Quoted from pinplayerinva:

im 99% sure its Stellar Wars that those spinners came off of They look good on F2k too!

Quoted from fissionch1ps:

I’m thinking about replacing all of the inserts I can in my machine. Has anyone done this? Any tips?

Quoted from Robotworkshop:

I just picked up a flight 2000 and have parts on the way to get it going again. It looks like there has been previous work done soldering the flipper coils and also the trough switches that looks a little questionable. Does anyone happen to have some good pictures on how the flipper coils are wired and also the trough switches? Once I get the machine setup I want to clean up that wiring and go from there.
Thanks!

Quoted from Reaper802:

Looks like that thing has had a bunch of work done on it. Do the test point voltages check out there?

Quoted from Reaper802:

Sounds like you found your problem. Buy a kit and build a new one.

Quoted from Tomass:

Thanks. I will do that and report back.

Quoted from Robotworkshop:

No, it won't boot. The 7th and last flash of the led on the MPU only happens if you have that 43v solenoid power.
There is a ton of details on Pinwiki about it.
http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Bally/Stern#How_to_make_a_Benchtop_power_supply_for_the_MPU_board

Quoted from Robotworkshop:

Then back to basics checking for voltages at the MPU. If you're not getting any flashes and you have all the correct voltages the there is an MPU issue. You should get at least the first 6 even if the 43v is missing.

Quoted from Lovef2k:

First thing to do is measure TP1 on rectifier/power supply board. If you have between 4.8V and 5.4V there then your're good. If not, check fuse with a meter. You may have a problem with your connectors and the connection from the rectifier to the SDU is breached.
If you have any burnt connectors at the rectifier board, replace them. Try to use Trifurcon connectors on the heavy wires. Actually you should replace all the connector pins at the rectifier board eventually to make the game reliable.
Make sure the connectors are fully seated on the rec board. Check ground (important) between the rect ground and SDU J3 pin 10, should have continuity. Make sure the ground braid from the cabinet is connected to the ground screw at the bottom of the backbox. Remove SDU J3 connector and re-seat it a few times. J3 should also have a jumper wire ( brown/white) between pins 25 and 13. If that's missing you need to replace it.
I'm looking at the 5V section of the SDU schematic and it's confusing to me. I know TP1 and 3 should be 5V but I'm not sure which one is the regulated 5V. I'm leaning towards TP1 being the regulated 5V. So if there's 5V at the YP3 and not 1, I would say the regulator (LM-323) or some of the 5V regulator components are bad, C24 and/or C25.
For all other TP values, go to pinwiki.com Bally/Stern section 3.21. The Baly AS-2518-18 rectifier value are the same for Stern TA-100.

Quoted from Lovef2k:

I'm regretting selling you that lock down bar LOL. Do you have the manual for F2K with the schematics inside? Do your feature lamps light up at all, even when first powering up? What is the game doing when you power on? Do your connectors look healthy, this includes the header pins? Do you have another game with the same SDU board that you can swap for testing? Bally and Sterns are interchangeable. Check your ground as I suggested. See if there's any voltage at SDU J3 pins 13 thru 17 and also 25 on the connector side, not the header. You may need to insert a small pin or finish nail into the connector to make contact to your meter leads. Get a replacement 5V regulator at least. LM 323 or equivalent. Any Voltages at the MPU test points? Refer to Pinwiki sect 3.21

Quoted from Lovef2k:

I'm regretting selling you that lock down bar LOL. Do you have the manual for F2K with the schematics inside? Do your feature lamps light up at all, even when first powering up? What is the game doing when you power on? Do your connectors look healthy, this includes the header pins? Do you have another game with the same SDU board that you can swap for testing? Bally and Sterns are interchangeable. Check your ground as I suggested. See if there's any voltage at SDU J3 pins 13 thru 17 and also 25 on the connector side, not the header. You may need to insert a small pin or finish nail into the connector to make contact to your meter leads. Get a replacement 5V regulator at least. LM 323 or equivalent. Any Voltages at the MPU test points? Refer to Pinwiki sect 3.21

