My son and I bought this Flight 2000 over the weekend!

We fixed one of the ball trough switches and now it will load balls and play.
It still has trouble booting up when we first turn it on. It does the 5 or 7 beeps and then sometimes freaks out, shoots solenoids, and starts again and eventually boots up.

Other times it will die while playing a game and then start trying to reboot.

It's a lot of fun. The playfield needs cleaning, repainting, and waxing or clear coat.

Plus we have about 15 or 20 lights that are out.

The cabinet is loose too on the front left side near the coin door. So gotta glue that up and get some of the newer leg braces.

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I'll be replacing this when the new board comes in.

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I just had similar problems with my Flight 2000 not booting up, and when if it did boot up, it would reboot randomly during a game. I replaced the power rectifier board and recrimped the J3 20 pin connection. That solved all my problems. What does the front and back of your power rectifier board look like in the base cabinet?

I’m no expert, but yours looks way better than mine was. A replacement is $60 if you want to install a new one that is not 41 years old.

How does the connector for the bug 20 pin connection look?

Dang, my #3 and #4 countdown drop targets broke off yesterday!

It gave me an excuse to order a new set of 5 from Marco, along with new rubber rings, flipper rings, and some new pinballs.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get that taken care of this weekend. Do I need to remove the whole assembly from the underside of the playfield to fix them?

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tyking,

Your power rectifier board looks pretty solid to me, same with the pins on it.

It looks like you have a few burned connectors. How do the wires look in the burned spots? I would probably re-crimp new connector pins and check those ones out first. However, I'm brand new to the hobby and have had my own Flight 2000 machine less than a month.

I hope others can provide better help to you.

I'm still working on my Flight 2000. My replacement set of drop targets will arrive on Friday, so hopefully that will go well this weekend.

I am also going through the lights trying to figure out why about 25% of them still are not working. I'm pretty sure most of the issues are corrosion on the incandescent light bulbs and bulb holders.

I have noticed that my green "Second Stage Go" light is illuminated any time the game is on. Does anyone have some tips for me to try and fix that? I'm guessing the light is powered by a switch in the ball locker mechanism? Or do I need to dig around and look at the light circuit board?

Thanks for the help and my whole family is enjoying the machine.

Hi Clodpole. Thanks again for the tips.
A lot of the lamps not working right are dimly lit, or vary in brightness. Some of the control lights don't seem to be coming on. Some of the control lights have been fixed by cleaning the bulbs. For a lot of the lamps, I am taking the bulbs out and cleaning the bulbs and then putting them back in. That seems to help most of them so far. It looks like I'll need to put in new sockets, as these seem corroded and worn out. Some of them spin around when I try to take the bulb out too.

The end goal is to install LEDs in the general illumination first.

Then move onto the control lights and whatever is the best, easiest, or cheapest and easiest way to convert control lights to LEDs.

I installed new 1 through 5 drop targets. The job was a lot easier than I anticipated. The drop targets work great now.

I also installed a new set of rubber rings.

The game is playing pretty fast now.

My next project will be rebuilding the flippers, installing some new light sockets, and installing LED lights. For the LED’s, is there a consensus opinion about cool white, warm white, frosted, or blue/purple LEDs?

Thanks Clodpole! I appreciate the photo. I think my slingshot switches are set the same. I was thinking mine might have been backwards for some reason.

Here are some photos of my play field damage. I would like to try and touch up the paint. It will never look great, but I was wondering what everyone thinks might be the best approach.

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I installed some Comet LEDs last night on the playfield general illumination. I also messed around with the control lights. I definitely need to replace some light sockets and get more LEDs for the back box.

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Thanks emsrph. This is helpful.

I am trying to figure out what is causing the Second Stage Go light to be on constantly on the play field down by the 5 drop targets.

This is my first pinball machine and I am new to reading the wire diagrams. From what I can tell, the Second Stage Go is J2, Pin 5. If I follow that to the light board, it is Q52 and R52 that are controlling the light, is this correct?

If I am understanding PinWiki, then the Q52 is bad, is this correct?

Is there any sort of diagnostic test I can do on the Q52 2NSO60 to make sure this is the problem?

