there are definitely at least 3 types out there, between position of the switches, top part on how the target are kept in lpace, i have seen few variations.

Hey all, I have an idea. Ive got a playfield with star rollovers that have broken tabs. There are ways to fix these, but I bet one of you smart guys/girls with 3D print skills could design a new sleeve that goes under the red part of the rollover, and a new star. This would be a repair part for all those broken tab rollovers. Your thoughts?

There is the early style that have the switches on the bottom. Think Wild Fyre.

There is the "middle" style that has the switches mounted to a separate plate that screws onto the backside of the cage assembly. The switch plate has to be screwed to the cage backing plate with 2 screws from inside the cage.
(Big Game, Seawitch )

And there is a "3rd" style where the switch plate has several "fingers" that slide into holes in the cage backing plate. This style of switch plate has 2 screws that attach the switch plate from the outside of the cage assembly. I have this style on Nine Ball and Dragonfist. I would have to check Catacomb to see what it has.

I like the switches on the bottom. Some don't. It is easy to move the switches from the back to the bottom.

All 3 styles can be used on any classic Stern, AFAIK. However, the nine Ball style of switch plate will not fit on a Big Game assembly as the "finger" style is the the only style that has the holes that will accept the fingered switch plate.

And I will probably need to get pics of these so you will know what I am talking about .

I have repaired a broken rollover tab. It can be done, but it is challenge.

I can buy a star rollover assembly that includes the rollover insert and the star for $2.25. And then get the heat gun, apply a little heat and knock the old rollover out and knock a new rollover in. Done.

The problem is if the rollover is buried under several coats of clear. Someone posted on pinside 2-3 years ago, with pictures, of using the correct size hole saw and cutting the old rollover out. I have some standard inserts under clear that I need to remove and the hole saw trick is the only way I know to cut one from the clear. I am terrified of doing this as there are no mulligans with this hole saw action.

You could fill in the rollover completely and install an MRS switch from Sonic

I've done the repair with small pieces of shrink tubing.

What is that? Never heard of it.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/star-roll-overs-from-mampm-creationsawesome#post-6522584

MRS = “magnetic reed switch”, they’re pricey but pretty amazing.

Anyone have a set of ball guides by the flippers for a memory lane? The one I’m tearing down right now had some gnarly ones bent already as replacements. Not even close. This is the two piece style one short straight one along inlane switch and then the curved one to the flipper. Need both sides. Anyone have a parts playfield lying around? All my spares are of the full length style.

So your inlane guide is in 2 parts? I’m wondering if that was a previous hack. The pictures I’ve found on here and ipdb only show it as a single piece unless I’m misunderstanding what you are describing.

If you want to remake it, you might need to go the route of custom bending your own replacements. Otherwise I would go back to using the full length guides and fill in the extra holes.

Thread on making guides: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tutorial-for-marco-s-wire-bending-jig
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I have seen one other example with inlane guides in 2 pieces on this title, might have been an early change.

I’ve bent piano wire for a few others before. Figured I’d see if any were out there before I pulled my jig out again.

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Hello!
Im relatively new here so if I post in the wrong place - please let me know.
I have a Stern Orbitor 1 that's in pretty good shape and plays nicely but someone drilled out the lock for the backbox and removed the entire bar assembly that connects to the lock itself. I would like to replace the bar and noticed that you are parting out your Flight 2000. Would you sell the bar that connects to the lock? Thanks, Mike

You are in the right place and the part you seek is now be reproduced.

https://mantispinball.com/product/stern-backglass-locking-strap/

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Mantis Pinball is selling replacement Stern backglass lockbars now. There is a couple different options. Look it their “Stern” section. It says 1999 - present but there is some classic Stern items in there also.

Unless you are going to a super restoration, is there any reason you could not just make a pair of single piece guides?

Not are you only having to try and play with bend allowances and spring back, you have to add that extra bend that complicates your bend allowance calculations.

Make one and be done. And just leave to 2 holes empty. By using just one piece, you will have some flexibility to tweak the guide into the holes.

Interesting that they would have changed it up, but hey the late 70s were wild times from what I've heard. The ones in the picture look identical to Meteor, so you would think they would pull from the same parts bin if they had the option.

It almost looks like they are 2 different gauge wires though. Maybe it's a trick of the light.

