Greetings Everyone,

I recently purchased my first pinball machine a 1990 Bally Dr. Dude and was installing some new 5SMD Insane Bright New pop bumper bulbs to replace the old original ones. When I turned the game back on, 2 of the 3 pop bumpers were no longer light. They still function correctly in gameplay but just 2 of them are not lit. I've tried to wiggle the new bulbs in place and messed with the pins in the pop bumpers to get a better connection but I still can't get them to light. I have a Multimeter a checked the continuity of the area where the wires go from the light socket of the pop bumper to below the playfield and on the 1 working pop bumper I get a .3-.4 from the "OL" setting on the Multimeter, but on the two that are not working when I test continuity on those same points I get no Ohm reading. I'm not sure if I need to follow these wires back to the main board to find the issue and if they connect to a pin connector or a fuse/transistor that may be bad. That being said I'm not sure where to turn next or what to replace if I'm not getting a reading on those two or why they just stopped working randomly. Thanks for any comments or tips on how to fix this I hope to hear from you all soon. Thank you!

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Pop_Bumper_03 (resized).jpg
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Ugh I know. The old lights were so dim and I love bright lighting. Really new to all of this pinball modding and the game is a gift so I'm trying to get it in tip top shape before I gift it to a special person. Any Idea how I can fix this issue?

Basically 2 of the 3 Pump Bumpers do not light after putting new bulbs in. I've tried bending the tabs inside the pop bumper for a better connection but no luck. The lights are still good cause I tested them in the 1 working pop bumper and they still light. There is not continuity below the playfield where the 2 non working lit pop bumpers are, but the working pop bumper has a reading of .3-.4 from the "OL" setting on the Multimeter. I circled in red on the picture I posted where im testing. Not sure how to get these two pop bumpers to lite again.

Thank you for the reply. I tested the bulbs in the working Pop pumper and they still light. So if I dont have continuity on the lug of the lamp sockets on the non working ones, it must mean that when I follow the wire to the connector on the driver board it should be blown and I just need to put in new connector pins I take it.

I think when I get to the driver board I will need to replace the non working pop bumer light connector pins. It is similar to what happend to my GI connector pins they got burnt when trying to hook up LED strips will Alli clips to a Gi light and burnt that connector pin which eneded up looking like this.

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I have tried that, but did not raise the edge of the contacts to high outward, ill try that again. Not sure if thats the issue though because I get no Reading from the bottom two pop bumpers at the two points I have circled, but the one does does work gets a reading of .3-.4 from the "OL" setting on the Multimeter. Any ideas? Mabey these new lights installed were too strong and burnt the connector pins on the driver board.

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I tried putting the old bulbs back in the non working sockets and no luck. The new bulbs I installed worked for 1 game then 2 of the 3 are no longer working. One of the pop bumpers with the new bulbs still lights with old or new bulbs.

Really appreciate the tips. So, I swapped the Bumper lights out with the machine off. I dont remember doing anything between when I installed them and when they went out besides turn the game on and off a few times. The connector picture above is for the bumper lights. I've read that the connector white plastic housing should still be okay as long as I strip and replace the connector pins. Here is a pic of the GI connector plastic house I was going to re-use and just strip back the wires that got burnt connector pins. The board is a little black, but I've been told all should be okay and I can clean up the black areas with an eraser. If I make my way to the driver board and the pop bumper housing is a little black, would it just be okay to strip the blown wires and replace new connector pins?

I think its the right spot, wish I had a better picture on hand. In the picture the two wires coming down from the pop bumper connect to where I tested.

The burnt connector pin I showed a pic of is an example of my burnt GI pin I need to fix, it was just an example of what I think my pop bumper plastic housing may look like if I popped it out. Or does the pop bumper lights wires not go to a plastic housing?

Thanks for the kind words, I know your trying to help and I really appreciate it. I get a chance to work on the game again Tuesday to further investigate and will supply better pictures and start a fresh thread instead of kinda going all over the place and focus on 1 issue at a time. Thanks again