(Topic ID: 11372)

Making plunger springs stronger/weaker questions

By Marcuni

12 years ago



Topic Stats

  • 10 posts
  • 5 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 12 years ago by mrgone
  • No one calls this topic a favorite

You

Linked Games

No games have been linked to this topic.

    #1 12 years ago

    How do you make plunger springs stronger/weaker?

    Can I modify what I have or do I need to buy a few and test?

    How do I know the strength of what I have so that I know what to get (stronger or weaker)?

    Thanks

    #2 12 years ago

    is it a manual or electric (automatic) one? Marco carries different tension springs to swap in. I did that with waterworld. Came with a very strong one and had to drop to a medium-high one.

    #3 12 years ago

    It's a manual plunger.

    But how do I know what to buy? Just buy a few and hope one is weaker than what I have?

    #4 12 years ago

    There are two different strengths that I know of. The stronger springs I've seen are red, and if you are purchasing one they usually say "For games that need stronger springs such as blah blah".

    #5 12 years ago

    Oh, ok. I have a Pinbot. The spring I currently have can make the ball hit the glass when it goes up the Vortex ramp. My ramp has the common broke off top tip (probably because of strong springs!) that prevents that from happening.

    I now wonder if the weaker would be too weak to send the ball up the Vortex...

    What about shortening the spring? Would that help?

    #6 12 years ago

    I see from your collection that you have a Firepower. I'd pop the E clip off of that and swap the spring over to your Pinbot and see how it works. You could shorten your existing spring if that doesn't work.

    #7 12 years ago
    Quoted from Marcuni:

    It's a manual plunger.
    But how do I know what to buy? Just buy a few and hope one is weaker than what I have?

    THey cost like 98 cents a piece, I bought each one. But after that I would only buy the medium-hard, hard and super hard. Got mine from Marco, but I bet PBL and PBR have them among others.

    They have
    soft, soft-medium, medium, medium-hard, hard, really hard

    #8 12 years ago

    Different color springs are different wire diameters.

    The smaller the wire diameter, the weaker the spring.

    I would measure them with a pair of calipers - the paint on the springs often wears and flakes off, and it's a guessing game as to what is installed if you don't measure them.

    Want it stronger? Go with a larger diameter wire. Weaker? Go the other way.

    Pinbot, from the factory, used 10-148-3, blue.

    10-148 spring-shooter black .031
    10-148-1 spring-shooter silver .035
    10-148-2 spring-shooter red .042
    10-148-3 spring-shooter blue .038
    10-148-4 spring-shooter green .033
    10-148-6 spring-shooter brown .026
    10-148-7 spring-shooter white .028

    #9 12 years ago

    i just recieved my order from pinball life today. i ordered 2 new plunger springs. some rubbers,leds and new balls for my pinbot. i will post this weekend when i get time to install the new spring.

    #10 12 years ago

    i just finished putting a new plunger spring,outer barrel spring and shooter tip in my pinbot.
    i ordered a standard one and a red one from pinball life.i used the red shooter spring as the spring that was in it was shot. the red spring is a little firm as if you pull it all the way back it rockets up to the top of the skill shot. i also put white led flashers in behind the visor and they look AWESOME! i highly recommend them.

    Reply

    Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.

    Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!

    Donate to Pinside

    Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!


    This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/making-plunger-springs-strongerweaker-questions and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.

    Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.