In the arcades in the 80’s, my first memories of pinball were two great games: High Speed and Taxi. They sat right next to each other, which was perfect for me because I would go back and forth dropping quarters in both of them. Fast forward to 2015 when I decided that I would like to have one of these games in my house and my crazy hobby started from there...

First was HS, so I’ll begin the story there. It was purchased from a local retailer. He said that it came from Alabama. Like many starting in the hobby, I overpaid for it ($2200 with 1 year warranty) but fortunately it was a pretty solid machine. I studied it and learned the basics of pinball maintenance and repair from it.

Once I felt comfortable with the basics, I decided that I wanted to take it to the next level and fully restore my HS. I kept a running task list along the way to help me remember what I was working on last. Work/life can oftentimes cause you to take a week, a month or more off of your restoration, and it really helped to know exactly what I did last. I figured that since I made all of these notes, I should make a thread that will possibly help others who want to do the same. I’m starting this thread after finishing both projects so I don't have to drag it out over a long period of time.

I decided that I wanted the machines to be as new as possible, essentially rebuilds. They are games that are special to me and will be long term parts of my collection, so I was willing to invest in them.

All that said, let’s get into it! Here are some pics of HS as I received it:

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The game had basic cheap led’s installed, and I decided to stick with led’s. My decision on that was made after I saw how many of the plastics were burned/warped by years of heat from standard bulbs.

The displays had burnt out segments and generally looked old and worn out, so I replaced them with a red/blue X-Pin led display set.

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Soon after I bought it, I started having problems with the slings and pop bumpers blowing fuses. It was tracked down to issues on the terribly hacked power supply board as well as issues on the MPU. The power board was replaced with a new X-Pin power board by the shop I bought it from as a warranty repair.

For some reason the repair guy directly soldered the wires to 3J10. I'm guessing the IDC was toast and he didn't have a new connector.

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One of the first things I knew that I wanted to change was the old-school revolving light on top with more modern led police lights. I realize that this is a radical change from original and that not everyone will like it. I toyed with different designs, first with some outward facing red/blue dash lights.

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I didn’t like it and came up with a system of a large red/blue forward-facing led lightbar on top and 3 smaller bars under the sides and front of the game.

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This design was scrapped during final assembly because the lights underneath required drilling the cab and also interfered with my lift cart. You’ll see the final design later in the thread.

The lights are connected into the relay wiring for the old revolving light so they activate whenever the old light would (chase sequence, extra ball, attract mode, etc). They are powered by an auxiliary power supply. I think it definitely adds a more immersive experience to the chase sequence and gives the game a more modern look than the old light.

Staying with the red/blue scheme, I tried a mix of red and blue leds for the GI. Yeah... no. This ended up not only making the playfield very dark, but it also made the game look like Pinbot. I later replaced all of them with a more traditional look.

Probably belongs in the “GI fails” thread ha ha!

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I continued to have issues with music and various electrical issues that I traced to the MPU. I know that original boards are very repairable and in most cases, very reliable. That being said, for me personally I wanted new. The tough part was finding good quality repro boards that meet or exceed the quality of the originals.

I read about the many issues with Rottendog boards, so I knew that I wasn’t interested in that brand. I then discovered Kohault (Pinball PCB). I found nothing but positive reviews and decided to try them. I replaced the MPU, sound board and flipper power board with Pinball PCB boards. I eventually also replaced the power supply to complete a matching set of boards. I have been extremely impressed with these boards. They have a very high quality feel to them and use all modern components. Since I installed them, I have never encountered another board issue. The company went out of business for a while, but they are back now.

http://pinballpcb.com

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My next goal was to improve the playfield. The pf wasn’t horrible for its’ age, but I wanted one that looked new. Restoration was not going to be an option as I soon discovered that many restorers will not accept system 11 pf’s other than basic touch ups. I was told that it is due to something in the paint that reacts to clearcoat, causing ghosting and other issues. I kept the machine in this state for about a year while I searched for a new playfield. CPR repros were extremely hard to find at the time.

I became very discouraged during the search and almost gave up and sold the machine. Then out of the blue, I got a response to my wanted ad in 2017. While attending Chicago Expo 2017 I drove to Indiana and bought one with a complete plastics set at a very fair price from a great guy, Paulb

I read that the clear on CPR pf’s is not especially durable, so I sent the pf to HSA Pinball in Arkansas for a better clear coat job. Luckily, I was able to get it in before their retirement cutoff. The pf came back and looked fantastic, like a sheet of glass! They also drilled out holes on the top side and cleaned some of the clear out of the rollovers.

http://www.hsapinball.com/HSA_PINBALL/hsa030318cprhs.html

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While waiting on the pf, I disassembled the machine and began to work on cleaning and assessing the work that needed to be done.

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First was the lighting board behind the backglass. It was very dirty and had the usual marker writing. All hardware was cleaned in an ultrasonic and tumbled with Flitz or Nu-Finish and walnut shells. I removed all of the lamp sockets and ground braid and then sanded down the board on both sides. I cleaned and re-molexed the wire harness.

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Next the board was re-painted on the front and also clear coated on both sides. I then installed new, thicker ground braid and new lamp sockets.

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You may notice in the above pic that the flasher resistor boards are different. When reattaching the wire harness, I was unhappy with the existing ones as they were somewhat toasted. Since I had changed over to led flashers previously, I had already removed the warming resistors from the circuit. I replaced the old boards with a more durable solution. I also used these for the resistor boards on the pf.

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I then moved on to the backbox. I disconnected the wire harnesses and scrubbed them with purple power, then rinsed them. I followed with an ultrasonic bath in Simple Green. Since I had removed most of the old zip ties to make cleaning easier anyway, I replaced all of them with new ones.

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I then re-molexed all of the IDC’s with trifurcon pins and .156 housings. It was super time consuming, but I felt that it was worth it in the long run, especially since the boards are new and some of the connectors were yellowed and cracking. A couple were pretty much burnt.

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To ensure that I didn’t make any mistakes, I photographed each connector and labeled them.

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Another very tedious part was re-pinning the .062 molex connectors that allow the pf to disconnect from the head. That monster 36-pin connector was especially awful!