Next, how difficult is this for me to replace? I'm guessing the light board needs to be removed from the machine, then a soldering iron used to remove the Q52 2NS060 and install a new one? This sounds kinda fun and a little scary. haha. Does Great Plains Electronics sell them?

Thanks a bunch.

Tom

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Thanks for the great emails. The 2nd Stage Go light up in the ball launcher seems to be working properly and blinks during attract mode and is not a steady green like the one I showed in the photo.

I just got a brand new soldering iron station. It has adjustable temperature in Celsius. It has a nice beveled tip, not a little pointy tip. A few weeks back I soldered the wires onto a new power/rectifier board in the cabinet and that was fun and seemed to go well enough.

The two lamps are not illuminated a steady green, so I don't know what's happening then. The wire diagram says that both bulbs are controlled by Q52, so I see what you guys are talking about how both bulbs should be acting the same way. So I don't know what's up with that.

The wire diagram says they should have white with blue wires.

Do you think I can show that formula to the local hardware store and get a similar color blue for my cabinet? I assume that's a paint formula on the label, right?

^ Boo. I figured it wouldn't be that easy.

I'm going to order some new light sockets to replace a bunch that appear to be corroded or spin a bunch when I try to get the bulbs in and out.

I did look at the green 2nd Stage Go light by the 5 dropdown targets and it definitely has a White with Blue Stripe wire feeding it.

I couldn't tell for sure, but the 2nd Stage Go light up in the ball locker appeared to have a different color wire. The manual says they both should be white with blue stripe.

Besides that I got both of my spinners working awesome last night. The ball locker spinner on the left was not spinning well and getting stuck. I took it apart, used some steel wool on the spinner target arms, then the smallest drop of automatic transmission fluid at the pivot points. Both spinners revolve a very long time now and stop/fall back to a vertical position.

Here is another issue. On my slingshot/kickers the kicker arm mechanism seems very wobbly. Lots of play in the kicker arm connection points. How much slop is supposed to be in those? I'm thinking I need to get replacements or else install some washers in the joints to take up the slack.

Thanks for everyone's help getting this game running and maximizing the fun. It is a great game to play and very challenging.

Will these work? I haven't looked at my Flight 2000 close enough to see if they are identical.
https://www.pinballlife.com/williamsbally-slingshot-bumper-crank-assembly.html

https://www.pinballlife.com/williamsbally-slingshot-kicker-mounting-bracket.html

For some reason last night I was able to "Blast Off" in 2 of the 5 games I played.

Can someone please describe the sound effects that should happen during the "Blast Off" when the 3 balls are launched from the locker mechanism?

I noticed my machine got kind of quiet during the "Blast Off". The left spinner noise was interrupted. Then once the 3 balls are launched, there is some sort of rocket noise and the spinner noise continues. I'm wondering if all of my sound effects are working properly?

I'll have to try it again with the glass off and notice the sounds more closely.

Thanks!

Our Flight 2000 developed a major problem today. Here is what happens.

1. Start a game. Ball #1 gets ejected from the outhole.
1. Get Ball#1 into the ball locker. First Stage Go. Next ball gets ejected from the outhole.
2. Get next ball into the ball locker. Second Stage Go. Next ball gets ejected from the outhole.
3. Outhole solenoid and the 5 bank drop target solenoid activates and the game thinks I drained a ball.
4. Outhole solenoid and the 5 bank drop target solenoid activates and the game thinks I drained a ball.
After a few times of doing this the game ends.

So what's going on here? I have no idea what is wrong or how to trouble shoot it.

We have checked the ball trough switches and they seem fine.

The self-test switch in the coin door seems like everything tests fine.

I would appreciate any guidance that any of you Flight 2000 experts could provide.

Thank you.

Yes, it counts the bonus points and acts like the game is over.
I’ll replicate it again today and report back.
When one ball is left in the trough, that switch should be closed, right?
Then when the trough is empty, that switch is open, correct? I can’t remember off the top of my head.

Thanks emsrph.

I just did the switch test and it is showing switch #33 to be a problem. Switch #33 is the Out Hole (Right).

Here is what the trough switches look like.

The one on the right appears to be open to me, if I am understanding how the switch looks with no balls in the trough.
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Thanks again emsrph.

