Those multi led super brite pop bumper boards always cause buzzing in my past experience. The lighting in my SS always causes some level of hum, much less with led because it draws much less current. My personal thought is resistance in the old dirty wire harness connectors. When I first got my space shuttle the speaker hum was awful and would oscillate with the attract mode lighting sequence. After cleaning and tightening all the wire harnesses it seemed to get rid of the hum almost completely. After about 6 months to a year the hum returned somewhat but at a much more tolerable level. Cleaning the pins and connectors with contact cleaner and tightening the connectors on the wire harnesses seem to help dramatically. Monkeying around tightening and loosening and lifting the soundboard from the back box had no effect whatsoever

Thanks. Good info. I'll clean the contacts when I lift the board for my transistor repair. Yep, I fooled around tightening and lifting the sound board also to no avail. Honestly its not noticeable while playing, only when the game is sitting idle that you really hear it.

So what's the secret to removing the connectors from the Sys 9 board???? I can't get these things off. I tried inserting a little piece of plastic I made to lift the clips, but I can't get these things to budge. I'm afraid of wrecking the clips. I can see a few are already broken here and there. What's the technique or tool to use? I wasn't expecting this to slow me down.

clip (resized).jpg

Same thing I dealt with when I first got mine. Later I realized that you can just wiggle them out… left to right. Just be careful you don’t do it too much and bend the pins. Also, it’s a good idea to re-flow the solder on all the pins/connectors at the edges of the board. Over time, you can get cold (broken) solder joints on the pins from pulling the connectors on and off, especially the pins at the very ends of the connector headers.

Thanks, that got it. It was an SOB but eventually got it moving. I was a little worried to keep at it at first since I wasn't sure the clips would release. A very tiny flat head under one side to give it a nudge helped.

Have finished the restoration of my Space Shuttle, hit the start button and played my first game of Space Shuttle in 35 years

Have an enquiry though

When I first got the machine, while I couldn't play a game I was able to operate the flippers.....the flipper travel seems to great to me, meaning the flippers seemed to Max out to high

I've seen on ther games, that on the flipper assembly bracket under the playfield, that there is a little rubber stopper that the the plunger on the coil would go back to rest position......this machine didn't have them, so I put some in this machine, but playing the game last night.....the flipper Max height when activated seems too low, flippers also seem a little weak, but that may just require a stop switch adjustment

Wondering if people can enlighten me on whether these rubber stoppers are actually supposed to be present on this machine?

Have another issue, when I lock a ball it is not launching the next ball, I have exactly the same behaviour as in this thread

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/space-shuttle-lock-issue#postbox

Except I've checked closely, and all switches in the ball trough are wired as per manual, and all working at the right time......I can manually eject next ball and multiball will start once rounding the ramp....so all that is working fine though

Only thing that makes me wonder though that when doing playfield swap I found switches 11 and 12 were around the wrong way, but should only need to see a ball in switch 10 to launch next ball

Any ideas?

This other thread the fella said switch 12 is closest to the shooter lane....but in my machine and in manual it shows switch 10 closest to shooter lane, not making sence

Well.....hmm....my switches are wired as the manual says, with switch 10 closest to shooter lane, then switch 11, then switch 12 the third one along....however, discovered if I start a game, grab the ball, then with my finger mover the 2 balls in the trough back to cover switch 11 and 12......throw the ball in my hand into the lock.....it will then try to launch a ball......same again, if I take the next ball, told the last ball over switch 12, the third one back from shooter lane, throw ball in lock, it will try to launch the next ball.....

Wierd

EDIT......ignore this post......thread I linked to is correct, switch 12 must be closed to launch next ball after lock.....manual shows switch 10 as being closest to shooter lane, but this is not correct, switch 12 must be closest to shooter lane

I found the same issue with the flippers. I took the rubber off the bracket and it made for better flipper travel. It makes it up the ramp where as before it didn't very well but it could have been due to the degree I have it at. I find no rubber gives it enough power to make the ramp at a steeper degree. Either way I would recommend taking off the rubber.

New to space shuttle, when I start a game the right sling engages right away, anyone know the problem or what transistor drives the right sling coil?

What do you mean by "engages"? Does it fire once, twice, continually? Usually if it just fires a single time or a couple times without actually hitting the sling, I would say the simple answer is check the gapping on the switches. Take the glass off and bang the playfield near the sling and see if it fires. If it does, then the leaf switches need adjusting. Any playfield vibration can make a switch fire if the gap is too close.

Apologies if I'm misunderstanding or stating the obvious.

Sorry, meant it locks on

That's driven by Q77.