By far the worst part of re-pinning the connectors is dealing with looping wires. While this is simple with IDC’s, it’s more challenging with .156 housings. I used the method of crimping the two wires together with one pin. Not ideal, but I felt it was the best of the few choices.

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I then tackled the metal backbox board that holds the circuit boards. Most of the labels on it were discolored and/or torn. I scraped them off and cleaned off the years of dirt. It was then sanded down, polished, painted (front side only due to ground connectivity) and clearcoated.

I reattached the boards and printed new decals. They are exact replicas of the original decals, courtesy of another great Pinside guy, @Inkochnito.

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I also purchased one of the outstanding bridge boards that Inkochnito makes. His board provides new bridge rectifiers, eliminates the giant capacitor (30+ years old) and most importantly, adds fusing before the bridge rectifiers that Williams did not add until later games. All this in one simple, inexpensive board makes it a no-brainer.

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The transformer needed some attention. It was sanded down and repainted. The wires were cleaned, re-pinned and new connectors attached.

(I later replaced those yellowed screw insulators)

https://www.pinballlife.com/ballywilliams-transformer-screw-insulator.html?Category_Code=

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I wanted the game to have a cool shooter rod. I got a blank shooter rod and a Hurst mustang shift knob. I epoxied them together and installed it.

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My next task was replacing the coin door. The old coin door was nasty with all the typical things seen on an old coin door- beer/soda residue, rust and various other crud. It was also apparent that the door was half-ass painted at some point. After toying with the idea of restoration, I decided that I was going to instead replace it with a modern coin door. After quite a bit of searching, I located and purchased one.

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I considered removing and re-using the wire harness from the old door, but decided that since I would have to do a bunch of soldering anyway, and wanted to move components around a bit, that I would build an entirely new door harness.

I also did some research on Pinside and located replacement diagnostic menu button switches and caps.

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I figured building a new cabinet wire harness would again look better and give more flexibility to move components. I wouldn’t ever want to rebuild the monster playfield or backbox harnesses, but the cabinet harness is fairly small and not very complex.

One thing I was determined to move was the volume pot. I always hated having to bend down and stick my arm into the cabinet to adjust the volume. I guess in an arcade it didn’t matter since the volume always stayed the same. I bought a new pot, and using the old bracket, I attached it to the coin door.

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Next was the power supply box and wiring. I got a new EMI filter, new mov varistor (the round disc that looks like a capacitor- glad I researched that!), new 110 cord, new fuse holder and a new service outlet. I also pulled wiring to reach the auxiliary power supply that runs the police lights and stadium lighting. Lastly, I bought a new rocker switch to replace the old metal toggle switch.

I built the new one up in a spare Stern power box I had so I could keep the old one intact for reference.

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It was time for testing. I double checked all of my connector wire colors and tested continuity. I was nervous due to the changes I had made. I flipped the switch and, fortunately, the game played perfectly!

Next came the part that I was excited about and dreading at the same time- the playfield swap. This is a very intimidating task, but I felt that with some patience and determination it was nothing that I couldn’t accomplish. I believe that the key to it is the same as everything else that I had done in the restoration up to this point- slow, methodical, well documented/photographed progress. One thing I’ve learned about pinball repair/restoration is that even the smallest mistake can cause serious damage and can be very difficult to trace. With that in mind, I began the swap.

I figured that the best way for me to do the swap was to have the pf’s in rotisseries side by side. I built a pipe rotisserie using the excellent instructions that vid1900 put in his thread. Buying all the parts probably took longer than building it...

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-quick-and-dirty-rotisserie-guide

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I also considered that it would help to have a table surface immediately accessible. I figured that it would be more convenient as a place to put tools, parts, etc. than walking back and forth to my workbench. It would also eliminate the temptation to lay parts or tools on the new pf. The problem was that I wouldn’t have room for 2 rotisseries and a table. I therefore created the Costco table rotisserie!

The nice thing about this table is that it can be raised and lowered to a few different settings. One side can even be dropped down lower than the other to simulate the angle of the pf being in the cab.

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I disconnected and pulled the old pf. I removed the backboard, but when I went to place it in the rotisserie I discovered that a lot more parts would need to come off. Starting with the ramp diverter assembly, I removed parts at the top and bottom of the pf until it seated correctly into the rotisserie. I then took extensive pictures and video of both sides of the pf.

If anyone doing a swap or repair needs a pic of something feel free to send a pm, I probably have it.
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I noticed that several CPR pf owners noted that they put a coat of varathane on the back of the pf to make cleaning coil dust and dirt easier. After checking with my clearcoat guy, I went ahead and did it.

Plastics and wire guides were removed from the old pf. I removed a bunch of other metal parts for ultrasonic and tumbling. I also took more pictures to remember placement of these items.

It was now time to begin work on the cpr. I decided that I would start with items that would require a lot of hammering such as the tee nuts and wire guides. At first, I planned to use the method suggested on several threads which is drawing the tee nuts in with a bolt that goes through a small washer and a larger washer covered with felt (example below). It was mentioned that this is a safer method to avoid hammering and possibly cracking the clearcoat.

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When I tried this, however, the middle of the nut pulled into the hole, but the teeth would not dig in to the wood, deforming the tee nut and leaving a gap. I tried different ways, tapping it lightly with a hammer and then trying to draw it in, but I couldn’t get the teeth to dig in. Finally, I decided to just revert to the old fashioned way and hammer them in. I was really scared of cracking the clearcoat so I used a rubber mallet and took my time.

Fortunately, I didn’t have any issues. I have since learned from the High_End_Pins thread that it helps to drill small pilot holes for the teeth to dig into before drawing them in.

I was also lucky that all of the holes were the correct size for the tee nuts except one. I found the step drill bit recommended by HEP in his thread worked well to widen the hole.
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Next was the wire ball guides. I’m not going to lie, this part sucks. Fortunately, all of the pre-drilled holes lined up correctly. The bad part is more pf hammering. The worse part is that this time you are hammering on the top side of the pf. There is very little room for error and all kinds of opportunity for highly visible damage to your beautiful new pf.

