Don't buy springs just cut old spring I got from Marco and at that price I got two to test then the rest I just snipped until it returned nice and sharp some I cut 3/4 of old spring.

I need to find left and right sling shot piece looks like an L with a plastic piece on top I guess that hits the rubber ring to sling ball out who sells these thanks!

Does anyone else get a stuck ball to the right of the upper flipper every once in a while? I've got the rubbers in the right place according to the manual, but I frequently get a ball stuck there (once every few games). I can nudge it out without tilting, but I shouldn't have to.

This is a CPR playfield so I would suspect perhaps the posts aren't exactly in the correct spot(s), but the plastic piece that nuts to four of the posts aligns perfectly, suggesting that they are in the correct location (unless all posts are off but just enough that the plastic still fits).

Stuck Ball 3 (resized).jpg

Put a 1 inch rubber on those two top posts. It’ll eliminate that ball trap spot. Here’s mine.

C7246BAF-6FE9-4D5B-B701-E58C0330444D (resized).jpeg

Thanks. Works like a champ. It plays a little different in that area now with different bounces and trajectories (of course) and in a good way!

Stuck Ball - Fix 2 (resized).jpg

The original playfield pic Jakers posted shows a rubber across those two posts in the printing.

Meteor_Playfield_Rubber.jpg

So I am still battling the 6k light on rocket #3 being out. Looks like I have a grounding issue? All connectors on the lamp driver board are disconnected.

Any ideas are appreciated.

Those press fittings are always trouble. I would suggest replacing them with the twist socket boards

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1078-pinballreplacementparts/05119-stern-meteor-555-socketed-lamp-board-set

or yoppsicles

I haven’t seen how big those are in person. The inserts for the missiles are small and tight together. Not sure if there is enough clearance. Love yoppsicles though.

I remember Yopp saying he was working on custom Yoppsicle units for Meteor. I hope that is still happening.

How do i go about diagnosing this? The last thing i remember was starting a game and hitting the right flipper button. It barely flipped and now this.

https://imgur.com/a/ZpZJoxq

The F4 solenoid fuse on the rectifier board has blown. Loss of solenoid voltage will cause the MPU board to fail the last power on self test.

Nailed it.. sort of. Im in the middle of a restore and knew I needed to replace the crusty rectifier board and connectors. Gave them a little wiggle and things started to come back.

https://imgur.com/a/fxMueUi

Anyway to fix the misalignment of this rottendog scoring display the previous owner put it? If not what would be the solution?

IMG_0220 (resized).jpeg

Upon further inspection that is a 7 digit score display. Can i safely swap that with the player 4 display and get the proper alignment back for the credits/ball count?

You can if it's a 6 dig display, which is what was used from factory. But some mods have to be done in order to run the 7 dig in the player's locations. See if there's a jumper to turn off the commas if using in match/ball display you don't want the comma. Most of these newer LED displays have that option.

Picked up a Meteor that was at the Lake Placid 1980 Winter Olympic Park, from what I know there are only two. Needs a good cleaning, will post some pictures when I'm done.

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Joined the club this past weekend! Wasn't looking for this game in particular but a local Pinsider tipped me off to a great deal nearby so I jumped on it. Never played the game prior but have really been enjoying it. Still running the original code. Will eventually set it up to switch between the new and old, but honestly I really like the music and sound effects of the original that others seem to get annoyed by.

Overall I think its in a very good player's condition. The paint on the playfield is starting to plank. Doing a full restore is beyond my artistic abilities. Is there anything I can do to slow the spread? Same goes for the back glass. It's flaking, has anyone done a triple thick clear coat to the back of there's to prevent further spreading of this? I actually think how it has flaked looks pretty cool, with the cracks in the Stern logo and the rockets.

Also curious what level degree everyone plays there's on? I have it at 4.5 degrees currently and like the flow of it. I have a Comet LED kit on it's way. I'd like to touch up the outside frame of the back box, that you can see is scratched in my pictures, any recommendation on a color black to use to match? The rest of the cabinet is in pretty good shape.

