I posted a WTB but thought I would mention it here, too. Looking for a Heat Wave backglass in average condition. Really don’t want to go the repro route.

Former owner had it broken when he picked up the fame.

Found one! I can't wait to get this game up and running again.

I've been taking the score reel units and now the thermometer advance unit over to a table for complete disassembly, cleaning and re-assembly.

How do you get 65 years of gunk from underneath the moving parts of a step unit without doing that?

Yup. Math is not my strong suit.

Don’t the switches all come apart when you unscrew them from the unit?

I couldn’t get the bake light part separated from the rest of it even on the bench. Best I could do is get the central fittings about 1/2” apart. Cleaned under them best as I could.

Gonna strip all the paint from the spring tonight. If it works with bare metal, I’ll know it was the paint job.

Is there a chart showing which lamps in the back box are supposed to be the round flashing globes?

Everything is now working. Finally played some good games. It’s a game that keeps me wanting to come back.

Still fiddling with old flickering lamp sockets. Have to raise up a sunken insert. Got the moving targets all cleaned and running smoothly. Ordered springs, sleeves & skirts to get the pops really jamming.

Playing with different strikers for the ones bell. This one only cost a quarter, but the sound is very light. Still working on it. Might go to a golden dollar, because it’s heavier and larger. Also, going to try something else to secure it in place.

Had to disable the tilt. The machines are on thickly padded carpet. Lots of rocking. Not sure a home machine needs a tilt, anyway.
25 cent repair

Final solution to the bell.
Ding!

#heat-wave

I'm playing with the slope on Heat Wave, trying to get it to where the skill shot hits all five buttons at the top. Best I can do so far is hit the three left buttons.

Has anyone been able to set it up for a shot that covers all five buttons?

New, better final solution to the bell. Made the striker from 1/8” steel. Held on with neoprene grommet.

Ding!

What does that leaf switch do?

...

Any club members need the schematic, send me a message with your email address. I have it in pdf and jpg.

Im having the same problem with my heat wave it will not go all the way to the top light but also it will not reset at all?. Any tips on what you did to get it to fully reset?. Im very confused. Thanks.

Things i need for my heat wave project

Rubber shooter rod tip
A red Ribbon in better condition than mine
Not bad flaking backglass
4 williams legs (mine are badly rusted
Schematic & playcards (if u can PDF email them to me thatd be even better).

PM me with any info can paypal or venmo. Or if u want to donate i can pay shipping thanks everyone for letting me be part of the new wave

I took apart and degunked all seven step units on the machine. The failure to reset on yours might be mechanical. If your ribbon works but is just ugly, repaint it. I cleaned off the old paint with some stripper and then a wire brush on a Dremel to get off what the stripper left behind.

I could use an original drop target or a decal.

Mine is acting quite strangely. At reset, the pops are all off, as they should be, but they score 10 points, not one. After the first step, the red and yellow pops correctly score one point when not lit, but the match unit plunger does not pull back far enough to ring the one point bell or to advance the match cog. The really weird part is that the other one point bumpers on the machine work fine. The plunger pulls back far enough to ring the bell and advance the match cog.

Would appreciate some help on it.

What i dont understand is when i manually step it up it works but is just very slow but when i manually press in the plunger piece that i figured is suppose to reset it it does nothing but i dont see how its mechanical if i cleaned the parts with qtips and rubbing alcohol to free them up.

If it’s manually slow, my guess is that you haven’t gotten all of the gunk out. I took mine completely apart. Old lube had turned to a sticky mess.

Would u be able to send me pics of exactly what u cleaned that fixed that exact problem?. Without having someone their with me i dont trust myself ill put it back right if i take it totally apart.

You need your own pictures. Take pictures before you start. Take it all apart, taking pictures from several angles, every step of the way, so you can put it all back together.

Get little cups or bowls for putting the clips and springs and small parts in. Let them soak in alcohol while you’re cleaning the big parts.

We have thin wooden stir sticks for coffee. I'd break off the ends of those so they were flat, and use them to help scrape gunk off. Some of the metal parts you can clean with dish soap & water, but be sure to dry them real well.

There's an article that talks about where to use lube & what kind. I think it’s in here

http://www.pinrepair.com/em/

Can anyone come help a felllow Pinhead out. Im 1 flipper away from giving up. Im in virginia. I will provide lunch and a good time

Pinaddict91
Is your thermometer not resetting while on the machine with the thermometer strip in place?

If the pulley isn't aligned or is too tight, it'll keep the ribbon from resetting. That just happened on mine, when I was putting it back on from having the unit off the component board. In case that helps.

undrdog

So you are asking if while the game is on does it reset after i play and get the ribbon to the top?. Ive never tried to do that but i do know that if the game is on and i press the front button nothing happens the only time the game resets is if i shut off the game by hitting it on the slam switch underneath and then pressing the front button it will make all the score wheels reset to 0 and it will change the blow your top light back down to the fridgid light being on but thats it the ribbon stays at the top. I was told its a mechanical problem as the reason the ribbon does not reset to the bottom after but i do not trust myself taking it apart. But what it sounds like u are saying for me to maybe take the ribbon totally off and then put it back on maybe loosening the tension of the spring it attaches to?. Im willing to try anything. Thanks for advice

See it goes up just not back down after playing a game. The ribbon seems very slow when its advancing up too tho makes me wonder if it isnt alligned correct

20200714_220217 (resized).jpg

The step unit advances mechanically, step by step. It resets by lifting the arms that were keeping the ratchet in place. The clock spring unwinds, being no longer restricted, resetting the thermometer.

