Ok, I picked up my SS and it is up and running! Very few issues I’ve found so far and nothing serious at all, I think. Will be posting more questions but didn’t want to jam to much into this post.

This has original Mylar. In amazing condition. All new targets, decals, plastics, ramp/mini field. Beefier woofer in the cab. Brand new flipper kits and coils. Titan rubber kit and super bands on the flips. Green display. Rotten dog power board. Ramos tumbled and polished.

Also love the mod of the LED lit blue posts. Adds nice glow and character to the field especially near the black drop targets. Anyone else done them?

Also full LED in nice warm white and (I think) original coloring, which I love personally. I like keeping the old games warm Vs cold white LED.

Only the 5 red and yellow in the back are not LED for some reason. Looks like Comet makes those two odd size bulbs in LED so I’ll order them up. One of the yellow ones is burned out anyway.

It does have a mild hum from the speakers. Not sure how to look into that just yet.

Also using AAA’s on the board, but to me it looks like they are in a sort of black plastic holder that isn’t the original way it was? Will look into how hard it is to do NVRAM for an amateur.

Played til 3:30 am and could only set ONE high score! (3rd place). Those factory standard scores are tough to beat lol!

Had a proper beverage to go with it, too.

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Great pin, great beer.

Three questions:

Picture 1) I have this green ground wire that is attached to the cabinet ground wing nut, but then is just a eyelet not going to anything, up in the backbox. It looks like it is not factory to me. Maybe someone tried grounding a board at one time or something? Assume it’s no big deal but figured I’d ask.

Picture 2) thought my machine had something dumb done to it but looks like they all have these two odd “pits” in the left loop. Seems like an odd thing.

Picture 3) anyone know what the heck this random post/screw next to the ball kickout in the shooter lane is?

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I agree with your assumption on the ground wire. I have those T-nuts showing on the left side as well. The screw is to prevent balls from getting stuck up there. I have one of those as well.

The green wire should go the speaker on the speaker panel.

Interesting. I have humming from the speakers (both of them). It’s not offensive so I figured I’d live with it, and after reading up on it, I attributed it to my Rotten Dog power board. Some people said they got humming using that.

If you don’t mind, is there an obvious place the wire will go onto the speaker panel?

Part of my problem is I can’t easily pull the speaker panel out. The right side slides up but the left where the bigger speaker is really doesn’t feel like it wants to move, and I didn’t want to force anything.

GRUMPY so just on one of the four screws holding in the speaker? I don’t quite get what that would do.

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Yes, you want it in a straight line from the wing nut to the speaker screw so you have plenty of wire for laying the panel down on the glass.

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Cool thanks. Interestingly, had a friend with a fish tales look at his and he has the exact same green wire (with the amateur looking red crimp connects) but his goes to a post coming out of the display board. Mine being an aftermarket display, I wonder if that’s why it was hanging loose in the first place, maybe someone removed it when they swapped the board.

Ok, found two random parts while doing a deep clean in my new machine. Anyone have thoughts on what they are?

My guess for the bar one was some coin box, but it’s different than the one I have on the box in there, so I don’t know.

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Looks like the latch assy. for releasing & locking the back glass into the head & its trim edge it screws into the top of the inside edge of the head

Ah. Thank you. My aftermarket back glass would explain the lack of need for those bits. The way mine fits is it just lifts and slides up then drops in, just like my sterns and Gottliebs.

Ok, I have a new really frustrating and bad problem. Gave the machine a thorough scrub, cleaning, waxing etc today since I’ve just enjoyed it a few days after purchasing.

Now, 80% of my shots to the left VUK above the pop bumpers, from the right flip, just smack and bounce right back out! It’s making the game not enjoyable at all.

Looking in there, it looks like there almost maybe is supposed to be some piece of something that deadens the blow of the ball hitting so it drops down into the VUK. Mine is just a bare vertical metal piece. Not sure why there isn’t a one-way gate, honestly.

