Space Shuttle crew members' club - prepare for liftoff!

I've been soldering for a while, I do some board repairs, I've done playfield swaps, hardtop installations, etc. That being said, the kit is very straight forward. All you are basically doing is inserting components and connectors through the holes in the circuit board and dropping solder on each pin/hole. It's more tedious than anything but slow and steady wins the race. A good soldering iron definitely helps. I have a decent Weller with with a temperature adjustment but I did three playfield swaps with a cheap, crappy iron (not recommended).

I've installed them in my BK (red) and SS (blue). Personally, if you are going to update yours, I would seriously consider the blue ones. Picture doesn't do them justice...

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I need to get out more, didn't even know these were a thing. With all of the Blues going on, I can easily see those looking right at home on this tittle. Nice touch.

Here's the kit, really not that difficult to put it all together just a lot of soldering...

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I just checked these out on their website, assembly looks pretty straight forward. One question, they mentioned you have to disconnect them from the high voltage. What do they tie into @ 5 Volts?

Yup, that's the beauty of them. No need for high voltage, you get to pull the fuse. There is still 5v coming through the original connector from your power supply. I did this years ago with the Xpin displays that I bought for my Firepower. I went with Wolffpac this time for BK and SS. He gives you a choice of a few colours as well.

The other thing most people forget is that if you have a working set of original displays you can always sell them off and put that money towards your new ones!

I recouped almost my entire purchase price for Xpin displays in my High Speed by selling off my original displays (one of which didn't work). Seems silly to me, but some people demand original and will pay for it....

That soldering gives me nightmares though, I think I'm down with the extra cost of just buying Xpin lol

Thanks for the info, I could definitely see this as a nice addition to my machine someday, not around the corner but definitely down the road a bit. Offsetting the cost by selling The Originals is a great idea. I have fairly limited experience soldering on the boards but would definitely step up to this challenge to capture that blue. Like the rug from the great Lebowski, I can see this really tying everything together for me. So you have xpins and wolfpacs, do the xpin displays seem, skinnier or not as bright. Something about them seems a little off from the original displays.

Xpin do seem like they would definitely be any easier installation, but I don't think they have the blues available. I think you can get a clear and then a blue vinyl film. I think I'd rather walk the extra mile and get the blue displays.

I have Blue led displays from Pinscore. Sold the originals (with one dead display) which covered most of the upgrade I believe. No soldering.

My shuttle came with rottendog displays.. Not a fan, but I'm too deep in this thing already, I'm not gonna mess with it lol

I recently assembled these white displays from Pinitech (not Pintech). They came with colored acetate to make the pinkish-purple. They are dimmable, which I like a lot. Easy to solder, just time-consuming. This is my 3rd set and I like them.

https://www.pinitech.com/products/ballystern_display_traditional.php

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My Xpins have the dimmer on them which is nice but I've never touched it once since my initial install. The soldering is a bit mindless but I've dealt with worse. Have nothing but time on my hands right now and with sports back on I can watch the Raptors and Leafs while I work.

Can someone tell me why the fresh hell is it so hard to crack even 1.5mil on this damn table? Is this thing just a brutal side draining MF?! I don't hardly ever nudge, is it absolutely key for shuttle? I'm focusing on trying to sweep the drops and juice the spinner, and I've only cracked 2 mil a COUPLE of times. It's my only pin where I feel completely hopeless of ever coming even close to the factory high score, and it drives me absolutely bonkers.

Also, does anyone else notice the edges of their plastics getting beat all to hell? Mine seem to shed a lot on the edges.. Not sure if I just have a cheap repro set or what..

Of course you want to keep knocking the targets down to increase the spinner value but getting that right hand gate open is just as important. That eliminates one possible drain. And every shot around the top gives you a chance to work on increasing the multiplier. I find that strategy works really well. I don't worry too much about multi-ball. I'll take the locks when I get them but I don't particularly aim for them. The drop target in the middle can be a death shot.

I'm a nudger for sure. Apparently from what others tell me, more than I actually think.

And if you want to see a nasty drain machine from that era, play Firepower a bit more...

They both look good, it would just depend on how bright you turn up the dimmer on the Xpins. The Wolffpacs don't have that option but I wasn't really concerned about it.

If you pick white Xpin displays they come with coloured gels and are $289, almost twice the price of the Wolffpacs. If you are traditionalist (I am not) and must have orange, then the Xpins are $199.

The Wolffpacs are $150 but the actual number segments are the colour you choose and Dave doesn't charge a different price. He will ship you 1 or 2 sets for $12 which seems like a pretty good price.

I don't think you can go wrong with either manufacturer, or some of the others mentioned here. Just depends on whether you care to spend a few hours soldering to save $50 to $100 per set. With the exchange rate in Canada, the savings are a bit more.

Apparently some people find soldering for hours therapeutic...