I would think that would be the easier solution. The first post made it sound like he already has the single piece handy.

*Off Topic Whridlsoncestood - Is the Sanctum a place that anyone can drop by? I'm in CT from Christmas to New Years and might have some free time.

That is a possibility. However, a couple of my Sterns will not allow lane guides to interchange.

Think about it like you are trying to reduce manufacturing costs. By transitioning from two pieces and the need to drill four holes to one piece that only needs two holes drilled.

Instead of having to cut two pieces and make four bends, now it is one cut for one piece. And just two bends. And with this style, the factory installer only has to reach for one piece and hammer in just two ends. Plus, the one piece guide will flex and allow for the two drilled holes to be not as exacting.

Also, now only one part needs to be inventoried and put on the shelf.

Stern build them fast, sloppy, and cheap.

Witness the old General Motors. I read that at one time, GM had approximately 120 steering column configurations to deal with. That would have been across all product lines: Chevy, Pontiac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac.

There was the standard plain Jane steering column with a turn signal lever. And then tilt columns came along. Then the telescoping columns came along. And for one car model, the column had to be 57" long, while another had to be 60" long.

1) I'll take a 57" standard

2) I'll take a 57" with tilt option

3)I'll take a 57" with telescoping

4) I'll take 57" with tilt and telescoping

5) I'll take a 60" standard

6) with tilt

7) with telescoping

8 ) with tilt and telescoping

Add one more option called cruise control and you have morphed into 16 steering columns to inventory.

I'll give you one more. In the U.S. if you ordered your car with out air conditioning( yes, that used to happen when AC was a $600.00 option) your car arrived with a dash that had no provisions for air conditioning vents. However, if you ordered AC, your dash was equipped with air conditioning vents. So, this meant building and inventorying two different dashes---and the risk the line worker could install the wrong dash which would an expensive mistake to correct on the assembly line.

Enter Japan and Honda. You bought a Honda with air. I bought one with out air. But our dashboards were the same. The Japanese figured out it was cheaper to make and inventory just one dash and give the vents away on the non-air conditioned cars.

It is the same was with wiring harnesses. You ordered a gee-whiz stereo with yours. I'm a cheap bastard and got one with no radio. But there is only one wire harness to part number and inventory.

That is all that is going on with this Memory Lane. Stern found a cheaper way to produce lane guides. Stern is still around building point. Gottlieb and Bally got priced out.

That's what I was getting at. It doesn't make sense to make unique parts when you can use common components on many machines and benefit from economies of scale and also save time and costs retooling the line.

Yeah we are open every Monday from 7-midnight. 50+ games on freeplay. 20$ to get in. Dec 20th is our Christmas party bash. Godzilla launch party and 3 strike tournament too.

ebay.com link: Stern Memory Lane 78 Pinball Machine Playfield Lot of Metal Ball Guides Rails

Here is a pic:

It fits almost perfectly. The only issue is, you need to drill new holes into the receiver to line up where the coin door bolts are coming through. See pink squares in attached pic.

Now, I just realized I do have the receiver portion, just not the handle. So, now the decision is to find a handle, or go with the new receiver.

This is pinball life part# 500-6881-00.

-Pat

New Stern Lockdown in Hot Hand (resized).jpg

Here's a quick demo of what's happening. Apologies for the camera work. I didn't really think ahead about holding the phone and touching two places at once.

Did you know?

Galaxy (1980) was programmed by Rob Quinn.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/pinball/comments/rh9ffj/galaxy_2021_a_rewrite_of_stern_galaxy_1980/hos587q/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

(This info isn't on ipdb, and I just added it to the pinside design credits. I'm posting this here so there's some source for the new design credit on pinside.)

Do not drill those holes until you have assured that you are not going to interfere with the glass sliding off and on.

Joe Shadetree here. Get some jumper leads with alligator clips. Harbor Freight carries them; There are 3 HFs in Austin.

Try this: De-solder the wires from both switch blades from the errant switch. Then desolder the switch wires from another set of switch blades. Jumper across and see if the problem moves with the wires. Or maybe it is just something wrong with that spinner switch.

