If I toasted the transistor too would the flipper have worked at all?

The new coil was from Pinball Life.

These games don't have transistors that drive the flipper coils. ArcadeRaid you haven't toasted any transistors.

Stern changed the solenoid fuse from 5 amp fast blow to 7 amp slow-blow in the early 80's irrespective if the game had 2, 3, or 4 flippers.
I personally would be using a lower amperage fuse in two flipper games. It might have saved you burning the coil. I have either a 5 amp or 6 amp (can't remember) fast blow fuse in my Seawitch which has four flippers.

Is this flight 2000? You don't need 7 amp in there, 5 amp for stern 2 flipper games, 6 amp for 3 flipper games, and 7 amp for 4 flipper games IIRC.

Yes the coil is toast.

My Big Game is a 2 flipper game and came factory with 7amp fuse on. The manual calls for a 7 amp fuse in the F4 slot

My F2K manual shows a 7 amp fuse for the F4 slot.

Dragonfist calls for 7 amp fuse in F4

However, Meteor and Ali call for a 5 amp fuse in F4.

I have not looked at my other manuals.

Big Game is 4 flippers

There was a sticker on the rectifier board shield IIRC detailing this, or maybe on the printed sticker that is often missing.

We all know that stern manuals are sometimes cut-n-paste from previous manuals. I think using a lower value fuse that works is better (in either case I think the fuse will blow when needed, just a tad bit faster.... it's still not usually enough to save a transistor.)

Yes, Flight 2000. It calls for 7 amp. I did put in a 5 amp after the original 7 blew when I wired it backwards. I saw many people saying 5 was fine as others here have said. The 5 blew after a few flips (probably due to bad EOS but I figured it must just really need 7 and not 5. I’m going to replace the switch and order a new coil and try again. Always something to learn.

My bad. I always forget that, I was thinking of the other solenoids. Went through a bunch of TIP102s when I wired a slingshot backwards before I figure out what I'd done.

This is a good time for you to read Vid’s Guide to Rebuilding Flippers.
You should order a rebuild kit and do this throughly. Most flippers are well past their life expectancy, and even ones that have been rebuilt are often rebuilt poorly. It’s a great fundamental skill to learn early on.

I screwed this up after installing a new rectifier board in my Big Game. The fuse holder on the new board called for 5 amp and I kept blowing them until I noticed the shield calling for 7 amp.

I’ve started installing connectors when I do flipper rebuilds. I find it much easier to solder out of the machine.

Since these drop target coil stops are NLA, anyone have a tip on repairing this coil stop? I don’t think there’s enough metal to rivet it back in place even with a press. Gorilla glue and a vise maybe?

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Drill a hole deep enough to put some thread in it. Use a brass screw and brass washer to put it back in place. Use some high strength glue so it never comes apart. That's what I've done.

I trust Bally engineers. Bally updated the fuse to 6amp *Fast-Blow* only in games with four flippers. Stern changing to Slow-Blow couldn't have done any favors to the bridge rectifier it was supposed to protect. Unless you find otherwise, using a Fast-Blow instead of Slow-Blow and amperage rating depending on the number of flippers is probably a wiser safety choice.

That’s interesting. Is F4 on the stern rectifier board supposed to be fast blow or slow blow?

Yes, BG is 4 flippers. My thinker was not working I still have the original sticker on the rectifier mounting board calling for 7 amp fuse at F4.

Meteor, Galaxy, and Ali all show for a 5 amp fuse.

Big Game is the first to show the 7 amp fuse. And the F2K print page looks like a sloppy copy of the Big Game page. So, maybe a 5 amp is all that is needed for a 2-flipper pin.

But going all the way to the end, both Catacomb and Dragonfist have newer, cleaner (redesigned) pages printed that you can actually read. Both of these 2 flipper pins call for the 7 amp fuse.

The Big Game manual and the sticker on the rectifier mounting board both call for 7 amp slo-blo. I never thought about it much, but I am agreeing with Quench; a slo-blo fuse in the F4 slot does not make much sense.

I had another look at my Dragonfist manual. F2, F4 and F6 all call for slo-blo fuses. But after thinking on it a bit, other than the flippers, why would slo-blo fuses even be needed? They seem rather risky; I would rather a fuse blow fast and lessen the chance of burning up the rectifier board.