Thanks transistor is testing fine but I have continuity between ground and the orange and red wire which is a “special switch connection” according to the schematic, not sure where to go from here, any guidance is appreciated

Lock ons like that are usually a bad transistor. They’re cheap and easy to replace. Try changing it and see what happens after that.

The key statement here is "start a game". If the solenoid immediately energizes when the game is powered on then it is more likely to be the drive transistor (or the pre-drive transistor or the digital logic output pin driving the pre-drive transistor). If the solenoid only energizes when the a game is started (or you enter diagnostics) then it is more likely to be the special solenoid trigger (playfield switch). There is a signal (EN) that disables the special solenoid triggers when the game is not active (or not in diagnostics).

More information. Good.

The special solenoids energize when the corresponding special solenoid trigger (playfield switch) closes. These switches are ORG-XXX wires on the supply side and (typically) WHT on the ground side. If you have continuity between the ORG-RED and GND then check the physical trigger (playfield) switch. If the leaves are not in contact then pull 1J18 from the board and check for continuity between the ORG-RED and WHT wires (in the connector). If you have continuity go back and look at the playfield wiring or the switch leaves. If you lose continuity (in the connector) then check for continuity between the corresponding pin (in 1J18) for ORG-RED and GND.

"Shotgunning" or guessing is generally not a good way to diagnose the cause of a problem. I would wager that changing the drive transistor does not help in this scenario because there is not enough evidence to indicate the drive transistor is the cause.

I have the board off the game and still have continuity between ground and where the orange red blush into board. Everything looks like it should under the game. Yes this is locking on when I start a game or entering diagnostics. Have continuity c57 is testing open right now also which is going to the orange red connection also

9066E99C-1560-4302-9E33-F6F1DDD5B9A8 (resized).jpeg

So to confirm ... with the board isolated you have continuity between 1J18-3 and GND (any point connected to the ground plane)?

If so there isn't a lot connects to 1J18-3.

sst2.jpg

C57 is indicated as red in the diagram because you say that there is no continuity (tests open). This is expected and correct.

The only other place that is connected is U7-5. You can check that is continuous with GND. It's likely you have a bad 7402 at U7 and you will need to replace that IC.

Meant there is continuity on c57

E3257BB1-B1A1-4241-8940-364002444CBC (resized).jpeg

Test the other capacitors there. They should all test the same = no continuity. This is just verification that there is indeed a difference in the SST2 circuit.

Unfortunately, you can't tell if the capacitor is bad or if U7 is bad. The continuity to GND could be through the capacitor or through the IC. Capacitors rarely go bad but it's a simple and cheap component to replace if you want to check. You can also cut the leg not connected to GND, lift it out and re-test actual continuity through the capacitor (measure from the cut lead to GND). If continuity is shown the capacitor is bad. Otherwise test continuity from the pad of the cut leg to GND. If there is continuity then the path to GND is through U7. In this case you will need to replace U7.

That’s the only one that tests like, thanks for the help, will report back when I get back to it

This is the U7 chip, looking for a new one through pinballlife and Marco but part numbers are not the exact same, is there a one that can be used for this with a different part number?

5C825F21-6D70-4AD2-92A0-A03709DA8CCC (resized).jpeg

That is Texas Instruments SN7402N. You can search for "7402". Do NOT use 74LS02.

This is NOT an endorsement of any merchant. The order of the listed merchants is also not an endorsement or should not be considered preference.

• https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/7402
• https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/texas-instruments/SN7402N/1575110
• https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Texas-Instruments/SN7402N?qs=QViXGNcIEAuGgIUBg6L9Pw%3D%3D
• https://www.newark.com/texas-instruments/sn7402n/ic-logic-74-nor-gate/dp/64AH8747

And probably a bunch of other merchants as well.

Hi guys, I've drilled out locks before and I need to do it on the backbox, is that any different then with any other game? Thanks

Have you tried picking it? They are usually very easy to pick. Also, double check that one of your other pins doesn't have the same keyed lock, many are the same.

I've tried all that, this is the only older game I have so this is the only older key design I have.

It was the u7 chip, replaced and working as it should, thanks for all the help

I'm in the process of reassembling a Space Shuttle that I didn't disassemble. I've found pictures of pretty much everything I've needed so far but I can't fine anything that show's how the speaker panel and glass channel go mount to the bottom of the head. I was going to take a guess at it but thought someone might have a few pictures that shows how that hardware mounted. Any help would be appreciated.

Let me know if you need any others.

