Im having a small issue with the left in-line drop target bank. Everything works fine except when the ball hits one of the targets too hard it bounces off the target with such force so fast that the target doesn't drop. If the ball rolls slower and hits the target then the targets drop normally.

Has anyone had this issue or know a fix? The targets seem to drop passively with no resistance when I manually drop them with my finger and the "fire rocket" button automatically drops the target just fine. Is there a way to tighten the spring or is there a particular adjustment to correct this on this style drop target mechanism?

also, this may have been asked before, but is there a way to stop the game from automatically awarding three (i think its three) rockets at the beginning of each ball, so essentially you could start out with a few but need to actually earn them by hitting the ROCKET targets? I didn't see anything in the manual suggesting this could be done, just wondering if I missed something.

I have one single playfield lamp on my Special Force not working. I replaced the 1n4004 diode at the lamp base, tested the circuit by bypassing the base altogether to rule out bad weld joint in the base itself. If I put a bulb from the input wire directly to ground it lights and stays on constantly. The partner lamp that shares the other phase of the driver (Q28 in this instance) works just fine. I've ruled out the driver transistor, the lamp base, the 1N4004 (replaced with 1N4007), multiple incandescent bulbs, and nothing works.

Fyi, it's the Upper Left "FIRE" light that isn't working. Per the manual it is on Q28 is shared with "Bomb 4". Again, aside from a few of the GI lights, this is the only active playfield light that doesn't work. What else could it be?

There is a setting to change the rocket awarding option. I don’t have the manual in front of me but you can change it

I just got done fixing up my brothers first pin Special Force and have it playing pretty good.the last issue I have is on start up the display alerts "BOMB B" everything seems to be working but I know that's an error code.Does anyone know what I should be looking at?

This indicates the B letter in the BOMB targets is closed at machine start up when it should be normally open.
Check the switch on that target.

By remove it do you mean desolder that switch then start it back up and if it doesnt show an error then it's the cap? And would it be the first b in bomb?

Thank you I'll take a look at it wednesday when im back that way.

This might help with finding the right B.

From:
https://www.ipdb.org/files/2272/Bally_1986_Special_Force_Manual.pdf

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I'm just going to jump to contact Bally-Midway service department

Alright I got the switch fixed(adjusted gap)and it now boots with no errors but now I'm getting random scoring from the top left pop bumber.when the skirt is depressed with hand or ball it will fire the appropriate 1 time but sometimes it scores 100 points sometimes it scores 50-60,000 points. I've adjusted the leaf switch underneath mutliple times and it seems to be the best I can get it but it's still scoring 50-60,000 somerimes but not as often.Am I missing something or do I just keep adjusting until I find that sweet spot?

I'll have to check next week when I go back that way. I have a few other things to track down.after I left they played for a couple hours then a few "weird" things happened like extra ball going into shooter lane while ball still in play then flippers went out then came back.they turned it off and I think he said it wont start and its showing playfield fuse out which may be the fuse I saw was out(1 amp)when we got it and I replaced before ever powering on.

I made it over there to work some more I changed the fuse then started inspecting for anything obvious shorting it out and I found a piece of wire hanging from 1 lead of the flipper coil almost touching another lead so I clipped it and that seems to have done the trick. The other flipper had a giant gap and a missing contact pad on the leaf switch causing the flipper to give out sometimes and that is now fixed and the drop targets up the left lane were dropping to low and the ball would get stuck on a weak shot so I adjusted that. I adjusted that pop bumber some more and it seemed good then I lowered the pf and same thing it fires once then the score goes up about 75,000 while the lights on pf also react but then I raise the pf(90°) without adjusting and it works fine?!?! Then I find if I only raise the pf halfway and have it on a 45° it will score to much but only around 5,000.i fixed all i could and told him he'll just have to live with the extra points from the pop bumber for now and put the glass back on and now its scoring fine. So for now it's fixed but who knows for how long. The playfield position making a difference makes me think its a adjustment issue but I'm not seeing how the angle or gravity is changing anything.

Well the fuse blew he replaced it and then it started doing wierd stuff and wont start a game now

Does the machine boot up into attract mode? All balls must be accounted for in order for a game to be started, otherwise the start button simply does nothing. If this is the case perhaps a switch (or it's circuit) is malfunctioning.

My biggest gripe with Bally 6803 is the drop target design. I have Special Force and EFTLW, and on both machines if the drop targets are hit too hard the ball bounces off of them and the targets don't drop. I've spent a lot of time disassembling and trying to tweak the targets to avoid this (sanding down and reshaping the lip on the target) with some degree of at least temporary success, but its still not perfect. The three in-line tank targets blocking the upper left lane are the absolute worst. Whats strange is I disassembled and adjusted/calibrated the targets almost perfectly about 6 months ago, but now the middle target gets stuck halfway when it drops. So frustrating. Almost as if temperature or humidity of the changing season had some slight effect on thermal expansion of the metal or plastic parts (which shouldn't happen), idunno. If anyone has a solution please let me know!