You’ll most likely need to slightly widen the holes at the top, but don’t go too large with the drill bit or you could end up with a loose fitting wire guide. I recommend taking this very slowly, and as HEP suggests, using one of the old pf wood side rails (if you’re replacing them) under the ball guide for uniform height and safety. In addition, I would recommend putting a thin piece of felt under the old wood rail to prevent scratches. When it was over I was really glad it was done!

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Time to put the cpr pf on its' rotisserie.

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Next was the GI braid and lamp sockets. Like the braid in the backbox, I continued using the thicker, better quality tinned braid wire and brand new lamp sockets. The first thing I did was lay out all my lamps on the GI in their correct holes, using the old pf as my guide. I also discovered that several screw-down lamp sockets are connected to the braid. Using the old pf and other restorers’ pictures of the ground braid, I made a diagram in my notebook. I also noted and photographed each spot where the harness wires connect to the lamp sockets or ground braid. I decided to just leave the daisy chain wires on the old lamps and use new wire. Leaving the old lamps and ground braid in place tremendously helped since I had a reference to look at whenever needed.
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I assembled all the parts necessary for brand new pop bumpers. These things take a beating, and I figured after 30+ years, pretty much all of the parts should be replaced. Building pops for the first time can certainly be scary due to all the parts above and below the pf that need to work together perfectly. My go-to was @Vid1900’s guide to rebuilding pop bumpers:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-rebuilding-pop-bumpers

Like Vid says, lively pop bumper action is critical for a good game. It’s especially important in HS as the pops are a focal point of the pf and get frequent action. The first thing I did was polish the pop bumper rods. As Vid also points out, new ones are rough and need to be polished to prevent damage to the ball. I started with a Scotchbrite pad, then buffed with green compound and a small buffer wheel pad bit in my drill. The drill didn’t work very well. I then tried with a $9 Harbor Freight air die. I found that works much better as the air die gets higher rpm’s than my drill. I also followed up with Mother’s aluminum polish.

New:
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Polished and ready to install:
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I then decided to take on another part I had been dreading- pop bumper nails. My plan was to get all of the stressful stuff out of the way so I could focus on wiring and switches.

Pop bumper coil brackets are attached using special fasteners that look like a nail and a screw combined. These fasteners (I’ll call them nails since they are hammered in) are called “fin shank”, available from all usual sources. I did extensive research on installation as they require two tasks that are dangerous to the pf: countersinking on the pf surface and (ugggh) more hammering.

I had a new countersink drill bit, and it probably would have worked ok, but during my research, I saw that nerdygrrl recommended a specific drill bit and countersink in one. The 7/16 size was perfect for the nails, and the drill bit staying in the hole meant I never had to worry about the bit wandering and scratching the pf.

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I started by attaching the bit to a screwdriver handle and manually starting the countersink. I did this because I wanted the removal of the clear around the hole to be very slow to avoid cracking or halos. Once the countersink was nicely started I then switched over to my drill on the slowest setting. I worked by drilling a little, checking the fit with the top of the nail, drilling, checking, repeat. Once it got to the point where I felt that the nail head would be flush with the surface, I placed the nail in the hole and tapped with a dead blow hammer.

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When the nail was firmly in place and straight, I hammered it until it was halfway through the pf. I then switched over to using the end of a block of wood on top of the nail to give me a larger hammering surface. I used this until the nail head was about a 1/4” or so above the surface. I then used a junk magnetic drill bit holder centered on the nail head to drive it into final position. This whole process was very tedious, but in the end everything worked out fine.

Next was fitting the lower plastic body of the pop bumpers. The holes were just a little too small. As suggested by HEP, I used a rasp drill bit to widen the holes, test fitting with the plastic until they fit just right.

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I then installed the ground braid for the pop bumpers. This was the last of the ground braid to do on the pf. I then soldered the lamps that I had installed so far along the braids.

Just checking if there's any interest in continuing this thread?

Ok cool, just wanted to make sure I wasn't here by myself

The spinners needed some attention. They were pretty beat up and dirty after many years of ball hits. The paint came off pretty easily after the ultrasonic. After tumbling them, I primed, painted, cleared and re-labeled them. As mentioned in other threads, John Deere green spray paint is a perfect match to the original color.

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Next was installation of the escape hole plastic shield. As noted by HEP, exact positioning is important as bad alignment can cause the ball to eject at an improper angle. Two of the dimples were actually correct. I used a clear plastic shield since I’m adding a lamp underneath.

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As this was my first time drilling a new hole that didn’t go all the way through the pf, it was time to break out my drill bit stop. I wasn’t comfortable with using electrical tape as a drill stop, wanting something a little more secure.

I got this for about $10 from Amazon. It comes in a package of 2, one for small bits and one for large bits. It’s easy to adjust and locks on tightly to the bit. I set it by placing the screw into whatever pf object I‘m working on and hold it along the edge of the pf to see how deep the screw will go (always watching for specially routed areas that are not as thick as the rest of the pf!). I then set the drill bit to almost the depth of the screw.

https://www.amazon.com/Century-Drill-Tool-73512-Adjustable/dp/B003L0XB8Y

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Next was one of the typical mods to HS that I wanted, and is easily reversible if I change my mind- lighting for the rollovers and escape hole. The only issue was positioning the lamp sockets. I spent a lot of time going back and forth between my old pf and the new one deciding where I wanted to place them. Since this is not factory, I wanted to be extremely careful to avoid any potential future issues, electrical or mechanical, that the additional lamps could cause. Having the old pf with wiring and mechs present helped tremendously.

Once I settled on locations, I decided to tie all 3 together in one chain that connect to the ground braid for power. For additional safety, I also added short protection over the connectors on the lamp sockets and over any nearby ground braid wires (extra insulation was added to the upper right rollover lamp after picture was taken).

If I had to do it over, plastic wedge-style flat lamp sockets would have been a better option, but these worked out ok.

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I then tested the ground braid for continuity and also tested it with a 12v/1A power supply and alligator clips. To me, this is definitely worth the brief time it took. I discovered a short that would have been difficult to detect with the wire harnesses in the way. I had failed to trim the small end off of a piece of the ground braid after I stapled it. The end of the braid was just long enough to make contact with the bottom of the same lamp socket, resulting in a short. My power supply kept cutting off, indicating a short. At first I thought my power supply was having issues, but after examining the braid, I discovered and corrected the short.

