I've had my first pin for less than a week and it's already broken- one of the flippers is sticking. It's a mechanical issue, so I'm trying to just take it apart and see if I can tell what needs to be replaced. Unfortunately, I'm not exactly what they call "handy." The problem I'm having is, how do you remove the nut in the picture? I can't get a ratchet under the screw, and since the mechanism it's on moves up and down I can't get it with my adjustable wrench either.

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Thanks guys, I guess a fourth trip to the hardware store this weekend is in order.

Will one of the regular L-shaped Allen wrenches work do you think, or do I need to get that gives you better leverage? I did try a regular Allen wrench with my adjustable wrench on the bottom and it seemed like it would be pretty tough to loosen, even with a better wrench on the bottom.

It's a DH by the way.

Yes. I can also manually move it backwards past the resting point easily, which I can't with the flipper that doesn't stick.

I think this is right, specifically that the clamp that holds the flipper post (picture below) got loose. I realized that I didn't have to get the nut that I originally posted about off necessarily (it's on too tight to get it with two wrenches anyway), instead loosening the clamp that holds the flipper post in was enough to get at the bushing and take the flipper out. I did that, washed out the bushing (which was filthy buy not damaged), put the bushing and flipper back in, and tightened the clamp. Then I realized that I needed to be more careful about lining up the flipper first, so I loosened the clamp again, took the flipper out, and went to bed.

When I went back to it, I found that I cannot get the flipper post through one of the holes in the clamp. It goes through the first hole, but the second is too small. I guess the clamp must have gotten too tight when I tightened it last night... although it seems weird that I was able to get the flipper out but now I can't get it in. I've been trying to pry the clamp open enough to get the post in with a screwdriver (that's what the visible wear is from), but it's not working.

I'm definitely not at the point where I can pull off a flipper rebuild at this point- I'd have to pay someone to do it, so I'd like to avoid that unless there are no other options. Any other advice?

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Hmmm... I've looked at a few videos and they've all involved soldering and removing the whole metal plate that the flipper mechanism is attached to, but is that actually not really necessary? I just went down and checked, and I can definitely take everything else apart if I don't have to do either of those things.

Excellent, thank you so much! I was getting pretty discouraged there but now I think I can pull this off!

Thanks, it's good to know that I'm not completely on the wrong track with that. I'm definitely going to rebuild all three of the flippers, but I'm having some guests in town before I'll be able to do that and would love to get the machine functional in the meantime. I think the only thing standing in my way is being able to pry open that stupid clamp. I got a little ways with it by taking it off the machine, first hammering a putty knife into the end of it and then a screwdriver, but I haven't been able to widen it enough to get the flipper shaft in. Also sliced my thumb a bit in the process, which feels like a badge of honor . It seems like a vise would help, but I don't have one, just a bunch of assorted tools lying around. No problem to pick up something small though at Home Depot. Anybody got any Robinson Crusoe-type ideas for prying that clamp open?

Well, I got the clamp open enough to get the flipper in, put everything back together, powered it up, and... IT WORKS!!! The flipper is flipping normally, although I had to get back to work before I could test it out any more than that. Even if it doesn't hold, it's a great feeling to have gotten this far with it and I've learned a ton. Thanks so much to everyone who gave advice and encouragement, you guys are the best!

Well that flipper is holding up but now I’m having a weird problem with the gun on my DH. When I start it up, it usually plays fine for a few games, but then the gun won’t stop rotating back and forth and the game won’t use it anymore. The weird part is, other aspects of the game change too after the malfunction- it auto plunges, the ball save gets very generous, and if you start any of the hurry ups the timer doesn’t count down. Disabling the gun in the settings makes the other issues stop. After the malfunction there’s a credit dot and the test message says “gun broken.” Before the malfunction there’s no credit dot. Any ideas?

