Gonna reach out here for some help. I have a Pin*Bot that is in great shape. I have done some work on it and it plays perfectly except for one problem which is common in these machines. When the visor opens up, if you shoot a ball up into the eye socket but it does not stay, sometimes the ball rolls back and gets caught on the track where the visor sits. After 20 seconds the auto-check kicks in and the visor raises looking for the ball but even once the visor lowers, the ball is still stuck behind the lowered visor piece. I remember this being a problem way back when this machine was in the arcades. Has anyone worked on this problem on Pin*Bot and if so can you lend me a little advice?

Thanks

It looks like the left side is fairly flush but the right is a bit high. I will look for those screws. Thanks for the reply.

That's great info Floyd. Thanks so much. That will save me some time.

Thank you posters for all your help. I found that only one adjustment screw was there. Your advice really helped. I got the screws adjusted but I have run into an additional problem. The visor, when pushed down, goes to the adjustment screws and that fixes all the problems. However, when the visor lowers, it does not go all the way down to the screws. It sits a couple MM above them, continuing to cause the problem. I am wondering if it is getting hung up on the playfield or maybe the motor is not engaging through the entire movement. Any ideas? I can push the visor (once it has lowered) to the adjustment screws but without the push it still hangs up about a MM above the playfield causing the ball to get stuck. Is there a tilt control for the target face itself?

Again, thank you for your time and advice.

I saw those 3 screws. The problem is that the stupid piece that holds the whole visor in the track is frail plastic and if you try and torque on them you may split the plastic...that is my fear. If you could send pics I would really appreciate it. I am considering yanking the whole mechanism to take a look but man...I really don't want to...

This is a very old post but I have discovered something thanks to the help of pinsideMike that may help a lot of Pinbot owners with nasty visor problems. BTW...most Pinbot owners have a visor problems.

Here is my adjustment to the Pinbot visor that fixed the problem of the ball getting stuck because of incorrect visor height.

As seen below, the bracket that holds the adjustment screws was on the other side of the motor assembly. This is switched from PinballMike's pictured above. If you tried to put this bracket on like Mike's the screws would not touch the visor target assembly at all as it lowered...so it has to be in this position. I don't know if they made different assemblies with different sized brackets or maybe the one in Mike's picture above was not on properly. More on this shortly.

Step1.jpg

When you take the whole motor assembly off, you see it is pretty simple. A motor turns with a shaft in a groove causing the entire target assembly to raise and lower. But, see this little sleeve (marked)? If your motor is grinding, it is possible this little sleeve came off the shaft.

Step2.jpg

Here you see, the motor assembly is flipped all the way over. The shaft you see (arrow) is what has the sleeve on it and turns inside the slot to raise and lower the targets and open the visor. The two adjustment screws are what "should" keep the level of the visor correct as the visor lowers. If these screws are too long, the visor won't lower all the way and you get stuck balls above the targets and may even make your motor grind. If they are too short, the visor will drop below playfield level and you get stuck balls in the groove where the targets fit in the playfield.

Step3.jpg

Here is the real design flaw. As you see in the pics below. The adjustment screws just barely touch the target assembly as it lowers. These little marks are where the screws hit the plastic piece as it drops. Sometimes they miss completely. If there is any play, they miss the plastic piece all together and target lower too far or the screw hits those wires...not good. It would be ideal for those adjustment screws to hit the target assembly somewhere in the middle of the plastic. But that is the flaw. By default, they don't.

Step4a.jpg
Step4b.jpg

So, you would think that you could just put in a spacer to push the adjustment screws back, more toward the middle of the plastic piece holding the targets, but the clearance for the motor is very small and barely enough to let the bracket clear by itself. If you put in a spacer of any kind, the shaft that spins around and hits the switches will catch on the bracket and you have a grind and burned up motor. You can also see this second shaft a picture below this one.

Step5.jpg

The solution is still to use spacers to get those adjustment screws to hit the plastic holding the targets. So, you have to raise the motor shaft assembly off of the bracket a bit. You can see a very small Allen adjustment screw. But be careful, if you raise it too much, the shaft that fits into the target assembly will fit in too tight in the groove on the target assembly and push into the plastic. This will cause the targets to raise at an angle, push against the slot in the playfield, and tear up your motor. It will also prevent that bottom shaft from hitting the switches. I raised mine just enough to fit a couple washers on the bracket and have the bottom motor shaft clear.

Step6.jpg

Here it is flipped over and you can see that I have fit a couple washers in there, but the motor will still clear the bracket when spinning and the switches are still engaged by the bottom shaft. This is the toughest part...getting the shaft assembly raised the correct amount off of the motor.

Step6b.jpg

So, I put in two washers which will cause those adjustment screws to hit the plastic target assembly very close to the middle. This means when the visor opens and the targets lower, the screws hit the plastic in the center, so the plastic does not get pushed crooked as the targets lower. This means adjusting the screw height will give you the ability to accurately determine the target height.

Step7.jpg

Here is the bracket back on the motor assembly with spacers intact.

Step8.jpg

Now, by adjusting those two screws, they hit in the middle of the plastic piece holding the targets and as they lower, I can get the target assembly to sit just right as it lowers into the playfield. No more stuck pinballs. Now we just need to get cliff to make us a Cliffy for that groove.

Step9.jpg

I hope this helps some of you with that very common visor flaw in Pinbots. Mine now plays perfectly. I played 20+ times over the last day and have not had a single stuck ball.

Glad it helped. I am going to ask Cliff to see if he can make a Cliffy for that groove.