Working through the solenoid harness.
At this point I need to make some small connectors for the flasher sockets still covered up top there are two of them.
I don't want to take the topside parts off yet for reasons I will highlight later in the process.
The main challenge with this is that I am going to need to use the smaller .63 molex connectors and pins so it will fit through the cut outs in the playfield.
The reason that poses a challenge is that it is very tough to house two 18 guage wires doubled up in one single pin so I will make some adjustments to how the wire stays connected or chains to itself so I can fit it in there.
First I cut them as far up the chain as possible then I strip them in side by side.

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Now I tie them together here stripped and solder them together.
Now I clip the shorter of the two and shrink tube.

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At this point I can pin it easily enough .
A very important detail here is that I need to essentially key this in a way where it cannot be plugged into any of the switch harness connections since they are of a lower voltage.
It would seem like commonsense just to plug the like colors together but at the same time I can't baby sit the game the rest of my life so I try to think of all the "what ifs" I can.
This is done by mixing a male and a female pin in the housing and then I will do the opposite in the flasher socket harness I make later so they can only lock together .
the last picture highlights how they should not and would not fit together in terms of the switch and solenoid harness in order to insure there is no chance of confusion.

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Solenoid harness is off.
It can then be soaked and cleaned. .

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At this point I will finish the remaining coil assemblies.
Jet bumper assemblies at this point.The steel armatures are not broken but the holes are wallowed out where the ring mounts so those are replaced with the sleeves.

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Now the catapult assembly.
Color correct wire was placed as it was removed that includes the switch and that all will be placed on connectors later.
Fir now it is cleaned polished and fully rebuilt.

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Finally will be the flippers.
These were pretty butched up and the wires run short so I will be starting from scratch almost and implementing some enhancements to make them easy to service in the future and very easy to identify in terms of color coordination.

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Plated plates,and various brackets cover the carry over items and the new kit, bushings,capacitors and hardware will round it out.
I have new coils if needed or wrappers if not I will check that once I tear them down.If the sleeve is tight or seized I will replace the coil itself if it slides in and out easily I will reuse and rewrap the current ones.

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Sleeve is seized so new flipper coils are needed.
I still have a few true NOS ones hanging around here so I will use those and save the wrappers.

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The conical spring works fine or you can change them over if you have the parts and like that set up.I prefer to use the period correct kits for these because you need some parts that do not come in the newer kits and it is all in the name of simply changing a spring location.Those parts would be the correct EOS(always closed) and capacitor .Additionally but not an issue here or in this case with the change in brackets if you were truly dealing with a System 11 era flipper bracket with the welded EOS bracket you would not have the hole present to attach the spring from the plunger arm although you could drill one.
Can it be done and do I do it sometimes.?Yes
Should you or is it really much of an upgrade?No not really as long as you are doing a good job rebuilding the factory set up I have noticed little difference if any but I can see where just going from the beat original set up to a fresh newer set up could give someone a false impression .

The assemblies are built next is the wiring

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Looking at the harness we are running a Blue with yellow strip on the banded side of the diode and a blue with violet on the non banded side .
The other flipper runs a Gray with Yellow stripe on the banded side and a Blue with gray stripe on the non banded.
as a result I will wire these in a very specific way.

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The capacitors need to be placed.I am just mapping them first.They have to kind of fold on the longer lead then have a short one.
The leads need to be insulated and this will be one place that I get very specific.
I will run a plain blue wire from the short EOS blade/capacitor to the center lug of the coil.As a result I will make a plain blue insulator for the capacitor lead.
The other side of the capacitor/eOS will go to the non banded side of the coil.
I will place a color correct insulator on that lead.

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A lone wire is stripped mid way through and it is also color correct to make a continuous connection for the non banded side .

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The same process was used on both sides with all color correct wiring .I like to place these on plugs a well these days.
The reason for that is that it is much easier to work on these assemblies both now and in the future on a work bench or table.
Dealing with them in the game usually adds frustration,dripping solder,poor lighting etc.I want to put serviceability and the ability to easily support each and every part in every where I possibly can.
Another thing I do is key the plugs where they are easy to interchange that way for testing purposes you could in theory plug the right into the left and vica versa to see isolate problems and verify conditions later down the road.

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Placebo effect

Now I have all the coils done.

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Lamp harness is next.
I will first desolder the GI.My plan is to completely redo that.

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As I remove it I will change the generic daisy chains in the feature lamps as I run across them
A lamp like this is not only intertwined with the switch harness but also could use a little more specific coding .Not to work obviously but to most easily identify and also to provide a better ability to neatly route.
These two sockets are sharing the yellow with green stripe and I will just make that neater and more obvious.

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This process continues anywhere I run across the feature lamp daisy chains as I remove the lamp harness.The harness is then completely freed.

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The switch harness gets the same treatment all removed harnesses are now cleaned and dried.

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I use an auto wire stripper and set it with a little drag.It is kind of hard to describe but I just developed a feel for it.Get one and a little wire to practice .

