Sometimes you've just got to jury-rig something when all else fails.
I replaced all 8 drop targets in my Mata Hari with fresh new Tombstones, springs, and lock collars from Marcos this weekend. Now, unfortunately, Right Drop Target "B" does not always stay up when the target bank is reset. About 4 times out of 10, the target will drop on its own immediately after the bank is reset.
I tried the following:
- Adjusting the tension on the new spring. I even went back to the old cruddy spring.
- Eyeballed for gaps between the reset bar and the little swingarms that push the target up...seems ok. There is slop in the linkage, but no more than the other target bank and that one is working flawlessly.
- I swapped the offending tombstone with another in that bank want to see if the problem stayed in the "B" location or followed the original "B" tombstone to its new location. The problem stayed in the "B" location.
I watched the resets carefully from the top view of the targets. It happens fast (I thought about filming it and watching it in slow motion) but near as I could tell the target maybe didn't get pushed up far enough for it to always be able to rest on the little plastic nub just under the target face. Now to find a way to get it to raise higher during a bank reset.
I took some HVAC metal tape and applied a couple strips to the bottom of the swingarm for the target thinking the reset bar would then raise that target a little higher. It seemed to help, but my sample size was small. I put a few more pieces of HVAC tape and again, it seemed to help, but gradually it gets back to its 4 out 10 failure rate.
Then I started applying HVAC metal tape to the reset bar itself where the "B" target swingarm meets the bar. I tried a few strips at a time and each time it helped for a bit but eventually worked its way back to a 40% failure rate. Then I realized I really need something stiffer in there as the swingarms are eventually making little grooves in the tape after a dozen or so resets. I cut out a little square piece of PETG plastic I had leftover from a playfield protector install on another project, and secured that to the spot on the reset bar that meets the "B" swingarm.
Time will tell, but so far so good - 100% pass rate on 100 resets.
After I'm sure this jury-rig is the solution, I'll go back in and pretty everything up. I've taken this bank out 4 times this weekend and disassembled/reassembled twice in the last 10 hours...I'm going to enjoy it working for a while before I do that again!
Drop Target Rigged.jpg