Quoted from ArcadeRaid:

Hey everyone. I'm in the club! I have a F2K that has been in my family for almost 30 years now. I think we got it around 1990. It was already a decade old by then. My parents had bought it to go in their new house game room along with Meteor. We eventually tired of Meteor but kept F2K. My parents are starting to downsize so I bought the machine off them and it is now in my home. I will be doing a bunch of work on it.
FLIPPERS
I'm putting in a flipper kit as the left flipper is weak from a botched repair someone did years ago. I'm going with a new coil as well as the crappy repair job led to the coil cracking.
SLING
I'm replacing the right lower sling coil (which works fine but is cracked.
LIGHTING
There were about 30 lights non-functional, both GI and control. Some were burned out but on many the holder is just going bad and will need to be replaced with some that aren't almost 40 years old. I'm going to experiment with some colored and white frosted LED lights for GI. It seems like the driver board is fine so I will likely go with one of the add-on boards so I can put some colored LEDs in the control lighting.
DROP TARGETS
The countdown drop targets are dirty as hell and it might be worth just putting all new clean ones in. A few don't stay up real well but I may try the trick of putting a little felt square on the lift bar to get them up higher so they catch properly. The lift bar itself looks like it snapped clean off at some point and someone reattached it with liberal and creative use of zip ties. (See photos) Not sure what to make of that. Apparently it has held up for decades like that. Seems like JB Weld might be a better solution.
BACKGLASS
The backglass is badly flaked. About 25 years ago I noticed it was happening and covered the entire back side with clear adhesive sheets. It has completely stopped any further degradation but it still looks bad. I'll be looking at a CPR backglass.
WIRING
There's some weirdness to the wiring. See photos. On the lower connector, clearly both outside wires burned out at some point. But, they appear to no longer be used as they are now empty. There is also something wired to the board with speaker wire. I'm not sure what someone did but the game is fully functional so it worked.
PLAYFIELD.
it doesn't look too bad. Some inserts are cupped. There is wear. Spots with mylar look great. I'm not really interested in trying to clear coat the whole thing for now.[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

Quoted from ArcadeRaid:

Hey everyone. I'm in the club! I have a F2K that has been in my family for almost 30 years now. I think we got it around 1990. It was already a decade old by then. My parents had bought it to go in their new house game room along with Meteor. We eventually tired of Meteor but kept F2K. My parents are starting to downsize so I bought the machine off them and it is now in my home. I will be doing a bunch of work on it.
FLIPPERS
I'm putting in a flipper kit as the left flipper is weak from a botched repair someone did years ago. I'm going with a new coil as well as the crappy repair job led to the coil cracking.
SLING
I'm replacing the right lower sling coil (which works fine but is cracked.
LIGHTING
There were about 30 lights non-functional, both GI and control. Some were burned out but on many the holder is just going bad and will need to be replaced with some that aren't almost 40 years old. I'm going to experiment with some colored and white frosted LED lights for GI. It seems like the driver board is fine so I will likely go with one of the add-on boards so I can put some colored LEDs in the control lighting.
DROP TARGETS
The countdown drop targets are dirty as hell and it might be worth just putting all new clean ones in. A few don't stay up real well but I may try the trick of putting a little felt square on the lift bar to get them up higher so they catch properly. The lift bar itself looks like it snapped clean off at some point and someone reattached it with liberal and creative use of zip ties. (See photos) Not sure what to make of that. Apparently it has held up for decades like that. Seems like JB Weld might be a better solution.
BACKGLASS
The backglass is badly flaked. About 25 years ago I noticed it was happening and covered the entire back side with clear adhesive sheets. It has completely stopped any further degradation but it still looks bad. I'll be looking at a CPR backglass.
WIRING
There's some weirdness to the wiring. See photos. On the lower connector, clearly both outside wires burned out at some point. But, they appear to no longer be used as they are now empty. There is also something wired to the board with speaker wire. I'm not sure what someone did but the game is fully functional so it worked.
PLAYFIELD.
it doesn't look too bad. Some inserts are cupped. There is wear. Spots with mylar look great. I'm not really interested in trying to clear coat the whole thing for now.[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

Quoted from Tomass:

Looks good. I think I have all my tear down pics if you run into an issue and need one.

