Before I pull the speech board, I decided to test the voltages on the lamp driver board, SB-300, and VSU-100. Here’s what I measured.

Lamp Driver Board
TP1 4.5 v
TP3 4.5 v

SB-300
TP1 0 v
TP2 13.4 v
TP3 9.6 v
TP4 4.5 v
TP5 2.2 v
TP6 0 v

VSU-100
TP2 4.5 v
TP3 -9.3 v

Removed the lamp driver board and sucked the solder off the header pins for J4 and flowed new solder on.

Removed the speech board and sucked the solder off the header pins and flowed new solder on.

My son played a few games and said the speech and sound were fine.
I’ll report back how it goes as we play more games on it.

I bet the resolder will help; the back side of my solenoid driver board looked like a chain of tiny volcanos where the solder had cracked.

This J3 connector and voice out circuit might be the issue. I will probably work on this connector first on the speech board.

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Played a couple of games. Speech and sound are all distorted worse now. Oops. I'm going backwards here. haha.

Refreshed J3 on the speech board today.

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Had a good game last night. Almost blasted off twice. Speech and sound worked fine.

Hi all, I picked up a project F2K recently. Doing some basic things to start with and if the game gels I'll look into restoring her down the track.

First port of call was rebuilding the flippers and clean the cab buttons, however they still seem weak. Voltages are within spec on the rectifier board, are there any other obvious areas which will weaken flippers?

The markings on the flipper coils has faded so I'm not 100% the coils are correct but presume they are.

I always start with power and pins/connectors and follow the issues from there.

Last night during a 2+ hour 2 player session my F2K twice tilted during a left spinner rip ( could have been slam tilt, not sure if you see a difference ). It's never happened before in hundreds of games. I'd guess the diode on the spinner, could it be anything else?

slam tilt reboots the machine
if you have a switch cap on the tilt bob and it looks original, replace it

Thanks, I tried snipping that cap off but then it wasn't registering when it should be. I'll replace it.

Spent a couple of hours this morning refreshing both ends of the J1 speech board to J4 light board connector.

Played a bunch of games. Blasted off a few times. Speech and sound were good. We will see how it lasts.

Looked at my blown out planet. My playfield is pretty shot.

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CPR has new playfields if you want a big adventure doing a playfield swap: https://classicplayfields.com/shop/pinball-playfields/f2k-playfield/

Cool Clodpole. The last time I looked they were sold out. I guess they made some more. I’ll have to think hard about that.

The speech and sound distortion appear to be resolved. Refreshing the speech board to lamp board cable has made a definite impact.

Can you guys please post some photos of your flipper alignment? Mine are in line with the in-lanes, but it looks like the holes in the playfield indicate the flippers should be lower.

This is more of preference thing than anything else. The outside shots will be easier to make if you go down to the alignment pin, at the expense of the center shots. It's how you want it to play. Try it in both positions. My usual preference is to see where the factory ended up having it first and then aligning it with the inlanes.

I can attest to slochar 's advice. My flippers are lined up with the inlanes, and the #1 drop target, as well as the right spinner, are tough shots. Not impossible....

Mine are set on the alignment pins ... (was that way when I got it) One of the benefits of this is the the "center post pass". I can make the center standup target between the #3 & #4 drops from either flipper (mostly when it doesn't count for anything :p )

IMG_1084 (resized).JPG

Drooped is by design on this machine for flippers. makes shatzing the inlaces a little easier if you have the singe "F" setting set also

Thanks for the responses about the flipper position guys. I'll leave it the way it is for now, although I am curious about the droopy position and being able to use the center post to transfer the ball from side to side.

My 25 year old son and I played a couple of games last night. He totally destroyed me after getting multi-ball and an extra ball.

I'm so happy that I figured out the speech problem. The game is much more fun when it is talking to you.

Now, if it would just say something nice....

Mine says (While pinching it's nose) "Prepare for Bitchin' "

Does anyone have loose plastics for sale? Looking for the larger plastic that sits right above the 5-4-3-2-1 drop targets. Thanks!

This one? I posted in the classic stern a few days back wondering who it was looking for it…

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I just got a full set from CPR
Game looks great now

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My flipper angle and my worn out planet. Haha.

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Just fired up my F2K for a game at lunch and the distortion is back. Ugh. I guess I'll continue refreshing the connectors for the speech and sound boards. Then I guess look into replacing the capacitors.

There's always this...

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1297-glodstone/04572-vsu-2-speech-board-replacement-for-vsu-100

Anyone have a source to get these drop target reset links? The Bally replacements they make now don't work.

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This pinsider made some with spares, maybe see if he still has them available:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/price-check-1980-sterns-quicksilver-stargazer-seawitch/page/147#post-7167451

I have an extra Flight 2000 pin manual if anyone needs...PM me.

No

It’s upside down in my pic but if it’s not that one then do you need the clear guide underneath it? Or the one up in the corner? Got a pic?

I have somebody working on these now. The first attempt seems to be a failure unfortunately. I'm using a nos link for him to copy. The prototype he made from stainless and they look really bad. The first piece he made from wood is spot on. So we might have to go with steel and then I can have them plated. I will update if we have a suitable replacement.

I sent you a PM. I’m an idiot!

I have been outside all day working on transforming the cabinet that plastic came out of into a Cheetah cab. Will text you later this evening.

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So I'm having an issue with the new CPR playfield I installed. Both locked balls will get stuck in the oval switch holes and not rest on the metal walker arms. Sure I can shake the machine to fix it easy and I'm sure I will have to sand it down or something. Just wondering if anyone else has this issue and what way you approached to fix it.

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If you can move the plastic over so the balls don't sit in the groove that will fix it. Make sure the fingers aren't holding there. Extreme measure you put small pins to hold them off the groove. When they make playfields they don't cut the slots for switches right there's supposed to be a slight relief at the top and bottom making a tiny ramp.

Had this problem with mine, the fix for me was to move the walker mech about 1/4" towards the lockdown bar. Once I did this even if a ball sat in the groove the finger above it knocks it forward when the mech operates.

I took a small round file and filed the bottom of the slots in the wood to create a ramp before I recleared the pf. The factory pf has a ramp "stamped" into it to prevent this.

This did the trick, thanks for the advice!

Weird thing on mine,
The blast off on the upper left is acting strange.
The last F looks to be connected wrong,
It only lights up when both stage lights are on, he looks connected to the second stage GO green light.

Can someone please take a picture of the wire color on the bulb under is playfield?

Thanks guys!