I'm here

Got mine all working except for the diverter which will be worked on soon.

Chris

Just setup my Police Force over the weekend. Everything plays great, except the ball always want to come back down from the skill shot into the Handcuff Bonus saucer. I believe the ball should eject upwards into the upper part of the playfield, correct? Any tips to fix this issue? Enjoying the dozen or so games I’ve put into it so far. Struggling to hit the center ramp consistently, so it’s a good pin to cut my teeth on as a first pin owner. I like the similarities with Taxi, one of my favorite System 11s.

Ryan

Is there is any mods available for this title?

CPR makes a mirrored backglass to replace the translite.

Chris

Think I answered my own question. Was looking at the manual, I think the ball gate underneath the skill shot plastic isn't working properly (not stopping the ball from going downwards) in order to get the ball into the top right eject to launch into the playfield. Now I know where to start looking.

You seem to be on the right path. The area should look like this:

police force (resized).jpg

Thanks Chris for the visual. With the gate not working, I have to say it sure makes for a challenging game with more frequent drains...lol. Sometimes the ball will miss the handcuff bonus eject completely while coming back down and middle drain. My best score so far is 17 million with the faulty skill shot mechanic (I doubled my 8 million on the "take high score" third ball).

This ended up being an easy fix. The wiring harness on the skill shot lamp board was preventing the gate from closing. First pinball problem wasn’t too bad! I know these System 11s are built pretty solid and when something goes wrong, these aren’t too bad to work on.

Ryan

Anyone have a Scan of the Drug Rat?

Hello everyone, I recently picked up my first machine, a Police Force that had been sitting in someone's basement for 15 years getting almost no play. It's such a cool game and the whole family loves it. There are a few issues that I'm trying to work through but am getting a bit stuck.

The 3a, 4a, 6a, 7a, 18, 19 fail the coil test. The f4 fuse was blown and I replaced it which brought both target banks up but it blew again and the targets remained down after a game. I've checked every other fuse on the boards and they all seem fine.

I tested each solenoid with a multimeter while the game was off and they all seemed fine except the one in the top left of the backbox which controls the knocker.

I'm not sure what the next step should be. I don't want to make things worse. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'm also having the diverter issue but that sounds like it's more mechanical so I'll leave that for later.

Cut and tape one wire from this coil. Replace the fuse and retest the game.

I cut and taped the coil in the backbox, replaced the f4 fuse, and then played a game.

The drop targets in both banks stayed down, neither sling fired, and the diverter stayed closed. I will say it felt like the game was sharper than before though. The lights seemed brighter and faster, the car moved up and down quicker, it just appeared rejuvenated for lack of a better description.

I then ran through the coil test again and had the same failures, although I heard something try to fire when I tested the right sling.

Thank your for your help Grumpy.

Do the coil test again with a new fuse, advance thru each coil one at a time letting it repeat while watching the fuse. Do you see the fuse glowing on a certain coil, or does it burn right away.

Ran the test with a new fuse and the f4 popped with a bright flash when I got to the 3a diverter coil.

I highlighted #3 solenoid from the PF manual. It shows that Q-32 drives solenoid #3. Test Q-32 emitter lead to the collector lead for a short.

pf (resized).PNG

pp (resized).PNG

pasted_image (resized).png

I pulled the cpu board from the backbox, desoldered the q32 transistor and tested it with my multimeter set to 20k ohms. Nothing happened.

I didn't want you to pull the board out until all the troubleshooting was complete. You can test the parts while they are still on the circuit board. Leave the Q-32 out and reinstall the cpu board for further testing.

Have you worked on the diverter? This is the same issue i am having with my Police Force. The diverter coil was toast. It was totally gummed up and would not move. Not sure if the gumming up of the assemble caused the coil issue, but man it was bad. I got everything cleaned up and replaced and now the fuse doesn't blow, but it doesnt work either. I am thinking the pre driver is bad as well, but my testing with meter hasn't gone well.

Hope you can get yours resolved soon!

Chris

I watched a good youtube video on the diverter issue yesterday and it's not as intimidating now. At least the playfield removal and getting the diverter cleaned up part. I have literally zero experience with any of this so I'm trying to just go one step at a time. I have been practicing soldering/desoldering on coins and was maybe a bit too eager to work on the boards. Thanks again for all your help Grumpy, I'll get the cpu board back in this morning after I get the kids to school.

If the coil for the diverter is firing but its just not sticking in the correct spot then this thread would likely solve your issue:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/police-force-diverter-diagnosis

I reinstalled the cpu board with the Q-32 out.

I pulled out the playfield and took apart the diverter assembly and cleaned the piston and cam. It is sliding smoothly now. The housing was missing a screw and was bent out of position. The coil tested fine.

To test TTL logic circuits you need a logic probe. This the circuit you need to test. When you place the game in solenoid test, you can pause the test on a certain solenoid by locking the up/down button in the down position. When you stop on solenoid 3A it will keep trying to fire the coil. If you test U-20 pin 8 with the logic probe there should be a low with high pulses. If that is good then test base lead of Q-32 and you should have the same thing as before. Let me know what you get.

polfor (resized).PNG

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pasted_image (resized).png

My logic probe arrived this afternoon. However, we are leaving in the morning for spring break and won't be back for 10 days so I'm going to put it aside for now. I'll read pinrepair and pinwiki a few times on the beach to make sure I'm running these tests and understanding everything correctly. Thanks again for your time Grumpy.