I don't know if you remember, but I has having a hell of time when I fired my Star Gazer up. I was getting all kinds of strange action with one of my drop target assemblies. Swapping the switch plate out with one with 3 different switches made my probs go away. Something with one of the drop switches was hassling me.

If your problem follows the wires then you have a wiring problem. If it stays with the switch then you know what you have to do.

Red Ketchup in in Canada had a switch problem causing him to pull his hair.

4 wires. 2 jumper leads. It is worth a try.

Oohh good point. I was racking my brain in trying to figure out if this is enough to "officially" say it fits. I'll do that next.

-Pat

You will have to do that with the glass on, I think. Looks like you will be needing some c-clamps.

Sorry for the long wait, I don't have a lot of "pin time" recently - hopefully with some holiday time-off I can get into this and fixed.

Yes, I did correct the pop bumper, I fiddled with the plastic "spoon" to get more response out of it. A relatively simple problem that'll just take some tweaking.

I have followed your instruction so far, and it makes 100% sense to me. So please add your next steps - I really appreciate your effort to teach me this, and I am learning in the process!! Always a plus.

-Nate

OK. I'll try to keep it simple.

Get your footstool and flashlight, open your coin door and start looking around. Touch and feel each wire. Pay attention to how the wires are daisy chained.

Scan 1 (resized).jpeg

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look at the pink line I drew. A4-J3-2 ( MPU, connector J-3, pin 2 ) shows a R-Y red/yellow wire as the common wire for: slam tilt, tilt bob ( on the tilt board--not the coin door), credit button, and Chutes #1 #2 and #3.
------------------------------------------------------------------
( this is the lower part of the coin door)

Chute #1 one is the coin slot on your left. When you open the coin door, Chute #1 is on your right.

Chute # 1 has the R-Y wire on one side and a blue BLU wire on its other side.

Chute #2 is R-Y and BRN-W

Chute #3 is R-Y and Red-White R-W

Credit button is R-Y and Blu-W

Tilt bob is R-Y and Blu-Orange Blu-O

Slam tilt on coin door is R-Y and Y
------------------------------------------------------

( this is the upper part of the coin door) .

You see the box labeled FRONT DOOR LIGHTS

These are the lights to light up your "QUARTERS" lights. There are only 2 wires daisy chained to the light sockets. Yellow-Blue. Y-B. and Green-Red G-R. However, these wires feed from
----------------------------------------------------

The lock out coil solenoid and the knocker coil solenoid share a common green wire G that feeds from A2-J2-2 ( Rectifier board, connector J-2, pin 2)
These two items complete their circuit at A3-J2-pin 5 and A3-J2-pin 8 ( SDU-connectorJ2- pin 5 and SDU-J2-pin

Once you have this locked in mentally, come back and we can talk about the flippers and the memory test and memory clear buttons.

cottonm4

Great, I will sit down and look at this closely tomorrow and let you know.

Thanks again!

-Nate

Oh yes, when you have this locked in I need to tell you what I ran into with pop bumper spoons.

Finally able to sit down and examine my coin door. It is definitely "hacked" and I hope I can get it wired back correctly.

I do have a two-button audit switch, the one closest to the coin door is a "clear" switch, I assume for high-scores.

Cottonm4: I put comments onto each photo, following your latest post of wiring and where they feed to and from.

My coin door lockout mechanism is gone, but I am guessing that as long as the correct wires are attached with the diode in place, the circuit should still be working correctly. Is that a correct assumption?

I have also disabled my knocker and have never plugged it in, from my "learning in progress" this will seem to interrupt a circuit. So I want to ask, is this the possible "interruption" that is making my "3" targets on Meteor react wrong?

There is some type of over-heating danger there at the knocker, how big of a concern is that if a fuse isn't installed at that location?

The last photo is a shot of all coin door wires going into the plug, which leads to the board in the backbox.

I am thinking I need to disassemble the wiring at the door and re-solder everything. BUT I want to make sure I understand why someone wired the door like they did. Was this simply because they didn't want the middle coin slot to be active??

I also have a question about the three tabs beneath each coin slot, since there are two wired attached to the coin slot, which of the three tabs are used?

Thanks,

Nate

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No that's solenoid not switches no direct connection between them.

Did I miss the part where you did the really simple test of going into switch test and disconnected the door to test the three drop switch?