This has been my strategy too -- smash those drop targets to keep the airlock open and increase the spinner value, then keep ripping that spinner and build the multiplier. I'll shoot for the shuttle ramp when it happens to be open (balls locked or not), or shoot for the SHUTTLE targets if a major prize is lit, but otherwise ... as someone said to me when I bought the game, "just rip that spinner all day long"!

I take a different approach when it comes to this game. I totally agree with all the previously mentioned strategies especially keep that airlock open at all costs and of course rip the spinner for Points. But for me my first priority is locking and loading for multi-ball. So much so I set a personal challenge to myself each time I'm starting a game. I try to achieve a 3 ball multi-ball in 5 shots or less (stop shots and passes don't count). For me it just seems like simple math,more balls equal more points. All of the basic strategies still apply, you just have more to work with to achieve them. Once my USA values are five times or higher or the drop targets have been knocked down four times is when I start taking those shots really seriously too advance for the extra ball bonuses. Simple tip to to keep the multi-ball going, any of those half ass shots up the center ramp that are going to come back down at you will inevitably find their way right down the Center, as that plunger doesn't raise for your miss-fires during multi-ball. By using your other balls in play ,make that ball coming back at you the target and mess with its trajectory so it doesn't end up right down the center. Anyway that's what works for me, in fact I just cracked 5 million for the first time sense dialing all the settings back to factory presets. Just keep flippin.

Strategies aside, could you post a picture of what's going on with your Plastics. Would be curious to see which ones and where they're wearing. Also, I'm not much of a nudger.

haha, thats me man. when i got my Wolffpac for my FP i was in bliss for about 80 minutes.

Oh yes, the death shot. Funny how this shot transcends both time and international boundaries apparently. Have been referring to this as the death shot since playing this machine in the wild in the late 80s at our local bowling alley. You would think by now I would have learned, but no. So here's a little story of a 450000 point death shot. I'm playing a couple weeks ago, I have the ball cradled with my left flipper and I'm checking out the table for the optimum shot. The center "t" is flashing for the extra hundred thousand points, and the shuttle award is the light outside Lane + 100000 points. The little voice in my head tells me not to do it, but I can't resist the 200,000 easy points. I Hammer the "t" shot and of course it's an immediate airball straight to the left out lane. The good news is that the next shuttle bonus that came up in succession was the special, so an extra 250,000 points because the outline was now lit. One shot, 450,000 points, good for me, not so much , that was ball 5. Game over man, have Grandma bring the car around to give you a ride home. The death shot, live by It, Die by it, but don't learn from it.

Probably just cheap crappy plastics. Pretty sure they were 'new' when I bought the machine. Bah.

Last picture shows what ends up being shed onto the playfield.

As for strategy, maybe I just suck. Seems I'm almost guaranteed to have two out of three balls be utterly terrible (usually awful side drains it seems) which hinders me from having any terribly good scores. But I can certainly do 700-1.3m on a single ball.. Just can't seem to string em together!

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I think you might be right about the Plastics, if they weren't Preped properly before the silk screening I could see where it could be causing the flaking. The other thing,( and I'm just talking out of my ass now) is that you've got the acorn nuts holding them in place. I don't know how tight those are, I've always used the rubber post caps to hold them in place. It may be that if they're too tight it makes the plastic too rigid. Without that little bit of wiggle room, Something's Gotta Give and in your case it's the printing. At least it's all just along the edges, and could be touched up with some black and red enamel paint applied to the backside.
As far as your scoring issue goes, you're onto something there also. It's not in any of the manuals but the unwritten rule of space shuttle is... that you can't have two good balls in a row.

Can I assume than anyone that has a new ramp installed had problems with trying to reattach the acorn nuts and stuff that hold the ramp and other plastics in place? I noticed in ksuwildcatfan's pictures above that there is a machine screw going through the plastic.

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I had to shave off the tops of a couple of the star posts to get the metal flaps to come close to playfield level. I'm not sure if the hardtop is adding to this but it shouldn't because the additional height is consistent across the entire playfield. I think it's just the added thickness of the ramp.

Can anyone confirm/deny this? Any other suggestions on how to remedy the problem?

Thanks!

Can some of you please post a pic of your flippers activated, at full extension? I’m curious what the full range of motion should be on these. My buddy is comparing them to my Junkyard’s range.
Thanks!

Here's a flipper shot, hope this helps. Can you Maybe post a picture or what your machine ended up looking like after that hardtop install.

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Kansas? Or Missouri?!

AHAHAHA! Touche.

