I bought the one from PBR.

What is the correct flipper rubber?

Gottlieb games use 3/8" thick rubber rings on the flipper. All other games use 1/2". Placing a 1/2" rubber on a Gottlieb flipper causes the rubber to angle the ball down into the playfield every time it is flipped because it won't sit in the 3/8" groove. Alternatively, you can use generic flipper bats and 1/2" rubber.

28 1/2

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I appreciate you taking the time to do that. It appears you have Williams WPC legs on yours, just how I received mine. Crazy how many used pins I have bought with the wrong legs. LOL

I forgot I did that.... The originals are (i think) 27 1/8

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Wish we were closer. I'd offer to buy those. Thanks for confirming the ~27" length.

New to the club, just picked it up, super clean inside and out, can't imagine it was ever on the street unless someone did a resto.only thing is a few bulbs are out, the manual tells you everything except the bulb numbers, glad I read this topic didn't know about the flipper rubbers, going to get a couple extra sets and may change to led , was told it's already led but don't think so, think I got a fair deal compared to what the rest of the market is in these over priced times. Thanks for the topic.

Finally getting back around to this project Lebowski bowler. Got the full head done now and will get to the cab this weekend.

Question: I was going to paint the side rails, lockdown bar and legs black, but all I have access to is black spray paint. Is this a bad idea? I don't want the paint to chip off. Any advise is greatly appreciated.

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Got to the cab earlier than I thought. Should have it all finished up this weekend.

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It’s gonna chip… just how bad and when will be determine by how well you prep the surface and what type of wear tear it will be subject to.

Have you considered powder coating or even vinyl wrapping as a potentially cheaper option to powder coating?

I’d just take them to a local powder coating place. I did that with mine because they were slightly rusty and stained. Totally worth it! I got gloss black with gold specks.

Good to know, thanks... I sprayed the lockdown bar as a test and it came out okay, but if it is going to likely chip then I'll take it off and get it powder coated with the legs and side rails.

I was giving my SnS a deep clean since it’s been on location it’s entire life and was filthy.

However, I made a big oopsie. Forgot to take pictures of the apron and which bolts/spacers go on the playfield underneath it, and how it is supported.

Anyone have good pictures of a tear down of their SnS for reference?

Is there someone selling a full decal kit for this? I played a re-themed one of these at a show and thought it was a fun game, and the re-theme made it that much better for me. Felt like a great party game. There's one local to me for sale, thinking about grabbing it and doing the re-theme.

Also interested in peoples thoughts on this, given the limited amount of these made. Considered by many to be controversial? Does it hurt or help future resale?

Since none of you schmucks were of help, I’m giving back and posting photos of my shop job. I polished everything by hand and waxed the playfield. I spend hours polishing it and it looks great. The worn areas are too bad, maybe one day a NOS playfield will cross my path.468ED265-ACE9-4CFB-8744-D188C6DDC5A9.jpeg
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Anyone know what one of these things is worth in almost perfect condition? There isn’t any wear on the play field and the cabinet is a 9/10.

Yeah, Pinstein sells them (not sure if he has any remaining, as I think he just did a limited run of them - just PM him and ask).

I think making the conversion to a Big Lebowski makes it a bit more desirable and easier to sell in the future, but I also struggled with changing the original into something else. My cab was in good shape so I was able to install the decals over the original artwork on most of the machine (not the backbox/head). I could change mine back without too much effort if I ever desired.

I'm going to attempt to change out some of the call outs and possible the music to TBL tracks. Someone has built a system 3 sound board that can be customized, so I'm going to give it a try at some point.

Nice to know about the soundboard. I have thought of doing a Kingpin version or maybe a combo version with a Jesus and Big Ern topper.

Market seems to be around $1800-$2500 depending on location and condition. Of course something closer to mint could command more.

For me, the conversion would increase the value. There is very little demand for the game from what ive seen over the years. I suspect others would say the opposite however.

It’s a great party game and fun the play with others… playing alone gets boring quickly just like owning a slugfest.

Just joined the club a couple of days ago and having fun with it! I had been searching for a couple of years for this game so I was pumped to add it to the collection!

Mine had the coil firing issue in the back but thanks to the info in this thread I was able to easily diagnose and fix the problem. Thanks everyone!

It feels like the right side both flipper and kick out coil is weak. The kick out won’t always get the ball all the way out. The left side kicks out quick and flipper is strong. Coils are the same. Is there a good place to start?

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Double check that the ball isn’t kicking out so hard that it’s bouncing right back down. That was happening to me. If it’s not kicking out, the spring needs to be changed. Gottlieb had a service bulletin about this. The spring is too strong.

Sorry is the out hole that feeds the right flipper. The back works fine fortunately

I figured it out. The flipper was the eos being too gapped and the kick out was the spring on the lever being too weak so I made it stronger. Played 3 games and it’s playing well

Weird issue at the arcade today.
The right diverter plunger kept firing over and over persistently once or twice a minute. Not sure how long it had been running. The coil was VERY hot, but not too hot that I couldn’t hold me hand on it.