Here is another photo of the leaf switch. It all seems ok, I'm not sure how to test the diode. I'll have to get on YouTube to check that out.

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Sounds like I need to order some diodes and solder. Haha.

I assume Great Plains Electronics is the place to get these?

Is the 1n4007 diode that play_pinball used the thing for me to buy?

Sorry about all the questions. I'm new to all of this.

I just watched a video of a guy testing diodes with a multi-meter. His diodes were not connected to anything. Do I need to unsolder the diodes before testing them, or can they be tested still on the switch?

I put my multi-meter on the diode setting. I checked the readings and in one direction I didn't get anything. In the other direction I got a reading of around 1460 or something like that. I compared the readings to other similar diodes on the "B-O-F-F" switches and those diodes read about the same exact thing.

For the heck of it I touched up the solder connections for the diode on the Out Hole (Right) switch. I did the self-diagnostic test again using the coin door switch and switch #33 Out Hole (Right) is still having a problem.

Thanks emsrph. I'll check those switch diodes tonight after we do our Easter celebration. I'll report back tonight.

Thanks emsrph,

I’m new to pinballs and trouble shooting. Can you help me understand why you are suggesting to test diodes on a diagonal on the switch matrix from switch #33?

I was thinking I would test 25, 17, 9, and 1?

Thanks again for all the help. I’ll be able to work on the machine again when I get back home on Monday evening.

Thanks Lovef2k, I ordered 50 1N4004 diodes!

Thank you again!
I need to check the diodes on those switches under the playfield, correct?

Looks like no capacitor on my right out hole switch. Just a diode.

1. I removed the J2 and J3 connectors from the MPU board and reconnected them.
2. I moved all of the drop targets up.
3. I removed the balls.
4. I did the switch test and got a 0.
5. I rolled a ball over all of the switches to make sure they registered and all was fine.
6. I started a game.
7. I put 1 ball in the locker. Another ball ejected.
8. I put a second ball in the locker. Another ball ejected.
9. I knocked down targets and switches and all seemed fine. So I turned the game off and restarted.
10. The game worked perfectly and I got my high score. Haha!

I guess reseating the J2 and J3 connectors fixed the problem.

Lesson learned. At least now I have a bunch of diodes to start replacing the old ones with.

Thank you to everyone who assisted, especially emsrph. I don't really understand why it is working now, but we will keep playing it and see if it malfunctions again.

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haha. Too funny and so true!

I'm back. The problem is back. The switch test using the coin door says that switch #33 is closed. That's the right out hole again.
I removed the J2 connector from the MPU board and got a flashing 0.
My understanding is that this tells me that the problem is under the playfield, is this correct?

Thanks for everyone's assistance with my Flight 2000. The game plays fine now that the broken right out hole leaf switch was replaced.

I'm guessing this is unrelated, but we are now losing some of the sound effects. The speech seems to work fine. However a lot of the rocket/explosion type sounds seem to now be missing. Especially when you launch for multi-ball and the explosion/rocket sounds that happen after a game is over.

I don't have a clue about how to trouble shoot the sound boards. I'm guessing the top sound board is the place to check first?

Congruatulations! Excellent find! Had mine for a couple of months now and it always has something wrong with it. Continuous problems. This is my first pinball machine, so maybe all machines are like this one? It's fun if it works right. My machine has never been 100% fully working. Your playfield looks pretty nice! I dig it.

Current situation is:
1. Some sounds are missing. Especially the explosion sounds that happen when the ball launcher activates and at the end of a game.
2. Speech seems fine.
3. Game will shut down and reboot in the middle of a game for no reason.
4. Still have a 2nd Stage Go light that is on all the time near the 5 bank drop targets.

Main issue is the shutting down and restarting.

A new power/rectifier board has been installed. I did new connectors on the big plug on the rectifier board.

Looks like the MPU board has a tag on it saying it was worked on by Mike Tolley in 2014.
Also looks like replacement cables to the sound board.

If I get bored this weekend I'll pull a couple of the boards and check the solder connections on the back side.

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I’m the wrong guy to ask. Haha. Maybe because lights trigger the speech?