Yes. Springs didn't seem to help unfortunately. I placed brand new drop targets in the assembly and that seemed to make it worse. It looked like the lip on the new ones were beefier than the originals. I left about 2/3 of the lip at its original right angle and sanded down the last 1/3rd on a 45 degree angle and rounded off the edges which seemed to help a lot. It seems that a high impact shot causes the target to 'bounce' back into position before the spring has time to pull it down far enough for the little lip not to re-engage the metal rim that holds the target up. You've got me thinking about the springs again. I may try reducing the length of the springs even more and report back with results.

He said there was no ball in the shooter lane and he would not of taken the glass off to remove a ball and forget to replace but if I show up and there's a ball in the lane I won't be surprised.i go out that way every Tuesday so I'll check into it more.

Ok he got it working again not sure what he did or why it wasn't working.it seems it will now play for hours but eventually the 1 amp under playfield fuse will blow so hes just been replacing the fuse every few hours.i guess ill continue looking for anything obvious causing a short.if anyone has an idea of what might cause the fuse to blow after a couple hours of play im all ears.one thing he mentioned is he thinks after locking 2 balls its letting him lock a 3rd(may not be true he drinks alot and not always accurate in telling the proper chain of events)if there's 2 balls locked im assuming the drop target should not drop or immediately go back up to stop a 3rd ball from entering.could a 3rd ball enter and cause the fuse to blow?

Yes its a 1 amp fuse that I switched out originally and left him a few extra. I'll take a look Tuesday and see if it is indeed letting him lock 3 balls.

If it’s only every few hours, maybe it’s the knocker coil. That was happening on mine, and I just disconnected the coil. Game is in storage, but will dig it out some day and do all sorts of things to it, hopefully including figuring out the knocker coil issue.

Picking up this beauty tomorrow....im really looking forward to fixing this one up and playing it. Ive wanted a Special Force for some time, as I think its a pretty unique game. Now that I have one, you can bet new ramps will be coming available at some point in early 2021.

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Gave it a quick teardown and cleaning to evaluate what it needed. Added random rubbers from my stash to make it operational. This game had very little play before it was stashed away in a bad environment for who knows how long. The ramps are perfect and have very little wear. No sound yet...but we are up and running.

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That one in pretty nice shape. Definitely a underrated game and one that could use a new plastic set makeover.... trees are always cracked or broken

I changed out the BOMB targets in mine because the round faced targets always seemed tight....

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Do the brown ramps ever break on these? I am trying to gauge if there is much of a calling for those to be remade as opposed to the chopper ramp/bowl which could become cloudy and ugly over time.

Since my machine was missing the displays, I bought a pair of the green LED display kits from Wolffpac tech. He has Green, Orange, Blue, Red and White available. These are really well done, and easy to assemble. This is a good thing to put together while watching a sportsball game on TV. There are about 420ish solder points per board...but the results are worth it!

The displays are crystal clear, even though my camera does not show it well.

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Its all through hole...and its quality through hole, not the kind where the pads fall off when you stare at them. It took me about 2 hours or so. I go through and mount the IC's and components dry, then bend a couple legs a bit to hold them, and then do all the pads at once. Same with the digits. I put two in, flip it over, solder opposing corners and then repeat. Once they are all tacked into place, I go back and run down the rows all in one shot. Once you get a rhythm going, it goes pretty fast.

I recommend a regulated iron with a fine tip if possible. I use an Opti-visor as well, which cuts down on eye strain.

The results are well worth it. I was testing using the old displays out of another 6803, and those displays were getting fairly cloudy. Also, you won't need the high voltage side of your power supply any more after you install these.

I made something special for the Special Force fans!

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Wow, that's pretty sweet.

This game is weird. I did one in darker green and a lighter green. The darker green looks black with the game off in a dark room. The lighter green looks clear under game GI lighting.

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how does clear ramp with light green saucer look?

The lamp diagram in the manual numbers the GI lamps #1 through #12 but doesn't show which is which on the playfield. Does anyone know how to fugue it out? Specifically I need to know which transistor powers the GI lamp located directly to the left of the three inline drop targets bank (an inch to the left of the top-most target).

Does Special Force have an attract mode with audio?
I do not think I have ever heard my machine make any noise while sitting idle.

Thanks.

Nope

No but I think all of the 6803 games have a neat instructional mode when you press a flipper button (the right side flipper? Can't remember) where if you press it during attract mode it will run through the various shots and light them up and explain them.

This is correct. I have special force and eftlw both have this with no attract mode sound. I put an arduino in my special force that when idle will periodically trigger the instructional mode while in attract mode so the machine lights up a bit while idle.

My stepson's friend bought a bit of a beater so I offered to help get it playing properly. The flipper wiring is kind of hacked so I'd really like to confirm proper wiring configuration. If someone can provide some good images showing the wiring on theirs, it would be greatly appreciated!

I'll try to post some this weekend for you.