I forgot to take a before pic, this pic is after I cut it off.

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Next I connected the pop bumper lamp leads to the ground braid on the bottom, which required building the pop bumpers on the top side. Again using Vid’s pop bumper guide, I built the pops above the field. I decided to go with a red, yellow and green traffic light theme for the pops, complete with RYG skirts and pop bodies. To complete the look, I am using RYG BriteMod pop bumper led discs that flash when the bumper is activated. I initially installed clear caps, but I didn’t like them, as they leave the led discs too visible. I later swapped them out to transparent RYG caps.

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FYI- Teal transparent pop bumper caps are readily available, but true green ones (03-8254-2) are very difficult to find. The one I now have installed came all the way from Germany!

At the factory, pop bumper lamp leads were connected to the ground braid under the pf with staples. While they may be more secure, it's also a big hassle if you want to change a cracked skirt, etc. mof pointed out in his HS thread the “Ed Chueng method” of attaching the leads using a screw and a washer. This still keeps the leads securely connected to the braid while providing a convenient way to disconnect and pull them from the pf.

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Some prefer pop bumper lamp sockets with normal wires, but I prefer the lamps with stiff leads. The catch is that the leads can be somewhat weak. I followed HEP's recommendation of adding a little solder near the top of the lamp on both sides to reinforce the leads.

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I now wanted to make some progress on separating the harnesses from the old pf. First was coils.

I’m sure many will differ with my opinion on this, but I felt that if I’m rebuilding the game, all of the coils should be replaced with new. I get it- I could have cleaned the old coils in the ultrasonic, re-wrapped them, replaced the sleeves and they probably all would have worked fine. Still, to me they are critical parts that are most likely 30+ years old. Beyond that, most of the coils appear original, but some were clearly replaced. One had a bottom plastic base that had cracked and the lug was only hanging on by a wire strand from the coil.

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Since I’m replacing all of the coils anyway, I decided to molex all of them. I weighed the argument of creating an extra failure point vs. the benefits of serviceability and significantly reducing the weight of the harness. I figured an additional benefit would be that I could increase the length of the leads from the coils to the harness. In some cases the wiring was stretched fairly tight by either the factory or operators making repairs. After cutting the leads I molexed, documented, zip tie labeled and photographed all of the harness coil connectors.

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I organized all of the new coils into a divided container and cut the proper lengths of new wires for each of them. I then crimped the molex pins on, soldered the wires to the coils and placed the molex connectors on them. It took longer to do the flippers. The coils are hard wired to their switches and there is also a capacitor that I attached to upgrade the flippers to the newer WPC style. Coils are now ready for placement.

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Next was GI power wires from the harness. I felt the easiest way with these was to lift the staples, but not cut the wires completely away from the ground braid. I just cut a small portion of the braid so the wires could remain soldered together and I could zip tie label them. After labeling, each lamp is photographed from different angles.

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I then did the controlled lamps, same procedure. To aid in knowing which lamp goes in which hole, I printed out a picture I had taken of the bottom of the pf before I started the swap and marked the zip label numbers on it.

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Yeah I like it. It really makes things so much easier when you need to do maintenance or make adjustments and I think the chance of failure is pretty low.

Big parts are in the tumbler for a few days in batches, including the ball trough assembly and all of the rollover brackets. I’ll be replacing all of the micros.

Now it’s time to start removing switches. As I was removing switches, I came up with an easy way to keep track of all the screws. I simply put the screws back in their same holes on the old pf after I removed the switches. The screws aren’t very complicated. Most assemblies use #6-1/2”, lamps use #6-3/8” and the resistor boards with standoffs use #6-1”. The most important thing is to double check the thickness of the pf in the area where you are about to drill. There are some areas (kickback and ramp entrance) where the pf is reduced from the full thickness to accommodate the assemblies.

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Going back up top side to clear out the wood rails and metal ball guide rails. I wanted to get the wood rails attached before I placed more assemblies and coils to help avoid any pf sagging. Some of the guide rails are nailed to the wood rails with the same small nails used for the side rails on the cabinet. They are also secured to the pf using 1/2” truss head screws. The original wood rails are cheap wood with laminate covering that is peeling. I knew that I wanted to replace them but I was uncertain whether I wanted to go with stained oak to maintain the original look or if I wanted to paint the rails black. I decided to go with the original look. I measured all of the rails and after a trip to Lowe’s, I had the necessary material.

Fortunately, I have a friend with a whole Rockler store in his garage. He was able to cut these with his eyes closed. I then edged and sanded them down. I matched each of them against the originals to verify that size was exact. I marked the screw holes by lining them up on the pf with the screws protruding through the pf to verify hole location before pre-drilling them. I took an original rail to Lowe’s to match the stain of the veneer as closely as possible. I found Minwax Golden Oak to be the closest. I think they came out really nice and are much more solid than the originals.

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Prior to installing the guide rails, I needed to polish all of them. I went back and forth deciding whether to take them to a mirror finish (like the pop bumper rings) or the OEM brushed look. After reading HEP’s opinion, I decided to go with brushed. Mirrored rails are sexy, but I agree with HEP that they will make ball trails stand out more. They will also be much easier to maintain.

This definitely sucks. It’s very time consuming and messy. My method was using two different 3M drill sanding wheels (coarse and fine), high-grit water sanding and final buffing with a HF buffer wheel and metal polish.

The ball guides are set in place on the pf and the nail holes are marked on the new wood rails. The ball guides are then nailed to the wood rails and set in place.

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I then cleared all of the remaining coil assemblies from the old pf as well as any remaining posts and various other screws and plates. I made sure to individually photograph each assembly, screw and post that I removed in order to ensure that I knew it’s proper location on the new pf.

I collected all of these parts in a box for washing, ultrasonic and tumbling. I wash and wipe off the parts before the ultrasonic to get the first layer of grime off. When I have a large amount of parts coming out of the ultrasonic, I organize them on a paper towel so I can take a pic. This helps me to make sure that I get everything out of the tumbler. Some of the parts are very small and can get easily get left behind.

