Excited to enter the club tomorrow!

Always had a strange affinity for the space pins: Shuttle, Station, and Black Hole, and now I'm getting a Station!

I'll know more tomorrow, but looks like a very solid example that won't need too much, if any, mechanical work. I have never owned a Williams, so this will all be new to me.

I have an '87 Raven (going to be a top 100 classic one day, just watch), and two newer Sterns (ACDC and Black Knight...so basically I love games where Steve Ritchie is calling out, lol). I don't know anything about Williams quirks, what to look for, what to fix if it hasn't been done, like getting batteries out of the picture and going NVRAM, or grounding issues.

I promise I'll read through this whole thread! Only on page 2 now.

Here I go asking a question before I finish the other 62 pages... but, with the "logic" of the light bulb that represents the flame of the shuttle, on the back glass looking like it flickers fast at times to represent a rocket flame, would it / could it be a good idea to put Comet's fire LED bulb in there to give it a neat look? Might not really make much of a difference, but just curious.

Thanks

Interesting. Thought it was a good idea...oh well lol

How about for the "windows" of the space station. The owner I'm getting it from looks to have "rainbow" changing bulbs in there. I was thinking that the "cool blue" fire comet bulbs could look really good in the station windows in the backbox.

I realize this is likely a better search for "decal vs stencil", but wanted to see if anyone here has experience with the SS colors/decals for a restore. The cabinet looks fine on the one I'm getting, but the backbox sides do not and they need work.

I have sourced both decals and stencils as an option. I feel like the decal could be easier, but, would it look "wrong" next to the cabinet? Not sure if Williams of this era were decaled or painted from the get-go. At this point, sort of leaning towards the stencil method, but I will have a pretty high heart rate when I start sanding down the thing and hoping it's not going to be a disaster lol

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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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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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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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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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

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

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

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 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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Thanks! As Zablon also just noted, I now see that it’s intentional flashing on the sling hits. It’s actually just the flippers that cause the slight flicker in the two right beacons and the upper left blue guy. The left two yellow ones are fine.

Question on the sling plastics. I assume mine are reproduction but I have no idea. On both of mine, they are bent lower where the two philips head screws attach them, down near the flipper, and higher up where they are held on by the nylon nuts on top of the main sling area. Makes me nervous seeing that bend in the plastic. Is it normal? First thought maybe because they are likely repro plastics, but, if it's a physical height difference between the higher top of the star posts and the lower level of the black plastic pole type pieces that the screws go into, then it wouldn't matter if they were original plastics or new.

Suppose I could do some washers under the plastic where the philips heads are, and bring that up?

Thanks. Gave it a try just tilting the playfield and resting it on the prop rod and I was able to reach them fine by feel. Those red ones you do really have to bend them way out before they’ll be free.

Is this normal fort the sling plastics? See how they are bent lower where the screws are and higher up on the three points sitting on the star posts? It creates a bend that concerns me.

At first I thought it was the new UV glow star posts but I compared side by side and they’re the exact same as the blue ones I removed.

I tried adding a rubber washer to raise the two philips head bolts up, but then they weren’t long enough to catch the threads in the playfield.

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Thanks. That makes sense about the lights making it a bit worse. Those things are darn thin though. If I had to estimate, I think the ball guide height is a solid 3-4x more out of whack than the thickness of the lights. The picture doesn’t quite show the extent of it.

Just wanted to confirm that those star post “nuts” built into the bolt weren’t somehow supposed to go OVERTOP the plastic, which I did try for the heck of it and the realized those threads are way shy of connecting into the playfield then.

Sounds like the best route may be a visit to the hardware store to try and find 1/4” longer screws, and use a couple washers to raise up the guide section?

Good idea too, thanks!

Got a U10 PIA Failure message when I powered the machine up last night. Turned it back off and back on and it didn’t show it that time, and it played fine.

From what I gathered on a Google, it’s not a particularly great issue and isn’t a DIY if it ends up being the chip. But some folks fixed it with cap replacements etc.

Anyone have any words of wisdom on that popping up?