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Anyone near chi town? Looks like a light project:

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/ad/161920

You can still reclinch the coil stop. I have used heavy punch heads.
I have used a punch with a blunt tip and have been successful with
saving many coil stops.

Ok, I checked my Seawitch and it had a 7amp Fast-Blow, not 5 or 6amp and I previously thought. I put in a 6amp Fast-Blow and repeatedly hit the flippers fast. The fuse eventually started glowing after 15 or so flips then it blew as I kept flipping. The 7amp Fast-Blow fuse then went back in and under the same test it never glowed. So in my Seawitch with four flippers, a 7amp Fast-Blow fuse is probably the sweet spot. Having said that I'll likely put a 6amp fuse in it since the test I ran is not real case in my home use game play. If I had 3 year olds visiting and smashing the flipper buttons then I'd probably take the operators approach.
My Seawitch has standard 25-500 flipper coils. I know you like ballistic flippers with your 25-450 coils so you might find different fuse requirements.
EOS switch gaps and stacked switches for the secondary flippers will also play a part. As BigAl56 always says, they should be "break before make".
I set my EOS switch gaps aggressively to 1/16".

Revisiting Bally, they changed the high voltage F2 0.75A fuse from Slow-Blow to Fast-Blow in late '78 meanwhile Stern never did. There is no reason for this fuse to be Slow-Blow.
F6 on the rectifier board is required to be Slow-Blow because of the inductive load of the transformer.

I refurbished my Mata Hari & Playboy rectifiers a couple of weeks ago & swapped over the HV slow blow-fuses to fast which was not something I was not aware of until I read about this recently.

I like the 475s. I have not yet tried 450s but I am thinking about trying a pair of them out. I am going to play around with fuses to figure out the lowest value that will work.

We used to have an independent electronics shop that had a bargain bin. I bought 2 boxes of 1/2 amp slo blos for $3.00 for box of 100. I have been using those in my flipper fuse circuits and they hold up well. Can't beat the price of 3 cents each.

I can't believe that's not sold yet. OG lightning may be a turd but the new code, with both upper gates removed, is RAD.

I'm still trying to get all the damn scum off of mine before I try it in the cab again. I don't know what the previous owner used to wax it but it needs its entire remaining stock hurled into the sun. My Dremel versa knocks it down (Meguiar's ultimate polish) but some of these areas are really tight and I didn't plan on dropping all targets, switches, etc. I may not have a choice.

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Hey cotton, mind tossing me a link to the specific connectors you're talking about here? Went through my stock of 2-prong molex, remembered you mentioning these so figured I'd give them a shot this time around.

I was not paying attention. These clearance items from pinball life is what I have in my inventory. And they are only a "Z" on one side. And they are cheap at 1.95 each.

Call them the half-assed "Z" connector for lack of a better term.

But you have to tape the side that does not have the 2nd locking tang. And make sure you are using the trifucon connector pins.

https://www.pinballlife.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=MWWS156-1624_clearance

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This is what you need if you don't want to tape them together, but it is more pricy at $9.95.

https://www.pinballlife.com/24-pin-malemale-z-connector.html

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Here are the proper "Z" connectors for 6-pins which should work for about anything you want to do. But they are pricy.

https://www.pinballlife.com/6-pin-malemale-z-connector.html

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But PBL does not carry the female connector, which it looks like you will have to get from Marco ( I swear these guys are in cahoots with the U.S. Postal Service).

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/CF15620
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Marco also sells the "Z" connectors but they are more pricy than PBL.

I don't know what Steve at PBR has in stock.

Use search term "Z" connector to look for this stuff.

That's always the case, though I appreciate theiruch deeper inventory. Thanks for all the info, will give them a shot! I presume you can snap those long 24 pin ones to the size you need?

Just wanted to drop back in and give a shout out to everyone who made suggestions on my Flight 2000. It WAS the EOS switch. I rummaged though my part bin and found both a spare switch and a serviceable coil so she's flipping again.

I cut them with a hobby saw. I don't know how easy they would snap apart.

Yes - they snap pretty easily, the newer they are. (The older they get, the plastic slightly softens, in my experience..)

I've learned my lesson to always replace those when rebuilding flippers. Day after I rebuilt my grand lizard uppers and left the old EOS, one leaf broke and by the time I realized it I was out a coil.

I'm re-doing the coin door in my stern meteor and I found these blue and red wires strategically hidden in the wire bundle. Any ideas off hand where they are supposed to be?

