I had that issue and determined the ball was hitting the wireform too hard and bouncing off. I resolved it by moving the coil up the bracket in the slots the screws go through, this shortens the plunge and slows down the eject speed.

Any issue with this blocking the ball sensing opto? It seems to be super close as it is.

EDIT: Ah...you are moving the coil, but not the plunger, correct?

Yes, you just slide the coil up a little bit in the slots but be sure to get it square to the bracket. It does not impact where the plunger stops at rest and will not block the opto in any way. Only do this though if your problems are the result of the ball being ejected too hard and bouncing off the wireform.

I'm nearly certain that is the case. I think the ball is slamming on the top of the scoop and then back down to the metal on either the bottom of the scoop or the wireform. Actually my first instinct was to reduce the motion of the coil plunger, but I was going to do this by increasing the size of the coil stop (thus reducing the total motion). When I looked into that I saw that it would interfere with the opto. I think moving the coil itself is a great alternative. Can I ask how far you slid up the coil on your game?

PS: I really want to get this fixed. Right now the Battle Simulation mode is pretty much a guaranteed end of ball, since anytime the ball goes into the Neutral Zone from there it's a 50% chance of firing into the outlane.

There isn't a ton of room for movement, I think I just moved mine up about halfway in the slots.

So I didn't see how to move the upper coil bracket on this coil, but while looking I did think of another solution. I took out the plunger and added 3-4 washers, thus resulting in the reduced range of motion. Tested it by playing 3 sessions of Battle Simulation and it seems to be working perfectly now. I might even add one washer onto the other side, just to reduce it a bit. On one of my sessions, I had a ball bounce out of that side.

Does anybody have a Beta Quadrant ramp for sale? Mine is pretty busted, but it's hard for me to justify spending $125 for a piece of molded plastic.

No, there is no reason you should every have to do this.

For anyone that is having power issues with the catapult, I always recommend replacing the coil stop. Unless your game is HUO, its possible that someone at some time installed the wrong one as it's unlikely they would have the correct one one on hand when making a repair since this part was only used by Bally/Williams in two places...ever. Having too short a coil stop gives the catapult too much throw, resulting in the ball being slammed into the rail causing it to loose a significant amount of its energy.

The correct part: https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-16886
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Side note: I don't recommend grinding down this part, or the plunger to fix mushrooming.

That's awesome @scooter8416. Bookmarked.

Someone make this a Key post!

Also consider waxing your metal ramp. It changes a lot of the momentum coming off the catapult.

WARNING: {personal.experience} if you have a properly working catapult and wax your rails, your ball will have so much momentum (even with a 7.0 degree playfield) hitting the drop target, that it will not be able to return to the top lanes, but will bounce back to the right orbit lane. This is exactly how a NIB machine played in 1994.

Kind of like holding the flipper on some machines for a super skillshot... up the Delta ramp?

First post, first machine! So I ordered the extended outlanes from pinbits. Problem is when installed the outlane is now too narrow and the ball gets stuck halfway down. I've loosened, tried tweaking etc.. Once tightened down, no matter how much I try it goes back to the same spot.

Am I missing something obvious?

You may have them on the wrong sides, one if specific for the left side, and the other is for the right side...they should have been labeled.

I initially put them on the wrong side for sure. If you do that, the right lane is almost too small for the ball to even go down. I got a response back from Pinbits about immediately on the issue and they send me a picture. I'm going to dig into it again tonight and see if I can figure it out.

Thanks for the info! I guess my catapult is "tired" then, because it does indeed return in the top lanes.

Are there any rule cards out there that have the look of the computer screen? Specifically the screen as it looks on the bottom of the playfield.

Custom translite for Star Trek.

What do you think?

IMG_2189 (resized).jpg

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I sure like the AC/DC. The STTNG is too dark for my taste but the layout looks good. If Picard and cast were in color I would think it would be almost perfect.

I have the same STTNG translite, I suggest you change your LED colors to better light it.

So this is super-super rough, but what do you guys think of a alternative translite like this? I do want to keep the existing Borg ship on the design, but I'd like to also try to tie it back to the better known Cube. Again, super rough. More looking for feedback on the overall layout / design. Is there anything else better in that upper left area? I think some type of ship battle makes sense, though perhaps something with a shuttlecraft or faint Star Trek logo. Also I liked the ship centered before the logo was put in place, however I don't think they can both be centered.

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Played with the idea a bit more this morning.

Star Trek Backglass (resized).jpg

I prefer the original classical font with no outline and play with the angles on the ship. In space the concept of banked turns doesn’t really reconcile with me, except maybe when the use impulse power.

How did you polish up the metal to make look so shiny?

I like it. I think it will fit very good with my speaker panel

IMG_20190202_184507 (resized).jpg

I like the first one, though I'd like to see how it looks lit up from the light panel. Also keep in mind where the flashers are. That's where you want to put explosions and things of that nature.

Also, that flasher for the Klingon and Romulans lights up specifically during that mode of play. So having the graphics in a different location would prevent the mode from lighting the correct flasher.

A good thought, but given my limited artistic ability, I sometime have to work with that I find. I have no artistic ability, I can just layer and edit things in photoshop. Even then for every 20 things I test out, I only end up liking one. Plus for $2.50 you can move a flasher anywhere you want. I added in some "cloaked" Romulan ships. It would be really cool if they could be printed in some type of special ink that shows up better when the flasher goes off. Sorry for the repeat pictures, I'll try to delete some of the old ones as I update. It does help me though, because sometime things are darker then they appear when I'm working on them (ex. Borg Cube).