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very cool!

Ok, gameplay question, what is the outlane light on either side that says "Collect Rocket Bonus?" where your ball drains out?

The only thing I could remotely come up with is that somehow your 2x, 3x, etcetera bonus is held-over into the next ball-in-play unless you drain where this light is lit - then you somehow get points for whatever bonus level you had, and the bonus then re-sets to zero??

It just collects your bonus at 1x and incidentally is the source of the 256x bonus bug. Nothing to do with carry other multiplier. They always do until you get to 6x or 7x.

Thinking about doing a 7 digit mod on my Meteor and this seems like a good route.

Anyone know if this will work with an Alltek board? Does it still need a new ROM?

Thanks,
Chris

Yes you have to change the ROM. Voids the alltek warranty though.

Got mine up and running on the 2021 code. Had a few friends over and we played for a good 5 hours.

IMG_0266 (resized).jpeg

I have my 2021 code on its way.

Question about fixing some controlled lights that are out. This is my first go at doing so on any game. Just want to make sure my next step is the right one before I order the tools and parts.

If I was able to get the bad lamps lit by running conductive tape from the bottom of a working socket to the socket that is out, then this should mean my socket is good and the issue as at the pin connector on the board. Correct?

I can’t just leave it with the conductive tape because then if the working controlled light (ex: light 1 in the first rocket column) gets lit, then the bad light that is jumped (light 1 in second column) will also get lit. If these were GI lights then this conductive tape would be a nice quick fix.

If I do need to repin, can anyone confirm the molex connector and pin sizes I need? I’m sure I can search but if someone knows already I’d appreciate it. Thanks in advanced!

Standard .100" molex crimp pins on the boards. The larger pins on the driver and rectifier are .156"

Ordered, thanks!

Another thing I’m trying to figure out is why these rocket and meteor lights are always on when I start a new game. I don’t think either are correct. When in attract mode the lights cycle independently as they should. Could this be a due to setting on my switches?

CB4BA15A-70F1-442A-97CF-B01E25463610 (resized).jpeg

There's probably a short to ground somewhere in the game. I had an F2K where both of the outlane/special lamps were lit solid and I found a short on the coin door. Weird things happen that don't make sense when you have a short. Try pulling the coin door harness plug after starting a game and see if they go out. If not, start looking elsewhere. A short in the switch matrix may also cause this as well. Did you do any work recently, if so, go back and check everything you touched.

Whats the deal with these white nuts that hold down the plastic? When tightened all the way down my plastics are still loose and able to wobble around. Am i missing something or is that how its supposed to be?

Sounds like the wrong screws were installed. There are a few different sizes of that type of screw. Either replace with a shorter type or take them off and grind down the thread alittle and then reinstall.

They should be finger tight and the plastics should not be loose or move around. Either the threaded portion of the posts you're using are too long, or the nuts you're using are too shallow. If you don't want to change either, one solution could be to put plastic washers on the posts first, then the plastics, shortening the threaded portion of the post and perhaps allowing for a more tight fit of the plastics. A side benefit of that is that the washers absorb a lot of the hits/stress during gameplay and can actually prevent plastics from cracking (particularly the edges).

You want a little movement on your plastics - that way they don't break as easily if the ball hits it. Original stern carriage bolts had nuts on the tops where you could run them all the way up against the plastics if you wanted, so your white cap nuts are already a change. I get rid of the carriage bolts as well because the bottom of the PF is usually stripped so they just turn and turn, and don't provide the correct torque.

I use the rubber nut topper thing that way if an errant ball does hit it, it'll pop off instead of breaking the corner. Makes it easy to take them off as well for cleaning, changing rubber, etc.

Ok so more than likely the plastic nuts are incorrect and to shallow. Ill try to get creative. thank you

Which inserts should NOT blink during attract?