I did this test. With the machine on it was reading 4.1 to 4.2 volts. Then while I was testing it reset and did the 5 beeps again on the MPU. Now it is 4.45 volts.

Secured that strap to ground.

Here is the back side of the SB 300.
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I touched up a few of the pin connections along the bottom.

Speech was fine. Most sounds appear to be there. The explosion sounds when you blast off are missing, when you spell the word blast, and at the end of the game. There are some noises when the explosions are supposed to sound, but it's not the normal explosion noises it used to make.

I played about 8 or 9 games and eventually it shut down and restarted on me again. So I'm guessing the voltage dropped like it did when I was testing the voltage at TP 4 and TP 5.

Should the next step be to remove the MPU board and look at the back of it?

Or should I look at my power rectifier board again in the cabinet? The power rectifier board is new and about 2 months ago I replaced almost all of the connections on the wire harnesses that connect to it.

Good Morning!

Here are my measurements from the solenoid driver board.

TP1 = 4.9 volts.
TP3 = 4.9 volts.
TP5 = 12.76 to 12.89 volts and seems to fluctuate more than the other two.

I retested TP4 to TP5 on the MPU board and it was 4.29 to 4.41 volts.

So does that mean voltage is dropping between the solenoid driver board and the MPU board someplace?

Awesome emsrph,

I removed the SDB J3 and MPU J4 connectors. The pins looked fine, so I shined them up a little with steel wool.
The connectors seemed fine too. Nothing was burnt looking. The wires and connectors seemed snug in the plastic connectors.
I plugged them back in and re-tested the voltage on the MPU TP4 and TP5. It now reads 4.83 volts. So that's a pretty big improvement.

I have played a few games and the missing explosion sounds are now working!
Thank you very much emsrph!

Broken again. That didn't last long. haha.
A ball got stuck on the 3 bank drop target. So I turned the game off to move it. Turned the game back on and get a loud humming noise like something is stuck and the MPU doesn't do the 7 beeps. Ugh.

Amazing how I can go from really enjoying a machine to hating it all within 1 minute.

None of it makes any sense to me at this point.
Anybody want to buy a broken Flight 2000 that works occasionally?

I followed the pinwiki order for plugging in the connections to the boards and it's working fine for the moment.

4.8 Plug It In and Turn It On

Plug in minimal amount of boards
Start w/ input to rec. board
Plug in 20 pin head harness to rec. board next
Plug in upper right of SDB next
Plug in lower left of MPU next
Plug in upper left of LDB next
Plug in all others on LDB next
Plug in upper left of MPU next
Plug in lower right and all others on SDB
Listen for locked on coils
Plug in upper right and lower right of MPU

Haha. So funny and true. The machine is working well today. Still measuring 4.83 volts on the TP4 to TP5 MPU.

Next issue is to figure out why 2nd stage go light is always on. I’ll take a break for a while and just play the game to see how long it works reliably without shutting down/restarting the MPU board.

Played Flight 2000 for a bunch of one player and two player games yesterday. Some by myself, some with my son, and some with my son by himself. We played a lot of games back to back and for over an hour. The machine worked fine. Full sound and speech and the machine MPU did not shut down and reboot. It's a lot of fun and very challenging when it is working properly. Got close to blasting off many times, but always managed to drain ball #3 before getting the countdown completed, or getting the last ball up the launcher/locker mechanism.

@turboburt1, Wow! That board is tiny! haha. Very cool that it solved your problem. My sound is working fine for the moment, but there is a little background humming noise when the machine is on. I notice it if the machine is on and the room is quiet. That's cool your new board got rid of it.

turboburt1, your playfield looks amazing to me. Mine is in much worse shape than yours. Nice going on the restoration so far. The plastic piece near my left flipper is also broken in the same exact spot. Eventually I need to make a clear plastic piece like you did for yours.

About the humming noise, thanks for the tip about improving the grounds. I'll look into that. I also need a new speaker. My original speaker is torn and doesn't look so great. haha. Can any 6 inch (just a guess on size) speaker work down there?

Also thanks for the inlane plastics traced on the graph paper. I've printed it out to scale and will try to use it to make a clear Lexan version to fit under my broken original left inlane.

Awesome rcbrown. Yes, an Amazon link would be fantastic for the speaker.

