I think I used a Dremel with a cone shaped grinding bit. Put the tip into the opening as if you are drilling it out. You can grind away enough and the bell should fall out.

dremel_stone (resized).JPG

You could also use a sharp drill bit that is slightly larger than the opening for the bell. It would take off the rounded over piece.

Keep an eye on this thread, he says he will be making them at some point... https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/freeplay40-ramps

Where'd you get your new shuttle from? I can only find one place that is selling them...

And I was just checking CPR's site and they have new mirrored backglasses in stock!

https://classicplayfields.com/shop/pinball-backglasses/shuttleglass/

I have my hardtop sitting in a box waiting for install. I can scan the areas you are looking for and send them to you if you can't work with what beatmaster sent you.

Just let me know.

Sent you a PM with a link. Here it is in case anyone else needs it. Just took some pictures of a second Space Shuttle I have at home...

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ohEaMKurRYFnv1ch7

No problem. If anyone else needs anything, just let me know and I will post them up.

Any switches not registering, I would check the connectors in the back box to start off with. I was just working on a friends SS and the balls wouldn't eject from the locks. A little wiggling of the wires and presto, out they came. I will replace that connector when I get a chance.

I was getting some strange sound issues. I found a few links that suggested replacing the 6810 IC located at U12. This fixed my sound completely.

Can't help you on the displays other than to suggest the obvious, re-seat the connectors.

I'd say yes. I had to re-pin a connector in my Firepower a couple of years ago because the response from certain switches was wonky. See the connector on the right. Works like a charm...

new_connector (resized).jpg

For those looking for a replacement ramp, it looks like Larry at Starship Fantasy may be getting ready to start making them again. You might want to watch this thread...

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/new-ramps-by-starship-fantasy/page/3#post-5311852

I'm going to hardtop my Space Shuttle. The playfield is absolutely roached and there are all sorts of things that need work underneath the playfield. I have the hardtop, new plastics, new backglass, new pop bumper parts, new flipper mechs and a new shuttle. I'm patiently waiting for Starship Fantasy to FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY start producing the ramp again! That's the missing piece and Larry has said that he will be doing them soon (whatever that means).

I have a Black Knight with a hardtop on it and I've been playing it for about a year. I don't see any issues and it plays very well. It's a great way to revive a game that won't get any love because of it's playfield but some people will complain that it doesn't play the same. They're entitled to their opinion.

I love those clear pop bodies. I bought them for mine as well. I'm sure they will look great when I eventually get around to installing the hardtop. Where did you find the clear skirts? I don't think my supplier has those.

Hello folks,

I'm doing a hardtop install on my Space Shuttle and gathering bits and pieces as I go. I know that I can buy drop target stickers but it's just as easy for me to print a set. I'm not particularly fond of the satellite dish and I think the star and stripes was the one that the game shipped with originally. I figure they will work better with this colour scheme anyway.

IMG_20200518_1709592 (resized).jpg

Does anyone have a good scan of a set or know where I can find a good image? It really wouldn't be that hard to recreate them as they are fairly simple but I figured this would save some time.

Almost forgot, looking for a scan of the spinner as well. I can grab one of mine but again, no point in re-inventing the wheel and all that stuff...

Thanks!

Thanks!

The colour matches really well. Maybe $15 worth of material. A piece of 1/2"x3"x48" oak hobby board from HD and a can of spray paint. Did the same with my Firepower and Black Knight but went with straight black on those.

Appreciate the compliment! Hoping it all comes together. I've gone through most of the pages on this thread for suggestions. Just to set things straight have a look at this from the flyer posted on ipdb.org...

pasted_image (resized).png

To me, this is a red, white and blue game so I think the original stickers will look better. I'm obviously going to do the pops red/white/blue and I will do the 3 spinner arrows the same way. Not sure what else I could add, I just want to keep it tasteful. I thought about a clear ramp with a dye job but I figured I'd go with the stock black.

No real mystery here, I have plenty of friends south of the border!

For any of you that purchased a new ramp from Starship Fantasy, have you had any fitment issues? Did you have to trim any areas of the ramp to make it fit better? I realize that the original playfields were made in different factories and specs were not exactly the same from game to game but I'm noticing some spots, specifically around the spinner and the top right pop bumper where a bit more clearance might be necessary. I may even need to shave the tops off some plastic posts so that the ramp entrances sit flush with the playfield and can be screwed in place.