Quoted from Lovef2k:

I'm regretting selling you that lock down bar LOL. Do you have the manual for F2K with the schematics inside? Do your feature lamps light up at all, even when first powering up? What is the game doing when you power on? Do your connectors look healthy, this includes the header pins? Do you have another game with the same SDU board that you can swap for testing? Bally and Sterns are interchangeable. Check your ground as I suggested. See if there's any voltage at SDU J3 pins 13 thru 17 and also 25 on the connector side, not the header. You may need to insert a small pin or finish nail into the connector to make contact to your meter leads. Get a replacement 5V regulator at least. LM 323 or equivalent. Any Voltages at the MPU test points? Refer to Pinwiki sect 3.21

Quoted from Lovef2k:

If the game was resetting, that's a sign of the 5v regulator going out. LM323, order one and replace it and see what happens.

Quoted from Lovef2k:

Put the black lead on the transformer or cab braid ground. See if the board has burn traces on the back side.

Quoted from Lovef2k:

Now that I'm home, I can try to answer some of your questions. I have been studying the SDU schematic a little more cus now I'm curious as well. So it looks like 12V unregulated comes from the rect board J3 pin 8 so it will be A2-J308. A2 identifies rect board. I looked at your pics again. I noticed they used 2 10 position connector housings for J3 instead of a single 20 pos which is fine. I verified by the schematic that they installed correctly. Since this is a .156 connector, it is large enough to insert the meter probe in there to make sure you have 12V at that point. A2-J308 has a thinner orange wire. There should be a green ground wire coming from under the transformer L bracket and going to the rect board mounting plate. you should be able to use that as ground point to take voltage readings. We are measuring DC for this. Only Gi is AC. Since you said that you got 12V at the SDU by fiddling with the J3 connector, it would be safe to say that the connector or header pin is the weak point. You also said that it looks like somebody reflowed the header? This could be were the issue lies. Pull the SDU out and get a magnifying glass if you have one. If there is a solder bridge between pins 10 and 11, this will cause 12V to short to the transformer ground. Pins 11 and 12 should be soldered as one behind the J3 header. Pin 12 is coming from A2-J308 (12V) and splits off to the MPU 12V supply via pin 11. Just make sure that pin 10 SDU J3 is not touching the other pins with solder. Take something sharp and score a line between them if necessary. Also with the J3 connector removed, find something small and metal that will fit in the connector slot so you can take a reading of pin 12, orange wire. You should get the same result as from A2-J308.
So what I gather from the SDU 5 volt section of the schematic, this 12V (TP5) goes to the regulator LM-323 and comes out as 5V regulated (TP1) and then to SDU J3 pins 13 thru 17. These run the MPU, lamp driver and score displays.
So if you have 12V at TP5 and below 4.8V at TP1, then the regulator and/or C23 are bad.
As far as rect board ground test point, there is none. Ground enters the rect at J210 from the transformer.

Quoted from Lovef2k:

Those are wrong. Where did you get them?

Quoted from Lovef2k:

I was taking a closer look at these. Judging by the irregularity of the cut pieces it may be possible to remove them? The back side of the pin has the locking tab, maybe you can slip them apart without cutting? Even if they were originally shipped as a roll, I can't see why someone would separate them.

Quoted from slochar:

You need to add a diode if you put a button cell in, from the + line of the battery, to prevent the board from trying to charge it. Remove the original battery, put the coin cell holder in, solder the negative directly to the ground, then solder where the + side of the original battery was to a 1n4004 or similar diode's banded side, and the other side of the diode to the battery holder's + terminal.
It may be possible to just replace R12 with a diode oriented the same way (the band blocking the incoming path to the battery) as the 270 ohm resistor that is there might be to regulate the charging circuit vs. anything with the battery out to the ram, but that is speculation on my part.