Now we move to the next phase.That will be to finish gutting the cabinet.
There is a lot of test fitting and things to adjust or consider when working with a blank cabinet. This is what I already expect and why I did things like fill the cabinet builder provided pivots and most importantly I left the topside of the playfield populated in full and made it much lighter by removing the underside parts.
I want everything to fit and function perfectly.I want to make that happen by picking the best locations and adjustments not having them predetermined .
What can get lost in this process is how things are made within a fraction of tolerances.
Nothing is every truly perfect or identical so lets put it this way.
Cabinet builder is 1/8 too high on the pivot points.
CPR playfield is just 1/16 thicker
Repro ramps are also thicker say 1/16 also.
Next thing you know if you put it all together and you are 1/4 off things are hitting the playfields not coming to rest properly and it sucks.
They are not deal breakers or shortcomings at all but they are things that you have to anticipate nd consider upfront.The end result is a much nicer product but it is in no way the path of least resistance for me.

That said we start with the way the playfield sits in the cabinet.
This is a close and crucial detail on all games but even more so on a select few.Taxi is one of those select few.
The main issues with Taxi is that it is tilt only playfield(doesn't slide and lock forward)it is on a fixed pivot and it only tilts up into service position and down into rest position.
If the pivots are too high the spin out ramp will hit the glass channel in the rear and also of note the highest wireform is very close to the glass and when that glass is in place and the ball rolls through it there is so little room it could trap the ball if not considered.
this is all ties to where the pivot bolts sit in the sides of the cabinet.
The last picture really helps show how tight it is for the spinout ramp

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The next thing to consider is the front to back placement of the pivot.
Too far forward and the resting brackets will grind on the lockbar receiver and it will not come to rest properly or easily.
There is very little room for error here and I have learned to make my own holes and formulas as I go because it is just so game and condition specific.

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Another thing to note is there is a set block on the left side that acts as a stop and rest for the playfield when lifted.
On this game a larger speaker was cut into the original cabinet floor basically ruing the cabinet because the playfield now hits the speaker before coming to rest at the block.If it were just placed there it might be ok but the entire floor had been cut out to accomadate the speaker so it renders not only the speaker but the cabinet itself trash.

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First I pull the still populated topside playfield out of the lower cabinet.It is light at this point since the underside is stripped.That is important because I don't have to wrestle it to test fit it as needed later in the process.
Then I start gutting the internal parts from the cabinet lower.I want to get down to empty holes so I can accurately measure the center points of the holes themselves not guess with the bolts in the way.This is going to be crucial.

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Now gutted I can take some measurements and harvest parts I might need to properly test fit.

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The pivot holes mirror one another from left to right I always verify that to make sure there is not a factory mistake but once verified I note what the original spots are.
We are looking at dead center of the hole 17&5/16 of an inch from the back
14&7/16 from the bottom.
That is the factory measurement but wood shrinks, playfields can be thicker as well as ramps.
I find I can never go wrong if I come in just a touch lower and further back but I will always be wrong if it is too high(ramp could hit,glass clearance) or too far forward(playfield will not come to rest properly in the lockbar receiver) so I work the numbers on this one and figure out my ideal placement for the pivots bolts.I like to lower and slide it all back 1/8 of an inch given what I see.

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I start the hole with a forstner bit because they have a dead accurate starting point and it will do a nice job of cutting through the decal paint primer and first layer of the wood.
I then change to a traditional style bit to finish the hole.

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The drilled hole is just barely large enough to house the threaded part of the pivot bolt so the head with the carriage will really bite into the wood once seated.
Updated pivot points are placed on the inner instead of the spacer and nut set up that commonly loosens and falls apart.

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Pivots are now in place but I will need the lock bar mech there also so the playfield has a place to rest when lowered.
Installing that lockbar mech means I need a coin door or frame in place also.
I place small foam pads to help protect the cabinet from the frame fitting then place a empty frame for alignment and the lockbar mech that I built up.It is a System 11 correct lockbar mech with the added protection of a newer style level sleeve..

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Now I can test fit the old playfield.As long as there is a touch of added clearance I am good.
Playfield is placed in the cabinet and key details are checked.
How does it pivot?
How does it come to rest?
As anything catching?
Do I have to fight anything at all as I raise or lower the playfield?
These are the things I am looking for.
Everything looks and functions well.
There is the slightest drag on the top plastic of the spinout ramp when tilting up.It is not fully secured but I want to address it now just in case it changes to a more noticeable concern with the new playfield and ramps.
Otherwise everything looks great and well cleared of the glass .

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This is a simple fix for the spinout ramp drag and it is just a matter of being very picky but I can just see lifting the playfield later and having that plastic barely catch then crack.NO THANKS!

I shave a slight bevel which is covered by the glass channel back there just to eliminate the concern.Easily done at this point.

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Everything is refit and we are all set.

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Now I can work on the parts I removed from the old cabinet like the wiring and coin door.
The power supply is first..
It will get a new switch, and cord the plate and box will be swapped for nickel plated versions.

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New switch is placed.There are protections placed and the factory sleeve fits nice and snug.The cord is placed and the supply is now ready to install.

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Coin door is next.
This game still has the correct one and I am pretty sure I can salvage it.
It is just a little rough with a bad paint job.It is tough to tell if it is in anyway sucked in or bent.

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I gut it first.
This speckle type pattern that is still present underneath the removed bezel is what is correct.
It is used to help disguise minor flaws I believe.
Given the condition of this door and the fact that you can't simply replace it I plan on using that pattern and maybe even enhancing it to further help my cause of making the most I can of what I have here.

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I wash and wet sand the door and parts that will be painted.

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The door is placed in the paint room and the bezel is placed back in the normal position so the future speckling pattern matches up.
It is then metal etched.

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