Yes you need to fix your coin door as well but at least if you isolated it you would know it's something on the door.

Thanks for the input about the knocker - my switch test is not working.

How would I disconnect the door and then test the three drop switch? Thanks.

It's possible that the switch is bad, but I have other issues. The closest "3" target doesn't register, the second and third targets, once hit (either one) scores as though all three targets were down on the rocket ladder and then reset.

- Nate

Go into switch test using the coin door button. Have the ball out and all the targets up.

Disconnect the coin door connector while in switch test. You can't hurt the game by doing this with it on.

You should get a flashing 0 or a zero in the match display.

Then drop the drop switches you are having trouble with and see if they register properly (refer to manual for switch #'s)

The lowest numbered switch is the only one that will show even with multiplies down.

If you have everything up and you get the zero, plug the coin door back in, see what numbers come up.

Pic #1 is correct. The lockout and knocker are wired in parallel. You can disable one or both and can still play.

Pic #2 is correct.

Pic #3 is not correct. Y-R also feeds the memory clear switch.
===============================================

Pic #4 Chute #1. Should have 2 R-Y wires soldered to a tab. One of those R-Y terminates the circuit and the other R-Y wire daisy chains to Chute #2.

You need your digital multi meter. The blue wire feeds from A4-J3-9. That is MPU connector J3 on lower right hand side of MPU. Pin #9 should have a Blu wire connected. Check continuity from the capped blue wire to A4-J3-9.

You have one R-W wire and another wire not R-Y on the Chute #1, as well as the B-W wire. This s where it get fun. You need to figure out where this B-W wire and the not R-Y wire are coming from. Someone else may have an easy way to figure out where these wires are coming from, but there are times when all I know what you do is start cutting wire ties so I can physically touch, few, and chase the wire.

And someone has wire nutted the 2 reds and a blue together. You are going to have to physically chase this stuff and see where each wire goes: Which connector, which board and which pin. If you have an idea where they come from or go to then your multi meter might be able to save you some work.

You can also start checking at the coin door connector since it is sitting at your right hand.

This is the coin door connector on why Seawitch. I pulled the tie wraps for reasons I cannot remember. But it works.

IMG_8805 (resized).JPG

Let's get your chute situation cleaned up before proceeding. Here is what I suggest. The coin door can be removed by removing the 3 nuts and carriage bolts that attach it to the cab. I would put the coin door on a bench so I can check it out in a relaxed position. There are several solder joints on one chute tab that are plain ugly.

I would put my fingers on the R-Y wire at the coin door connector and trace it to the 3 chute switches, the credit button, and the slam tilt switch. And then clip new ends, twist the daisy chain together and then re-solder until you have the R-Y wire going correctly to each switch. Once that is out of the way, then go after that capped blue wire on Chute #1; You should be able to trace it from the coin door connector and find it somewhere in your harness; Solder the blue wire.

Hopefully, you have enough wire in your harness to do this but with those wire nuts I see, you may have to go buy some wire. Or some shrink wrap tube. DO NOT cut your wires too short.

You do not need to remove the coin door but it will make your job easier. Once you have touched all of the wires in the coin door, I"m thinking it will help your understanding if you find yourself inside the cabinet chasing a wire.

If something looks like it has good solder joint, leave that alone.

5 of your switches are on the coin door. The 6th switch is the tilt bob on the tilt board but the tilt bob is also on this same R-Y circuit.

You have a R-Y wire that is daisy chained to 6 switches. Each switch has another wire associated with it. For your switches we new only talking 7 wires: R-Y, Y, Blu-W, R-W, Brn-W, Blu. Look at it that way. ( #7 The Blu-Orange wire is for the tilt bob and not located to the coin door.

PM me if you have any questions.

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There are two yellow/red wires going to the memory clear switch as well as the test switch so I was thinking that is correct. It looks like one of those two Y-R acts like a "jumper" as it is a short wire soldered to both posts on the memory clear switch and test switch as well. (See blue arrow indicating that wire). How is that wired otherwise? Thanks.

Yes, I have cut all the ties off so I can see what's going on. When I check continuity, am I just touching the end of the blue wire and grounding the probe? Same with location A4-J3-9? Thanks.

Right, those three wires look like the ones that "should" be attached to chute 1.
I will trace the wires and see where they are on the board/plug end.

