So I’m in discussion with my tech guy trying to solve my issue, but thought I’d also ask the considerable brains trust on here, hoping it’ll speed things up.

I bought a Quicksilver a few weeks back, it didn’t boot up but was in overall decent condition. I sent all the boards off for a check over/repair and I replaced the rectifier board with a new one.

When I bought my QS, the LED on the MPU would stay on with no blinks, no sound, no game start, displays would partly work but not really and most GI and insert lighting was working.

I reinstalled the repaired and “tested ok” boards yesterday. Upon turning it back on for the first time, it shut down my Funhouse which was being played by my son at the time (it’s powered by the same power point). Fuse F6 on the rectifier board was cooked, luckily no damage done to FH. I replaced the fuse and turned QS on again with no success. The LED remained on with no blinks, the displays showed nothing and no sounds other than the occasional noise outburst when turning it on. The fuse went on to blow a couple more times before I gave up. The fuse (besides when I first turned it on) didn’t blow straight away, possibly after a minute or 2 or 5.

I double checked all the wiring and it appears to be good. The rectifier board was partly in kit form. I installed this first with the unrepaired boards and this didn’t blow any fuses.

Some basic research has me thinking the in-line filter may be stuffed, especially given Funhouse copped a mouthful.

Any thoughts on what the issue could be?

I also have an older screen printed Funhouse from Mirco. Besides the typical dimples it looks fantastic. I have little confidence that my new Quicksilver will age the same. Scratches with light finger touch is very disappointing

Hey Classic Stern fans, I'm about to start restoring my Quicksilver and I have a question regarding the coin door. What do people do? Powdercoat or paint? And what colour? What about the coin mechs? zinc plating or polishing? Thanks.

I’ll have to check if that’s available in Australia. Not a brand I recall, but thanks.

How big is your tumbler??

Current resto...

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It’s been professionally re-cleared so yep and yep. After only a few days it’s already much better than how I received it from Mirco months after production.

Love you passion @cottonm4.

What’s your guess on how accurate mine will be? I won’t see it in person for another month or so, but you’ve got me intrigued as to how it’ll look with siderails on.

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Aah you’re right... yep, might touch base and double check. Thanks.

Adding post to this thread (from Quicksilver members thread) for more potential eyes.

I’m half way through my full restoration and need to order my last (hopefully) batch of spare parts. I’m struggling to find the part numbers however. Can anyone help?

Flipper Cabinet Switches
Flipper Bats
Flipper bushings
Coil Sleeves - How do you determine? (no listing online anywhere for these)
Correct plunger spring (internal and external)
The long thin (carriage) bolt at the front of the side rails (pretty sure used for earthing)

Is there a better resource than the manual for parts as it’s pretty light on. Thanks

Thanks Cotton xo (from a socially acceptable couple of metres away). Appreciate your wealth of knowledge.

Any aftermarket speaker recommendations out there for Classic Sterns? Mine has seen better days. A slight bump in resolution and performance would be great if possible given the stock amplification.

Bench grinder/polisher then alcohol to clean.

Can someone please confirm wiring on the line filter? I’m nearly completion of my Quicksilver resto. So far so good, taking pictures of absolutely everything is key... sadly I didn’t take pics of the line filter. And the wiring diagram isn’t helping me.

Brown and blue wires coming from Line Filter, with a black/green and white/yellow loose.

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The blue -> black makes sense. Is your other wire grey?

Thank you for the detailed response. So in my circumstance it appears a little back to front. I have an input of brown into the filter, output of blue & an input of blue into the filter, output of brown. To keep things neat, I'll re-wire, Blue -> Blue.... & Brown -> Brown. So going by your insights above, I should have

Blue (NEUTRAL) -> FILTER -> Blue -> White/yellow stripe
Brown (HOT) -> FILTER -> Brown -> Black/green stripe

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Tough call, both awesome games. But I’d go for it!!

Can anyone help? I turned my Quicksilver on today for the first time after a year long resto. I've converted to LEDs and added flicker eliminator kit. GI seems good, but so many of the inserts are flickering like crazy. Any thoughts? LEDs aren't anything too fancy, but they weren't cheap.

How do you mean reversed? As in it's on the right terminal but back to front?

I would have thought they'd be keyed so it could only go on one way.

My boo boo, the flicker eliminator kits power cable was connected incorrectly.

Was going to post in the Quicksilver club thread, but thought I'd have a better audience here.

So I've just finished my complete restoration, after a year long rebuild. I connected cabinet and playfield a couple of days ago, most issues have been worked out, but a few have me stumped. Hopefully you learned folk can help.

So the issues...

- When I start a game, the right return lane light "lites left spinner" is already lit.

