I can’t prove it but am reasonably certain the -8 was from Stern’s arcade games. I have not been able to find any info .

yes

Did you get a response? Really nothing to it. Open back box, unplug connectors, feed wires down the hole, unbolt, disconnect ground, lift head off. Take ball out. Remove legs.

He also needs to lift the playfield, disconnect the connectors on the rectifier board, remove from the c clamps in the bottom of the cabinet, and pull that group of wiring up into the head. Unscrew the ground braid that’s on the bottom of the head.

How close to the rubber should the rocker arms rest on the slingshots? I am getting ready to install the hardware, I had to plug the old location holes and need to drill new ones. I would only like to do it once, and want to be sure I have a great "snap" when the arm is actuated.

Should the arms be just touching the rubber on the inside? That's what I'm thinking, I just don't want the slingshot to be too strong if that's possible??

Thanks,

Nate

Forward but not so much that they hit the end of the wood slot when it activates.

Thanks, makes sense - and thanks for reminding me about the clearance so the arm doesn't strike the pf!

Nate

The e clips on those arms, are they 1/4”?

Here is one issue on my galaxy, when I hit the “galaxy” shot, it bobbles around at the top and falls out.

I just noticed Flynnyfalcon looking at your pic of your -3 transformer scrolling down to post #3665 below, that it seems according to the power diagram that you have the yellow ac wire connected to lug 12 which is for 220v. It seems that the 240v yellow connection is to go to lug 7 down the bottom for 240v? seem right? if so, you have 240v going to the transformer to the 220v input lug. Not sure what difference this would make anyway - just an observation in case it could somehow play a part.

Also, you can see it did have a -6 transformer there before as you can see the impression of the larger footprint the -6 mounting brackets have.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/price-check-1980-sterns-quicksilver-stargazer-seawitch/page/74

Hey JD, appreciate you following up. Australian power is 220v, but 240v is also considered normal and should work fine. So I can only assume it’s an Australian delivered transformer, not US import.

I still haven’t heard back from the spare parts guys regarding the possible -6 transformer, would love to know for certain either way.

Regarding the footprint of the transformer, I’ve restored my QS so can’t be too sure of previous footprints, but I did find these pics of mine early in the process. Looks like just the one set of footprints. Have to assume it was delivered from the factory with the -3. I’ve heard Stern would use random parts on occasion. The apron on this one was black with red stickers.

52A90AAB-A40E-4CBB-B9A9-259CE1F36A35 (resized).jpegDB367EC4-B311-40A8-A0F6-01AA0A99D5E2 (resized).jpeg

Australian nominal power was reduced from 240v to 230v last year apparently, where I am in Adelaide voltage measures 243v at the wall socket. Either way within tolerance.

If that is the original QS mouting panel, yes, it would seem it was definitely shipped with a -3, makes you wonder why they would do this if their was such a difference between them? I guess they used what was available at the time regardless.

I disagree. You would see two extra holes the larger -6 left behind.

Both my Nine Ball and my Meteor had the smaller -3 installed. The boards looked just like yours. If there had been a -6 on that board you would be seeing two extra/empty holes where the -6 was.

I have swapped transformers around in my pins and there was no removing a transformer from one board and installing it on another board with the attendant wiring work. The easy way to swap is just swap the entire board assembly.

Magic (1979-08) was the last MPU-100 Stern produced. Meteor is the first MPU-200 classic Stern. There were 6 pins produced before Quicksilver was made. You are talking several thousand pins produced before Quicksilver (1980-06). I just cannot see Stern finding a -3 laying around 10 months and several thousand units later and tossing it in as an afterthought and as a way to unload one last -3.

An operator somewhere most likely made the swap. My Nine Ball had a bunch of dark gooey, crunchy on the side of the cab that I scraped off. The cab shows burn marks on the inside of the cab suggesting the -6 blew up and caught fire. No problem---get that transformer from the Dracula we scrapped and put it in the Nine Ball.

Yes, you are right, my bad, I was only looking at one side that had some larger impressions, the other side of the transformer shows no extra holes.

Didn’t realise you were a skippy, apologies for the voltage lesson

No worries, I only just realised the official nominal power for Australia had recently changed from 240v to 230v.

So I’ve received more details, what are your thoughts? -6? Am I in luck?? Looks to meet the 5 1/4” spec.