I do understand that some of the issues I'm experiencing are the result of a hardtop install which adds a bit of height to the playfield but this change should be consistent everywhere so it really shouldn't be a factor. And I know that the new ramp is also thicker than the original. I did swap out every post in the game for new ones but I didn't measure to see if there is any difference in height between old and new.

Just looking for feedback from others that have installed new ramps.

Thanks!

Here's something I thought about AFTER I put down my hardtop. Remove the 3 green USA inserts above the rollover lanes and replace them with clear regular or starburst inserts. I've always thought the green didn't make the most sense for those. If you put clear ones in there you have a lot more options. You can just put in green bulbs for the "traditional" look or perhaps red/white/blue or other colours.

I replaced all my posts and lane guides with clear and I did my pops red/white/blue along with the spinner arrows. I will leave the GI white for now.

spaceshuttle1 (resized).jpg

spaceshuttle2 (resized).jpg

I'm not a traditionalist so I don't mind making changes as long as they are tasteful. Well, tasteful to me at least!

SSpaint (resized).jpg

Every game I do any type of restore on gets new oak rails. I just get some hobby oak from Home Depot, cut it size with my table saw, a bit of sanding a few coats of paint and it's good to go. This blue matched the game really nicely.

I also bought a set of blue LED displays from Wolfpac Tech (www.wolffpactech.com) and I have to say they look amazing! As long as you can do some basic soldering you can put them together. It's an easy upgrade plus you don't have to use the high voltage section of your power supply as these run off 5v.

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...

SS_displays (resized).jpg

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

SS_kit1 (resized).jpg

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!

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.

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...

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.

ssramp (resized).png

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!

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!

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:

posts (resized).png

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!

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...

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!

We have an SS at our league location (industrial unit with 24 pins) with a CPR playfield, I have one with a hardtop and my buddy has one with an original playfield. League and home are set to 3 balls, my buddy has his set to 5 (which feels wrong to me).

I can easily put up over a million or two on the league game. I've seen someone put up 8 million on that one. Spinner spins forever, no extra balls.
I can break a million on mine every so often, the spinner needs some work as it doesn't seem as smooth. Plays really fast, factory settings all around. Haven't put that many games on it as I finished the install/restore about a week ago.
Played my buddy's game tonight and easily broke a million by ball 3. Was just screwing around and not really focusing.

Obviously, depending on the game and setup, your mileage may vary!

Said it before and will again. These displays look awesome in this game. And require just some basic soldering skills and patience. Everyone who plays the game says they look fantastic. I don't think you would have any regrets installing them, unless you're a traditionalist, which I'm not!

https://www.wolffpactech.com/

IMG_20200912_2230514 (resized).jpg

Great score but I can't accept the 5 ball setting!

I have no issue with it, all in jest. I give a buddy of mine a really hard time about all his games. He has a really nice collection and the first time I went over and played I was surprised at some of his high scores. Then I figured out he had everything set pretty easy, 5 balls, long ball saves, etc. He claims it makes it much better for non-pinball-playing visitors that play his games.

So the running joke now is that his games are set to 10 balls with 5 minute ball saves! Every couple of weeks I inflate those numbers a bit just for fun!

I haven't checked the settings on my game but I noticed that on your last ball, if the score isn't that great, maybe less than 200k, the Shuttle value always seems to land on Extra Ball. Has anyone else noticed this?

When I did my hardtop install, I completely removed the crappy bayonet sockets. I put in coloured rings and just ran the wires through the pops under the playfield and right into the wiring harness. I used clear pop bodies and I wanted as little visible inside them as possible. Yes, if they ever die, it will be a bit of a pain to replace them but well worth it.

IMG_20200826_2008313 (resized).jpg

Mine was in crappy shape as well. Call me crazy but I had a roll of landscaping fabric sitting in my basement. I peeled off the original fabric, took off all the edge trim and the speaker, cut a piece of landscape fabric, wrapped and stapled it in place and reassembled. It's decent but not perfect. Much better than what was there. I might redo it and spray some adhesive on the panel before i put the fabric back on so it is smooth. I completely forgot I had 2 cans sitting on my work bench. That's what tends to happen when you start something at 2am...

ss_speaker (resized).jpg

Yup. Or Amazon for that matter. At 2am, the landscape fabric is what I had on hand and I went with it knowing that I could always redo it later if I hated it.