Quoted from ArcadeRaid:

Yes, you can use it that way. I actually just applied the cut out vinyl right to the spinner since the colors were close. You can also do the inverse though and remove and discard the inside and use the vinyl as a stencil and paint. I saved the outside area to use as a stencil in the future if I choose to go that route.

Quoted from Robotworkshop:

I would check the rectifier board in the cabinet and the connectors. Repin any bad ones. Also check pins in the connectors at the boards in the head. Many were brittle or weak on my game. It has performed solid ever since.
I've rebuilt a lot of the Bally and Stern driver boards and haven't had to replace an lm323 yet. Don't know who said you have too.
If you haven't done the ground and 5v jumper mod I'd do that before swapping that voltage regulator.

Quoted from chas10e:

Think you go by the color code of the wires comming off the transformer, https://pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Bally/Stern#How_To_Hook_Up_a_Stern_TA-100_Rectifier_Board

Quoted from cottonm4:

Probably a diode.

Quoted from tyking:

Thank you to everyone who helped me out trying to get the speech working on my pin. Finally fixed it today, as I worked through the steps discussed in another thread on the topic. Here are the before and after photos of the fix. Turned out I just had to move the wire from pin 9 to 11.
[quoted image][quoted image]

Quoted from tyking:

There are a couple. This is one that goes deep into the weeds on troubleshooting everything around the speech chip and then some.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/flight-2000-no-speech
I was actually following your thread on the voltages, just to see what kind of readings i was getting compared to yours. Thanks.

Quoted from Chuckwebster:

Not every game is worthy of a $2K+ playfield restoration. Some restorations are just to keep a game from becoming firewood. Here are some before and after pictures. The after picture was before clearing so it doesn't have any gloss to it yet. Looks like the game the game has gotten a lot of use since 2014
[quoted image][quoted image]

Quoted from Mathazar:

https://classicplayfields.com/shop/pinball-backglasses/flight-2000-3/

Quoted from emsrph:

I have a used Flight 2000 backglass. Some red loss but presentable. Let me know- we can discuss price and I can send pics. I have bgresto packaging that I can send it in.

Quoted from Lovef2k:

The cpr f2k glass is one of their better repros. They have done about 3 runs so far. I bought a few over the years. Have one in current game.

Quoted from Lovef2k:

SH*t happens, good thing the PF glass was in!

Quoted from JethroP:

So normal behavior except....doesn't kick out a ball starting a new game. It kicks out a ball if I press the empty #2 ball switch.
I've tested each of the 3 ball switches in the trough. They each show open when there is no ball there, and each show closed with there is a ball there. The switches are in the correct order from left to right (35, 34, 33).
Once I trigger the empty switch for #2 ball (switch 34), a ball is kicked out and all play resumes normally.

Quoted from JethroP:

Doesn't matter. One ball or two balls locked a new game won't start. But I held down the middle trough switch at start up (with only one ball in the trough) and game starts. So it appears that when there is one ball sitting in the outhole, the center and right switch must both be closed. If my center switch trigger wire was longer, one ball would close it along with the right switch. Is this the way it's supposed to be? My triggers have been replaced. Not sure what they're supposed to look like. Picture anyone?

Quoted from JethroP:

Still looking for help. Started a separate topic here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/flight-2000-wont-start-with-balls-locked-in-the-maze#post-7183175

Quoted from JethroP:

I have a F2K backglass in poor condition. Free to anyone who wants it.
[quoted image]

Quoted from JethroP:

I’ll ship. PM sent.

Quoted from KurtisEBear:

Anyone have any comments about the replacement transistors now being recommended. I replaced Q18 for the solenoids and it seemed to do the trick, but after 3 months I lost the solenoids (including flippers) and the replacement seems to be OK still. However, one thing I noticed is that that replacements do have a higher resistance than the originals. Should I just swap out Q18 and Q19 as a test?