i have had the same issue with the station on mine (occasional spinning for too long and/or stopping at the wrong location.) i ended up replacing just about everything in the control circuit including all connectors, optos, and even the motor relay PCB and the intermittent problem persists. the gears and motor test fine, so maybe i should start looking into the power supply board. i suppose i can swap the board from my Police Force in for a bit for testing.

mine has the first translucent blue ramp Mark Davis did as the previous owner let him use the original as the template for the replacements.

i am pretty sure mine is flat topped. skinny is just going to promote wear on the backside of the hole.

just a follow-up, after replacing the 15-pin connector and replacing the header on the power supply PCB, the station is consistently stopping in the correct location. glad to finally have this thing playing 100%!

those are .156 IDC (Insulation Displacement Contact) connectors.

to replace those i usually buy Trifurcon pins and housings from Ed at Great Plains Electronics. they are crimp-on so take some extra effort and practice but the three-sided connector makes a more reliable connection resulting in fewer burned contacts like that. Marco might carry them as well.

if you don't want to crimp you can get the original IDC's just like that through Marco (they are listed under Electrical & Electronics >> Circuit Board Components >> Connectors) or from Pinball Life. if you go the IDC route you'll want to get a punch-down tool as well to seat the wire properly in the connector. these can range from $10 for a plastic version up to $40 or $50 for a nice metal one.

either way you'll want to replace the header pins too. i usually pick up the longer 24-pin break-away style so i can replace several headers at once for less money but it looks like neither Pinball Life nor Marco carry those (though GPE does have them.) make sure whatever headers you pick up that they have the locking shroud.

mine looked worse before i replaced it.

sys 11 connector (resized).jpg

hey, when you folks are replacing the IDC connectors (either with new IDC's or crimp-on trifurcons,) make sure you also replace the headers. those pins eventually wear off the plating and make poor or no connection and if you just replace the connector you might still have the same issues.

take a look how the pins on mine looked before i replaced the header (and connector); plating worn on almost all of them and completely missing on a few. any header that looks like this needs to be replaced.

space station ps board pins (resized).jpg

don't forget there's a relay on the underside of the PF that controls the diverter motor. i'm fairly certain it's not in the schematics.