I can join this club as of yesterday. Yo Taxi!

Hi all,
I've got a couple of issues with my Taxi and I'll bet this group can help.
1. One or two drop targets on the Lola bank are very slow to drop, or stop halfway until I hit them a second time. I'd like to check or replace the springs, but they look hard to get to. Are they? The Taxi manual also says these can be lubricated. What do you think? They do register when hit, whether they drop or not.

2. My pop bumpers aren't very lively, and the lower one in the middle rarely works at all. Any advice on repairing or replacing them?

This is my first machine, so I'm cautious about how to take these things apart.

Btw, my shooter is like many I see on this thread, and doesn't shoot far enough. I'll be getting the red spring, but do any of you use a shooter sleeve? How is that connected or mounted?

Thanks for any help,
Dwayne

Thank you for the tips. I'll be taking pics and diving in this weekend.

Drop targets are now working great! Took off opto board, all targets, cleaned all, put back and replaced those pull down springs. Wish I'd bought some target replacement stickers, but I can order those and do it next time. The hardest part was trying to work upside down on the Lola target bank. Ouch! But, I'm very happy with the results. Now onto the bumpers.

Does anyone know how to test the larger size push on bulbs under each character? They don't light during the all lamps testing.

Looking for some advice on making my Taxi bumpers come alive. The top two fire just fine during the coil test, the bottom one never fires during coil test. I have removed all of the parts under the playfield and cleaned spoons, tried to clean everything, put in new coil sleeves. I'm still a bit hesitant to cut the lamp wires and remove everything above the playfield, but I did check a little under the caps. I tried to line up the spoons dead center, the switch stacks appear to have a reasonable gap. Nothing seems to be bent, and the coils are tight. Okay so that helped a very small amount with the top two bumpers, but not nearly enough. Here's the interesting part: although the bottom pop never fires during the coil test, it does occasionally fire during game play when hit. I'd like to make them all work great, and I'm willing to buy new parts if I have to. Advice please? Have a great day today!

Not sure why no one is posting in the Taxi Club. Did I scare everyone off with my newbie questions?

I found a broken capacitor on one of my pop bumper switches. It says 22u 2v on it, and it's blue with a single band. I no doubt broke the thing while trying to adjust it. The remaining wire looks too short to reach and re-solder. I'd like to find one and replace it, but haven't been able to so far.
While looking, I found a complete switch replacement at Marco, SW-11A-35 (includes spoon), and that is very tempting. The new switches don't have capacitors hanging off of them at all. Do you have to add them, or do the new switches just not need them?

Thank you wayout. If I buy the new switches, I guess I'd better plan to add the cap & resistor. Is your cap 100 volt? Mine is 22uf 25v, and it's blue - looks just like Vids.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-rebuilding-pop-bumpers

_{Post edited by moderator: added extra detail}

I've been tearing into my Taxi quite a bit today, cleaning, polishing. In one spot I'm pretty sure someone used the wrong type of post (second from left) and it bent the plastic (upwards). I'll be replacing that.

Question: The left ramp wireform has a piece that comes down to the playfield, just above the Lola plastic on the left. Mine is not secured, but it looks like maybe a wood screw goes there. Can anyone confirm?

IMG_4163.JPG

IMG_4168.JPG

Thanks for the fast reply and sanity check.

IS the back glass sitting too high? It should slide in and up, and then back down behind the speaker panel.

Wow, what a weekend. I worked a lot on my Taxi.

Bumper question: my lower Taxi bumper does not fire during the coil test, ever. During game play, sometimes it fires great, and repeatedly, or not at all. How can I isolate and check this? Should I desolder the wires and check the coil?
What multimeter settings? Or maybe just make sure the wires are soldered well? They appear to be.

Switch question. My ball eject under the spin out is firing too soon. What's the best tool to bend the switch wire a bit more? It's in a hard to reach spot.

I've heard that LEDs won't dim, so you lose some dramatic effect if the machine is trying to dim. When I hit the jackpot on Taxi, it seems like the machine tries to dim along with music, and then they brighten again with the music crescendo. Thoughts? I've been thinking about those classic covered white LEDs throughout.

Home games are set to free play, so what setting do you choose for special? Also, have any Taxi owners here ever looked into Cliffys?

Oh, been meaning to report this to this group. I fiddled with my spin out quite a bit, trying to get it working as best I could. It was okay, but not great when I stopped. It was sometimes able to reach 100k. After a while, it changed for the better all by itself. Several times now I have been able to go past 100k and back up to 75k. Neat huh? I suspect some of it has to do with the ball resting all the way back against the shooter, but that's not the sole factor. Is the anything that can be done to reduce the "shooter groove" in the wood? I think a Cliffy here would be useful, but I don't think one exists.

