My suspicion is its just some dirt causing the parts to bind. I had mine apart for a full cleaning not too long ago. The 1st, 3rd and 5th fingers fall back under gravity and are retured to position when the coil is deenergized. Two springs aid in this - one on the plunger and one at the end of the mech.

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There’s also some small plastic bushings where the pins go through the plate. I have a spare populated PF if you need any game specific parts.

I checked my spare pf on the weekend and that ball walker mech was intact. I’ll shoot you a pm.

I sealed mine with Krylon Triple Thick. Works well. You can LED of course, but in a home enviro where the game is likely not on 12hrs each day you could also consider replacing the 44's with 47's. This preserves the original look of the lighted back glass while at the same time reducing heat / power consumption.

Vid has a great thread on this - but here is a summarized version. For full deets check out his thread on PF Restorations:

1) Heat of old inserts with a heat gun or hair dryer. Just enough heat to loosen insert. Tap out from bottom using the largest diameter socket that will fit the hole. Set socket in hole and tap out with mallet. If not coming out easy heat it up more.
2) Prep new inserts. rough up edges and make sure you prime them with something to ensure the plastic adheres to the epoxy and wood. Note that most inserts were made to be installed then sanded down with the PF when it was being manufactured. So check that they are not too thick for direct replacement. if they are then sand them down before installing them.
3) Apply epoxy from the bottom side of pf into the insert hole. Then add insert from the top. Use some wax paper between the pf and a block that you will use to make the insert flush with the PF surface. Clamp them down with a giant ass C clamp that will reach the center of PF. Wait till cured then voila.

High level summary here. But Vid's thread will detail what type of epoxy and primer to use, sandpaper grits. All that jazz.

good luck!

I dont think you need to use heat to reinstall - provided you restraighten the top collar with pliers before hand. The screw will bevel out the top again when you install onto the pf. If you leave the top flared out they will not go in clean and then you have to heat them up to soften plastic.

I Recently bought one of Andrew’s DIY kits and was very pleased. The silkscreened labellimg was very well done, simple to assemble and in general well constructed.

I’ve seen terminals come in a long strip where you break one off when you need it. Looks kinda like that but broken apart leaving the connecting metal on them. Can you break it off clean to leave just the pin?

I wheeled my cab in and color matched the blue hidden hidden under the side rails.

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Been working on my F2K restore. Spent some time taking the drop target banks apart to clean and polish everything. Kept everything original except for the plastic targets. Thought i’d share some after pics ..

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That’s what i was thinking. But with LED’s in the GI i can’t see the plastics warping. I’m just repopulating my pf so i think i’ll give the Flush-mount style a try. They use them in a few areas already.

Do you see any reason to not set them deeper?

The only lamps i would LED are GI. Mainly to prevent warping plastics and other related heat damage. Which may not even be a real concern in a home environment.

Controlled lamps i’m going with 47’s instead of the 44’s. I’d prefer to keep all incandescent but i think there are some more conventional looking led’s on the market today.

I know somewhere to had posted which style you chose for your game - something more retro?

Coming together. Really just the clears for the maze and then the in-lanes to go back in. Pops are all rebuilt just not mounted yet.

I have the Pinbits clear plastic set for the maze, which comes with clear plastic protectors for the in-lanes as well. So with those i’m wondering if i need to add the metal wire guides also. I don’t like the way they make the ball hop at the flipper (at least the ones on the two pf’s i have were installed that way).

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I’m interested in the proper use of these wire guides on f2k. Neither of my pf’s looked correct, as the one end is under the plastic whereas the one at the flipper is way out. So it creates this ramp. If i use the dimples which i know are only suggestions it would do the dame thing as in these pics.

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Interesting. So these wire guides are just to protect the tips of the inlane plastics which are typically broken off? When i bought new clears for the maze from Pinbits, I also got a plastic protector kit. Has some pcs for behind the large drop target, and clears for the inlane plastics.

What I am currently concerned about (or having a closer look) is how the inlane plastic aligned with the flipper bushing hole. It looks to me like there will be a drop to the base of the flipper vs the base of the flipper being above the guide to cause a hop. I may need to drop my inlane plastics a bit. The dimples for the wire guides look ok relative to the original pf. all the dimples for the 4 bell posts lined up to the holes in my plastics.

As for my flipper batts. I bought repros (Marco i think? i was a long time ago) and i finder them thinner not fatter than the ones that came off my original ones. I can't say they are original of course, but they look the same as what is in my Seawitch.

Agree i don’t trust Dimples at all, on either the top or bottom side. So what i want to determine is what the transition is supposed to look like. The same with the flipper batt orientation to the inlane guides. On a Williams you simply line them up so the batts are parallel with the guides. But on F2K there are pins that line up the tips which are a dropped way down. Never looked right but its a classic stern, not a williams. And maybe that orientation is required to hit the shots? Sweeping the three bank target is something i want to be able to do for example.

I have two populated pf’s (one from the game). I’m repopulating a CPR i picked up a few years ago. This is my second F2K project. Yes all of them have pins that the flippers rest on, which had them pitched down (i prob exaggerate when i say way down lol). Always seemed odd to me. Not sure i’ll put the pins back in on the new one. There are no reference marks (dimples) for them to worry about seeing.

Thanks, that’s what i was wondering. The angle is required to hit those outside shots properly. When i get the flippers in i’ll set them to “factory”. At least with these Nothing is permanent and i can adjust as required .

I see what you mean re the kicker and that is interesting. The part the plunger link gets e-clipped on is installed through the opposite side of the bracket than a typical one. I have a fully populated pf in the shop and all kickers are made the same way.

Yep. I wheeled an entire cab into my local paint store and had them match the blue that was unfaded under the side rail. Its now in their system as Electric Blue lol.

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