Your wire order, color and placement match my "Transformer Schematic General Use" for J1.

I think the nylon spacer on the long blade of the upper flipper switch should be touching the long blade of the lower flipper switch at rest. Yours has a big gap and may be allowing the long blade of the lower flipper switch to oscillate when actuated. Look at the right flipper switch stack in this photo and you can see that there's no gap at rest:

https://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=1580&picno=32849&zoom=1

It's worth a try to adjust the entire lower (main) flipper switch pair upward (as viewed in your photo) so that at rest, it's touching the nylon spacer on the other switch.

I know what you're saying! Still, it looks right and works right - that ain't too bad.

Sorry to interrupt (I'm interested in the rectifier board discussion too), but...

My F2K slingshot kicker islands are held to the playfield by machine screws which pass through star posts from under the playfield. Underneath, mine have a pair of jam nuts and a phillips head on the machine screw. On top they do not have the nut shown in these photos. Both pics are of a "standard" F2K, I think - not mine.

My machine screws wiggle in their holes; should I have something other than the machine screws, or can I add nuts to the top? Would that still allow acorn nuts to fit on last?

F2KNutAnnot (resized).jpgF2KSlingAnnot (resized).jpg

I think this is what's supposed to be installed, but where do you recommend getting it? PBR is out of stock:

Post (resized).jpg

Regarding my clingshot kicker bolt question - thanks for the helpful advice! I'll study it later today.

One question, though - If Stern originally used carriage bolts passed up through star posts from below, did they put a metal nut on top and then an acorn nut?

Thanks!

Resuming the sub-thread re: my wiggly slingshot post screws (sorry for the Mirco de-rail):

Comparing what you explained to me about original Stern carriage bolts, I see what a previous owner of my F2K did. He replaced carriage bolts with 2.5" 6-32 machine screws, jam nuts and washers. Oddly, 3 of the 4 sling islands have no nuts on top of the star posts, just acorn nuts on top of the plastics. I imagine that helped get the playfield holes out of round sooner.

Anyway, what if I wood-glue dowels into the oval holes, redrill the holes, then use the machine screws with t-nuts below the playfield? I can add 6-32 hex nuts above the star posts and finish with acorn nuts on top of the plastics.

IMG_2492 (resized).JPGIMG_2494 (resized).JPG

IMG_2497 (resized).JPG

Ditto that from me as well.

Thanks for the help, cottonm4 - maybe some day I'll see your Star Gazer when I'm in Wichita. That's one of the most beautiful early Sterns, for sure.

Yeah... well, I did. Retired now and enjoying fooling with old games.

Good - thanks. I'll pick up some T-nuts today.

One time Butch Peel told me "always look at the simplest, earliest on the schematic, mechanical things first". That's a wild paraphrase, but you get the idea.

We raise a glass of NuWay root beer in salute! Your honesty does us all good, since we've each done some *#@&! thing like it.

NuWay (resized).jpeg

I agree - posting a problem and then dropping the thread is a pain. We'll be happy to join you at NuWay (Douglas?) next visit!

Another Harry Williams design, right?

Wow, that's coming along nice!

In the background of photo #7 (with the laptop showing inserts) there's a white pinball machine with what looks like a red and blue scuba diver on it. (The machine would be straight across from your booth on the far side of the hall.) What is that? I don't recognize it.

Ohhhhh! That's a cool looking machine.

Stern drops appear here often, either bricking or falling off on their own. My F2K 3-drop was doing the latter and it appears it was due to the plunger stop. The plunger would hit the stop just as the targets were reaching the ledge. The 5-drop plunger could lift the targets 1/8" or so above the ledge before hitting the stop.

I compared the stop with one from a Bally 3-drop unit. The holes are drilled about 1/16" too far in the direction of the arrows in the photo, as compared to the Bally. It made for a compressed spring washer and very tight solenoid fit.

