Greetings fellow PoTC enthusiasts. My PotC is having a small issue with the ship sticking when going down.

It works fine if you raise the playfield up or have the playfield up and run the tests. Will run up and down over and over.

Sails retract fine every time and are not the binding point, and neither are the wires. Already checked those.

So I talked to Stern and they suggested the wear-track was worn. On that recommendation, I replaced that, including a new pin and washer. It runs smoother now, but still sticks when the playfield is in the down (playing) position. I gave it a good look and realized that there is some "play" or "slop" in the ship and when the pf is down the ship tilts slightly forward and the front of the ship actually hits (and binds against) the actuator level coming from the gearbox. The play appears to be coming from the pivot point on the front of the ship, the opposite end from where the wear track is. The actual movement of the ship 'tilt' forward is approx. 1/8" or so but it's just enough to make it stick on the actuator arm pin as the ship tries to slide by it.

So, should be no big deal, right? Just replace the collar, right?

Look at the blue pages of the PoTC manual and you see the pirate ship on pages 79-82. That pivot point has a brass/copper collar that fits through the ship frame, over the actuator arm pin and then has a 254-5048-00 25/64 ID X 1/2 OD X .35 LG spacer that fits over it, and it is held on by 270-5002-00 1/4" retaining ring. However that collar has no part number. I even looked at the ship frame assembly on Marco, it is 515-7573-000, that collar appears to be already mounted in the ship frame. I was able to slide it right out of the frame, so either it's not permanently in there or mine has come loose.

I think the I.D. of that collar has just worn enough to allow the ship to "flop" forward and stick. I'd order one since I'm guessing it's a $3.00 part, but can't find the p/n for it.

The picture of the frame is attached from Marco's site. You'll see the "rear" larger hole at the bottom. That is where the collar goes through, and has the collar. Is that piece available separately? It's black in the picture.

Can anyone chime in with the part number and where to source one? I sorted Marco's parts for PoTC several ways and browsed through, but don't see it.

Unless someone has another solution to tighten up the ship to remove that 'tilt' when the pf is in the normal position. BTW, the wear track pin is secured with a locknut and that's tight, as are the 4 screws that hold the wear track to the ship frame.

I'm guessing I just need to order a new frame, but want to confirm so, if anyone else has had the same issue.

the link to the part is http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/515-7573-00 if you want to look at the 4 views of it to get an idea of what i'm talking about.

Thanks

detail.jpg

It turns out you can't buy just the collar. It's integral to the part above (the ship frame).

However, what turned out to be my problem was the replacement pirate ship I ordered. It's made of that soft pliable plastic and it actually bowed outwards on the back, away from the ship frame, *just enough* to catch the screw that holds the rotating lever to the gearbox pin.

So, I heated up the pirate ship using a hair dryer on low to make the plastic soft. I then 'flattened' it with my hands and while holding it flat, went outside in the freezing Michigan winter for about 2 minutes to let it harden. As soon as I did that, it completely clears the screw. I did have a chance to get my hands into a reasonably "new" PotC and it has the same amount of "play" as mine does, although the bushing seemed to be a bit more firm in the frame then mine was