The past 2 or 3 evenings I have been playing our Flight 2000 with my 23 year old son. He has a pretty stressful job and usually hits the basement when he gets home from work to unwind watching YouTube. However, my son really seems to be enjoying the machine now that our Flight 2000 is getting more reliable. The last several evenings we have struggled to "BLAST OFF". Typically we get the letters spelled on ball #3, but end up draining while doing the count down or before we can get the ball up into the launcher mechanism. Last night my son blasted off and got the multi-ball, only to have 2 of the balls drain down the middle almost immediately. haha. After about 6 games together I bailed out and he told me that the game is a lot of fun now that it is playing so well and we've fixed it up so much. I was talking to him to see if he was interested in getting rid of the game and upgrading to something modern and he certainly thinks Flight 2000 is a keeper.

6 million sounds crazy. The saved high score on our machine is over 5 million. My son's goal is to beat that score.
I didn't realize people play on the 5 ball setting. What other dip switch settings do you use?
I think ours is set to all the standard settings.

Dang, I must be hard core or old school. Haha. 3 balls. No extra balls. Had my first game just over 2 million last night.
For me, the hardest letters to get are both of the "F"s.

Off the top of my head, these are the dip switch settings I can remember.

3 balls.
No extra balls awarded.
Speech and sounds on.
The right spinner value is reset after each ball.
The multiplier is reset after each ball.
I think Apollo lights are off after each game, but light up after spelling "BLAST-OFF".
However, locked balls stay in the launcher between games.

Dang, you guys have some great looking Flight 2000 machines. Mine looks very tired compared to the restorations you guys have.

How do you guys like to align your flippers? I see there are pins in the playfield below the flippers, but I'm not exactly sure what those are for. Visually, I think it looks best when the flippers align at the same downward angles as the in-lanes. Is there a flipper position that is ideal for playing the game?

My 2nd highest score. Almost had a second BLAST OFF on ball #3. The machine continues to work reliably for us. This summer I'll do some work on some light sockets, and figure out why the 2nd Stage Go light is always on. Other than that the machine just has some cosmetic issues that would require paint touch ups to the play field. It's a fun machine and a keeper.

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Had my best game ever. 3 balls. Bonus multiplier carriers over each ball. Right spinner value resets each ball. One F does not spot the other F. Achieved 2 multi-balls/BLAST OFFs!

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Last night I changed out the left flipper bushing, plunger, and coil stop on my Flight 2000. Can someone post a photo of their left flipper? The wiring on mine looks strange. After putting everything together, the plunger is very weak now and eventually began to not work. I'm wondering if the end of stroke switch is not working properly? I have new switches I can put on that came with the rebuild kit.

The coil has 3 places on the tab thing to connect the wires, but I don't remember seeing any diodes on it. I'll try working on it Friday evening to see if I can get it all back to normal. I did notice that some strands of wire have broken off of at least one soldered connection.

Thanks for the assistance.

^Thanks Clodpole. That helps a lot! I will get out the soldering iron on Friday evening and report back the results!

What have I done wrong with the left flipper? If I start the machine and press the left flipper, the game restarts. Right flipper works fine.

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Thanks, I’ll switch the blue and green wires tomorrow night.

Thanks. It looks like the diodes are already oriented in the way you show with your added diode graphics.

I thought about the MPU voltage dropping last night, so I got out the multi-meter. I checked the TP4 and TP5 on the MPU and the voltage all was strong. I also checked the test points on the solenoid driver board and they all seemed fine still. There wasn't a voltage drop between the solenoid driver board and the MPU.

I switched the blue/white and the green wire and the game still restarts when I press the left flipper.

With the machine on there is:
45 volts is going to the green wire.
45 volts to the blue/white wire.
45 volts to center tab.
Open up the end of stroke switch and all 3 still have 45 volts.

No luck finding a problem with the left flipper wires.

Here is the diagram I have for the flippers.
Left flipper button has an orange and a blue wire. Looks like the orange is supposed to go to the J2-9 pin on the Power Rectifier Board inside the base cabinet?
Blue wire goes to the Solenoid Driver Board in the head cabinet to the J2-2 pin?

Am I understanding the diagram properly?