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Probably the dirtiest task of this whole project is next- cleaning the wire harnesses. The pf harnesses are covered with 30+ years of carbon dust and dirt. I know that some people just swap it all over and keep on trucking, but I personally would not recommend it. You have a shiny new pf, why plop a filthy wire harness on it? I can understand if you just do a basic scrub in the bathtub or hose it off in the driveway and call it good, but I highly recommend doing that at the very least. As anyone who has done work on an older machine knows, once you get carbon dust on your hands, it transfers to anything and everything you touch and it’s a real pain in the ass to clean.

Everyone has different methods to clean the wire harnesses. For this restoration I did a two stage cleaning. Prior to cleaning, I cut many of the old zip ties and then loosely attach some new zip ties just to keep things together. I think this is important so that you get to all the dirt and crap that worked it’s way inside the bundles of wire. I left all of the micro switches attached since they were being replaced. If I wasn’t replacing them, I would remove them. After this, the whole thing goes into the sink for the first scrub down. This is to just clear the initial gunk from it. I use purple power and a scrub brush, then rinse. I then filled the sink with water and scrubbed some more. The water is pretty gross when finished. I hung the harnesses up for a few days to dry.

The harnesses are fairly clean at this point, but I wanted to go one step further. I liked Vid’s dishwasher method to get the harness super clean. The only issue I had with this was using the house dishwasher. I know it’s probably fine, but I had access to another generally unused dishwasher so I used that. Just make sure to use the top shelf so nothing gets damaged by the heating element. The harnesses come out super clean! When you’re done, be sure to look in the drain for any small parts that might have come off. I hung the harnesses up again for a few days to let them dry out.

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Glad you're enjoying it!

The next job is prepping the harnesses for installation. I laid them out on a table and inspected them for any issues.

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In addition to replacing the micros, after looking over the leaf switches I decided to replace them. I considered cleaning them but I saw that the contacts were corroded and far from their original gold. I decided that the cost of replacing them was not that expensive (most are around $2). The lane rollovers are noted in the manual as SW-1A-124, but are no longer produced. I found that PBL’s SW-1A-94 are identical. The rollover star switches are noted in the manual as SW-1A-157, but are also no longer produced. I found that SW-1A-120’s, used for kicker scoring switches, are essentially identical. The leaf switches for the slings were also terribly bent up in multiple places from adjustments over the years, so they are all replaced.

Before tackling installation of the harnesses, I wanted to install anything on either side of the pf that I felt would be a hassle to access once the harnesses are in place. I started with posts that go through the pf and have nuts underneath. I then went on to the solenoid assemblies.

Prior to installing assemblies, I went ahead and installed the wood rails with ball guides attached. With the additional weight I knew would be added by the assemblies, I didn’t want to take a chance of the pf flexing.

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Since I was attaching the wood rails, I needed to attach my shooter lane Cliffys. Prior to installing the cliffys, I put down mylar to further protect it. I have done this to other games I’ve owned and found that it keeps the shooter lane looking like new.

From what I have seen, pin owners are generally in one of 3 camps when it comes to cliffys:

1. Always use them, every game
2. Only use them to cover damage
3. Never use them, hate cliffys

I’m in the first camp when it comes to the shooter lane of any game. I’ve seen on multiple nib games that it doesn’t take long for damage to begin from the ball constantly ejecting into the shooter lane like this Metallica (Pro) :

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I think that they are definitely worth it there. For me, other places are a case by case basis. On this particular game I also added the escape hole protector. The escape hole on my old pf is pretty beat up and there is also the typical wear in the area where the ball ejects onto the pf from the hole. I placed some mylar on that spot also.

I will also add that Cliffy is just a great guy to deal with! He has always responded to my questions very quickly.

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With the rails in place, I’m putting all of the underside coil assemblies together. I got new coil bracket/stops (A-17808), new plunger/links (A-5103) and new springs (10-135) for all of the assemblies. Most of the plungers and coil stops were flat or mushroomed from bazillions of hits over the years, so in the trash they go.

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On the bottom side I made a dimple mark on each of the holes for the assemblies, but would only run 1 or 2 screws in. I then adjusted the assembly for fit and operation. Getting the operation part just right is very time consuming, (I spent an hour or two on some single assemblies!) but this saved a lot of time later on when dialing the machine in. Once I was satisfied that the assembly was going to work correctly, I drilled and added the other screws.

Most of the new coils had Williams wrappers, but I bought new ones from PPS for the ones that didn’t. After wrapping them, I put the assemblies together.

I learned from reading the forums that Williams initially oriented the coils in the assemblies with lug-side closest to the coil stop. They found that over the years the plunger striking the coil stop caused damage to the plastic and/or caused soldered wire connections to break. They then flipped the orientation to the lug-side being away from the stop. I installed most of the coils this way, but found that a few, particularly the eject mechs, would not permit this. The arm of these mechs would strike the lugs if they were oriented this way.

I went through each coil and verified that the power wire was connected to the lug on the banded side of the diode. Lastly, I checked resistance on them.

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Old pf is really clearing out:

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Prior to placing my first one, I closely inspected the harnesses. On the controlled lamps harness I found a couple of issues. First, a couple of wires were close to or completely broken off of some of the lamps. I didn’t notice issues during testing, so this may have happened during harness cleaning. I also found some damaged wires that were replaced.

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The second and more problematic issue was flaky sockets on the multi-lamp metal brackets. I assume that Williams used these brackets because they were quicker/easier to place than individual lamps. The downside is that the lamps on the brackets cannot be replaced unless you have lamp parts and a way to crimp it together. I had a few that were wobbly and many that had corrosion and stiff springs. I had one particularly frustrating lamp that was falling off completely. I glued it back in place, but was not happy with the result. It not only looked sloppy but I knew that sooner or later some of these lamps would cause a problem. At that point I decided, as much as I hated the thought of all the work involved, that since I replaced every other lamp socket in the game, I might as well make it 100% and replace all lamps. An extra benefit is that it makes the lamps much easier to service if necessary.

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While waiting a few weeks for Chicago Expo 2018 to pick up a large order of parts at PBL, I put the switch harness in place on the pf and started marking and drilling holes. I placed all of the switches in their locations and left the screws in place so it would be easy to re-attach them later. I still needed to attach all of the new switches I would be buying at PBL, but I figured it will be much quicker to put it back on with the screws were already in place.

