I have been cleaning, working on, and collecting parts for further work on my first pin for a few weeks now. One problem I've run into is that I manged to break a previously-working switch, one of the two in the right hideout. Marco has the part listed, but naturally it's out of stock: http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-11047

The switch itself works fine, but the plastic housing that holds the wire portion contacted by the ball is broken. The wire portion is supposed to be supported on both sides by plastic and pivot up/down when the ball hits it. Because one side broke, the metal piece won't stay in place (see attached photos). Any thoughts on how to fix/replace it? I've looked at a few other pin parts sites and no one seems to have this exact switch for sale. I don't care if it's replaced with a perfect match, as long as it works, but I don't know what might be a suitable replacement in this case. I've worked on vids since 2001, but I'm new to pins and I'm not sure if I can just drop any old cherry switch into this position or not.

switch1 (resized).jpg

switch2 (resized).jpg

Yeah, I have plenty of cherry switches laying around, but they're all for arcade buttons and none of them have the right mounting to hold the wire. Good to know that my instincts were right in terms of using another normally open switch and bending the wire to match the use, but if I can have the 'correct' part I'd prefer to do it that way generally speaking... It looks like Pinball Resource does have them in the special section, I'll have to remember that they've got stuff listed there when I'm searching in the future.

amkoepfer, thanks for the offer, if it turns out that PR doesn't come through, I'll be hitting you up

Thanks everyone!

amkoepfer To be honest, I'm not sure where the LEDs came from, the seller had already done the conversion when I bought it (and put on new rubber and a few other minor fixes). I have kind of mixed feelings about LEDs in pins in terms of the colors, but I think they look pretty good on this one, so no complaints. The game is a little rough around the edges, but it still played pretty well when I got it. Then one of the hideout coils started smoking, so I decided it was a good opportunity to tear down the playfield a bit to clean, which also turned into rebuilding the flippers and pop bumpers, all of which got me to this broken switch :p

Homepin Ah, I hadn't even considered that angle, I think you're right. Like I said, I'm an old hat at vids, new to owning pins. Thanks!

PR has come through, they had three NOS exact replacements in the specials section, so I should be good. Thanks for the offer!