- Right and left return lane switch (for right & left spinner) do not register.

&

- The 2 top middle lanes "I" & "U" do not register even when shorting the switch.

Wire harness was put through the dishwasher, but otherwise is unchanged from pre rebuild where it worked fine.

Wiring and diodes appear to be fine. Unsure where to look next.

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Hmm.... just had a look at Bowen's tutorial and yep you're right, both inlane lights should start on.

So the left inlane/return light not being on is actually the issue along with the inlane/return and "I" & "U" switches.

Are there any flipper experts in here? I've rebuilt my Quicksilver flippers but they lack power. I've rebuilt plenty of flippers previously, so I wasn't sure if it was simply me comparing to my more modern pins, or I'd forgotten about their lower comparable power. I've been through Vid's guide and anything else on Pinside labelled "low power flippers classic stern/bally" etc but it's made no discernible improvement.

Along with the rebuild kit, I replaced the coils, sleeves, bushings and flipper bats. Switches gapped to 3.2mm give or take a mm or 2. Silicon spray on the flipper bats and plunger. All linkages appear to move freely. I added molex plugs for convenience.

Vid of gameplay below. I compared with Bowens tutorial and in his, there is definitely more power on his.

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I’ve got 45-46v on each lug, re gapped to roughly 1.6mm and given the contacts a light sand. No discernible improvement.

I closed the gap a little further and I recon it has improved it. I still think feels a little under powered. Is 45-46v sound about right? Voltage drop from the connectors?

Awesome!! That’s what I wanted to hear, I’ll take another look this eve. I’ve never done via pushing the plunger in by hand, it makes sense

I’ve read 3.2mm gaps a couple of times which seemed excessive, especially compared to my other games.

Cheers, yep, I’ve got my gap tool for that one

I was thinking about the transformer yesterday. When I double flip, I'm getting a slight flicker on all lighting, looks like it could be a little under powered.

I'll take a look this arvo, I'd assume its the stock Quicksilver/MPU200 variety.

Looks to be missing some letters, but doesn’t look to be 16B-6.

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Thanks for the info. I don't know the full history of my Quicksilver, other than it was owned privately for the last 20-25 years. Maybe the export models were specced differently?, I'm not sure.

What would I notice with the larger power supply? Stronger pops, slings and flippers? My lights do lightly flicker when the flippers are in use, so being under powered does make sense.

I’ve been on the hunt for a coin flap for a while. Not easy to find it seems. There is an aftermarket option with Cliffy if you get stuck.

http://www.passionforpinball.com/blycoin.htm

Any chance someone can confirm which transformer this is? It has 37-7932 labelled on the side. That’s the only detail, nothing showing on top.

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Thanks Cotton, the pic was sent to me from a spare parts supplier. I’ll get those details and get back to you. Thanks!!

What makes you believe it’s 120v?

Is input voltage determinable by visual inspection?

What about the -8 transformer. I can’t find any info on it, but I’ve seen a couple of photos. There is also one for sale on eBay.

Nice detective work, what you’ve said looks correct.

Fingers crossed it turns out to be correct. The price he wants for it is a killer, but is anything cheap in pinball?!

My Quicksilver find was pure random luck, seems like making your own is the best option these days.

Yep, was thinking the same.

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.

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

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

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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

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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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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.

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?

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

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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Yep, as per manual 25-475/34-4500. Moving to a 450 would be an easy fix you’d think.

I agree completely. I don’t think I’m power hungry (maybe I am), I just have the distinct feeling something isn’t right.

I sent Ron (Slam Tilt) a message last night to confirm his setup, as it’s his streams that really show the power difference. His setup is factory like mine. Other than the usual, EOS gaps etc, he did mention the flipper bats and bushings. Although they are both new on mine, it did trigger the memory of them grating a little as the flipper was inserted in, not dropping in smoothly. There was no grating once in place, only when inserting, so there’s a chance the flipper bat had damaged the bushing.

No, I'm using the supplied nylon washer which given a few mm's clearance.

I'll look into it this weekend. A Stars turned up at my doorstep today... I reckon I'll be busy fiddling with that for while

My understanding of coil ratings is, and I’ll use the Quicksilver flipper coils as an example. 25/475-34/4500

The 25/475 relates to the power side of the coil: the 25 is the gauge wire, the 475 is how many windings.
The 34/4500 is the hold part of the coil: 34 gauge, 4500 windings.

The lower the first two numbers, the stronger the power. I think that’s it. Coils can be substituted, but will of course effect gameplay.

Haha, there’s a thought . Already got the Stars up and running. Geez the flippers on Stars make the flippers on Quicksilver feel like canons. Not sure what I’m worried about anymore

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Thanks 29, appreciate your thoughts, I’ll take a look over the weekend.