Yep, I get that sometimes, but not often enough to mess with.

Scroll down to the closeup of the CAB section here
http://www.classicplayfields.com/photo132.html
Doesn't it look like the is a spot there where the ball could rest? I wonder why that needed to dip like that, and couldn't just continue as an arc.

Hi all,
Can someone take a picture of how the backbox locking rod works from inside? I bought two keyless locks at PAGG, and I'm not sure how that lock works. Mine wasn't connected when I bought it. The one I put on the coin box is cool though.

Thank you! Nice find

Feeling proud. I got brave enough to try to remove Mylar tonight using the freeze spray method. It works! I'm only about half done, but I think there may even be another full layer of Mylar under this one. I'm getting it all off, then cleaning, then i might get one of the full playfield protectors everyone is posting about.

I don't know how well this picture will show it, but I'm working the Mylar off from the bottom. I think there is another layer under that. I can feel the slight edge, and you can see it because it overlaps part of the hole where the slingshot kicker is. I will see how that looks when I get the first layer off, and probably take off the second.

image.jpg

Did you remove both layers of Mylar?

Update. I didn't have two full layers of Mylar. I had one full layer, one moon on the right slingshot, and two moons on the left, one on top of the other. All gone now. Whew! Lots of rubbing to get the glue off. I recommend it, but get the spray bottle of goo gone, not the regular. If I had to do this again, I'd try the orange power.
My playfield has imperfections, but looks WAY better. Any advice on buying a playfield protector? Btw, that's camera shine on the top left.

image.jpg

Just wax? No $100 playfield protector needed? Do you think carnuba from the auto store is okay for pins?

Now the rest of the playfield that wasn't covered with Mylar looks worse. Opinions on how to get that clean? I have Novus 1-3.

Thanks. I've read some of those. Some people don't care for Turtle wax products though, so I'll avoid that. And I always keep my balls fresh

Nice link. Reading about pop bumpers now.

Your jackpot is too high. Go hit it!

I used the freeze spray method a few weeks back to remove all the Mylar, cleaned and waxed. The playfield under the Mylar looks great. I wish I could get the rest looking that good.
Anyway, I bought a playfield protector from Bay Area. To install it, I have to remove the flippers and lane guides. Never done either before. Anyone have any advice on how that's done? I'm brave enough now to try it, but still cautious so I don't break anything.
I'll get some pictures up ASAP.

D

Got the playfield protector in place this weekend. It's not as good as a repro playfield, not as good as clearcoat, but sure a lot easier and cheaper than either of those. The ball rolls much quieter, and the playfield has a nice gloss to it. It would probably look much more vivid if I left it with just wax, but I wanted to protect it.
The protector did have some play to it, until I put the lane screws in place, and then there was no play. It's clear, so it didn't make the dirty spots any better. I'm happy with the results, and I'd do this again.
There are a few spots where the cut of the protector isn't very accurate at covering everything, namely the Gorby curve and the eject under the spinout. But, neither of those are very visible and it doesn't affect the path of the ball as far as I could tell.

protector in place white up.JPG

protector upper playfield.JPG

protector catapult.JPG

protector doesnt cover everything.JPG

pulling off white stuff.JPG

protector shines.JPG

glossy or hazy.JPG

I went with removing all Mylar and got a playfield protector. It gives the playfield a nice gloss, better play, but doesn't cost as much

My wife surprised me with a new CPR Taxi translight for Christmas. Will I need anything other than 4 trim pieces to use it?

Anyone have a working knocker Assy they're willing to part with?

That will work. Thanks RCA1

Holy crap that's clean

I got a new Taxi backglass for Christmas. Just finished putting in my LEDs, so now I'm ready for the new glass. It doesn't fit! I have new plastic edge protectors, which seem to be on snug. They do go all the way to the corners, unlike the originals. Has anyone else faced this problem?

Here's something cool about taxi...
When you get one of the high scores, you use the flipper buttons to enter your initials, but the flipper coils do not fire. My other sys 11 don't work that way. Anyone ever notice this?

Dwayne

Yep.

sanity check please - do any of the Taxi pop bumper coils use a diode? It's amazing how much time/effort I've put into realizing that I've overlooked this. Wow - I recently built a rotisserie and pulled the playfield to troubleshoot this more in-depth.

My lower pop coil has a diode. It has never fired during the coil test, but fires correctly about 70% of the time during game play.
Could an unnecessary diode cause this behavior?

On the coil? No....