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Machine is having big problems now. My son turned it on and the speaker makes a big gumming noise and the mpu doesn’t do the 7 beeps. Guess I’ll look at the power rectifier board fuses next. I think the general illumination was coming on still.

Zero beeps. Just a loud buzzing sound. So I quickly turned off.

Maybe I need to go to the pinwiki and start from the beginning with the power rectifier board connections.
I seem to remember a sequence of plugging in connectors that was listed there.

Thank you Quench. TP5 on the Solenoid Driver Board measures about 10.5 volts. It looks like the capacitor on the board at C23 has been replaced and is not original. However, I do not know how old that is.

Here is the back side of my solenoid driver board. I've never pulled it out of the machine before.

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Thanks Quench, looks like my board has some issues. I will touch up a few solder connections and add the ground jumpers.

I found a post from Vid1900 and here are the photos of the improvements for the board he recommends to bulletproof them.
I might as well replace the 2 capacitors since they are cheap.
I also need to install new male pins.

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I've added the ground modifications for C26 and C23. I tested the voltage across the C23 legs and measured 13.5 volts.
The game boots up and the mpu does the 7 beeps.
When I start a game and press the left flipper, the mpu reboots.

Is it normal for the flipper relay to spark? When the right flipper is pressed the game works and there is no spark in the flipper relay. When we press the left flipper, there is a spark in the flipper relay and the machine reboots.

Hi Quench, here is a photo of the front of my board from yesterday. I believe the C23 has been replaced previously by someone.
I have some diodes and can replace them on the left flipper. I won't be able to get to that for a few days.
I've gone ahead and ordered a new flipper relay from Great Plains, as well as new header pins. My pins are looking in bad shape with lots of the plating gone on them.

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Looks like 15,000 uF.

The voltage across C23 is 29.7 volts AC.

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My Fight 2000 is back in service! I replaced the diodes on the left flipper and all is working properly now!
Thank you very much to everyone who has assisted. Over the next several weeks I'll work on replacing the header pins and connectors for the solenoid driver board.

I played a few games and everything was fine. The last game had something still a little funny with the left flipper like it is binding. It got stuck in the up position, like the spring didn't return it back to the resting position. I don't think the coil was causing it to be open with the left flipper button released.

Well, it stopped working again. The plunger, coil stop, and end of stroke switch are all new.
Back to the drawing board. At least I got a few games in. haha.

I'm going to have my son order entire new flipper assemblies from Pinball Life or someplace like that. Since my flippers appear to be jacked up, let's start from scratch with whole new assemblies for the left and right. What are the proper flipper coils to order? I guess I can look at the manual, but don't have it on hand with me right now since I'm at work.

I am still struggling. I crimped new trifurcon contacts for the power/rectifier board in the base cabinet. Left flipper still not working.

I have removed the left coil and want to see if it is still good. I removed the diodes and they seemed to test fine.

Are the coil winding wires connected properly on this one?
A. Looks like a thick wire is on the left tab and center tab.
B. Looks like both a thin and fat wire are both connected to the center tab.
B. Looks like a thin wire on the right tab.

Thank you.

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Thanks Quench. I got around 3 ohms on the thick wire. Unfotunately, I broke the thin wire on the middle tab. Ugh. Whole new flipper assemblies are on the way as a Father's Day gift from my son.

I am gathering materials to make some improvements to the solenoid driver board. New flipper relay, new header pins, new crimp connectors, new plugs. New large capacitors. This will be my first time trying to rehab a circuit board, so hopefully I won't destroy it. haha.

I installed 2 new complete flipper assemblies and the flippers appear to be working fine. I do get an occasional loud feedback noise that lasts a second or two when the machine turns on. So I will work on replacing the large capacitors on the solenoid driver board next.

This afternoon I decided to look at my lamp driver board on my Flight 2000. I am having these two issues: a. The second stage go light below the 5 drop targets is always illuminated. b. The shoot again light is always illuminated.

I'm new to reading schematics, but it looks like the Q52 transistor handles the second stage go and Q13 transistor handles shoot again.
For the first time ever, I removed the Q52 transistor and Q13 transistors. I've never worked on a lamp board before. I replaced the transistors with MCR106-6 transistors and that whole process seemed to go fine.

