Green and blue are primary colors. You should consider setting that Seawitch cab next to your Big Game.

Nice lineup.

Green is primary in light, yellow in paint, but it would be chronologically correct that way!

Wow & here I just wanted the two that have repainted cabs next to each other (Drac & SW) alongside my other re-pinated cab Ballys LOL. Never thought about trying to color coordinate my collection. Although on 3 of my Ballys, PB, Silverball & EK I have them all together because they all have Mirrored back glasses & they look good together, so maybe I do go for some semblance of order?

Any info on the Rotor Relay in the backbox for 1982 Iron Maiden . It looks to hook up to the big lamp. In need of one. Thanks.

Need a lockdown bar. Couldn’t come across one at Allentown. Going on a trident.

From Hot Hand to Dragonfist, they will all fit. Also, a Data East lockdown bar will fit.

http://jtamusements.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_4_23&products_id=313

Awesome. Thanks! Ordered.

My Dracula cab had the screw type bar while my HH had the slotted bar.

I figure the later slotted bars were another cost saving measure on the production line. I like those earlier units with the adjustable screws.

Is there a resource for instruction cards for this era? Specifically looking for Stars and Flight 2000.

Ipdb.org

http://www.pinballrebel.com/pinball/cards/
Inkochnito does some amazing work restoring these cards. We're very lucky to have someone who spends the amount of time he dedicates to the hobby.

Thanks!

Pinballboy.com has a custom set of cards for Stars

Question about the solid GI wire used in these older games. is that bare copper covered tin wire? or just plain old metal wire.

looks like 22 or 24 gauge.

never mind it has to be plain metal wire, its not the best at taking solder. never noticed before, because I always just solder it back to the same spots as before (where there is already some on the wire).

Was thinking magnet wire might not be a bad idea for the future, at least it has a coating. once you burn it off, it's straight copper.
https://www.amazon.com/BNTECHGO-AWG-Magnet-Wire-Transformers/dp/B07DYG6DVP/ref=sr_1_10

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1041-third-coast-pinball/00662-18ga-stranded-tinned-bare-wire

That would work as well, this metal wire they use in these old sterns suck. Takes me like 2 or 3 attempts to get the stupid wire to take hold.

I have a coworker with an Ali Pinball machine with a dirty playfield. Can he use Novus to clean the playfield or should he use something else?

Novus 1 for a basic wipe down. I then usually lightly magic eraser with isopropyl alcohol. After that to clean the magic eraser slurry I take a tiny buffer pad in a cordless drill with novus 2 and hit it good with that. Cleans the slurry and brings a nice sheen back to original lawyer finish. Finish off with quality 100% carnival wax.

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I wouldn't use anything abrasive on the playfield of these classic games unless you plan to clearcoat it.

lol carnival wax..... it will be the best show you have even seen once you play your next game.

These early solid state (pre dmd) games are prone to planking, small cracks in the playfield. These small cracks will absorb water and swell warping the playfield. Use naphtha as it contains no water. You can buy naphtha at any home improvement store. If working indoors make sure the room is well ventilated as it’s basically lighter fluid and gives off fumes. Novus and isopropyl alcohol contain water and should be avoided for these early solid state games

I used Novus 2 on a nice original Xenon playfield and it started wearing like crazy.

That was the last time anything abrasive touched any of my playfields for general cleaning.

Surprising. I’ve used N2 then wax on my big game for thousands and thousands of plays and I just had someone over that thought I had it clear coated at some point.

Don’t go to town with the magic eraser. Any tool is dangerous in the wrong hands. It’s great for getting out ground in stuff. I do this to every classic stern I’ve taken in and then they go to my location and get played every week. They stay in the same condition from that point forward with good balls and regular waxing on location.

Haha. Silly autocorrect. Carnuba!!

Edit:

Wrong post

Hello and thanks for reading! I'm looking for advice on the next thing to check in my quest to get a flipper working on a Stingray.

Issue - Pressing the left flipper button yields a flash at the cube relay. Swapped out for a known good factory board, same issue. Swapped in a known good Alltek - blew a fuse. Pulled every pin on every connector in the backbox, re-pinned anything that looked bad. Based on everything I had read, meter readings are correct at the flipper solenoid. Resisters facing the right direction. Compared connections to my other Stingray (its a sickness), looks correct.

Any suggestions for next thing to test? Any specific readings to take, bypass XX, jump YY, ? Newbie when it comes to pin tech. Soldering skills obviously need some work. Pics attached.

Thanks in advance!
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Guy who sold me this Seawitch PF said that "it's not nice enough to go in a game, just selling as a wall hanger or for art" LOL I think it will be plenty nice enough for my Seawitch. Of course it looks a "little" different now than when I bought it. Now need to clean out all the slots/holes etc & prep for re-assembly.