With all of the switch screws in place, it was time to start replacing the lamps. The controlled lamp harness was separated, so I didn’t have to deal with the other harnesses while working on the lamps. The first task was to attach diodes to all of the lamps. I bent the diode legs with a pair of pliers marked at a certain spot so they would all be uniform. Each diode was tested, all passed. They are good quality as are all other products I purchased from Great Plains Electronics. With that completed, I started placing the lamps. This required a lot more drilling.

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I figured this would be a good time to place bulbs in each lamp. When finished, every bulb in the game is CoinTaker. I think their products are of good quality, but I did run into some customer service issues. I don’t want to derail the thread with the whole story, but after this restoration I began using Comet exclusively for all of my lighting needs and I’m very happy with their products and service.

Thanks to Pinsider Pac-Fan for creating a thread on led placement in HS. He put a lot of work into it and I went along with just about every choice he made. I think it looks great and it saves quite a bit of money over using the pre-made kits. The vast majority of the bulbs are frosted.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/my-williams-high-speed-led-conversion-wmap-lists

With the new lamps screwed in place, I put the harness in place and began cutting wires from the old lamps, stripping them, and using small clips to hold them in place on the lugs of the new lamps. I also placed new daisy chain wiring where necessary. After hitting each lug with flux paste, I got my soldering iron set up. I was able to move pretty rapidly from lamp to lamp since everything was set up and ready to go.

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After finishing all the lamps, I put the pf in the cab for a test of the controlled lamp harness. In attract mode I noticed 4 lights out. Fortunately they were in the same matrix column so I set out to find the short. Somehow I was lucky enough to notice it pretty quickly. A single strand of wire on a lamp was not soldered to a lug and was making contact with the top of the lamp. Once this was corrected, all lights were 100%.

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Thanks!

You're welcome! Once I got some experience with this one, Taxi was way easier.

With the other harnesses laid out on the bench, I began cutting off old switches and connecting new ones. I also cut off the flasher resistor boards and replaced them with the newer style I designed. Since I replaced all other lamp sockets, I also went ahead and replaced all of the flasher sockets with new.

The only switches that I didn’t immediately replace were the spinner switches (SW-1A-118). They are very unique switches that are hooked to the spinners with a short metal rod. Every time the spinner turns, it pulls the rod upward, which pulls the switch contacts together. They were eventually replaced with micros, (more on that later).

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The pop bumper switch stacks were, by far, the most difficult switches to replace. There are multiple wires attached to the stack along with a cap, a resistor and a diode. When placing them on the pf I found Vid’s pop bumper guide to again be a valuable resource. Correctly lining up the skirt pin with the spoon on the switch stack is very important. At the same time, the solenoid switch needs to be gapped perfectly so the slightest amount of contact between the ball and the skirt will fire the coil.

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After soldering all the new parts to the harnesses, I began re-attaching them to the pf. This was easy since all of the screws were already in place.

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I then handled soldering the wires that power the GI. This is a part where detailed photos and my photo map of the pf were critical. Most of the GI wires connect directly to a lamp socket. A few of them connect to the ground braid. Without using my map and pics to identify which wires connect to which lamps (and the correct tabs on the lamps) this task would have been extremely difficult. Like coils and switches, each of the GI wires/wire pairs were zip tie labeled. Pictures are obviously helpful, but having the map of the pf to know the location of the pic made things much easier.

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I then prepped the rollover stars for installation. There are warnings on CPR’s website and various Pinside threads to not just pop the rollover stars into the inserts. Build-up of clear in the inserts will block the star from being able to sink completely down into the insert, essentially creating a ramp that will cause airballs.

You need to scrape some of the plastic from underneath the star in order to get it to go all the way down into the insert. The problem is, once the star is placed into the insert, a small nub at the bottom locks it into the insert. On the bright side, you can always cut the nub off and push the star out if you find that it doesn’t go all the way down. The star is ruined, but they’re cheap so I bought a bunch, figuring that I’d destroy a few. It’s hard to tell exactly how much plastic to trim off.

I wanted this to be perfect, so to assist in determining how much to trim, I bought the insert itself. I broke the tabs off the practice insert to allow me to pull the star back out. This way I could trim, test and trim again until I got it to where I believed it would not be affected by clear build-up. I fit the trimmed stars into the real inserts, and they went down completely into the insert.

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Thanks, I’m a big fan of them too. The idea of a pf swap was very intimidating when I was a new guy and I most likely wouldn’t have started this project without reading @mof’s HS restoration thread years ago. It’s very well written and showed me that a pf swap is very doable, even for a newb.

I’ve been fortunate with this lot, they’ve all worked great. All of the flat GI lamps and a few others came from Pinball Resource. The rest came from PBL.

Good luck with your swap and feel free to holler if you need pics or anything else from this swap that can help!

With all of the underside parts attached, I began dealing with the pass-thru parts on the topside.

HS has multiple parts on the top side with wiring that passes through the pf from the bottom. These items include 2 coils (trough and kickback) as well as 6 flashers and 2 switches for the hideouts.

After installing most of the flashers, I needed to make a decision on what to do with the 2 flashers at the rear of the pf. I have always believed that these flashers were an afterthought when the game was designed. They are just flat lamp sockets attached to the back wood rails of the game. I wanted to find a better place for them so they could be a more visible part of the game.

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I first considered drilling 2 holes through the backboard of the game and placing them through the holes, with lamp domes, similar to F-14. The part about this idea that I didn’t like was that the flashing lights would be directly in your line of sight. Also, it’s obviously not reversible if I ended up not liking it.

Another option was placing the flashers in the back corners of the pf with the lamps sticking through the plastics and covered with a dome, but I wasn’t sure how to do this and how it would look. Another HS owner did this, and placed pics of his work in a thread (sorry, don’t remember where). I decided to go this route. I like the fact that it looks very similar to the other topside flashers and it would be easy to go back to original if I wanted to.

Before placing the plastic I insulated the flasher lamp sockets from the metal guide rails. I also later swapped out the clear red dome cover to the newer style so the led flasher is not so visible.

