I hear he has his games on high tap which is a simple switching of a wire on the transformer. I don't do it on my own EMS, but most are Williams which came more snappy from the factory. But the Gottliebs I do have play fine on regular tap. I do see a lot of owners complaining they wished they had the power Williams do and high tap them and install special coils. A lot of nonsense to me though.

I don't want to jump the other guy's train, but I'm one town over and in between my own projects if a simple shop out and rebuilding pops and flippers is what you desire. I do it in my garage though so I can take my time.

This one's going to be fairly simple. Playfield should clean up nicely.

Weak flippers were caused by the return springs set up a little too tight and the end of stroke switches not making good contact. The left one especially.

Match unit's gummed up, but I will be taking it apart and cleaning and lubing it as well as all the score reels, the ball count unit, and the credit unit. That's all the steppers there are on this one. Piece of cake. The other minor issues I'll get to later.

Would be nice to get replacements for those clear plastic ball return guides as one is kind of jacked up. Don't know if they are available yet or not.

I just picked this machine up a couple hours ago, but since it's such a nice day, I tore right into it. Dan's way cool and it was nice meeting and talking with him.

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Don't know if they will sell just the lane guides but here is the entire plastic set if you get enthused.

http://www.pinballrescue.net/Plastics_Top_Card.html

The left lane guide is so worn, it was moved over about 1/4 inch to make it work.

It's going to be a real humdinger.

Since I've got nothing better to do, I'm going to dig into the score reels next to get them out of the way and hopefully leave them with years of trouble free operation.

If it was a Bally or Williams, I could do them in about 10 minutes each with my eyes shut. But no! Let's over engineer the shit out of them to no real advantage except maybe saving a few bucks on materials. Gotta be careful or the cheap painted numbers will come right off during cleaning. Thank goodness there's only four of them.
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Nice item.

Whatever you do, don't drop the tiny nut that holds the switch stack in place.

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I got one score reel done.

That's enough for today.

I not only got that done, but I also changed the oil in a buddy's car today.

For doing that he said he would pick me up something from this fancy Chinese restaurant they were going to. I said cool, get me some house special chow mein and two piece bbq spare rib. So he just shows up with a plate of mostly vegetables and a few small pieces of chicken and a half a tub of white rice. And a fortune cookie. No chow mein, no spare rib. I'm like WTF? His fortune is next time he gets gear oil in his engine.

Some place they drive a little further to, supposedly a step up from Panda Express, but I didn't see it. It's all good. He's bringing over a Del Taco burrito so we can still be friends.

Neither one looks any good. The one that's original is worn to heck and the other one looks like a makeshift replacement.

But since I've been given the rest of the day off, I may get that second score reel done today.

They must have been working overtime when they engineered these things.

"I don't care if you have to stay here all night! We're gonna go over it and over it until you get it right!"

Backbox work completed, playfield thoroughly cleaned and waxed, and all bulbs replaced with 44s as requested. I do however always put 55s in the pop bumpers as they are lower profile and less likely to put that burn mark on the caps.

A few more things to do and it should be ready for those new plastics when they get here.

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That's me!

It's easier than digging a big hole in the backyard for a pool. Which in this kind of weather is becoming more and more of a reality the more I think about it.

OK Dan,

Good news. It's all working now and there were only a few flaky bulb sockets that I went ahead and took care of. Just need those plastics now.

This little side job has inspired me to maybe make it somewhat of a career. Not everybody's as patient as you though.

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He bought the plastics, I supplied the rubbers, bulbs and balls. There were no other parts required. $250

I didn't keep track of the hours but it was a few here and a few there. Not the most complicated machine, that's for sure.

Not to mention the pizza.

I finally had time to finish it up today replacing a couple of the flaky bulb sockets that would not be fixed.

I had never played this one before, but got a few test games on it today.

Rolled it on the second game with eight replays! Two by score, six by special.

Yeah, this is probably one I would have played back in the day when pocket change wasn't so easy to come by.

I don't know about this "high tap" thing, but it does play snappy and fast.

It's ready to go!

I had it on regular tap, but since I had the soldering iron out while he was here I moved it over and gave him the option. He liked it that way, so that's the way I left it. Same with the posts. If he changes his mind, it is easy to switch.

I have all mine on regular tap, and usually set up as hard as can be. I'm a glutton for punishment I guess.

Thanks! I've had a bit of practice.

But for me, big flippers on EMs in general destroy the challenge and fun. Especially when playing for free now (well not exactly free). And don't put one of those pop up posts in between them...