Just fixed up a battery leak on a neighbors Police Force, fun game, love the cop car. His left and right plastics are trashed to the entrance to the center ramp, Todd Tuckey showed some metal protectors there, I assume not, but are these available?

Cliffy makes these. http://www.passionforpinball.com/pforce.htm

Chris

Thanks Chris, that's a big help!

I tested u20 pin 8 with my logic probe while firing the 3a diverter solenoid repeatedly during coil test and there was a low with high pulses. I then tested base lead of Q-32 and received a low with high pulse reading as well.

I'm going to pull the playfield again and retest the diverter coil. It appears the previous owner replaced that solenoid but I don't think installed it correctly because the diverter assembly housing doesn't fit over that coil. The housing itself is only screwed in on one side with the side closest to the solenoid lugs bent out and unscrewed.

I got the playfield back out and removed the assembly. The wires look frayed on the switch as well as the solenoid so I will resolder both. I will also remove the solenoid and flip it around so the lugs are facing the inside of the assembly as shown in the manual. The housing should fit on top of the assembly properly after this adjustment.

IMG_20220322_120030 (resized).jpg

I finally got my first machine, a Police Force, from a relative. It was not working and I quickly determined it was the battery holder and swapped it out. Now on to the harder things, fixing the diverter and car. I'm new to soldering but I'm excited to get into it and do as much repair as I can before calling in a pro.

Does anyone have opinions on which vendor's LED light package is the best? There are a few lights out already so I might as well do the conversion now.

Just use COMET brand LED’s. I did this on mine and I think everyone here on pinside would agree they are the best LED bulbs out there.

Looks like they don't have a kit for PF. I don't think I'm in a position to spec out the whole collection of individual lights. But thank you!

Are you looking to color match stuff? In my opinion, kits are subjective. In my police force I used Comet cool white LED's all over. Non-ghosting in the inserts, and regular for the GI.

Chris

Yes, no doubt kits are subjective, but I defer to people who have spent a lot of time thinking about it and put kits together.

So you just use all white lights and let the game provide the color? Intriguing.

This ended up being the cause of the problems my machine was having. I reinstalled the solenoid so it was facing the right direction, installed a new rollover switch, and a new cam, and soldered a new transistor back into q32 on the cpu board. The previous owner had also added a washer under the cam. I removed that washer, tightened everything up and manually tested the assembly with the playfield removed. I put the playfield back in, fired it up, and everything worked perfectly. No f4 fuse blowing, slings kicking hard, drop targets resetting, diverter opening and closing for multiball. Except the display was now jacked up. A different thread suggested flipping the ribbon cable that connects the display to the cpu around. This solved my display issue.

My playfield has a worn spot at the top of the right inlane where the ball is dropped from the middle ramp. Is there a way to protect this from further damage? I was thinking maybe a piece of removable mylar but I don't want to make it worse.

that's what I do usually. I used a kit on my Dr Dude and didn't like a lot of the choices that were made. I have yet to change it, but I prefer the white lights typically.

EDIT: I just realized I uploaded the wrong video, but this is all cool white LED's in my High Speed

Chris

Here's Police Force with Comet Cool White LED's

That looks awesome. How many did you buy?

A while back i bought like 500 to do all my games. I took them from that lot.

Chris

Has anyone else had an issue with the ball coming back down the right ramp with the diverter closed?

It looks like a previous owner installed a plunger assembly bracket that doesn't fit correctly and is allowing the diverter to move a little when hit with a fast shot and causing bounce backs down the ramp. Is there a way to get ahold of these hardware pieces? Marco and ebay don't have anything.

For a little different take, here's my Police Force with mostly Comet Sunlight whites, with a few pops of color in accent places (In the back box I put blues in the police car lights, a green in the scope, and reds behind the Jackpot. Also matched the colors for the spinner score selector.)

Does anyone have a diverter assembly to sell? I think the previous owner executed a piledriver on my playfield at some point and jacked it up.

Question regarding cabinet art.

My game does NOT have art on the front panel. It only says POLICE FORCE, like this:

front art mine (resized).png

Most others I have seen have additional art, like this:

front art (resized).jpg

But now I am curious. I saw another Police Force at the Allentown show that was like mine (no additional art). Did they make different versions? It made me curious seeing another like I have. Mine looks factory and shows no sign opf being repainted.

Anyone know why this is?

Thanks!
Chris

I recall mine being like yours. Without the extra art.

Here is what mine has.

IMG_20220509_132126 (resized).jpg

Got my Police Force bumper sticker orderd. Now I just need to dig out the super project and make it work.

vgsa22 (resized).jpeg

I think I'm going to remove my center ramp to clean and wax my playfield. I've never done it before. Is there anything I can really screw up while doing this?

It's pretty straight forward. Don't lose the tiny little nylon washers on each side if the ramp switch wireforms. Ask me how I know

LOL

Chris