The WOW lights on mine at the 1’s bank, 2’s bank, 3’s bank, and the WOW at the “spot” meteor target area are not flashing during attract. Any chance that they are not supposed to blink during attract?

How about the 1X 2X and 4X?

Should those be blinking during attract?

I’m assuming I need to do the SCR replacements

Here's a walkthru video of a recent restoration I did on my Meteor. About 50 seconds in, I spend some time on the playfield lights during attract mode. The 111/222/333 and Yellow Target WOWs and multiplier lamps do not flash. Curiously, the left COLLECT ALL ROCKETS doesn't flash either (but the right one does). Both work ok in gameplay.

As stated they do not flash in stock roms. There are mod roms that do though.

I believe it was a short, as I started replacing some loose molex connectors and that issue resolved itself. Still working on getting a few more lights lit that aren't. Some of my Comet LED bulbs in the rocket scores are flickering. I'm using the anti-flicker kit from Comet, but it's still happening. I've verified good connection at the socket (original sockets) and the molex connectors were re-done. I'm debating if I should just replace the lamp driver board with the Alltek one. I already have their replacement MPU and Solenoid boards installed. Just worried I spend the money to do that and it doesn't fix the issue.

Disregard. Did some searching on this thread and learned that flickering LEDs is common on this machine, even if using an Alltek board or anti-flicker kit. Someone did say they used Comet Optix LEDS and have no flicker issue. Wish I found that before I previously bought the Meteor LED kit from Comet! At least happy to know I can stop chasing wiring/connection ghosts.

I am using the Comit OPTIX LED's color matched to all the inserts and think they look great. I have the original Lamp driver and I don't see any flicker. I'd also recommend a few of their fire/flame LED's to put in the GI in the back glass under the rocket tails. I used frosted white for the rest of the backglass GI. No color bombing.

Thanks! How does the light output match up to their standard LEDs? I only have a handful of controlled LEDs that are flicking. Wondering if I just replaced those if the light difference between the two would be noticeable.

Overall lesson learned here, don't be lazy and overpay for a kit. Was my first time doing LEDs so thought it'd be easiest. It was easy, but after spending more time under the playfield I wish I just pieced it together myself.

I have no idea how they look side by side. They are bright but not too bright. I ended up doing all the inserts. Just start with small groups of the same color to see how you light them.

If it helps, I went thru something similar on mine: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/1979-stern-meteor-project/page/4#post-6612948

In short, using an Alltek Lamp Board and the original OEM MPU, I had ~20 control LED flickering. Replacing the OEM MPU with an Alltek MPU, the number of flickering control lamps got down to about 5. On those 5, I added resistors to the lamp sockets (even tho I'm using an Alltek Lamp Board) and now all control lamps are steady with no flickering.

That lines up as I am using an Alltek MPU and have about 5 control lamps flickering. Could you link the resistor you used? You just solder it between the wire coming from the lamp board and the socket?

I used 470 ohm, 1/2W, 5%:
https://www.amazon.com/Projects-10EP512470R-470-Resistors-Pack/dp/B0185FK574

Or you could just buy an assortment box of resistors, get your money's worth, and have other values available in case you need to do any other similar work:
https://www.amazon.com/BOJACK-Values-Resistor-Resistors-Assortment/dp/B08FD1XVL6/ref=sr_1_3

Put it across the +5 that runs from socket to socket and the control wire attached to the socket tab. Before soldering, do what I did first to make sure it addresses your issue....use alligator clips. If it works, then commit to soldering.

470 (resized).jpg

Thank you for the links and the detailed info and picture. Going to get it ordered and test it out as suggested.

i"ve done all the "fixes" on the Meteor drop targets and they still are not always resetting properly. New targets, cleaned and adjusted the frame. Added a thin piece of plastic on reset bar, tightened the springs, the coil tabs are all at 90 degree angles to the plate. Not sure if I missed anything.
Open to any suggestions. thx

Put good vintage targets in.