I don’t get air balls in my Seawitch. I get/got air balls on my Robocop and made a deflector as I described for you.

And then I got an aftermarket flipper board for Robo and it has less flipper power and the air balls went away.

So, which flipper is giving you air balls?

Lower left mostly. Occasionally one from the lower right or upper left which is what makes me think it's more a drop geometry issue than flipper power. That said, nothing would shock me as it has 3 Williams bats and the lower left is actually a bally mech with the longer metal shaft and the original stern coil. I have the parts to do rebuilds on all 4 flippers including the appropriate bracket / mech eventually.

I've been trying to analyze if it's hopping a cupped insert or anything and can't see anything obvious.

My uppers are Bally linear mechs which I think helps if anything since they're inherently weaker.

It seems about 50/50 with some seawitches airballing and some not. Mine has landed on top of the upper left flipper but it always rolls off. I think I have the taller posts under that plastic right behind.

The other thing that might be a factor is my game has the angle aluminum playfield stiffeners on it - pretty sure not all stern games got those. This causes the PF to sit a hair higher in the cabinet (assuming the rails in the cab are the same between all games) - so maybe that's JUST enough that the ball just doesn't fit on top of the plastic.

I would really like all three of those titles. One day.

Mine has the short posts and the plastic rests directly on the orbit guide to keep light leaks from happening. The top of the plastic at the upper left flipper measures 7/8" below the edge of the cabinet and 1 1/4" below the top of the stainless cabinet rail. The taller posts are probably why you don't have the ball landing on top of the plastic. Do you have light leaks around your plastic?

The stiffener will have no effect on how the play field sits in the cabinet. It sits inside the play field support "Z" brackets.

The coils on the lower flippers on Seawitch are J-25-475/34-4500. The upper flippers are J-25-600/34-4500 to reduce the power to: prevent breaking the center bank drop targets and to prevent airballs. Some people over the years installed 475s in their upper flippers as that was all they had on hand at the time, and that is too much power for the upper flippers. I'm wondering what coils you have in your upper flippers.

You do realize you listed the same exact coil part #'s for both, right? 25-600 would be the top - and still too strong. The drop bank is RIGHT THERE after all.

The power resistor was stock for Meteor for sure so when that was rebuilt I got rid of the resistor and just adjusted the EOS. I recall SW being the same, but haven't looked lately (even though I just replaced all the lamp sockets I was kind of just focused on that).

I never really thought about light leaks I'm tall so the angle is going to be different anyway. There's no blinding going on if that's what you mean.

Sure it does - there's rails on the side that the sides of the PF normally sit directly on. Add a piece of metal to that junction and it's going to raise the PF up that much. The Playfield hanger brackets will still be the same profile either way, assuming you mean the ones in the front. Does your game not have the full length wood rails on the cabinet? If it had some kind of metal offset bracket I could see the stiffener not mattering, but that's not the case in mine.

Seawitch tests with just varethane clear coming up for sale now & next week. Seawitch production & more Star Gazer playfields this fall. I am still waiting to satisfy all prepaid Seawitch playfields. So if you are looking for a good one (Seawitch), you will likely be able to get one by xmas.
C is still available. $475 US to USA shipped. Flat, no wood burn, good alignment, some water spots to shooter lane bare wood (I will sand & give another coat to full playfield), bottom right Special lense black ink edge a little ragged (this one was printed over & ink cleaned off). This is the 1 of last 4 tests done to better alignment. The sign shop cut out the prop hole & it was plugged. This one got the printed Special lense which was corrected on the other 3.
You can follow Star Gazer & Seawitch production on the main thread. Thanks!
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I have a stern Dracula, I have a new rectifier, driver and mpu board. I’m getting a reading of 16 on the 12v test points and I’m having issues with the game. What would cause it to be so high and would that give me issues? Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

The 12V source is unregulated. I wouldn't worry about the 16V reading.

What issues are you having?

No. When the short posts are used, the plastic sits down right on top of the orbit guide. Both the left upper flipper plastic and the arch plastic sit at the same level and block most light from leaking through. With this setup you are going to have issues with the ball climbing over the top of the upper leff flipper. Long posts would solved the ball problem but your plastics will not be on the same level.

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Let's make sure we are not talking past each other.

You are talking about this support rail, correct?

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If I am correct and we are talking about the same stiffener rail, it sits inside of the the "Z" brackets/play field support brackets and will not alter how the play field sits inside the cab.

If you have something different than this, what is your setup?

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Chalkey was the one getting airballs, not me. I'm just describing to him what might be different between the games.

The tall posts make the plastic sit up a hair above the metal guide; so what? Light leakage is minimal. Doesn't matter anyway because the profile of the guide doesn't match the plastic anyway.

The part that sits higher with a stiffener vs. not is the wood rail part in the back, not the bracket in the front. It's merely the thickness of the guide but I have seen games that usually have the stiffeners not have them (and lack of screw holes indicate that they never did). So the playfield will sit lower at the top of the cabinet vs. the ones that have it.

It just seems strange that some people have airballs and some don't.

The top flipper bats are bally, too, if that might have an effect. An old trick for airball-yness was to flip the flipper rubber inside out if there was some cupping or something causing it although I've never had to do that. I think that's more of an operator trick to extend the life of the rubbers.

So what? Relax. I was not trying to turn this into a competition. Just offering my opinion, which agrees with yours, that the taller posts probably prevent the ball from rolling on top of the plastic.

I do not understand what you are speaking of? What wood rail in the back? Which Stern cabinet are you looking at?

You don't have wood rails at the side back of your seawitch so you can slide the playfield up and rest it up against the head?

Some resets and my sound is cutting off at game start. Was hoping that was the issue

Yes, I have those wood rails to prop the play field up against the back box. But those wood rails have no determination with how the play field sits in the the cab in playing position.