Can anyone tell me if I’m missing a piece that helps this not happen? Or is this just a common problem?

Looks like a real pain to get to , but thinking I need to put something there to deaden the ball but not interfere with the VUK

I had the same issue after cleaning and waxing my machine. There is just too much speed on the ball.

I ended up placing a standup target cushioning foam on the metal bracket to dampen the ball. Doesn't stop the ball from bouncing out 100% of the time, but really helped.

https://www.pinballlife.com/target-backing-foam.html

Thanks. Dismantling things now to get to it. Hopefully I remember where it goes back since I was well into Saturday evening pinballing

Funny because like you said this JUST started after I gave it a 5 hour cleaning.

I am going to try some foam or felt or something there. I think the key is a) it has to stick and not fall down into the VUK eventually and b) not make it bounce MORE

Check the mounting angle.

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Thank you. Those pics look a bit more like the right VUK behind the space station?

Here’s a pic of the left one on mine. Sure looks like old adhesive where a dampener of sorts would have been.

I see Titan makes a piece that mentions Williams. Any chance this is it?

https://www.titanpinball.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=60&product_id=159

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Ok I THINK I have success.

First tried full thickness foam backing. That was too much bounce-back (see first vid). Barely, if any, improvement over the bare metal.

Then tried cutting the padding to about 1/3 thickness and mounting the same as in video 1. Same issues of frequent bounce-back.

Third try (second vid) I think I got it!! I used the same 1/3 thickness padding but stuck it horizontally (wider than taller) so that the top metal “bump” is still exposed and not covered by the foam. It also wraps farther around the left and right sides and almost hugs the ball when it contacts. Whipping it pretty hard in there by hand. Haven’t tried a real game yet.

Hoping this helps others if they have the same issue!

Too much foam

Horizontal/wide 1/3 thickness foam

The pic is actually from a F-14 right vuk, but the principles are the same. This method stops the bounce back without the pad and will never need replacing.

Makes sense, however on the left SS VUK, that metal deflector / guide isn’t adjustable. Behind it, mounting it to the play field are two hex screws in line with one another, making it non adjustable.

I do need to finish this thread so maybe it’s been said/done already, but I put an order in for both a warm white/UV (not sure which I’m going with yet) AND a green trough light. Figured I would try and hook the white/iUV up to the normal GI and the green strip to a green mode GI. Could be cool to see the trough glow change with the mode.

I'm not normally big on extra lighting in the trough area, but this seems like a cool idea.

Pretty sure the stainless piece is door bottom rocker sill trim off a '68 Chevy Nova. Stumped on the rod.

I will report back with how it goes!

This game seems to scream for trough lighting for me. Beautifully lit but just dark and dim down below the flipper line.

Hey all, Just joined the club, who has the best LED kit for this game?
and or cheapest? I know MARCO's is out of stock.

or
does anyone have the "count and amount"
of the different lights?
I know the B/G GI is one of the coolest features of this game.

Thanks.

Anyone have an opinion on the easiest way to access the 5 rear beacon (3 yellow / 2 red) bulbs? Got one burnt out so figured I’d do them all in LED.

If I flip the backbox down, I can sort of finagle my hand to awkwardly get to a few of them, but it’s not great. Flipping the playfield up puts them ALL the way down at the bottom where it’s not really feasible.

Looks like I’d the piece that the glass slides into could come off, it would open up that area perfectly. I pulled on it a bit and it didn’t seem to want to move. Couldn’t see any screws or anything.

Is the backbox-down way the best available?

Its been a long time, but I think they are the twist and click type. I believe I changed mine with the playfield propped up.

It's a PITA.
I found the easiest way was with the playfield sort of half way up.
You still have to reach behind and work by feel.
Be careful, since some of the bulbs are 1251 28V bulbs in there.

Thanks! Yep, I looked on Comet and they sell "5SMD 28V Flashers" and then for the other 2 I just ordered normal 5SMD "89 bayonet" flashers.