Hi all, given myself a project today of repairing a QS display. It appears to fire up, there’s an orange glow in the bottom corner, TP1 (180v) & TP2 (4.6v) appear to be within spec but no segments work. I thought it must be the decoder chip, so I replaced that with what I believe is an equivalent chip (CD4543BE) and no change. I’ve inspected the board, reflowed anything looking remotely suspect and nothing. Problem follows the display when I change it to a different position. Where can I check next? Everything I’ve searched for is for repairs when individual segments are out, not entire display.

Thank you LOTR. It’s starting to look that way as I’m running out of ideas. Everything has been reflowed, new decoder chip installed, voltage at TP1 & TP2 both good. Checked C2, R53-58. I haven’t checked any transistors but would assume the problem would be elsewhere.

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Ok

Broken trace!! Thanks Vec-tor, thanks LOTR!!

I added a leaf switch to the coin return push button which works perfectly. No extra external buttons and easily removable if needed.

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^^^ Haha, perfect emoticon

So after a few weeks of solid playing QS with the upgraded 13B-6 transformer, I'm almost certain there has been no difference in flipper strength, or any pep in performance versus the 13B-3.

One thing that I'm taking more note of, is the dimming of GI and insert lights every time I flip. I'd be surprised if it's designed this way. I can only assume there's a voltage/current drop in the system somewhere, which would account for my feeling that the flippers are a little sluggish.

Does this ring a bell for anyone?

I did see a couple of threads that do mention exactly what you’ve written and it may well be the case. I might video it as it seems quite pronounced. Along with my seemingly weak flippers and slings, something just feels amiss.

Just QS

Brand new rectifier board.

Look’n good!!

What would cause some sounds to disappear from a Classic Stern? The end of game sounds on my Quicksilver have vanished (and possibly one of two others). I thought it was cable issues (and it still might be), but after giving them the once over, everything appears to be working ok, except the end of game sequence sounds. Any thoughts on how/why it would happen?

Sound board has had all caps and header pins replaced. The cables buzzed out fine, but I suppose they're the next logical step.

Just following up on this for anyone suffering similar issues. It turned out a few of the ICs had failed on the sound board, namely a 4081, 4053 and a 4516. All replaced and working again

Looks great!! Congrats!! Are they new drops or just decals?

How well do they… drop?

Damn!!!

Hey all, my son is embarking on becoming the next Jack Danger. Still some ways to go This week we shot my recently restored Stern Quicksilver.

Given he's only just turned 7, it's more directed towards kids, but you may enjoy also. There's a couple of decent games in there, haha.

If you're kids like pinball, please subscribe and show them the link.

I posted this in the QS thread but thought I’d have a bigger audience in here.

Anyone familiar with QS and the MPU200 boardset, would you mind taking a squizz at my vid. After watching a few other QS streams, I've noticed an obvious speed change to the sound when you hit the saucer. Mine appears relatively slow in comparison. Can anyone offer their thoughts?

I’ve removed the MPU 200 and checked all the jumpers. They are all correct.

Mine also has Cheetah and Stargazer tags. I'll have to poke my head out to the shed for the #no

Where is the serial number usually located? I have the feeling mine has been filled up. I thought mine was in the lower back left corner.

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Looks like my Serial# is no more sadly My QS has moved and now jammed into the corner and access is limited, but cab serial is defo smoothed over, head box I can't get to, but assume the same :-/

I found some photos of when I bought my QS. Condition was a good starting point.

How's yours coming along??

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Gorgeous

I had my repro playfield re-cleared by Geoff up your way. Mirco clear sucks balls!! Please contact me if you decide to part ways with your Stargazer. Stars will likely be my next resto, desperate to find another Classic Stern

Well spotted. I've done my best detective work but can't decipher it... maybe 10542 ?

Taking your time for such a rare and sought after machine is the perfect restoration speed. Looking forward to seeing your progress.

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I did the same... kids still get bit if a kick pressing the reject button

Nice looking Meteor btw!!

Picked up my 3rd Classic Stern today, a Flight 2000. I wasn't looking for a pin as I seriously have zero space, but how do you knock back a well priced Classic Stern which comes up for sale not far from home. Needs a chunk of work, but it's all in tact and playable.

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Hey Richard, thanks mate, very kind of you. It defo ain't perfect, but for 42 years old, you gotta expect a few knocks and bumps hey!!?! You'll have to send me an update at some stage

Thanks Grant. It was more dumb luck that being quick haha. Wife was less than enthusiastic about it, as it's literally blocking the shed/garage door from opening properly haha... ahh dear

Yeah agree. Lose the side tanks and it'd be pretty sweet.