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After completing the pass through items, the next part was quality control. I had too much invested in the game to blow up a board or fry other critical parts due to a stupid oversight. Once you flip the main power switch, there’s no going back.

My QC checks consisted of checking every coil, every switch, every relay, every resistor board, every lamp (other than controlled lamps that had been already tested under power), basically every single wired connection. I went down my lists of all of these items, checking off each by their numbered tag. I would look at the picture of the original on my laptop and verify that each item was identical. I was also on the lookout for anything that could cause a short such as wire strands, loose metal parts, dripped solder, wire lugs too close together, etc. This was very time consuming, but did yield a target switch with backward wiring and a lamp wire that was improperly soldered. The lamp wire would very likely have broken off at some point and caused trouble. I also made sure that all switches were properly gapped.

Then it was the moment of truth. I set the pf next to the cab and kept the door to the backbox open so I could keep an eye on the fuses. I plugged in each of the large molex connectors to the boards, prayed for no disasters, and flipped the main switch. Thank God, I heard the familiar beep as the machine starts up and saw a zero in the display on the main board indicating a normal startup!!! Everything on the pf lit up and went into attract mode. So far so good!

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Next was switch tests. In the menu I saw switches 49 and 50 (the sling scoring switches under the pf) were stuck open. In switch test mode every switch was good except the shooter lane switch. No response at all. Overall, not bad.

Next was testing the higher risk solenoid connections. I went into coil tests and ran through them. All coils fired correctly except for the left hideout coil. Completely dead, no response whatsoever. Connections were good, I traced the wires all the way to the board. Right hideout coil was just fine. The ground wire to the relay was also fine.

At this point I knew that I needed help, so I contacted a master of pinball repair, @Grumpy. He immediately jumped in, taking me through the steps of diagnosing the issues.

The sling switches were simple enough. They were wired correctly, but I had installed them upside down. The sling coil arms were holding them closed instead of holding them open (shown correctly in the pic). Flipped them and problem solved. I then found that the shooter lane switch began responding. Not really sure why because they are not connected in the matrix, but I was happy.

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Back to the left hideout coil. I still couldn’t figure it out. Grumpy told me to test power with my DMM, it was good at right around 72v, same as the right hideout. Also again checked the coil’s resistance, no problems there.

With no luck there, Grumpy told me to check the nearby resistor board for power and to also check the 100 ohm resistor. The hideout coils both have a relay that they are tied into, and each relay is connected to a resistor board. The resistor boards have three lugs. Two of the lugs connect to the relay. On the left hideout coil’s board I found the center lug at 38v but the other 2 lugs were around 3v. On the right coil’s board I got 38v at each lug. I then tested the 100 ohm block resistor on the left. It tested at 5.5 ohms, clearly way below its rating. I tested the right coil’s resistor and it tested at 100 ohms. Looks like the problem is found!!

Grumpy suggested de-soldering one of the suspect resistor legs to test it further. When I did this, the resistor block fell off completely. This was a new resistor, but apparently a wire had broken inside. I replaced the resistor, and just for good measure, replaced the diode next to it. Both were tested before installation.

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I powered back up, went into test mode again and heard the sound I was looking for. The left hideout coil was now firing correctly!

With the all solenoids and switches testing 100%, I could focus on the loose ends that needed to be finished. First was the main ramp. I made the decision that I wanted to switch from the OEM black ramp over to @Freeplay40’s clear ramp. I had a new black repro ramp all ready to go, but changed my mind before mounting the hardware to it.

I like the fact that he engineered this ramp extensively to make it not only modern in appearance, but functionally better. The clear ramp is quieter than the old ramp and is built so it doesn’t require the clear plastic shield on top. Since I mounted the rear flashers in the back corners, the clear ramp will make them visible. It really opens the game up and, I believe, this is the way it would have been done if HS was being made today.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/freeplay40-ramps

The only thing I don’t like about the clear ramp is the dead space and GI lights under the ramp that are visible. This is especially conspicuous when the traffic light is relocated, as the majority of clear ramp owners do. Before the newer traffic light mod that fits on a post next to the ramp entrance was produced, most people moved the original traffic light to the back left corner. I have seen various mods to cover the dead space- from decals on the ramp to toy police cars, motorcycles, helicopters, UFO’s etc., etc... I decided to mount the traffic light in its’ original location for 4 reasons:

1. The traffic light conceals the visible dead space without adding silly mods.
2. I have an extremely hard to find NOS traffic light cover that isn’t melted/warped.
3. I like “running” the red light by hitting the ball up the ramp under the traffic light.
4. If I relocated the original to the back left corner it would look cluttered with both the traffic light and the flasher.

I do like the look of the post traffic light mod. It was done very nicely and blends in well with the game. The red translucent ramp was also not an option at the time.

I sent the metal parts from my ramp to Freeplay40 to rivet them on and in less than a week, I had a new ramp! He also shined up the metal parts nicely.

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I also received yet another shipment of parts for this machine from Pinball Resource. This shipment included a replacement nos microswitch for the right hideout (broke it by breaking the arm off while fitting wireforms, damn it!!!) new diverter arms and new pf pivot brackets for the cabinet.

While looking at pics of the back of the pf, I remembered that there are 2 wood blocks/rails attached back there. I located them in my giant box of parts removed from the original pf. They are 3/4” black painted wood and very chintzy. Since the other rails were replaced with better quality materials, I figured I should go ahead and replace these. Back to Lowe’s for a section of oak board and then over to my friend’s woodworking shop to cut them. Once cut, I sanded, painted and cleared them. Definitely an improvement over the old ones.

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Since I am mounting the traffic light to the ramp, I took this time to refurbish the assembly. The traffic light assembly is a metal plate that holds three #44 lamp sockets. The lamp sockets are all mounted on a single metal bracket, similar to the multi-lamp metal brackets used on the underside of the pf. The bracket is held in place with 2 plastic standoffs.

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Like the other lamp brackets on the pf, the individual lamps on the bracket cannot just be replaced. With a little creativity, I came up with a way to mount new lamps on the standoffs. The new lamps have new diodes and I re-molexed the connector.