2316F033-B298-4C59-9BE0-AB41673DE943 (resized).jpeg

819666AD-35F1-44CC-9A15-A3991317B0F4 (resized).jpeg

504D830B-F69A-4DA9-BB64-DE0294933026 (resized).jpeg

Perfect. Thank you very much.

Hey everyone, so I’ve been looking at getting a hardtop and now wondering if I have the hot dog or non hot dog version. I originally just assumed mine was the hot dog version, but upon close inspection I do have three inserts in there. So does that make mine the non hot dog version? Is that whole thing one giant insert for some people? I’m not sure what the exact difference is now. Haha, thanks.

FD2EAC1A-1027-4D9B-AE9A-D430E57394A5 (resized).jpeg

That is the non hotdog version.

Ok, that’s what I thought. Thanks!

I'm ending my mission. Know anybody who wants to prepare for liftoff?

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/for-sale-trade-space-shuttle-williams-1984-working-100

Thanks,
-Jason

What's the difference between them?, didn't know there were 2 different versions....

The "hotdog" version has two single insert lenses shaped like hotdogs where the "Space" and "Shuttle" lettering is printed.
The "non-hotdog" version, shown above, has three smaller circular inserts under each word.
Apparently, Williams ran out of the hotdog shaped inserts and switched to the round ones during production.

I have a bad PIA on my Space Shuttle MPU board, and that resulted in hearing some sounds from Comet and another game. That leads be to wonder - on a System 6 game, you could hear non-game sounds by grounding various combinations of the input pins to hear sounds that the game normally wouldn't trigger. Is there a similar way we can manually trigger the sounds on a Sys 9 MPU board to see what else is on the sound ROM?

For comparison to the above photo.

B93EF0C8-398A-4A92-8FED-94E80BAEABAF (resized).jpeg

Thank you. I hadn’t realized before that I actually had the non-hotdog version!

I picked up yet another space shuttle (my 3rd over the years) and this one has a unique problem. The previous owner installed a hard top and replaced the flippers with lightning flippers. 800C0FEC-8EBB-4C41-B0A1-2CE7B00A2C1C (resized).jpeg

I think this combo may have made the game almost unplayable. I’d like to think I’m a little better than the average player, but I can’t get a 3 ball game score over 500,000 on this machine. I’ve never had a space shuttle play this tough.

What would the lightning flippers change?

Slightly shorter in length

You might want to check your spinner and see how freely it actually spins. That may make a difference. My game has a spinner that doesn't spin that well. I intentionally will not tune it up because it makes it harder to put up huge scores. Breaking a million does not happen very often on my game and I'd say I'm a little better than average player as well.

Most people just try to knock down the drops to increase the spinner value then just rip it over and over. Makes the game pretty boring if you ask me. On our league machine, you can hit the spinner and the ball will go through the roll overs and pop bumpers and back to the flippers and the spinner will still be spinning.

I'm in the process of reassembling a SS I got in boxes many months ago. I'm starting to work on the power circuit. I see many pictures of the backbox where the rectifiers are mounted on the right side of the backplane. The backplane I have has holes near the bottom where the rectifiers were previously installed. Also, on my backplane there are standoffs approximately where I see rectifiers located in other pictures I've scrounged up on the internet. Should the rectifiers be on those standoffs (doesn't seem likely) or were there two different orientations in SS heads?

SpaceShuttleRectifiers1 (resized).jpg

SpaceShuttleRectifiers2 (resized).jpg

Don't mount them to the studs, they will run very hot. They need to be mounted to the backplane because they use it as a heat sink (add compound). Location doesn't really matter (you can drill new holes), just put them in a spot where the wires reach and leave a spot to add the two fuses for the bridges.

I figured I shouldn't mount them to the studs but I thought I should ask to make sure. I looked up the fuses for the bridges on pinwiki. Thanks for the tip, I hadn't known that!!!

To answer you're last question, yes there were two versions of Space Shuttle back boxes. Williams was originally using up last of what they had on building SS.

Hi guys, looking for a few ideas. My friend’s SS won’t boot up . Works great with my mpu in it. His mpu is displaying a “7” on it instead of “0”. Any ideas would be appreciated . He has replaced the crystal and a few parts already with no luck

7 is a catch all code for the board can't boot and operate normally. Your best bet if are not experienced with board repair is to send it out to be fixed.

Will change C9 in the reset section first. If that doesn’t work , my friend will send it out for repair. Thanks for your good advise

I need a Backglass for my #Space Shuttle. I see some complaints about CPR glass, Does anyone know if PPS sells the CPR glass, or is it made by someone else? I am looking for real mirror if possible.