The opto tests fine, and after power cycling the game twice it stopped.

Any clue what might be the cause? This is on every day for 15 hours, 7 days a week. I need to ensure this issue is solved and doesn’t occur again!

Background info: When I got this game that coil had already been replaced and was installed backwards, so this has clearly happened before. I’ve had the game for over a year now and this so the first time it’s happened with me.

I have a friend that owns a SNS game and all of the balls always return to the right side. Even if they started on the left side. I've never worked on a SNS game or a System 3, so need a little help. Fuse is good, no broken wires or anything burnt. The coil on the left side that operates the gate works but the one on the right side never fires. Guessing it might be a transistor (which one) that needs to be replace. What else should be checked?

Finally got back to work on this SNS with the coil working ~10% of the time, turned out to be an easy fix but a pain in the butt to find. The winding on the coil broke right at the solder lug and with the location and the way it's mounted, you could not see it unless you took the coil out of the bracket.

Did you ever figure this out? Mine does this every now and then

Not yet, I cleaned the optos and the problem has yet to return. Strikes N’ Spares is such a great game, I think about selling it sometimes. Then I play it again and realize how much fun it is.

I cleaned all the optos and thought I was good as well, but recently the issue has come up again. Please let me know if you come up with something if your issue comes back. Hopefully you’re in the clear though!

I love this game as well. It is the most played game at every party I have and people always feel like they can approach the familiarity of bowling. So simple, but so fun!

Maybe a cold solder joint? Trace the opto back to the MPU. Perhaps it’s a stray ground. Hard to say!

Just got this one, pretty good party game. I was wondering why so much wear at the flippers and sure enough, the wrong rubbers and it's pressing the ball into the playfield

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If anyone is looking for one of these, let me know. Mine is up for sale and is in excellent condition.

Digging this thread out of the grave. Joined the club today. Pickup next week.

Congratulations
For what it is, it is a severely underrated party game. I’ve had mine for about 2 years and everyone loves it

Nice!!! Love mine. It’s simple and repetitive, but then again, so it bowling. I enjoy it for what it is! Mine is out on location right across from a head shop and those guys come over and play it every night before they head home

One of the best games I have ever owned. Everyone understands bowling.

I can rattle off a complete game of bowling during a commercial timeout watching a hockey game.

If you have the room, it’s an instant add to any collection.

Discovered that it is significantly taller when folded than all my other pins...fortunately we discovered this before I drove the 4 hours up there, lol, so I knew to drive a different vehicle.

Same scenario here as everyone else. It’s the most played game in our arcade along with skeeball. Even when I had 8 pinball machines, people played Strikes N Spares the most. So much fun for parties!

This happened to me when I picked mine up! Luckily another guy there lived in my area and drove it back for me (only 45 minutes….luckily).
One time I bought a Revenge From Mars about 4 hours away and couldn’t get the head off. I drove back the next day with more tools. 16 hours of driving for that one.

100% getting a skeeball, just hasn't happened yet.

I was just reminded of when I picked mine up I had an issue with getting it fully into the suv. I had it about halfway in and ratchet strapped the rear hatch down. We were about 2.5 hours so not terrible but it was a little bit sketchy haha

So my new strikes n spares has one thing going on that I can't tell if it's factory or an issue or a setting. Every 2 min or so it cycles all the balls, it drains them and reloads them. I reset everything and set it all back up to free play, etc, it plays great and it looks like it was unboxed about 5 years ago and stuck in someone's basement, but this cycling the balls thing has me stumped.

I've reset everything twice, cleared tourney data, cleared bookkeeping data, set it back up from scratch, so unless you really do have to disconnect the battery, the normal fix for this didn't fix mine. I only have the correct amount of balls in the chutes also, which I read can be a thing.

Does anyone make protectors like cliffy for this thing? The edges of all the holes are like brand new, there looks like effectively zero wear on anything, be cool to protect it while it's all like new.

Anyone near Virginia want to sell theirs? I am willing to drive up to 4 or 5 hours.

I had a weird occasional click like the game was trying to reload a ball from behind the pins sometimes. I cleaned all the optos (one is really hard to get to in the back) and that cured most of this issue. Still get it occasionally.

Also, idk if I’m unlucky but every Gottlieb I’ve ever had has had a cracked solder joint somewhere that I needed to reflow. I don’t think that is your issue, but worth checking. I’d start with opto cleaning though.

Make sure you have the proper flipper rubbers. Incorrect rubbers tend to accelerate wear at the flippers.

Adding mylar above the flippers might be a consideration.

I fixed the ball cycling Thing by shorting power and ground on the CMOS chip to reset it without having to disconnect the battery set the game back up from scratch no more ball cycling