After my hardtop installation and rebuild, my left flipper is like a canon while my right flipper is pretty weak. I purchased entire assemblies brand new from Pinball Life so it's not like there are worn parts. I'm still trying to figure out the issue as the flippers and EOS seem to be set up properly and the voltage to the coils is 47v on both sides. I can make the centre ramp with ease with the left flipper from a cradle or if the ball is rolling through the inlane. From the right flipper, there's no way to make it all the way around unless the ball is in motion from the inlane and then it's maybe 1 out of every 20 shots.

It's a bit frustrating but I'll figure it out at some point. I haven't checked flipper button switch or the pitch of the game yet but that right flipper is still pretty weak.

I've checked for dragging. I've gapped the flipper properly with the proper play. Nothing is binding. I might goof around with the EOS and see if it makes a difference. It's a bit bizarre. I have to check the leaf switch at the flipper button. As much as I don't really want to, I might flip the mechs and see what happens. That would be a last resort.

Appreciate the feedback. If I get it solved, I will post what the fix was.

Here you go. What you have there is a resistor and capacitor. One leg of the cap has come loose. I replaced the blue cap with the red one you see in my picture. I think you can see where the legs go...

IMG_20201020_1747022 (resized).jpg

Looks fantastic Jimmy! Nice job!

Thanks for the shout out, always happy to help. Looking at yours, I almost regret not getting the clear ramp. I grabbed one of each but the clear version was for a buddy. Should have kept that one!

When the ball goes half way up the ramp and triggers that micro switch it pops up the shield between the flippers for a few seconds. If the ball doesn't go all the way up and comes back down the ramp, it prevents an immediate centre drain. There is a molex connector for that micro switch that drops down below the playfield closer to the back. The hole in the playfield is underneath the ramp.

The micro switch and the wire frame are basically unobtanium. There is also a bracket for the wire frame which I've never looked for. You will have to bend your own wire and you will have to buy a similar micro switch with a long arm and custom bend it. This whole setup is finicky at best. If you don't set it up right the wire frame will either get jammed up inside the shuttle and won't work or it will block the ramp.

I'm sure someone has already posted some pictures of the setup in this thread. Have a look in the photo gallery.

I use a 4" piece of wood that's 3/4" thick across the width of the playfield that rests on the existing rails. I slide the playfield out far enough so the sling coils rest on the front edge of the cabinet. I then lift the back of the playfield and slide the piece of wood under and then then tilt it up. It provides enough clearance so the ramp doesn't hit anything. The angle isn't too steep otherwise the ramp would touch.

Hope that makes sense. Other's may have better suggestions.

I would have to go look at my game but I don't recall any 9-pin connectors that were split like this. I can't imagine it came from the factory like that. I personally don't see any issues with going with a straight 9-pin connector as a replacement.

I used clear bodies and clear wafers and there's no light sockets in mine. I used a pop bumper ring with with clear, coloured caps and ran the wire through the body and wired them right into the harness below the playfield. You can barely see the wire. Yes, if a ring dies I have a bit more work to do to replace it but I think they look great.

Of course, that's just my opinion. I'm not a traditionalist, I didn't care for the original pop bumper caps, I didn't care for the orange displays, I didn't care for the red star posts, etc. To each their own though!

Yes, self tappers, black Phillips head.

I don't know, most of the stuff I get from CPR looks pretty good and I've seen plenty of it. Do you have a readily available supply of NOS parts for all of the games they have on their website?

Are all of their parts perfect? No. Should we be happy that we have a source of parts at all for games that are mostly 30+ years old? I know that I am, along with a lot of friends that I have in the hobby.

I'd say for a company of less than 10 people, they do a pretty damn good job. If this was so simple, we'd have plenty of other options...

I'm not saying they should be impervious to criticism in the slightest. In fact I pointed out that some of their stuff can be improved. And yes, companies like Outside Edge have given us an alternative where in some cases the artwork may be superior. I think OE and others have learned from the criticisms directed at CPR and have stepped up their game. That's a good thing for everyone in the hobby and hopefully CPR follows suit.

My point is that many people think that companies like CPR and OE are huge organizations and are pumping this stuff out the way Stern releases new machines. The fact that there is someone that is trying to fill the void for these types of parts is something that I appreciate. And knowing that most of these companies are doing this as a side gig and have invested their personal time and a lot of money to do it, I have to give them some respect.

I'm always interested in alternatives. I had a look for Coos and I don't see that he's selling anything except maybe some Bingo backglasses. Does some pretty amazing stuff though...