Eugene is good people. I haven't blown anything up yet but I'm sure he'll get some more crap from me soon enough lol

Thanks, Apinjunkie, for the picture.
My buddy was right, I did not have the full range of flipper motion. At this point, after some troubleshooting, I’m blaming it on the coil stops. The flipper kit I ordered from Pinball Resource was supposed to have the shortest coil stop (8.4mm) but, we agree, we’ve both seen shorter (he’s been teching for 40 years) He is borrowing my game because it’s his wife’s absolute favorite game and today is her birthday so he really wanted it dialed in right. (I.e. easier ramp shot )
He didn’t have shorter coil stops on hand and my stash is at my shop far away so he made up for it by removing the rubber bumper the flipper pawl rests against (also included in the PBR rebuild kit), 3D printing and installing one half as thick, and resetting the flipper rest position and now it matches your range. A 1.5 mm difference in bumper thickness made a huge difference.

If anyone is interested, according to the Pinball Resource, flipper coil stops that work in our mechanisms have the following height:
A10821 (Short) .330 (8.4mm)
A12111 (Med) .370 (9.4 mm)
A12390 (Tall). .420 (10.7 mm)

I’m hoping I have some shorter than 8.4 mm, if not, maybe try shorter flipper plungers?

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Anyone sitting on a plastic set they want to part with? Finally getting around to my SS with a hardtop and new plastics would finish it nicely.

If you want a new set, just order them from CPR. I'm guessing most people here that have done any type of restore, such as myself, may have an old set sitting around because we did the replacement. I doubt you want an old set because the odds are there are probably a few pieces that are chipped or cracked.

And to be honest with you, my old set has a pretty funky smell to them. Not sure what that's all about!

Can someone help me out? I've been trying to figure out what size the 3 machine screws are that hold in the ramp. They attach to the 3 support posts and are black with a lock washer on them. With my new ramp, they aren't long enough to get through both pieces of plastic so I need something slightly longer. I spent some time last night looking the Planetary Pinball parts book and the Space Shuttle manual and I can't track them down.

Maybe I'm just blind or I'm looking for the wrong thing. If anyone knows what size they are and could share, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks!

Good luck on this Quest, I ran into the same problem when it came time to reattach my ramp after the hardtop install. One of the posts was stripped on the inside and the other had a screw sheared off inside of it. Couldn't find anything for reference for the posts or screws in the manual. At the end of the day I had a friend with a machine shop re-tool the parts. Ended up with silver screws but just black enameled the tops of them so they don't jump out at you. I would also be curious to know if there's an actual part number for these screws or for the Posts they go into. Good luck.

Oh boy, if I had a nickel every time I heard that said to me over the years.

I'm still hunting for the right screws for those posts. I honestly believe they are 6-32s but the posts have been stripped or cross threaded over the years. I'm going to go get some slightly longer ones so they pass through the plastics and the thicker new ramp and put them them in. If I have to force them, at least I know they will stay in place.

If I can figure out what the part numbers are for the posts, I might just order 3 new ones and see what screws fit into the tops of them. The lengths are listed here, too bad the machine screw info wasn't included.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ramp-post-sizes-for-space-shuttle

Update:

Screw it, literally! I'm thinking the folks at Pinball Life know a thing or two. I'm just gonna use 6-32 screws and be done with it. From their site:

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Then this happened.

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So I just noticed in your picture that there is a nail in the playfield that stops air lock gate from swinging too far into the inlane. Is this normal on everyone's games? There wasn't one on mine or a spot for it on the hardtop.

Thanks!

It's my understanding that most of the machines had these Posts in place from the factory although there was a number of them that didn't use them either. My guess is they were using the version you have when they prototyped the hardtop. One of the few holes I had to drill manually into the hardtop. So what stops the gate on your machine?

I'm not quite done my restore yet as I'm waiting for a few post rubbers to arrive but during my test games (and I've played quite a few as I can't resist), the gate basically stops in the right spot when it closes. I just figured if you align and set it up properly, it should stop in the right spot because the coil arm only allows a certain amount of travel.

If I'm not mistaken, when the coil is energized, the gate is open. When power is cut off, the spring pulls on the arm and closes it and it comes to rest between the in-lane and out-lane. Perhaps I have it backwards.

I haven't tried to force it beyond its closed position so I'm not sure why it needs the nail to stop it.

I could easily be wrong, wouldn't be the first time...

I believe you're spot-on in that statement. The key however is properly setting it up. That mech can be a pain in the ass to get adjusted properly, it may just be that the post was added to give the operators a little more wiggle room. Just thinking out loud.

Has anyone experienced this sound problem before video has been linked to the sound it was making. Today I messed with it some more sound went out completely. Just want to see if anyone has some tips before I send the boards out for repair thanks.

Back in the day, if Williams was smart, they would have just made the ball guide above the gate a little longer so that it would be stopped by the post closest to it. I think the outlane is wide enough that the ball would still drain without getting caught up in that spot.

Personally, I had zero issues getting it adjusted properly. Maybe that was just dumb luck! I'm sure if I have to do anything with it, it will become a pain in the ass for me!

Dumb question but how do you enter sound test on space shuttle thanks

Edit i figured it out