Why not put some rubber grommets in the node board and screw it back on the playfield.
Or put some L shape brackets under the playfield to screw the node on.

Isn't the RTV flexible? Isn't that what we dont want?

Hot glue is flexible too. A little bit of flex is fine, it should still support the diode miles better than nothing.

I was able to install the spacer kit without much trouble on SW. I was worried about unplugging all the connectors, so I just unplugged a couple on each node board and installed the spacer while it was on the game. Really didn't stress the diode or transistors much and it worked after I did it

The cap kit was super easy to install, but you do need two caps per game. Apparently the first kits were put together with only one, the newer kits should have two caps in each kit according to Chas. I have a couple more kits being sent to me.

I'll be doing GB and AS tomorrow evening when the missing cap kits get here.

It still dampens the vibrations considerably. Extremely common in motor controllers and other high vibration electronics.

One important thing though is make sure to buy the right one. Electronics silicone may not be the same as what you buy in a home improvement store.
Look for the stuff that says "Aquarium Safe", or "Corrosion Free", "Neutral Cure", "Non-Acidic" or something like that. The really cheap stuff could cause long-term issues. If it smells super strong out of the tube, that's the wrong stuff.

-Hans

I bought a hot glue gun today. Looked like the best approach.

I tried glue and had a hard time getting it to stick. Hopefully you have better luck

Maybe it depends on the glue you used ? For me it was about 15 seconds per board. They sell different kind of sticks so maybe that is something to look into.

Yeah I put some glue and backed up a small zip tie. The RTV was not the recommended type so I removed it

Got the kits. Putting the zip ties on would have been a disaster. I'm sure I would have ruined it in the process.

Hot glue worked perfectly. I highly reccomend.

Capacitor was plug and play, as described.

I'll do the other board tomorrow night.

How do the bliue pins stay locked into the holes?

Pressure....... if they are a tad loose put a drop of CA on the tip of the pin. Mine were tight enough.

I installed the Stern zip tie spacer kits this weekend. I didn't have any problem installing it with the boards still in the machine. I did it with my playfield fully raised against the backbox so I needed a step stool to work on the node board closest to the outhole.

Just follow the instructions and be careful fishing the zip tie through the part holes and it works just fine. Once instally the parts are very secure. Not sure why some feel the need to do it differently?

Because using hot glue or proper RTV is a superior method. Stern's method is meant to be cheap, easy and fast so anybody can do it, but it does stress the legs when tied together. Maybe not a huge deal, but RTV won't lock the components down while the legs are stressed.

All of the tabs were slanted on mine. No way was I going to try and zip tie those things. The risk of breaking something was to great.

Hot glue put zero stress on the components, and that diode is question is bending nowhere now.

Got my kit today.

EEC74348-FD9F-4551-B3E8-228C877C1D9F (resized).jpeg

Maybe I'm missing something. How does does tieing them together with the zip tie put stress on the legs?

Once zip tied the two pieces feel very secure to one another. Seems unlikey they would move and cause stress on the legs?

If the the legs did fail on that part in the future I would ask Stern to replace it since it was a known documented issue they had. Would Stern still replace it in the future if I put a bunch of hot glue or RTV on it?

Trust me ...... they are not going to replace it down the road either way once out if warranty

Won't the glue or silicone make the components a pita to replace should one fail?
Those transistors are one of the few things possible to change, and maybe that's why Stern is using the ties and spacer.
I think I would prefer to have them secured with the recommended fix.

No, the glue or RTV can be easily removed if needed.

I'm not saying either method is wrong, of course if you want to use the official Stern method that is fine especially if you're concerned about warranty issues later down the road. Personally I would rather use hot glue or RTV to secure the diode to the adjacent component.

Fair enough, I thought the method was to goop stuff to the board and kind of encase the components in it.
just connecting the tabs would make more sense.
Any concerns about heat?

Nope

The primary concern is to stop them failing in the first place. With no fuses, and no documentation of any of these boards, damage to other components is quite likely, and being able to repair the board very unlikely.

My GB had a board drop the 2 flipper transistors early on, I was able to replace them and have the game work while waiting on a replacement from Stern.

