Working on a 1981 Gottlieb Volcano and I noticed the left flipper is touching and rubbing the ball guide rail. It's really close and when the flipper activates, it's chewing into the rubber. I rotated the rubber to a new spot and after only a couple days of play there's another nick in the rubber. It's due for new rings but I don't want to put them on before solving this issue.

Flipper touches ball guide rail

I tried bending the guide rail away but there's only so much I can do without making it loose or having it bend away and looking stupid. Right now, it's fairly perpendicular to the playfield as it probably should be. It looks good visually for whatever I know.

Then I thought maybe there's an adjustment or some wiggle in the flipper mechanism underneath. Nope. Screws fit the holes really well and I cannot move the flipper assembly away from the edge of the rail.

Is this a common issue and what would be an acceptable permanent solution?

Thank you!

EDIT: Just realized that maybe the flipper bats need to rotated backwards. The rubber only touches when the flipper fully extends. What is the proper resting position?

EDIT 2: If the top edge of the flipper bats are supposed to be parallel to the ball guides, I'm screwed. They are already rotated somewhat down from this position (maybe ⅛" or more at the tip), so if I make them parallel as being discussed in other threads, the problem of interference upon extension is going to get worse.

Thank you both for the response.

I can remove and inspect, but don't even know how I'd determine this. Are there specifications posted online for correct length?

Honestly, this machine was in fairly good condition when I got it. There is very little dust, dirt, grime, or metal wear on most of the parts. Everything was mechanically sound. I suppose it's possible the wrong stop was installed by somebody in the past and I'd never know it, but from what I'm seeing the parts there now have little wear.

C-13150 is the bat number according to the manual. Looking at Marco, it appears to be the same, and the custom rubber kit for this machine also fit properly last time I did it.

Yes, that's what I've read. However, mine are slightly down, and making parallel will force the bats to touch the rails even more than now.

down

extended

Yes, the drawing in my manual shows the same... slightly down. And thank you for mentioning the flyer. I looked at it and the flippers in the flyer are actually set even lower than mine. Maybe that's the answer.

flyer

As per the flyer, I aligned my bats to be parallel along the bottom edge rather than the top. It fixed the issue, but barely.

re-aligned

I actually think it plays better this way. Before, the right flipper came up so much it had a tendency to sometimes back the ball up the right guide rail and down the drain. Since it extends less now, the ball goes back up the playfield instead.

I put new rubber on the game and the problem came back... I ended up filling three of the six mounting holes with wood glue and toothpicks. Then I rotated the mounting plate slightly. Three mounting holes stayed the same and the three closest to the flipper shaft shifted just a little. Only about a half a screw hole of offset. The bat is now oriented more symmetrically over the playfield circle and the bat's new rubber clears the guide rail by maybe 1/32", not much but it clears.

Too long... as in the factory did something wrong?

How so? I'd rather not tear up the play-field if I don't have to.

What is flipper-hop? There are no issues on the right... the bat is touching nothing. Maybe my photo's perspective is warped.

Thank you!

Yes, I recognize that, but shortening (or just moving) a guide rail seems like a lot more work (especially since it's work that can be seen) than simply moving the bat a little. In my case, I just needed a little clearance for the rubber.

Wow. Good work on your modification!

No, I have no flipper-hop on either side. I was confused because you mentioned my RH ball guide, but I have no issues there.