After putting the lamp driver board back in the machine, the two lamps continue to be illuminated all the time.
Does anyone have other suggestions to help my troubleshooting? The MCR106-6 transistor is different than the MCR-106-1 and 2N5060 listed on the schematic. Is it possible I put the MCR-106-6's in backwards with the legs going to the wrong spots on the board?

Thanks for the help.

Thanks Lovef2K. I'll go ahead and order some of the original 2N5060 transistors. The schematic I'm looking at for Flight 2000 says that the "Shoot Again (playfield) and Shoot Again (Backbox) both utilize the MCR106-1 transistor on Q3. I think the 106-6 were suggested as an equivalent because the 2nd stage go has two lights controlled on the playfield for that. Looks like my board is a Bally from 1981.

In conclusion it looks like I replaced the wrong transistor. I replaced Q13 instead of Q3 for the Shoot Again lights!!!!! Ooops!!!!

Here are photos of my handiwork. haha. It was pretty fun. I switched the legs of the transistor around as mentioned in the pinwiki and now both lights no longer work at all. Before they were illuminated all the time. Now off all the time.

https://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Mcr106_subbed_for_2n5060.jpg

On the plus side, my soldering is improving some.
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Over the weekend I successfully changed the two large capacitors on the solenoid driver board. The machine still occasionally makes a terrible squelching noise for a second or two when the game is turned on. I'll look more into the 2nd stage go and shoot again light issues next weekend.

I spent some time last night looking at my Flight 2000, playing it, and soldering some light sockets that were weak, flickering, or out.

The Apollo 2 Second Stage Go light on the playfield under the bank of 5 drop targets is always illuminated. This light socket has a yellow wire with blue dashed stripes on it.

The Shoot Again light on the playfield is always illuminated. This light socket has a gray wire with red dashed stripes on it.

When you guys are counting the pin number on the connectors to the circuit boards in the head, would a pin #1 be on the top or on the bottom?

At this point I'm not quite sure how to figure out the correct transistors to replace or test?

Awesome! Thanks for the help Lovef2k. I never knew that about the numbers for the pins on the circuit boards. Very cool.
I'll report back with any progress.

I think I might have corrected the Apollo 2 Second Stage Go light problem. After looking at the connectors and wire colors it traced it back to the Q30 SCR. I did the diode test on Q30 and it was reading really low. So I swapped in another SCR and it appears to be working just fine now.

My last remaining problem is the Shoot Again light is continuously illuminated. I'll dig into that one next.

The schematic, wires, and circuit board seem to trace back to SCR Q3 for the shoot again lamp. I replaced Q3 a few weeks ago, so I'm not sure what's up with that one. I can't find anything wrong with it, or the wires to the lamp.

There is a shoot again lamp on the back glass and also one one the playfield, so that means it has to be controlled by a MCR-106 SCR, right?

I am thinking about back when the shoot again light problem began and I am wondering if I created the problem myself? The shoot again light was working properly. However about a month or two ago, I was looking at the back side of the backbox lights and trying to replace all the burned-out or non-functional bulbs. I noticed that a light on the back box was not coming on and it looked like the light socket was not connected to the general illumination string of lights. So I jumped a wire over to the socket to get it working.

I need to look at this again tonight, but I'm wondering if I connected that controlled shoot again light socket on the backbox to the general illumination by mistake? If so, is it possible that this is also back feeding to the shoot again lamp on the playfield?

I'll report back what I see tonight.

Yes, I noticed yesterday when I was playing the machine that the backbox Shoot Again lamp was also illuminated. I think that could be my problem. I'll check it out tonight after dinner.

What does the backglass wiring for the "Shoot Again" lamp look like on your machines? Can someone post a photo?

I believe the "Shoot Again" lamp is under the Player 2 score display. My understanding is that a gray with red dashed wire should connect to one leg of the lamp. Does the other leg of the lamp connect to ground?

Unrelated, I was playing the game yesterday and achieved a Blast-Off multi-ball on ball #2. During multi-ball I did not get any balls locked into the ball launcher. So all 3 balls ended up in the ball trough. The game just sat there and didn't do anything. The backround bonging sounds kept happing like a ball was in play. It's like the machine did not recognize that ball #2 was over and it needed to eject ball #3 out. So I'm not sure if that is related to the shoot again lamp situation, or if it is a trough switch or something else.