The twisted together red and yellow wires look to be connected to the middle and far right coin switches. So does it need to be connected to the far left coin switch?

A previous owner drilled a hole through the door and put a credit switch in......it's the purple wires coming off the far left coin switch. The loose blue wire isn't connected to anything other than the connector where it originates from.

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Far left coin switch
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Middle coin switch
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Far right coin switch
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https://www.ipdb.org/files/1580/Stern_1979_Meteor_Manual.pdf

Study this pic.

There is a common red/yellow wire that connects the 3 coin chutes, the credit button ( on the coin door), the TILT switch on the tilt board on left side of cab, and also the SLAM tilt switch that is also on the tilt board.

Chute #1 also has a blue wire ( maybe the one you are looking for?)
Chute #2 .......has a brown/white wire
Chute #3 .......has a red-white wire.

Screen Shot 2023-08-17 at 9.07.08 PM (resized).jpg

You can go to the provided link and see all of the drawings for Meteor.

Well, it certainly isn't my first classic Stern by a long shot... But I have a new nicest/rarest in the mix for a steal of a deal.

(Already fixed the BG lighting too... Now just to replace that one LED board and the right pop bumper light...)

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Game itself is a bit of a turd IMO, but man, that is one of the best backglasses in pinball. High on my list of games I'd like to own just to stare at. Congrats!

Great art for sure.

I need to commission someone to redo the Lightning glass. Holy hell it's bad. I actually like the PF art just fine but the glass.. what the hell happened?!

Get it fully working and you’ll see the gameplay is worse.

Not with the new code! It's awesome.

I know someone with a Viper to sell Interested

I agree, though the lightning BG has grown on me a *little.* Solution: put your viper BG on lightning and have a solid player and looker with the new code on board

If anyone's interested in an Orbitor, there's one for 3500 in Louisville in working order. I'm presuming there are some interested in collecting oddities - can't imagine anyone actually wanting to play that awful thing. Kinda neat conversation piece if you have a large collection though.

I might leave it unplugged to save power though

Wanted NOS Cheetah playfield. I will pay top dollar for the right playfield.

J

Where can I get a backglass lift channel for a CPR Stars?

Following up on a private convo with Tyamry he needs trim for a CPR repro glass.

I don’t have great news. I just went down a rabbit hole earlier this month that lead me to a conversation with the gentleman that makes the super nice reproduction lift trim available on eBay and from Marco. Before I start, it’s worth noting that Stern glasses are 1/8” thick.

Here is what I was told:

Bally originally made their backglasses 3/16" thick until 1980 when they switched to 1/8". I make trim for both sizes. Unfortunately, the boys at CPR all of a sudden decided to make all of their backglasses from 4mm thick (metric) glass which is in between 1/8" and 3/16" so neither of the original trim sizes fit. The 1/8" trim is too tight and the 3/16" trim is too loose.

There is no trim for 4mm and there never was. It's a size that was never used in pinball machines.

Bally 1/8" = .125"
CPR 4mm = .157"
Bally 3/16" = .187"

I decided to take a shot on some 1/8” trim for my project and used a blunt chisel and a hammer to gap it out. It was a tight fit but it works and you’d never know unless you remove the trim and see all the scuff marks, which you’d never see once installed. It worked but annoying so much work needs to be involved to have nice new trim on a CPR glass. Just another WTF in the list of repro parts list.

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Just use electrical tape on the other trim and on the glass itself. It will fit and hold and not scratch anything up.

I have one in my restoration queue. Will be great when complete but waiting on a buyer to continue on it. Let me know if you're interested, Jecco74

I use gaff tape to protect the glass and keep it from slipping. The problem I was having was the 3/16” trim would fit on the glass with plenty of tape to fill but then it simply doesn’t fit in the head. Can’t use it. Thought about routing out the channel on the head but I’d already repainted and didn’t want to screw that up.

Even without tape (not preferred), the 1/8” trim is too small for CPR glass. I should’ve put tape on the chisel now that I think about it.

Some stuff is leaving tomorrow. But hopefully something much more fun will be coming back with me

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Gatecrasher are you still making backglass lift channels?

I believe so he just shipped a couple to me today!

BG Resto sent me a Big Game back glass that measures 3/16". I called Resto on that and he sent me a 3/16" lift channel. I have no issue with fitment. I do not like the 3/16" glass but it fits.

I sent a PM to Gatecrasher last night. Thanks for everyones help!