Play with it, and you’ll see.

Remove the ribbon. Advance the wheel a few clicks with your hand. Press in the plunger on the coil at the back of the unit. (closest to the glass) If it doesn’t want to unwind by itself, your unit is still gunked up.

Luckily i got the themometer to work i didnt even have to take it apart i just went to harbor freight got super lube and put that on the pullys and other metal on metal parts and let it sit for a day and it works perfectly now. Thanks for the help everything tho. Other problem im still having is the game never going to game over after ball 5 but also not recognizing any of the balls i tried cleaning the contacts on the ball trough and it didnt fix anything. The gate fails to go down after the next ball or even move at all. Also wondering if anyone has any extra plastic cap piece they cab send me i just need 2 for the playfield. (The ones you rollover to make themometer rise). Thanks again

My gate looks like it used to have a spring on it, but it falls back down by itself so I haven't messed with it. After the first point is scored anywhere on the machine, the solenoid should deactivate, letting the gate down.

So, 1) is the solenoid turning off? 2) maybe its time to take the assembly apart and clean it. No lube on the plunger! New sleeves for the coil are cheap, but you have to pay shipping and wait for it to get to you. Might as well try just taking it apart and cleaning with alcohol.

I use qtips and wooden coffee stirrers (like very narrow popsicle sticks) wrapped in paper towel and alcohol to clean the inside of the sleeves. If that helps, next time you have an order for PBR get some sleeves.

I'm not the guy to advise on relays and switches... I'm very new to all of this, too. But the switches on my ball trowel are closed when the ball is on the switch and open when not.

If you don't have a leaf switch tool, get one. Very handy.

PBR has rollover buttons, but I haven't looked closely enough to see if they match Heat Wave.

http://www.pbresource.com/rollobut.htm

I’m thrilled to report that my Heat Wave is all fixed!

Thank you to everyone who gave advice and support.

The problems turned out to be caused by a broken wire inside a bundle, two shorts, and the stop on the thermometer unit was in the wrong place. Maybe I put it back together wrong, or maybe it came to me that way.

Evan The Pinsmith had it all fixed in two hours.

Now I get to play my game!

But I still want to refurb the rest of the pops and one insert has to be raised up.

Thanks again to all who helped here and in my other threads. You're great pinsiders.

Wanted to give a big thanks as well to fellow pinsiders. My game is fixed as well happened to be the games relay was not gapped correct once that was fixed play gate was charged & goes five balls then game over. Now just need a backglass, score cards if anyone can send me a pdf of them as well & most important a new themometer ribbon.

I am proud to say that I've finally made the skill shot rolling over all five buttons at the top, twice.

I was beginning to think that maybe the silicon rebound bumper didn't have the right bounce, and that rubber would be better.

Haven't made it to Blow Your Top yet, although I am getting it to Torrid a lot more.

I'm giving myself a few more weeks to enjoy the game, and then I'll get back to fine tuning the pops. I think I'm about to need a new flipper coil, but we'll see. Maybe I can fix it.

I still haven’t gotten to Blow Your Top yet!

Fine tuning the rollover buttons and pops. Got the flipper fixed. It was the EOS switch. Re-glued two loose inserts.

What did u use to keep the two loose inswrts down, mine are sticking up aqwardly and make the ball go weird directions sometimes not even registering a roll over. Would love to know.

Pinaddict91

I used white glue for the inserts.

But, it sounds like you are asking about the rollover buttons. If you don’t have a leaf switch tool, you might as well get one. They are mighty handy and inexpensive.

Take a look at the workings of the rollover buttons underneath, and you'll see how to adjust them. The stem from the button presses down on a piece that controls how high or low the buttons ride above the playfield. Get that adjusted, and then you have to adjust the contact so it is sensitive, but not making contact.

Take a look under the playfield, and you'll see.

There's some good guides to regluing inserts on YouTube

New member of the club here! Thanks dr_nybble for making your extra thermometer tapes available for the greater good as based on the paint flaking, mine must have flown too close to the sun.

Does anyone have an idea of how many Heat Waves still exist? There’s only 17 registered at The serial number database

Id guess at least 60 working ones. Ones with perfect backglass about 5 ha

I could have a perfect backglass for $300, but I spent my money on Invisiglass.

Besides, what’s the point of putting a new backglass on a player condition machine?

Naïve question here to the group please.

I replaced the GI on the Heat Wave playfield with Comet Warm White LEDs. In my estimation, it looks clean and bright.
So naturally, I started replacing the bulbs for the inserts under the playfield. Got it all done, but lights all light at the same time when one is triggered.

Is this a result of using LEDs in controlled lights from a 1964 era machine?

I can easily go back to #47/#44 bulbs, but thought that I would use Comets for everything.

I appreciate the inputs/solutions/brickbats.

...and I should add that some of the insert lights worked before (some bulbs burned out). Turning off and on at the correct times.
Only thing changed was cleaning the sockets and substituting the Comets.

Fixed it. Light Socket ground lug was touching a bracket...

Glad you got it fixed.

I just saw that! With the 75 dollah shipping out to Cali, it'll cost me as much as I paid for the whole machine, but my playfield is money, and I can get stencils from Pinball Pimp, so I might just do my first restore(ish) thing!

I’m thinking of putting Heat Wave on High Tap. I’ve read the forums here on high tapping. Wondering what the club thinks about doing it specifically on Heat Wave.