From Meteor and all classic Sterns that followed, the play fields are all supported with four "Z" brackets. One Z bracket in each corner. Those brackets are all at the same height. You can shove a Meteor play field into a Dragonfist cabinet and it is going to sit the same (unless the factory made a screw up---which would not surprise me).

This is Nine Ball. Left hand side. Two Z brackets support the play field. The right hand side is a mirror image.

But you got me to checking some things. My Nine Ball and Dragonfist both sit 1/8" lower from the top edge of the cabinet than my Seawitch does. So, I'm thinking I could lower the "Z" brackets in my Seawitch by 1/8" and any balls that fly up on top of the plastic would now have enough clearance to just roll off. The Beatles pin, with its higher, more slanted play field glass has balls that fly backwards over that flipper but with the glass so much higher than Seawitch, the ball just rolls off.

It does not help Chalky's air ball problems but I'm thinking I may lower my Witch play field 1/8" to counter the ball wedging between the plastic and the glass.

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That's funny I was thinking I might try to raise mine and stop it from being possible in the first place!

Resets would be caused by a bad voltage regulator or bad filter cap C23 on the SBD, or bad pins in MPU connector J4. If you haven't repinned the connector and replaced the header pins do that first.

I don't know if the sound board uses 12V unregulated power, but I would make sure your regulated 5V is solid first.

Just to prevent someone else from nearly having a nervous breakdown I had a reset issue caused by a cracked solder joint on a diode on a slam tilt switch. Of course, worked at the time I tested it so I had gone an entirely different direction and did a lot of tail chasing. Probably not it but worth being in your list of possibilities.

Are Bally electronic lock bar same fit for Seawitch?

Anyone own a dracula? I could use a pic one the fuse under the playfield. I have 2 blue wires. One has broken off and the other is soldered to the left side of fuse. Cant seem to see where the second blue wire went. I do know i have no flippers or pop bumbers firing now.

Thanks

Not comfortable with the way the power switch is so exposed on these games, so I drew up a CAD file for a power switch cover, and put them up for sale on the website. Since the mounting plate is so small, I was able to make these significantly smaller than the Williams version, and priced accordingly cheaper.

I'll also be adding them to my Pinside shop soon too, but I want to get a better photo first.

http://www.siegecraft.us/presta/index.php?id_product=82&controller=product&id_lang=1

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The Bally will not fit the Stern receiver.

Tie the two blue wires together.

Check ipdb Stern's Dracula.

My DESW lock bar fits my classic Sterns perfect. My Metallica Premium lock bar is a very tight fit. If the cab corners were beveled like on modern Stern cabs, it would probably fit fine. The hold down tabs on Bally lock bars are spaced in further. If you use a Bally receiver, it may work.

I did. Still not getting any flippers or bumpers. Was working fine before. Fuse is good.

Any classic Stern guys know the tab depth & width.

The tabs measure 17 inches fr0m 0utside edge t0 0utside edge,

They are 1 inch wide,

They are 1 5/16" deep

The smaii cut is ,070 deep and measures ,180 wide and is ,40 i0ng

[My keyb0ard has g0ne 0n the fritz, S0 Ihave s0me crappy puntuati0n and iettering, ),

Repiacment keyb0ard has been b0ught and has shipped

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Thanks, my computer wants to do weird French crap (Canada). Even though I say USA English.

I have a total project Stargazer that is going to get restored. I'm trying to minimise the cost of getting the cab done. And the guy who is going to do it is going to scan the cab to produce the stencils.
Its way cheaper if someone has the stencil file. Does anyone have one they can part with?
Please message me

Why not just buy the stencil kit so you known it’ll work perfect and easily?

http://pinballpimpstencils.com/?page_id=1499

Thanks
Shipping to Australia adds so much cost! And our exchange rate is totally stuffed. Its about $300 AUD delivered. So if I can save $200 of that then Im looking into it. I will post some pics when its done.

Its all good, someone said they will help me so I think im good if he follows through

What I can't figure 0ut is why it c0sts s0 much t0 ship between the US and Australia and Canada but yet when I buy s0me cheap item fr0m Ebay and it ships in fr0m China the shipping is super cheap,

I currently have the following classic Stern Pinball games. And I must say they are really great games with unique layouts and rules and just a lot of fun!

Split Second
Lightning
Flight 2000

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Had a chance to buy a lightning locally last year. I waffled around too much and the opportunity slipped away. Wish I had chased it down when I could.

Someone get this poor soul a keyboard.

Replacement keyboard has been ordered last week. Supposed to ship tomorrow.

CPR has the Lectronamo plastics available now for purchase. Stu came up with a different color scheme that they went with on the generic arches, replacing the blue with orange. It definitely matches much better with the rest of the plastics.

https://classicplayfields.com/shop/pinball-plastics/lectronamo/

Leads on a Seawitch backglass can be nos, repro or very nice example.

Contact @greatwichjohn, he does great repo's on the Seawitch backglass.

CPR Has them available Now: https://classicplayfields.com/shop/pinball-backglasses/seawitch/

Thanks, purchased.

What is the quality of the reproductions? On Medusa the reproductions were washed out color wise. What is Seawitch like? Rich and vibrant like NOS or bleached?

I would have purchased one from greatwichjohn. He’s been making high quality repro backglasses for our classic Sterns for a long time now. Cpr just started making Seawitch backglasses and people have complained about the quality of some of their backglasses in the past.

Wish I was told this sooner. I guess I will have to take my chances.

The post right above the CPR link was advising you to contact John about the backglass. I imagine the CPR backglass will be great. They do great work.

What’s the agreed upon number of classic sterns? Disregarding prototypes

Huh, good question.
26 by my count? That's not including 3 EMs.