Picked up a Craigslist find Strato-Flite back in April to put in my queue of projects. Now that my Xenon is wrapping up I’m going to work on this beast.

Not really sure how far I’ll go with it but I figured I might as well capture the progress with a thread.

Here’s the initial photo dump…

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When I was testing the switches I was trying to put together the rules. Looks like it’s pretty fun. It’s unplayable at the moment so like most of my projects I won’t get to actually play the title for the first time until the projects done. I’m gonna look up some game play videos on YouTube later.

Some how I ended up with two Williams EM 4-player machines. My other is Shangri-La and I love that one so I imagine I’ll be hooked to this one as well.

Nice! As I tear into it I’ll keep you in mind thanks!!!

Top side tear down begins.
All pieces are getting some time in the pinball parts hot tub.

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I stood up the posts to dry, I took a pic few hours later and I noticed when I went to toss them in a bag I had a helper.

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These stand up targets are pretty gross.
I ran them in the ultrasonic.

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Then soaked them in a evaporust and it didn’t do them any justice.

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Figured I’d toss one in the tumbler with the rest of the metal and this is what I’m left with.2163E69A-6DF8-4771-AB86-8EDB71D968E4 (resized).jpegF2AA2FCB-AB5F-46B0-A6F5-0354890C7F23 (resized).jpeg

Ran the rest of them through and wow

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I love tumbler day!

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These little guys needed a different approach. I avoid running them in the tumbler because of all the media getting packed in them.

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So I run them through the drill with mother’s mag. C86C9BD1-719A-4F08-A220-6B07C9D24144 (resized).jpegA7C2D5CF-4B90-4C2C-8D51-88649494E67E (resized).jpeg

Really makes a difference

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You can tell which ones are in line for the spin2869832E-5E7D-4AD2-8D6D-D99EA0909011 (resized).jpeg

Apron cleaned up really nice, glad I don’t have to do anything with it other than print out some score and instruction cards

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Plastics cleaned up really well. No cracks, flat as a board and barely any scratches.
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And out of all my games these pop bumped caps are by far my favorite!445A982F-52D9-4336-8705-12CC936F3D7E (resized).jpeg

Playfield is coming along.

First this nasty hole needed fixed
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So I drilled with a 1/4 inch bit and put a dowel in place

Spent some time trying to clean up the shooter lane. I tried to get it perfect but it not happening.

Before
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After
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It cleaned up really nice and Novus 2 REALLY shined it up. I haven’t even waxed it.
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Filled all the black back in
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Now I’m trying to color match the magenta
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Corn cob and a nice swirl of this stuff!

I’ve also learned to ultrasonic and evaporust anything going in there first. Everything coming out for this game is looking really nice.

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Lacquered the rails today

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Hardware for the pops turned out nice. I’m going to make new wrappers for the coils. They really needed to soak in the ultrasonic for a while.

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Painting went alright. Trying to match the teal about killed me though.

I needed to paint quite a bit of this one jet. 631AE1A1-3DFF-44BA-9B13-92AAEEB0BFE2 (resized).jpeg9298C2E0-9B78-4A96-9EA5-23BC18F17236 (resized).jpeg

The burgundy turned out greatA76C3B06-9FC1-4612-A8BA-ED58C7E7B5FD (resized).jpegA8B0FB6D-06B1-4857-9D4F-90DFEB9799F3 (resized).jpegDFCC0D8F-9CE4-415A-99B9-DC4FA6234585 (resized).jpeg45A002DF-F513-4A5E-94E4-5F282A7F6C42 (resized).jpeg17FCCCE5-2715-4A5F-B288-EB448C696B08 (resized).jpeg
I’m not trying to make it look absolutely perfect, I just want the major stuff cleaned up. It’s going to look great under a playfield protector. I might make it flawless and clear coat it in the future but I’m not feeling it right now.
I’m good with it, time to move on.83BC2C3B-C201-4BB9-8E79-D67023EBE4A0 (resized).jpeg

Put the light socket cleaner in a drill and went to town on the sockets top side and below.
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Keeping incandescents in this baby. I really miss that warm vintage glow that LEDs just can’t accomplish (yet)AA8D89A4-C51E-4B93-99E2-731D94904B3B (resized).jpeg

Alright it’s time to get the topside reassembled for the most part. I have this little helper that’s been living in the game the past several days. Surprised it’s still alive or that I haven’t accidentally crushed it.

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Cleaned up the metal for the upper arch, didn’t go too over the top just wanted it clean and to shine a bit with out making it look brand new.

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Playfield protector installed and top half back together!

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Forgot to mention I needed to create some coil wrappers for the mechs that I cleaned up. Pinball Rebel didn’t have A-22-550, so I decided to just do it myself. I’ll continue to replace as I go throughout the rest of the game.

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The bonus unit was as gummed up as I’ve ever seen a stepper unit get. Thing couldn’t advance either way because of the filth.57FD660C-9AB5-42B1-AD8A-AC83A767B38F (resized).jpeg0042A36C-ED80-488A-8D22-E2230F47F1F1 (resized).jpeg

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All parts got the ultrasonic. That water is disgusting after 2 runs at 480 seconds.
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After hours in the tumbler and some new paperwork I have a respectable bonus unit

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The slings are back together after tumbling all the metal and cleaning up the coils.
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The flipper coils were a mess. 2 different coils and and both were wrong.
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Got some replacements from PBL and just made them some matching wrappers.
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Got all the hardware tumbled and flippers rebuilt with a PBR kit.
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Games flipping again! (even though nothing is really working like it’s supposed to yet)
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Going to start going through all the underside playfield relays next.