PPS licenses CPR to allow them to produce B/W items. I'm sure that PPS and Marcos are selling CPR products. I'm not exactly sure what process CPR is using vs. what Shay does. There's a good chance it is different but all the CPR glasses I have seen look fine.

I think the reason that they aren't included is because the sign was designed to be held in place using 2 small "L" brackets and screws. It would probably be cheaper for you to go to Home Depot or Canadian Tire and get the hardware you need to do it this way. And the sign would not fall off if you nudge the game too much.

You could always do this...

IMG_20210102_1632565 (resized).jpg

IMG_20210102_2347079 (resized).jpg

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.

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.

This has been discussed a number of times, just look back at the last few pages of this thread. The mirroring on my CPR backglass looks fine. Other's seem to have had a different experience. Here's a picture of the mirroring on mine. If you look closely you can see the reflection of my Firepower and Black Knight that are sitting on the other side of the room.

mirror (resized).jpg

I was told that the ink that is used for the mirroring has a finite lifespan and if it doesn't get used quickly enough it begins to lose that reflectivity. It's possible that some backglasses were produced with ink that was past it's prime.

The only other option seems to be Shay (http://shayarcadegroup.com/backglasses/).

There is also Coos (https://www.coos.net/bingo_e/Backglasses.html) but it doesn't look like they have any for sale.

Zero reasons to paint the bottom of the new playfield. At some point even Williams stopped painting them. None of the new Sterns are painted either.

The new playfield looks great! Good luck with the swap!

Buy clear ones and put orange LEDs in them. My CPR Firepower playfield from many moons ago came with clear arrow inserts. Long story as to why it was like that. I just put orange LEDs underneath and it looks great. And using clear inserts to replace non-clear inserts gives you the flexibility of putting whatever colour bulb you want underneath.

Most traditionalist would say that's blasphemy and prefer the game to be as close to original as possible. I say screw them...

The other thing I should have mentioned that I thought of after I put my hardtop down was popping out the three green USA rollover inserts at the top of the playfield and replacing them with clear ones. That way you could put different coloured bulbs in there, say red, white, blue, rather than being limited to green. I also used red, white and blue bulbs in my spinner arrow inserts. Not an original idea by any means but a nice touch.

I didn't bother sanding to that high a grit. I opted for sanding to about 1500, I believe, and then sprayed a number of coats of clear. I did outline a few of the inserts in black after I shifted the hardtop around to find the best fit. I learned a hard lesson when I did my Black Knight hardtop as there were a couple of inserts where you can see a bit of bare wood. You may also want to add some white paint around the USA rollover lanes. I think it looks better than bare wood.

I have lots of pictures of my installation at the following link. There might be a few ideas here for you. Yes, I did have a bit of fun with the paint pens and put my initials under the apron!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Yo8SBKktACLGyrBb9

I think you could do some stuff with the unpainted areas. What I like is that you would be able to see through the area that covers the shooter lane. My rails are painted blue and I think it would look better if I could see the entire length of the shooter lane.

The last time the clear ones were run, I ordered a black one for my self and a clear one for my friend. I regret not keeping the clear one.

And clear posts, clear pop bumper parts, translucent rubbers...

Nice choices, similar to what I did.

Review the posts around the one below.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/space-shuttle-crew-members-club-prepare-for-liftoff/page/83#post-7289708

Mine seems to be very reflective. Others seem to disagree. Maybe I need to take my old, flaking original and compare the two side by side...

I went with the stars because that's what is on the original flyer for the game. I can't confirm/deny that they may have switched to the satellite dishes during prod. I find the satellite dishes kinda ugly but to each his own.

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/31-1329

I think I have a good scan of them somewhere if you want to print them yourself but for $7 from Marco why bother...?

Yes, this was happening to me as well. I'm still testing where the best place is to put the magnet and in which direction. I know the recommendation is to put it parallel to the ramp rather than across it. I'm trying both and looking for the sweet spot. I'm finding that some times the switch doesn't register at all, perhaps a result of the ball moving too fast? In other cases, depending on where the switch is positioned, the puck between the flippers doesn't pop up fast enough and you end up with a centre drain.

When/if I can figure out the ideal location and position, I will report back. Taking the ramp off and on is a bit of a pain...

Or you can buy some hobby oak from Home Depot, cut it to size and paint them whatever colour you like. My choice was blue to match everything else...

rails (resized).jpg

rails_paint (resized).jpg