Star Trek Backglass (resized).jpg

Selling my custom lit 1701-D topper.
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/ad/74794
It is not flawless, but still pretty cool. Selling it because I am working on an upgraded version, and these things (Diamond Select Toys) are quite pricey if you can actually still get a hold of one (the updated version).
There are tons playmates out there, but they just don't have the same detail.

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I just finished doing a PF swap on my STTNG. Things are mostly okay, but I seem to have developed a short in one of the GI strings. I suspect that I did not re-connect the wiring to the pop bumper bulbs properly, as the pictures I took of this area were a little sketchy. Could someone let me know what is the proper wire color to each leg of the three P/B bulbs? Thanks!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sttng-pop-bumper-lights

STTNG has always been the black sheep in my collection. I could never hit any of the shots with any reliability, never get any flow going, forget the Delta ramp. I've been doing a round of maintenance on all my pins lately and I turned some attention towards trying to figure out why my STTNG is so clunky. Well... I think I may have found out why.

Look at my flippers... They are significantly "fatter" at the tips than any of my other pins. I looked through all the images in this thread and it seems pretty clear that my flippers are not stock nor correct. I'm assuming this was a mod by a previous owner.

It had never occured to me before that there could be different sizes of flippers! Where do I get replacements, and how do I make sure they are the right ones? And what rubber should I put on them?

I've always wanted to like this pin but could never get anywhere with it. Hopefully fixing this will finally let me enjoy it! Thanks for your help.

P_20190215_090054 (resized).jpg

Thanks, I’ll check this out tonight!

Those appear to be classic Bally/Stern 1970's flippers.
You want Williams...
https://www.pinballlife.com/williams-logo-flipper-bat-and-shaft-assembly-white.html

(don't forget the 3rd flipper too)

As for rubber... that can be personal preference... but size-wise, you want standard 1-1/2" x 1/2" .
https://www.pinballlife.com/flipper-rubber.html

Timerider already linked the proper flipper, I would go with the super bands https://www.pinballlife.com/1-12-standard-size-translucent-high-gloss-super-bands-flipper-rubber-17016.html instead of traditional rubber, these are much cleaner and IMO give you better ball control.

I would say too much ball control. Go with the titan ones. They are silicone and plays like a normal red rubber. The super bands are too sticky for my taste.

Thanks for pointing me to those parts, guys. I've got the order in now and I'm excited and hopeful that this will fix my game!

These are very "grabby" and competition players generally don't like them an I get that. Rule #1 in any correspondence is to "know your audiance" granted this is hard to do in a forum with a single post, and perhaps I misjudged the audience here; but this is an in home pin for a player that wants to enjoy the game and not have it as "the black sheep" of his collection. This is reason enough to use super bands, later on once hes tweaked the game an it has good flow, he can always change them out with anything he desires as flipper rubbers are super cheap.

< >

Special thanks to Hammerhead for giving me my 1st negative post in more posts than he has ever made on Pinside; and also thanks for not responding to the post at all to state your opinion as to why you disagree.

</ >

Perhaps I will do like others and just stop posting here...

Just turn off the thumbs up/down. Because - who cares.

This thread and many people's games would suffer if you stop sharing your knowledge of this pin! Don't let one person turn you away from the club!

Pictures helped, I had mine correct, but this directed me to look at other things... turned out the lamp socket under the left cannon had the tabs touching. All good now. Thanks for the help!

You are totally right. With you 100% When I think back, my game came with super bands. Maybe that’s the reason that I got hooked in.

Quick question. Tonight I managed to smash the glass for my translite. Grrrrr.... The translite came away relatively undamaged, although it already had a few blemishes.

Has anyone bought the CPR mirrored backglass? I’m considering it but wanted some feedback.

This game will be the death of me. I’m just starting to bring it back to life. One cannon loom replaced today, I’m sure I’ll find more stuff wrong tomorrow. Just now starting the restore process. Trying to decide if this game is worthy of a full restore. It needs virtually everything. Playfield has wear, cabinet needs redone, etc...

Try to get a look at one in person first, the colors are very different than the translite. To me it looks awful, at least the one I saw.

I have seen them side by side and the CPR seems to be over saturated. I have seen a couple like this, the BOP backglass looks like this too. If you light them with LED they look great as the colors really pop then but if your staying with regular bulbs, I’m guessing it will look dark.

Thanks for the feedback. I guess I'll just stick to finding regular glass. Honestly, I think I'll fix my STTNG and flip it for a better one. Mine simply needs too much to consider restoring it. Anyone want a players condition STTNG in the Louisville, KY area? =)

I need some help locating the "Borg Lock" switch. Anybody any idea where it is? Manual does not locate it and I cannot seem to find it, but it generates an error.
Also, does anybody have an idea where to get new VUK covers? My mission start metal bracket under the Borg ship fell apart into pieces.

This is under the Borg ship cover attached to the Borg assembly, more than likely you are seeing an error from not locking a ball in the Borg ship in X number of games, just drop a ball in the ship from the Delta Ramp entrance an it will likely clear.

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This is a common problem, I got mine from Marco, its not spot welded like the original, so it should hold up better.
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-16626