I like the yellow but i was thinking last night I dont like "this" yellow. I might try to use the Perfect Play rubbers from Pinball Life so that the yellow is brighter and glossy.

Thanks guys
I’m going slower with this game than I usually do and posting a bunch of mundane pics of pieces and parts so I appreciate the compliments.
The thread should be picking up soon though. I’m going to go through every piece of this game. Need something to keep me busy during the winter after work. Then if I like the game I’ll do the cab in the spring.

Really enjoying this game, just going through every mech on the underside of the playfield.
The bottom gate was pretty rough.
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The ultrasonic -> Evaporust-> Tumbler recipe that I’m following is staying strong. FA1F54C0-D932-4635-B942-16FE2CFC1E43 (resized).jpeg
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I think I found a hack on the advance relay. The middle switch tab and the out switch tab have a jumper.
Anyone able to confirm that this is not original?

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Thanks guys, I just got the cheap Harbor Freight ultrasonic and so far its working great. What I'm doing is pouring just enough mean green in the tub to cover the bottom and then filling it with hot water up to the max line. Then depending on what I'm cleaning I just adjust the time. For plastic parts I usually just go for about 2-3 minutes so the mean green doesn't eat at the plastic and anything else I usually do the max time, which is like 480 seconds.

Anything that is metal if its not rusty is still soaked in evaporust for about an hour just to clear off any tarnish, but anything that is rusty I leave in until the rust is gone, sometimes a few hours sometimes over night.

Then I'm tumbling for about 4-6 hours with corn cob bedding from the pet store. I usually help it out with a little polishing compound.

Man this chime unit was beat…
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Rebuilt it with a PBR kit, much better!
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After putting it together I realized the chime orientation is reversed on this game compared to the diagram.
Had to rearrange the chimes after I put it back in the game.
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Thanks to dr_nybble for helping me understand the wiring on this relay.
Apparently this jumper was by design.

I screen grabbed the manual and marked it up to give a better visual of what is going on with the advance relay and the special relay

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Took the mech board out and cleaned the inside of cabinet. So much mouse droppings and dust it clogged up the canister filter in my vacuum. 3F08EEE5-60AF-4AE4-839E-7D743C7CAB28 (resized).jpeg
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This poor thing is filthy, I’m going to drench the whole thing in bottle of mean green and hose it off
Several pics for reference

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I decided to bite the bullet and start the surgery with the score motor.
I’m fairly certain someone just sprayed the whole unit down with cooking oil.
Basically I just started unscrewing the stacks and zip tying them to keep everything in order.
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I’m amazed that the game did anything properly at all. Every switch is coated with this sticky residue.
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After I got all the switches removed I rolled the harness back to keep it out of the way. I can’t believe how beautiful the underside of the harness is! All those colors. I really hope I can get some of this back on the top side when I start cleaning it.
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I took the pieces and sprayed them with mean green and left them in the sink for about 15 minutes before I put it all in the ultrasonic.
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I ran it through full cycle 3 times and the water shows how nasty this thing was!
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While I waited for the ultrasonic to do it’s thing I cleaned up the gear box with a lot of naphtha and q-tips. Then added 3-in-1 oil to the gears and axels.
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I found that the schematics is wrong with the diagram of the orientation for these discs, thank god I took so many pics because I was about to lose my mind with this pile of plastic.
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More about that later…
Man that looks so much better! Really happy with how it turned out.
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The Total Play counter is such a cool contraption, although don’t tell the BMV that I tampered with the odometer!
It’s at 99999, once this game is done and I put it in the game room I’ll attach the coil and game 0 will be my test game.

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Blasphemy!!!

So here’s a mind numbing lesson for today:

When I was faced with putting all the cams back on the score motor shaft I noticed that both 5&6 and Impulse & Impulse Forward we’re identical.
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So that was my common ground or goal in the rebuild.
I found that there are 3 part numbers
3A-7153 = Groove flat to the Shaft
3A-7154 = Groove on the point of the shaft
3A-7150 = Impulse (middle tooth in line with the point)
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So when I started rebuilding when I would get to 5&6 I would have both a 3A-7153 and 3A-7154 left but according to the schematics I should have 2 3A-7153s
After looking at all the old pics what I found is in the resting position the first cam should be a 3A-7153!
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But the schematics clearly shows the build starting with a 3A-7154.
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I rebuilt it using opposite what the schematics showed and it’s back together properly AF684F9A-E8CB-47D7-944A-F22EAAA5B6F9 (resized).jpeg
I tried to call Williams about this horseshit of a mistake however no one is answering the phone

Ideally I’d like to take this wire harness off and run it through the dishwasher. Anyone ever do that with EM harnesses?
Meanwhile I’m just going to inch my way through it with Mean Green and a toothbrush.
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Little at a time starting with the stacks of the score motor
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I’m glad that the color is coming back on the wires C869F178-40BD-4A84-9348-FDA3BAC4B3F1 (resized).jpeg
The left side is done the right side is a good side by side comparison 4BED70C8-3A87-42CE-8653-A532EDA78AA2 (resized).jpeg
It’ll take a little longer this way but I’m happy with the end result so far695DD9B8-0C54-4B8A-A52F-3E1B95DE8E3B (resized).jpeg

Those are much better

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My god…
Why am I doing this?
Reference pics for later when I reinstall everything.

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