Star Trek (Pro)
Stern, 2013Quoted from Okarcades:Clean and perfect working games always make more money. Seems like most operators think the game isnt making money so they don't fix them. But actually they would make more money if they did fix them... Pretty easy for me to figure out.
Still looks good.
Quoted from Okarcades:Clean and perfect working games always make more money. Seems like most operators think the game isnt making money so they don't fix them. But actually they would make more money if they did fix them... Pretty easy for me to figure out.
Worst on location is crappy flippers. Wear to me just adds character, how they play is king.
Well with 13,923 plays I finally had to take it off location.
I tore most of it down to shop it and this is what I've found so far
1.The bottom right flipper isn't very powerful. Probably just and eos switch.
2.The drop target bracket underneath broke and the whole assembly fell off ($6.50 to replace)
3. The out hole metal weld has broken
4. The spinner has been slightly crushed on one side from not sitting perfectly vertical and the ball would run into it and bounce off
5. The magnet under the vengeance is looking bad. Looks like the back part is getting worn or crushed somehow
6. One ramp opto needs to be resoldered
Not too bad for 13,923 plays in one year. It should pay for it self within 2 years from purchase date, after splitting with the location.
20160713_202140_(resized).jpg
20160713_201537_(resized).jpg
20160713_201533_(resized).jpg
20160713_201527_(resized).jpg
20160713_201523_(resized).jpg
20160713_200534_(resized).jpg
20160713_200038_(resized).jpg
20160713_195338_(resized).jpg
20160713_194547_(resized).jpg
20160713_191707_(resized).jpg
20160713_191350_(resized).jpg
Quoted from robotronjohn:Can you post a pic of your outhole?
Not that kind of forum.
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Everybody wants to see the outhole! It took 1hr with me and 1 other person to get it as far as the pictures show. I'm out of town this weekend but will post more pics when I get back. Here's a few I forgot to add
Quoted from ectobar:How difficult would you say the tear down was? Anything in particular to look out for?
My ST doesn't have that many plays, but my family has been working it pretty good for a couple years now. Have been considering a tear down to give it a nice cleaning and waxing.
I'm curious, too. I've tore into the game a few times and found it to be challenging getting things apart.
Once you commit to taking everything apart it doesn't take long. I use about 6 different magnetic trays. And do everything in layers. Putting it together will take some time but I have taken a lot of pictures during teardown so it should go back together pretty easily. I'm guessing 2 hour full tear down and 3 hours to get back together.
Quoted from dmbjunky:Do you think those ball trails will come out?
Yes
Quoted from sven:You're a great operator, taking good care of the games on location.
Thanks so much! Games in that play better, pay better. I try to make sure the games play perfectly.
OK here are a bunch more photos from tearing it down more. There was a lot more wrong than I thought!
1. Opto wire came out. Not soldered correctly from factory
2. One of the flipper parts that opens the eos switch was broken off.
3. Bottom of coil Plungers almost flat.
4. One of the flipper sleeves was worn through
5. Warp ramp had a Crack. (STERN already sent me a replacement for free)
6. Outhole metal had the weld broken
7. White flipper bearing had a Crack
I had almost all the parts in hand to fix except the flipper part that opens the eos switch.
Oh ya here is that picture of the outhole. I don't know why people care so much about that. It doesn't effect the game play. I'm still going to buy the cliffy since it's cheap and I'm planning on this game paying for itself a few times.
Put clear packing tape on the bottom of the ramp after cleaning it to make it last longer at the crack
Wires come off optos all time. Resolder and should be good
Broken white flipper part is called a flipper bushing
EOS actuator is a common broken part on my Sterns along with linkages and coil stops.
Plungers do not need the rounded edge. Just make sure if it is mushroomed over or has any burs on the end to file those down smooth so there is no drag.
Outhole common weld failure. Can re-weld or replace that part. Pinball life sells them at a decent price.
I was going to use fiberglass and mesh to fix the bottom of the ramp. And I like to round the bottom of my plungers so They don't drag and on location. I reflowed all the Opto wires already because they are very hard to get to unless ramps are off.