Wow, lol. I guess the U10 PIA is just a badge of honor then!? I guess we know what the PIA really stands for

Check out what I did. I’m a huge fan of this. I put UV post lights on the slings and UV posts and rubbers including flippers. Not only gives an eerie space glow during the game but when it shuts off the glow is cool. Also, I added a UV trough light for normal mode. In green mode, I wired a second trough light that’s green. HUGE green light improvement vs without it. Also did blue post lights in all the blue posts on the field. Included a pic of the harness I made to power them all off of one GI to simplify wiring.

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I use light blue fire bulbs behind the windows. Looks like active lights flickering and working in a bright white-blue. Love the effect. Also put a normal fire bulb behind the shuttle rocket so it looks like it’s firing. Really works perfectly.

Found an interesting code “glitch” last night! Got the Bonus Ball and was playing it after my ball 3 ended. The bonus ball drained at EXACTLY 0 seconds left on the bonus timer. After that, the display showed the after-game stats like when it normally ends, BUT, the game kicked up a new ball into the shooter lane and let me play that one, with no time limit, and it added to my score. Must have been perfect timing and the game got confused.

Here’s a video of how mine is set up with the fire bulbs.

Yep blue and red ones from comet

Aliens have invaded

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Thanks! Comet makes the post kits and also the trough light strip that hits the flipper rubbers. See my post a bit ago for how I did dual trough lights to switch from UV to Green Mode.

I forget where I got the UV flipper rubbers but maybe Titan

https://www.cometpinball.com/search?q=Uv

One suggestion I have can be seen in my posts earlier in the thread. Cut out tiny squares of wax paper and scotch tape them over the back side of those holes in the trans light. It mutes the flashers/bulbs enough that they aren’t piercing and let’s them glow through nicely.

Also I think the blue fire bulbs from comet look amazing in the station window circle of bulbs They twinkle a nice white-blue that is fitting for inside an operating station. Lastly I highly recommend the red fire comet bulb for the one that is the smaller rocket jet.

Occasionally I hear a grinding sort of motor noise from my Station when I turn on the game, and very rarely but sometimes during times of the game where it needs to move.

Almost seems to me like it’s just trying to get set into the right spot and trying to figure out what’s what.

I don’t have any instance of it spinning through wrong way like I believe I’ve read when I went through the whole thread after buying my game last year.

Anyway, it works just fine but just a bit concerned that the grinding is the beginning of something bad.

Everyone should make their game unique and how they like it, but one suggestion while you have it all apart that I love from doing it on mine is to get the led star post illumination kits. It really brightens up the playfield nicely and you can dim or brighten them to suit you. I went with blue with blue lights on my play field and UV Glow white with UV lights on my sling rubber and sling posts. Gives it an eerie space glow down there.

I need the black paint, myself (and the red and white). I have gotten them yet, either.

This pic doesn’t do it justice. I’ll try and snag a couple more tomorrow.
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Tried to get some better ones

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So many good sounds on the machine but it might be the best.

The sweep to VUK shot is the most fun in the game. Can’t imagine having stand ups up there.

It’s sort of intended that way. They aren’t meant to be contacted face-on, but rather more of a “sweep shot” detector to rewards a perfect shot

5 ball…

Same exact for me. Does it about 10-20% of power-ons. Rarely after that, it takes a game or so for it to “correct” and I’ve seen it be in the wrong position the first ramp shot achieved. Then it seems to warm up and sort it self out perfectly (knock on wood)

I think the other guy has the same thing as me where it doesn’t rotate the wrong way, it just makes a sound like it’s trying to do something and then will sometimes rotate around and act like it’s finding it’s correct spot at power on

Keep us posted please! Ours are doing the exact same thing.

Haven’t cracked 10M on mine but once you layer extra balls the score can easily be 2-4M. Three extras are doable between score reward, sweeping the targets enough times, and selecting it as a reward for spelling SPACE and STATION. make sure you don’t leave the spelling awards on junk when you’re about to complete them.

Powered mine on for the first time in weeks and got this gem.

Any insights?

I forget how to get to a menu to physically test switches and see what the heck it is.

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cool thank you. Seems like the leaf switch in the upper above the “TION”. Maybe the leafs are touching.

Definitely don’t need to remove the entire PF. Trying to remember but I think I was able to just reach up and under

I was able to bend the mount out so the bulbs were easier to get to since they are recessed into the dome

I think the green display is mandatory, too. Love it.

I might have to switch to the red white and blue USA!