Thanks- didn't get to it before I left for vacation last week, but I'm back and ready to tackle this one. Not trying to be a pain at all and am happy to do my own research so that I'm not wasting anyone else's time, but since the gun is an unusual part I'm still not sure what I'd even try to search for here. The test message says to check switches 44 (gun chamber), 45 (gun popper), 76 (gun position), and 77 (gun lockup). When I run a test on each individual switch, 45 is closed and displays an (A), while the other three are open. I'm not sure what any of that means. There is a gun test, but that looks like it's just testing whether the gun will move and rotate properly, which it does.

In happier news, I rebuilt one of the flippers without any problems yesterday... well, except for losing a couple of screws in the cabinet, taking something apart that didn't need to be taken apart and then putting it back together wrong at first, etc. But, at the end of the day the flipper is rebuilt and works great, and I'm planning to knock out the other two tomorrow. The guy who sold me the machine actually saw this thread and Paypal'd me the cash for the flipper rebuild kit because he felt bad, which I thought was a pretty cool of him to do.

One more issue- after playing a DH on location, I think mine is too fast and I want to lower the back legs. I tried having someone hold the machine up while I used a 1/2" wrench/ratchet to tighten the bolt that connects the leg to the leveler. It torqued the leg a worrying amount, then slipped off. A smaller 7/16" won't fit. I read that the standard leg leveler nuts are supposed to be 9/16", so if the smaller 1/2" is slipping off that makes me wonder if the bolts are stripped- they look it a little. Any help would be appreciated.

Indeed! I was very frustrated and starting to think I'd picked the wrong hobby and should just sell my machine when I started this thread, but people have been so helpful and encouraging that I'm convinced to stay in it for the long haul. I learn so much every day here.

Thanks- I didn't realize I was supposed to loosening the nut instead of tightening it. But, I'm not having any luck loosening it either. What I'm doing is, using my back to lift the leg slightly off the ground and then trying to loosen it using a ratchet on the end of a wrench. The 1/2" wrench/ratchet slips off, and 7/16" is too small. Can't get it with pliers, an adjustable wrench, or a nut driver either. Does that mean the nut is stripped? If so, I've seen advice to try WD-40, filing down either end so you can grab it with an adjustable wrench, using a blowtorch(!)... or, maybe I need a socket wrench?

Here's a pic of what mine looks like- there's nothing on the bottom to grab onto, only a round washer right underneath the bottom of the leg:

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In case you hadn't noticed, I'm confused about all kinds of things!

That was the answer though, thanks! Gotta laugh at myself here- this one had me stumped for days, and I spent hours trying to fix it by attacking that nut with pliers, watching YouTube videos about getting stripped nuts off with blowtorches, etc... when all along, the solution took literally three seconds!

Hey it's me again! I have a few new questions, any guidance is much appreciated:

1. After rebuilding the flippers (except the EOS switches) a month or so ago, I noticed that the upper right flipper was losing a little bit of power. I checked it and the whole thing was loose, as in I could jiggle the flipper up and down on the playfield way more than should be the case. An issue I'd had when replacing it was that one on the screws that holds the bushing in broke off, so that there are only two screws holding the bushing down. When I checked under the playfield, both of those screws were very loose, and the metal post attached to the flipper had also slid up in the clamp. I tightened everything and now it works fine. I'm wondering though, could that broken screw be what was causing the problem? If so, any ideas about how to get it out?

2. I did my flipper rebuild keeping everything on the underside of the playfield (meaning I didn't take the big metal plates off). Some of the screws that went into the underside of the playfield had nuts on them, but I'm not able to replace those because I can't reach them without taking those big metal plates off. Is that something I should worry about?

3. I did a lot more research on the gun malfunction (my machine is a DH), and it's common to have to replace the optos in the gun chamber, which would seem to make sense given my issues. I started by taking the gun apart and cleaning the optos, but they weren't particularly dirty and doing that didn't fix the problem. When I run a single switch test on the gun chamber switch, it says the switch is open, and when I put my finger in between the optos it doesn't change. Does that indicate the optos are very likely to be the problem? I ask because they'll need to soldered, which would mean a significant investment of time and money in buying soldering equipment and learning how to use it. I'm fine with that if that's what I need to do (and I've seen the excellent tutorial on soldering here), but I really don't want to go through all that only to find that wasn't actually the problem. What do you guys think?