Why should we trust you when in many cases Stern does replace components outside the brief written warranty period? Not to mention replacing parts that are expressly excluded from the written warranty (playfields, for example)? There's no guarantee of a replacement outside of warranty, of course, but there are tons of stories on Pinside about Stern providing precisely this kind of support.

It’s called 20 plus years collecting games and being in the industry

Do what ya want. I know what I’m doing

You’ll be able to wipe your ass with that documentation.

For people with more than one machine they requested parts for; did you receive all the kits at the same time? I have a Ghostbusters and Aerosmith, but only one kit arrived today.

Finished 2nd Node board tonight on GB. Hot glue and added the capacitor. No issues. Game is running great!

Finished installing the kits on my Ghostbusters Premium and Star Wars LE. It was a bit of a pain to install the zip tie and spacer fix. My Star Wars LE thankfully had the capicator fix already installed from the factory.

Installed my capacitor kit as well and used industrial hot glue on the diodes. Feel better about the protection. Time to drop some balls!

I got the kits yesterday for my SW and my dad's AS.

Working on my GB and AS capacitor kit at the moment and the GB made sense as the were no existing capacitor installed.

Opened up my AS which I bought in June, and it appears to have a capacitor already installed at cn6 on both boards. Should I assume it came from factory already repaired or am I plugging the new capacitor into board and then plugging old capacitor into make end of the new one?

Thanks for help!

Your Aerosmith has the fix already installed.

Didn’t have the spacers though and what a bitch. Don’t know if it’s worth the hassle or not.

I went to install the spacers and zip ties on my SW. I felt there was way too much torque when trying to tie the zip tie with the tight loop you needed to make. I decided to use hot glue to fuse the 2 diodes together. Seems very stable. If you got the zip ties to work without damaging the legs of the diode, good for you, but I hope hot glue gives this proper stability because I was too worried about causing the damage I was trying to prevent.

I meant it already has the capacitor fix.

It’s annoying to get the spacers on, but I definitely recommend it.

I have just noticed on our SW that there are capacitors fitted at CN6 already, however the capacitor is connected to nothing. According to the pin diagram in the manual, pin 3 and 4 are listed as N/C (this means no connection). The capacitor service kit has the capacitor connected to different pins. I am putting the capacitor kit in. I have emailed Stern to make sure. I will post when I get a response.

Just curious, has anyone posted a video on how to do this? I know Stern posted instructions but prefer to see it done in action.

The tie wraps they send you are to stiff. They put to much pressure on diode D9. Not recommend. The glue gun method is the way to go. Plus you don't know of the current condition of the legs of the D9 from the vibration before trying to put Stern's kit on. Doing so might just put it over the top.

So you guys that have hot glued the diodes did you remove the node board to apply the glue or did you just leave it in place on the playfield while applying the hot glue? I'm a little nervous about installing the spacer and zip ties.

I left my boards in.

After muffing one install with the zip tie, I have now installed it on about 10 boards. Friends have asked me to help them. Expert now. It’s not bad, but you need to be aware of any pressure it’s putting on the diode and use both hands to position the zip tie correctly.

As for the muffed one, I replaced the broken diode and am perfect now.

I would not recommend you do this with the board inside the game. It’s easy to remove it.

Removed the board.

What a pain in the a** installing the spacer and zip ties. I've caused more damage to the legs of the diodes by fiddling with the zip tie through it and making it wiggle. Feels completely loose now and ready to pop off the board.

Use hot glue, and mentioned throughout this thread.

Zero stress on the diode.

That sucks. I went to zip tie mine and decided it was too risky. I put a big glob of hot glue to bind the 2 diodes together. I hope this stabilizes it enough.

I wish that I had read this thread before doing the work

You might still want to do it....to save the diode from breaking. You mentioned it was worse now.

Recieved my node stabilization kit for GB but therer's no D9 next to Q4 on my board

20180328_142848 (resized).jpg

20180328_143002 (resized).jpg

You do have a D9 but it looks like Stern changed it to a surface mount component? So no stabilization fix required.