Thanks guys. Glad that I'm reading schematics properly and Q3 is the correct SCR. I have replaced that SCR once and the shoot again lamp on the playfield is stuck on all the time. For the back box, there is a gray with red dashed wire that has been cut and a new length of wire soldered to it to get to the shoot again lamp. There are no other control wires from the wire harness that go to that lamp for some reason. It looks like something happened here before it came to my ownership. I tried running another wire to ground on the other side of the lamp, but it isn't working. I did solder that lamp to the backbox GI by mistake a while ago, so the backbox shoot again light was also on all the time.

Should I replace the Q3 SCR again?

Awesome guys! Thanks much. I'll try to replicate that setup this weekend.

I'm still not quite sure I understand how the backbox shoot again lamp is controlled. In the photo, it looks like the gray with red dashed wire comes over to the lamp socket from the top wire harness.

Then a black controlled wire comes across from the Tilt lamp below and attaches to the same point on the shoot again lamp?

Got it! I also zoomed in on the photo and see the 2 wires are at different sides of the lamp base. I'll report back how it goes.

Wow! You guys are geniuses. Thank you LoveF2k, emsrph, and Quench! I would be lost without you. My Flight 2000 had no wire connecting the backbox Shoot Again lamp to the Tilt Lamp. I soldered a wire between the two and that resolved all the Shoot Again problems. Now, both the playfield and backbox shoot again lamps are off and then blink when a ball gets locked in the ball walker and a new ball is ejected out to the plunger.

Cool. I’ll look into the extra ball setting dip switch now that the lamps work!

I played some yesterday and achieved multi-ball on ball #2 and again the ball-walker got confused, even when 1 ball ended in the Walker and 2 were in the trough.

Is there anything I should examine on the ball-walker to make sure it’s working properly? It always has the correct speech when First and Second stages are go and locked.

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I'm still having difficulty with my F2K. I had a good weekend checking over the light sockets and doing some soldering to get them all what I think is fully functional.

Let me describe the problem the game is having at the moment.

1. If I play a game and don't get any balls up into the ball walker, the game works fine. The three trough switches seem to work fine. It ejects balls into the shooter lane and things work as expected.

2. If lock 1 ball into the ball walker, it seems to work fine. The game keeps playing normally. After I get a second ball into the ball walker, the game will eject a ball into the shooter lane, but begin to act like a ball has drained. It goes though the bonus count down just like a ball was sensed in the trough. It will do this a couple of times until the 3 ball game is ended.

I have checked the trough switches and they all seem fine. For fun I soldered on a new diode on the right outhole trough switch.

I checked the Solenoid Driver Board test points and get 4.8 volts on all of the 5 volt test points.
Over on the MPU board I get 4.7 volts at the 5 volt test point.
All of the other test point voltages seemed in normal range.

It does look like one leg on a small capacitor has been cut from a roll over leaf switch (see photo).

When the two balls roll into the ball walker, the machine voice speaks the "first stage go" and "second stage go" prompts accurately.

Any ideas what is going on here?

Thanks again.
Tom

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I just played the machine again. The game worked fine. Then I got 2 balls into the ball walker. The outhole kicked the remaining ball into the shooter lane and I let it sit there. Then it acted like I lost a ball down the drain and the bonus countdown happened. It kept trying to kick another ball out the outhole and the 5 bank drop targets kept resetting until it ended after ball 3.

I'll do the switch test.

Switch #33 Out Hole (Right) is activated in the test. I have the old style ball trough. The leaf switch for Out Hole (Right) looks open to me with the balls out. The manual says Out Hole (Right) is a brown wire at J2-8.

I removed the J2 connector from the MPU and did the switch test again and got a 0.

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Thank you, LoveF2K. You helped me again! I re-examined the Out Hole (Right) leaf switch and one of those short thick adjuster leaves was touching and closing the switch and making it read as closed. After a slight adjustment all seems back to normal. I'll play a bunch of games tonight to run it through a bunch of scenarios.