Personally, I stayed with the original 1251’s, the LEDs were blinding

Loving the comet fire bulbs in the back box.

First video has the cool-blue fire bulbs in the space station windows. Love how it gives them a twinkle on the “slow” pass. On the fast pass part, they light just like a normal bluish cool white since there’s not enough illumination time to rotate the LEDs

Second vid is a red fire bulb behind the shuttle spot. I since changed my Mars back to white for now to avoid the red wash it was giving.

On to tackle the flashes next. If they’re too bright I wonder if masking tape on the diodes might work.

Ha. Dug into it and my flashers in the red domes were already switched to LED! Oh well. The yellow 28v needed to be converted so that’s done.

Does anyone know of a company that makes LED kits for this game?
So far it's a No for Marco and Comet... thanks

Just buy a bunch of green and warm white and your set. If your doing the flashers in the backbox, those are easy enough to count.

here is a pdf i put together that should help you find what you need to order
https://images.pinside.com/7/a2/04/7a204962cc6747ba326492ef552e5a683fba5919.pdf

I have changed a few of the colors back to oem since I made it. Backbox flashers behind the "Space Station" title look better in white, and I went back to yellow on the 4 lights in the upper playfield.

Count the colors on the inserts, count the gi, count the green gi, count the back box , order from coin taker or comet pinball. Save 30%

Or order a ton of different things in bulk from China and save 40%ish (but still have a ton of leftovers)

Dude, I would have paid $10 for this 6 years ago, great job!

Wow that's a lot of work, just the totals if you went all wht/grn would be worth it.

Thanks so much !

did the ramp drop target come w a sticker originally? mine is blank

Hey I thought those 5 flashers on the backboard had the same socket?

There was a sticker set I think, it’s for all the drop targets, from what I remember

Edit:
Here
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/31-1437

The ones in this pic? I didn't replace mine but from what I remember I read that they were different. Id have to look again.

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Anyone else think that the "Voyager Space Hotel" concept art looks suspiciously like the space station translite?
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/voyager-station-space-hotel-scn/index.html

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Same socket (medium bayonet), but different voltages, thus you need to use different lamps.

Well maybe but the round space station concept has been around for decades. (It spins to create gravity so it's not only cool looking but practical....hence its popularity over the years)

Can anyone confirm the proper shooter rod spring? Found a thread on here that showed SS as having the stiffest available one (yellow?). Is that really the case?

Mine has a baby blue color spring which I think is way lighter on the list of all choices. I also have a green one sitting in the coin box.

Tempted to put on the intended yellow spring but my light blue one shoots it up to the mini field just fine. You do have to pull the plunger back 100%, though.

Cool. Yeah I’m tempted to leave it as-is because it gets up there and is smooth and gets random bounce.

Couple evenings’ worth of work done. Added a green trough light that activates in green mode, and then a UV trough in normal mode, along with UV sling posts and rubber and flipper rubber.

No interference at all with the two trough lights.

Gives a nice eery space sort of glow and then slams to a beautiful green when the mode changes.

Also made this wiring harness and put in blue post lights for the blue posts. Might patch in a couple more eventually but all the main visible ones are done.

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Found a post from 4 years ago with my exact question but never saw an answer to it.

My back left corner blue domed light flashes mildly along with flipper presses. I believe technically it is only supposed to flash when a ball goes in that VUK, or multiball, achievements, etc.

Similarly, the yellow domed beacons on the field flash briefly when the slings are activated. I believe technically they are only supposed to light when STATION is all lit (right two beacons) or SHUTTLE is lit (left two beacons).

Doesn't particularly bother me, but wanted to ask in case it is indicative of a troubling issue that needs correcting.

Machine is full LED, so my suspicion was very tiny voltage jumps when those coils fire are enough to light them up a bit. Then again, no other lights are triggered by the flippers/slings, including any of the 5 red/yellow domed lights along the back panel.