Quoted from Okarcades:OK here are a bunch more photos from tearing it down more. There was a lot more wrong than I thought!
1. Opto wire came out. Not soldered correctly from factory
2. One of the flipper parts that opens the eos switch was broken off.
3. Bottom of coil Plungers almost flat.
4. One of the flipper sleeves was worn through
5. Warp ramp had a Crack. (STERN already sent me a replacement for free)
6. Outhole metal had the weld broken
7. White flipper bearing had a Crack
I had almost all the parts in hand to fix except the flipper part that opens the eos switch.
Oh ya here is that picture of the outhole. I don't know why people care so much about that. It doesn't effect the game play. I'm still going to buy the cliffy since it's cheap and I'm planning on this game paying for itself a few times.
I've never seen the undersides of inserts that dirty. What do you clean them with and how clean do they get?
Quoted from Okarcades:Oh ya here is that picture of the outhole. I don't know why people care so much about that. It doesn't effect the game play.
Sometimes I think it's the only part of a pinball machine that people care about. 
Quoted from MustangPaul:I've never seen the undersides of inserts that dirty. What do you clean them with and how clean do they get?
Just use some alcohol and some q-tips. They will look like new. It's just coil dust sitting on them
Quoted from flynnibus:Quoted from MustangPaul:
I've never seen the undersides of inserts that dirty. What do you clean them with and how clean do they get?
Just use some alcohol and some q-tips. They will look like new. It's just coil dust sitting on them
That's what I did 
I had a ST:Pro on location and biggest problem I had was the plastic under the vengeance broke, the entire section where the ball goes up to the magnet/drop target area broke off in one clean triangle (ugh), which was a big problem, had to just get a piece of lexan and cut to to roughly the same shape and was ok
looks like yours was starting to crack in a similar fashion pretty early in... now my tron, that sucker is up to 14k plays last I checked
I've had to mostly tear down a ST on location to replace some optos and my times jive with the ones posted here. Great thread. I'm looking forward to a full tear down after 13k plays on mine. (may take years but that's ok)
Loving the thread. Great look at when an OP takes care of his machines.
Makes me want to do a thread on my 10,000 play Met Pro that's in the shop right now ...
Quoted from Okarcades:Oh ya here is that picture of the outhole. I don't know why people care so much about that. It doesn't effect the game play.
Haha, sorry, but that is the ball trough outhole. The outhole we like to see pictures of is the drain out-hole under the apron. 
The reason we want to see it is that at least on some newer games the clearcoat tends to crack and lift away after a handful of games, so we'd like to see how gracefully (or not) the one your game is degrading with thousands of plays.
Thx! 
Duh! I should have known the difference between the outhole and shooter lane 
The clear is coming off a bit so I just slapped some mylar on it and now it should be good to go for a while.
The purple and white posts are what I like to call snowmen protectors. They work great on location and hardly ever need to be changed. Anyone with a star trek on location should try it.
Got to work in the game again some more tonight. Found out my beta ramp was also cracked in the same place as the warp ramp. Fixed with some 2 part epoxy and some kind of mesh tape. Also installed cliffys throughout. Here's a few pics of the progress. It's not too much more than last time. Added a few Titan bands in various colors.
20160802_200140_(resized).jpg
20160802_194117_(resized).jpg
20160802_194124_(resized).jpg
20160802_194128_(resized).jpg
20160802_195730_(resized).jpg
If it is going back out on route, I would recommend removing the magnet circle cliffy. Those do not hold up well for heavy play and will warp/bend after a bit. Should use the carbon fiber ring that he makes for heavy play.
What's with the flipper rubber on the last pic? That rubber kept breaking on my ST on route, and I went up one size rubber and it hasn't broken again.
I put the flipper runner there because that rubber always broke on mine too. I added one near the pops in my walking dead that was breaking regularly and it has been working great ever since. Thanks for the tip about the metal circle and I'll report back with the status of the flipper rubber on that area to the right of the vengeance.
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-star-trek-with-4938-plays-pics/page/3 and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.
Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.
Ocala, FL
Unknown
Saskatoon, SK