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I lined up the traffic light assembly on the ramp, comparing it to my old ramp. I measured several times to ensure that the assembly was positioned correctly and would not be too high and hit the pf glass. I marked and slowly drilled the holes in the ramp edge. I was worried about cracking the plastic, but everything went fine.

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Next was installation of the ramp. It’s probably the most critical part of gameplay, so it’s gotta be perfect.

Freeplay40 told me that his ramp is designed so that the edge of the plastic at the bottom of the ramp should line up with the edge of the routed area on the pf. The metal flap goes over the edge and sits flush on the pf. I set it up this way and drilled the holes. The ramp has a total of 5 screws, 2 in the flap (#4-1/2”) and one on each of the 3 support legs (#6-1/2” truss).

I also wanted to get the 4 wireforms set in. The pre-drilled hole that accommodates the rear leg of the lower wireform on left side of the pf was close, and worked with a small bit of adjustment. The right side was way off. The hole had to be widened with a step bit to accommodate the leg in order for the wireform to line up correctly with the holes in the bracket of the ramp. Both wireforms locked in to the ramp just fine.

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So after soldering up the new nos hideout switch, I attached it to the bracket, but found that the actuator arm was slightly off and was dragging against the side of the hole that the arm sticks through. This caused the switch to not reset properly. As I adjusted the arm, the damn switch cracked...AGAIN!!! This is an older style Cherry switch with very thin plastic that holds the actuator arm on the top of the switch.

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I got fed up with the nos switch and decided that I would just replace this model of switch (A-11047) with the newer version (5647-12693-20).

https://www.pinballlife.com/williamsbally-sub-microswitch-5647-12693-20-nos.html?Category_Code=

It’s a DB3 microswitch with the same actuator arm. The difference with this switch is that the actuator arm is attached over the top of the switch and can easily be adjusted without threat of cracking anything. Worst case, the arm pops off and I would have to reattach it. Since I did this to the right side, I went ahead and matched it on the left side. Both switches are also molexed for easy removal/adjustments.

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I had some problems with the spinner switches below the pf (SW-1A-118) that I mentioned before. Even with adjustment, one in particular was not registering every turn of the spinner. They are the only switches in the game that I had not replaced with new. I saw a similar switch, the (B-8307) on Marco’s, but I decided to replace them with micros designed for spinners (500-5193-00). I figured that I might as well take care of this now while the pf is on the rotisserie than trying to fix it later on.

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I cleaned up the wiring a little and installed wire guides where needed.

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I then assembled the diverter for screw installation and testing. The diverter assembly is the biggest assembly on the pf and is somewhat visible so I decided to send it out to be chromed after testing was completed. You'll see the finished product later.

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I wanted to get the ramp in first so I could line up the diverter to work with it properly. Once it was lined up I drilled the holes, but did not attach it. I wanted to save this for last, since once the diverter is attached, the pf cannot go back on the rotisserie.

At this point I had done everything that needed to be done on the rotisserie and it was time to pull it down. I then installed the wood blocks at the back and attached the six metal posts along the back. They all use bolts that screw into tee nuts, so it went quickly.

Now I came to a part that I thought was straight forward, but ended up being tricky. I knew about the two bands that go around those posts at the back of the pf and had two Titan bands ready to go. I put them on, but when I attached the diverter, they rubbed against the diverter arms, preventing the arms from freely moving. Obviously I knew this was incorrect. I tried moving the bands in front of the posts, but that didn’t look correct either. After doing some Pinside research, I lucked up on a picture showing the bands actually wrapping around the back of the installed diverter assembly. I didn’t think it was correct, but after trying it, I found that it was.

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I didn’t see the need to screw on the wood backboard right now as I would be removing the diverter for chroming. It was again time for testing, but this time the pf would be in the cab.

I bought the HF lift cart specifically for this project since it gave me the ability to drop the cabinet very low. This makes placing the pf into the cab 100 times easier than having the cab at normal height. I plugged up the wires and lifted it up to normal height. I fired it up and all tests were still normal.

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Last thing to do on the pf is the plastics. This is a licensed repro set.

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I needed to rivet new flasher light domes onto the plastics. I put red domes/flashers on the left side of the pf and blue domes/flashers on the right side.

The rivets are done by placing the rivet through the dome’s plastic tab. The rivet then goes through the plastic and a thin washer is placed on the bottom side. The plastic is then placed on a cloth and set on the anvil part of my table vice. I then carefully tapped the rivet rollover punch with a ball pein hammer. About 5 or so light hits secures the rivet. All of the rivets and the punch came from PinRestore.

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Some of the plastics have smaller tree/bush pieces attached with a bolt, spacers and a locknut. The old spacers were yellowed so they were replaced. Here you can see old vs. new:

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A couple of the plastics have a metal bell attached to prevent ball traps. They all fit into their correct holes on the new plastics, but I added a small bolt and nut to ensure that they don’t pop off if they get hit by the ball. Tip- if you do this be sure to add a little Locktite on the bolt or the nut will work its way off from game vibration.

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Pics from the old pf were very helpful in knowing how/where all of the plastics attached to the pf.

With all of the plastics in place, I could finally declare the pf swap finished!!! I then put the glass on and played my first test game!

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With the pf done, it’s now time to look at the cabinet. First I wanted to make a new speaker panel.

The old speaker panel was in pretty bad shape. For an unknown reason, there were four holes drilled through the front of the panel by a previous owner. Carriage bolts were put in that were attached to L brackets screwed into the backbox. This really didn’t make sense because there are already factory L brackets on the sides of the panel that adequately secure it to the back box. Who knows...

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I was on the fence about the speakers. The original setup is a single 4”x10” 4 ohm speaker in the backbox and a 6.5” 4 ohm subwoofer in the cab. I had already replaced the speakers when I first got the game because the old ones were corroded. I replaced them with Pyle speakers and they sounded decent. The only issue is that the Pyle subwoofer was tall enough that the back of the pf would drag on it when lifted into service position. Also, since I had done everything else high-end, I figured the speakers should be one of the pinball-specific kits. My options were:

1- Pinball Pro makes a set with a 4x10 speaker and sub that is exactly like the original. It is expensive though, $170 for the regular system or $220 for the upgraded sub system, plus shipping. I have never used PP speakers, so I don’t know much about them.