& a Pic of my next Stern "victim". Not mine, doing for a Friend, the cab is really bad.... will be a lot of work. If anyone has any extra Cheetah plastics, please PM me.

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Nice looking Seawitch play field. And you have the Cheetah in the blue cabinet. Nice looking play field already.

Yep she's blue.... at least the one side is. The left side has been sanded to bare wood by someone in past.... going to have to have stencils made for it. I think the Blue looks sooooo much better than the black cabs. I assume this is a fairly early one, it actually has a leftover Seawitch Coin door wiring harness & as far as I can tell the machine is all original, so it's not something someone swapped in later. I think it was just left over harness that went into next game in production line which was Cheetah. Funny, as when I stripped my Seawitch cab down it turned out to be a factory leftover Ali Cabinet (game built before SW)

Got the cab stripped today to evaluate what I've got to work with. Yes the PF is pretty decent, inserts are all shrunk more than normal for a Stern... that will be a bit of a pain to do custom stencils/decals for top of new inserts. I'm probably going to end up replacing almost every insert. We got an NOS Backglass coming for it... need to find some plastics, most are decent, just couple missing & cracked.

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What readings did you take at the flipper coil? With power off, check the ohms across each of the two windings in the coil and compare to the other working flipper. Also, those are diodes and not resistors. They could also be shorted. To test them you need to clip one end so they are out of the circuit. Use the diode ck function on the meter. You're looking for .7 volts in one direction, open in the other direction.

Take an older model flat bed scanner. Remove the lid, place the scanner against the side of the cabinet and start taking some scans. Send them to Jeff at Pinball Pimp and he can combine the images in photoshop and he can make stencils out of your scans

Dr. Dave knows about the blue cab units. Something to do with some prototype circuits (don't quote that ). Whatever, there is something about the blue cab that is more different than just the color. Probably earlier but I am not the one who knows.

Most of the wiring from Ali to Dragonfist is the same. I am starting to learn of some minor differences. But coin doors would all be the same.

A few months ago a Blue Cab Cheetah sold on Ebay for small money. Like $250.00. Is this the same one? It was too far for me to drive and now I'm sorry I did not chase it. It seems like Cheetah is stepping out of the unwanted step child clothes and is sort of turning into a Cinderella.

An NOS back glass is a great find. Plastics are hens' teeth.

This is the plan... of course I need to call Jeff this week & confirm he is willing to do them & just confirm scanning details etc. If this works ok, I'm actually going to scan my Trident as well as Stingray & see if we can get Stencils made for those as well. So hopefully all goes well & maybe he can add 3 more classic Sterns to his stencil lineup.

No this one is not that one..... it did sell on eBay, but very recently & for more $. It was listed as a "parts machine" What a joke.... all it was missing was the MPU, the displays & the BG. The PF is quite nice & is going to touch up & be beautiful when done.... yes cab has issues, but I don't want to meet the type of guys who are parting out a basically complete Cheetah. It would have been an absolute pinball sin to part this machine out. I will make it a creampuff, I'm going further with this machine than any other I have done, it will be "nice" when done. The owner wats to put all Stern electronics in it so I'm donating my old MPU-200 out of my Big Game for it to complete the board set & I happed to have an extra set of 7 digit displays that I bought by accident a while back not realizing they were not 6 digit (which is what I wanted at the time) So it is all working out...

I love it! All of my current Classic Sterns (plus Gamatron) were parts machines and left for dead. It makes you appreciate them that much more when you get them back together and up and running!

Jim

Thanks for the motivation! I didn't notice any difference in testing, and as I was about to clip the diode (cough) and figure out exactly how to test one, I decided to just pull the coil and slap in a new one. Working like charm. Now I'll go play with the bad one and learn how to test a diode.

Thanks again!

I just completed a mod on my Catacomb I"d like to share.

One of the items I do not like about my classic Sterns are the cabinet brackets the play field rests on. Whenever you need to lean the play field on onto the back box there is a lot of jerking it around in order to clear those brackets at the back.

I have been collecting cab brackets from the old Gottliebs when I get a chance.

They work like a charm. The play field lifts easily and slides back and forth smoothly. If you stumble onto any trashed Gottlieb cabs you might try to salvage these brackets and put them to good use.

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That’s no catacomb playfield

That Hot Hand play field is my hanger queen.

The Catacomb play field is at the beauty shop getting some 555 lamp boards from https://pinballreplacementparts.com/collections/all?page=3 installed. And my order of Comet LEDs just arrived yesterday.

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Chris is a good guy. Great boards. So needed. Had the pleasure of working with him this summer teching st pinburgh/ReplayFx