With the Bally stop installed and spring washer free to do its job, the targets seem to reset and hold properly. One more thing to check if your targets are falling on their own.

Stop (resized).JPG

A small number of solenoid coils in my F2K have spring washers installed. Most don't.

Did Stern put 'em in originally? If so, to what purpose?

Thanks!

Thanks!

Sorry to interrupt, but...

Further my education please: under what circumstances would you replace an original Stern SDU board with an aftermarket one?

I was unclear (I think) - I meant the Solenoid Driver board. Does it have something to do with sound as well?

Thanks! And, congratulations on your Stargazer. I got to play one at my friend James' house recently - it's a beautiful and fun game.

I'm right behind you, lowbeau67 - I'll take what arrows don't hit you first. We have, and enjoy, a pretty old Flash. Talk about an underappreciated game!

Funny, isn't it. The market is sort of self-leveling. When we restored our Bally Sea Ray, we used parts from a dead Circus. It donated its backglass to someone else and its cabinet to yet a third collector. It lives on, so to speak, in the form of a bunch of organ transplants.

My upper left sling does the same thing, but only since I replaced the original solenoid driver board with a new Alltek one. You guys have helped me try numerous possible fixes, but so far, the phantom kicks persist. I believe this really is a feature of '79-'80 vintage Sterns.

I'm going to look to see if there's a solder tab in contact with any bracket just to be thorough. Still, if that was the case, it should've fired the sling with the original Stern solenoid driver board too.

My game is F2K, with Alltek MPU, SDU and Lamp Driver boards. It had a LOUD burp on power-up and no upper left sling phantom kicks before I replaced the SDU with a new Alltek one. Now it doesn't burp, but it does phantom kick.

I think that's a pretty good trade, honestly.

I don't have a way to burn ROMs, so I'm happy to live with it and participate in this discussion.

The camp out is Far Out! It's also Far UP! Do you guys build rest breaks into the day's activities for people to catch their breath?

The steeper you set your playfield, the faster the ball will move downward (toward the flippers) and slower it will move upward. If your playfield has slingshot kickers that face each other, like Flight 2000, steep playfields goof up how those kickers interact.

It's my preference to set the playfield angle lower, to allow kickers and pop bumpers to work the ball back-and-forth faster. Everyone (honest!) who plays my 70s-vintage games comments on how fast they play, and they're all set so the bottom of the cabinet is nearly level.

Experiment with lower angles and see what you think.

I'm going with choice "D".

That's gonna' look real nice when you get done. How long do you figure it will take, and are you using (pick one):

1) One rotisserie

2) Two rotisseries

3) Other (undoubtedly unique and clever)

Here's a thread on bending new wire for old spinners:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/is-there-a-way-to-add-wire-on-spinner

If you look closely, you'll see that the wire doesn't actually go through the spinner, but around - in a groove.

Check the back side of your solenoid driver board for cracked solder on the connectors. That will cause the reset impulse to the solenoid to be too short to get the drops up sufficiently.

Intermittent contact! Good catch.

...and probably a paper mask. That rust dust is pervasive and you can taste it for quite a while afterward.

Did you find a spot somewhere else where the previous owner had moved the on/off toggle? Maybe his grandkids were as good as mine at finding power switches.

For easy confirmation, lightly touch the coil once that flipper's started getting weak - it will be obvious if it's overheated.

Well, wolftownjeff and I had a little side discussion which led to no improvement in his circumstance. Sometimes two brains aren't better than one.... I'll let him describe things as they now stand.

Hey @chuckwurt, what did the lamp flicker look like? Did all the GI lamps blink in unison?

Different subject:

Have you ever seen factory documentation on how to set playfield pitch on these early Sterns? I know we each have our own preference, but what did the factory recommend?

I'm gonna get one of those clinometers that cover 0 to 10 degrees. I know when my games play the way I like 'em to, but I'm curious what pitch(es) that may be.

Clinometer (resized).jpg