B36A56AF-8CB3-46F9-945A-CAE5E93E6C57 (resized).jpeg

You are golden.

Plug that sucker in and tell us how you can feel the difference. Play one or two last games with the -3, shut down, do the swap and start entertaining us with superlatives.

Get a rotary wire brush for your drill motor and brush all the rust away. Paint it with your favorite color.

EDIT: When you do the wire brush rust removal exercise, you can remove both mounting brackets and then wrap some masking paper and tape around the coils.

EDIT 2: You can also take a stiff brush, like a cheap paint brush with one half of the bristles cut off, and do some light brushing on the coils to clean them up a little bit.

Love your work Cotton!! Will report back with said superlatives

Well the transformer arrived this arvo, it’s pretty late here at the moment, but have started giving it a bit of a clean up... sprayed a little magic juice on top and Shazam, a secret message revealed itself. Once dry it disappears again, but she’s a -6 alright

879897F7-D5B3-4691-ACD3-EB028B2A8CCF (resized).jpeg

I can't wait to hear your comparative statements.

it would be interesting to have both with their respective REC board, you could test and swap them in like 2 minutes

I always wondered what it would be like to have a -6 in a Stars or Magic!

I need to check, but they are what was on the originals.........thanks........

I think they are 1/4" inch clips.

Yes! I got the game. A awsome pinsider is helping me now. Im in the club. This my first early solid state game. Now I just need to save money to replace the corroded boards from battery acid damage

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What sizes are the lane guides on Galaxy? I can’t match the part numbers in the manual to anything.

here is what I found when I was taking apart my Galaxy
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/classic-stern-galaxy-club-from-a-time-before-we-had-guardians#post-5757451

Thanks! I didn’t know if I should be measuring the total length of the lane or the post hole lengths.

haha, had the same thought and just pulled the trigger on some replacements from PBR and they fit great.

So I've given the -6 transformer a clean up and paint. The wax paper wasn't in great shape (not helped by my masking tape efforts), but its installed and looking much better than the previous -3.

First impression was yep its get more zip, but after a couple of further games I wasn't so sure. I've never played another Quicksilver, or more to the point many other Classic Sterns, so my reference point isn't that solid. One of my goto streams is Slam Tilt, Ron's Quicksilver looks to have much more oomph in the slings and flippers. He seems to be able to rip the spinner from a cradled ball, whereas to get a similar rip on mine, it really needs to be on the fly and timed perfectly.

I've tested voltage below and taken a video for those who are curious and have a good feel for how a Classic Stern/Quicksilver plays. Not much spinner rippage sorry, playing with a camera hovering above the flippers messes with ya... well thats my excuse ... Apologies... really not a great vid upon watching it back, hope it gives enough perspective.

Test Points

TP1 5.87v
TP2 240v
TP3 14.05v
TP4 7.03v
TP5 44.2v

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Folks, It's happening. I'm having the Quicksilver insert board cut this week, or next week at the latest. I have connected with the original four interested people. If someone else wanted to be a part of the initial run, please reconnect with me, as I understand that those of you in Australia have found a local supplier at 2x my asking price of $250USD. I'm not opposed to international shipping and will do whatever I can to accommodate. I'm asking $250 for the cut, game-specific insert panel and that you pay the actual shipping cost to your location. If you want to combine Star Gazer and Quicksilver I will also work to minimize shipping costs. I have Star Gazer currently in stock, as well. These are cut in original 3/4" MDF just like originals.

If anyone else wants one, please let me know soon as once they're cut it becomes a lot more time consuming to make more. I need requests for 4 insert boards to justify re-running them after the initial run. If you're on the fence, now is the time to send me a PM, or wait until the next opportunity to make another batch of them.

In addition, I am eager to work on the next title insert board. Let me know what you'd like to have made, and once I have four committed people, I can begin cutting them. At least with my current setup. Please PM me directly on pinside pinfixer . Your email address would also be helpful for future communications.

Great you got it in & it's working! you mentioned you were not so sure after a few games? curious to know just purely comparing the two transformers - play before & after - maybe if you have had a few more games, what your verdict is on the differences?

Check your coil values vs. the manual. A lot of operators just installed what they had on hand to get a pin back up and running.

Yeah it worked!! A bit of messing around wiring it in, also with the tranny having an unknown history I was a little anxious but she powered up fine and I think it’s even a touch quieter.