I did look at that connector, the weird thing is that, ultimately, the correct colors are connected to that plug, there is no black wire going into the plug.

Yep, I've had this thing torn apart, so can easily remove the door. The solder job is horrible, so will redo the solder to the coin chutes. Will also be mindful not to cut anything too short. From what I am seeing it looks like since the second coin slot wasn't hooked-up at all, the black wire seems to be running to slot 1 and slot 3.

Now that I understand that the r/y wire is the "juice" going to all 3, I guess that's why those wires were fed into the caps, the three capped wires make sure the juice to that entire coin door circuit is good. That white wire is running from the memory clear switch, why is that one attached to the coin slots at all??

So two r/y wires should be feeding each coin chute along with the corresponding color wire for each chute.

Slowly understanding this.

Thanks again for the tutorial - enjoying learning this.

Nate

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A jumper sounds reasonable. There is a short jumper wire on the play field of Big Game. It looked fake but is real.

You need to connect one jumper lead to the stripped end of the blue wire and also touch the other lead to the the blue wire connector at A4-J3-9. You are not checking for ground. You are checking to see is current can get from one of the the wire to the other end. If you have the coin door unplugged you will need to make a continuity check from the cabinet side of the coin door connector to A4-J3-9.

Because your idiot wire technician only messed around at the coin door and went no further. Once you get it all sorted you will be able to tell what he did, although you will probably be scratching your head as to why.

It seems the Stern 3 bank drops and 4 bank drops have their "top plate" installed upside-down from each other (see attached pic). Does this mean they each (3 vs 4) require a different plastic target?

drops (resized).png

No it means the drawing is wrong.

Is the 3 bank pic the correct arrangement?

Yes, for the longer rib that's on stern drops.

If you replace them with the shorter bally style you flip it to the 4 bank orientation, but Stern never used those shorter no rib targets.

cottonm4: Ok, I'm going in there, sorting out the wires, testing the continuity and re-soldering everything correctly.

After that, I'll power on and hope everything is working - maybe the switch test will then work as it should.

This all stems from the horrible scoring mess at the "3" bank targets for this Meteor!!! How often do those drop-target switches go bad?? I wouldn't think too often.

-Nate

Almost never. But once people start butchering the switch matrix all bets are off. I think you'll end up finding that that switch isn't bad at all but just bring seen closed as a result of the switch matrix woes.

I have had a couple of those test switches that were defective. In that case, you can mimic the switch by using a jumper lead. So keep that in mind.

Key word here is "almost". I still feel the pain from when I was building that Star Gazer and I was having all sorts of problems. It took me awhile to isolate the problem to a drop target switch bank ( the drop assembly was one of my Ebay purchases). I replaced the switch plate and the 3 switches and all problems went away ( I have not taken this switch assembly apart to see what the matter was.

And I seem to recall Red Ketchup having a devil of a problem that turned out to be a switch.

I found it very difficult to troubleshoot.

i wanted to replace the contact on one of my project spinner switch so i ordered some from PBR. Looking at them they are really small so my assumption that would be like a rivert to install seems wrong... has anyone replaced switch contact before and has recommendation on how to install them?

You could try what frunch does and solder them on the back of the leaf:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/building-re-building-leaf-switches

Drill two shallow depressions in a piece of wood. 13/64 or 7/32 drill size works well. One depression needs to be shallow. The other depression a little deeper.

Using the same drill bit, drill the butt side of the contact you want to replace. All you need to do is drill until the butt is flush with the switch blade. Place the contact in the deeper of the two depressions you drilled. Give it a tap with a small ball peen hammer and a center punch and the old contact should fall right out.

Set a new contact into the shallow depression and place the hole in the switch blade on top of the butt on the contact. Hold the blade tight against the butt. And then start tapping the butt to the blade. 3-4 taps should get your new contact locked in.
IMG_8814 (resized).JPGIMG_8815 (resized).JPG

The stem is made to crush easily. I put a cushion on some pliers (it's the stem of a foam tipped swab, won't mar the contact face), put the stem through the blade, and just clinch it. Works great.

I've also done the tap tap tap, more work. And also have soldered them in. Just depends on what I'm doing at the time.... but the pliers work the best and look the most stock.