.

It seems that the tabs from the staple downs are isolated from each other. I did continuity tests on one of them. One tab is connected to the socket housing, and the other tab is connected to the spring inside...I'm pretty sure that is consistent with what I found with the screw down lamp holders you are referring to.

Looks like you were right about the sockets. The socket is isolated from the bracket, so it looks like I will have some more soldering to do.

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Finished soldering up the bottomside, but that's not really anything special to look at. Just a couple more things to solder. Plastics will go on last, then I'll set the playfield back into the cabinet to do the flippers, hangers and apron to finish it off. Hopefully I didnt fudge anything on the bottomside.

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And I can't forget the spinners! Those have to make it back on too at some point

I don't have clear rings and these were new Titans when I shopped it out from before. I tend to use clear rings on games with RGB lights and solid colors for most other games. Nothing too crazy either; black or white usually for older games. I might do colors on DMD-present . I guess I'm a traditionalist when it comes to the older games.

Had some slow down this week. We got a new TV and are rearranging the living room, so that's been taking some of my time away from the swap The flippers are presenting a bit of an alignment problem. With the wise wisdom of Vid, I will need to elongate the mounting hole on the left side lane guide to allow enough adjustment so that the guides an ride in line with the flipper. The right side seems just right.

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But after this, there isn't too much left to do. I'm nervous about plugging the playfield back into the game. The main thing is the braid for the sockets and hoping that everything was run correctly. I forget to check for continuity from end of run to end of run...so I might do that before I get everything reinstalled.

Plugged in the playfield for the first time this morning. I was halfway expecting some things not to work. So...no upper left GI, no mini bonus or bonus insert lights, both lower pops are tied together, no left flipper.

I haven't done any more troubleshooting besides that. The game was working 100% prior to the swap...so I've got some info to collect in the next few days.

Not sure why the pops or flipper are funky, since the flipper was never disconnected and the pops were wired the same way they were removed (or so I thought).

A few switch adjustments resolved the flipper and pops so that's good news, and I totally missed soldering a set of a couple wires, so I've got my inserts working. There are a few inserts that are out, so I'll need to investigate that further and the upper left GI is still out. I'm sure I didnt connect something correctly there, as it was kind of messy before I took it apart.

The playfield swap is all wrapped up, I think. I missed soldering on another set of wires which got all of my lights working, then fine tuned some switches, got the plastics on and played a few balls and tweaked some more. I think I can put the glass back on until it warms up and I can do my first cabinet restencil. All in all, I'm really happy with how it turned out. I definitely made some mistakes, but I definitely learned a lot and will do better on my next game.

Next updates will probably in the spring when I repaint.

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Thanks Josh! I appreciate the kind words. It was definitely a fun project and gave me more confidence for my next swap, whatever that may be. You're a smart guy, you would be able to learn it to!

Loving CII btw. Such a great game!