After reading into the differences between the -3 & -6 solenoid section I was expecting to see an obvious difference. Whether it was placebo or not, my immediate reaction was, yep it’s got more go in it. But within a game or so, to the eye it felt almost the same. The obvious signs of ball speed in particular spinner rips I don’t believe show a significant or obvious difference.

Maybe I need to look at the flipper EOS switches again, but then the slings? Aah I don’t know. I might be expecting too much from 40 year old tech.

Brand new coils with new flipper rebuild kit. Maybe I should look at stronger coils.

Standard -500's should be fine on quicksilver. New kit, did you get the up/down play correct on the bats? It needs a bit of up-down play throughout its entire flip, not just at rest. Sometimes the baseplates in the new kits seem to get some residual magnetism in them, although I don't know if that would affect the strength all that much.

Your sound effects are way off/slow. You sure your MPU board is set for the higher mpu200 clock speed? I don't think your flippers look weak, bad spinner rips are likely more work needs to be done on the spinners to juice them up.

Thanks for your reply. Up/down, I’m assuming you mean the gap between the the flipper bat and the bushing? If so I gapped as per normal with one of those little plastic tools. ~1.6mm or thereabouts. I didn’t check whether the gap changes throughout its swing. Will take a look.

Sound effects I have no real reference, hitting the saucer absolutely takes a moment or two to work. Can the clock speed can be adjusted?

Comparing your latest video to the one you a couple of months ago does not look like there is a lot of difference. But your latest video it looks like things are a little more snappy.

That has been my experience. My Nine Ball and Dragonfist played with the -3 transformer, but they played better with the -6 six. I tried a -3 in my Catacomb and lasted about 60 seconds before I decided Catacomb was no good at all with the -3.

If you think you wasted your money, I'm sure plenty of people in the states would be willing to buy that -6 from you. I'll call dibs

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/price-check-1980-sterns-quicksilver-stargazer-seawitch?tq=&tu=flynnyfalcon

This link shows a guy who rebuilt his -6 transformer. I need to learn how to do this.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/transformer-refurbish-suggestions

Thanks Cotton, yeah I was using that as a loose guide. Quite the coincidence, search for “transformer restoration” and the only thing that comes up is a 16B-6

OK. This is next level amazing. Thanks for sharing. I don't get on PS that much anymore but this is simply incredible.

It started out by teasing me. And then it got a little more aggressive. But it was not 100% toying with me. Yesterday, it finally said "replace me".

I'm talking about a flipper coil. The flipper starting sticking in the up position. I'd turn off the cabinet switch and the flipper would drop. I would turn the pin back on and all would be working fine. And then, eventually, it would stick in the up position again. I could turn the pin off and all would be well for awhile.

Yesterday, it shorted all the way. I finally had to replace it.

I have not ran any ohmmeter tests, yet.

What causes a flipper coil to just decide to give it up?

What is the most likely culprit?

Is it the primary coil shorting out?

Or is it the secondary hold coil doing me dirty?

Or has a diode gone bad?

IMG_4753 (resized).JPG

What I have found, is that magnetism is the culprit.
Once the back coil stop has impurities cross the brass bushing, the hole bracket
becomes one big magnet. Eddy current happens.
1) clean coil stop.
1a) tap coil stop with a hammer to breakup impurities.
1b) test coil stop
1c) if flipper assembly still hangs... replace coil stop assembly
1d) if skilled, can fabricate a new stop to replace old stop.

You can also try a couple layers of scotch tape on the surface of the coil stop, that's another easy way to determine if magnetism is your culprit.

Thank you both.

I'll keep this coil back and try it in another pin when I get a "bad" flipper.

Is anyone able to confirm what type of flipper bats these are? Looking at all options as to why my flipper power is down. Bushings I’m 99% sure are correct (W2’s I think), flipper bats not so. I do remember when I installed the (new) flipper bats they were scratching at the bushings a little.

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DB40608C-D4FC-42A1-B1E5-D25959E3AC1A (resized).jpeg

This has probably already been asked and answered, but I missed it.

What flipper coils do you have? The prints calls out for J-25-475/34-4500.

I like to use 475 and maybe a few with 450. My Cat sports 450's and its insane!!.... I rarely use 500-600 unless it's upper flippers like Witch and Meteor.