It should be a 22uf capacitor. I would replace it with a 25V or higher cap. When you replace it, pay attenention to the polarity (plus and minus) of the original cap and install the new one in the same orientation.

The reason the coil locks on when the cap is connected is that the cap probably failed shorted. Very common with electrolytic caps of this age. Lots of machines from this era have the capacitor cut out of this circuit for this reason.

The capacitor buffers the switch closure. It ensures the transistor activates long enough to fully activate the coil. Same capacitor is on all slings and pops from the early solid state era.

Anyone selling a new back glass? I am possibly in the marke for a remake perfect version.

How much you wanting to spend? You want absolutely perfect call Mayfair.

http://www.mayfairamusement.com/backglasses.html

You want really nice call PPS

http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PPS-08-7227-FIREPOW-V2

Any idea what Mayfair charges?

I joined the club this weekend. This one is a little flaky but plays. The displays go in and out but look good. I also have an issue with the flippers scoring points, I think it is just some nearby switches. I need to update the connectors, touch up the playfield, and buy some back glass. I think that after a full shop job this will be a really nice game.

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Almost done with mine! I have a little display issue and all the blue in my glass is flaking but after a new Rottondog MPU, Reseating the high playfield plastic and a set of rubber your right, It will be a nice game.

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Playfield looks better than most. Nice find.

Your targets suck and your flipper is a little droopy.

The black knight and Gorgar I got from him were about $300~$350. You would have to call. BUT they are the original Williams reruns and are absolutely perfect.

The Mayfair FP backglass are a little different than the original in that they do not have the yellow to orange gradient at the top and lower left.

I have the Firepower and Blackout Planetary backglasses and they are not perfect either. The colors don't look quite right. The saturation of the colors is not as solid as original (looks washed out).

Since the Mayfairs are probably more expensive which is better?

Or... is the cost difference worth the printing difference?

I am new to this game so I have a question. Is the knocker on the Left Side of the cabinet supposed to do anything when the ball is plunged? Sometimes it does sometimes it doesn’t.

No, thats the credit knocker. It only fires when you put in coins or win a free game. It does not function if you have the game set for free play.

If your fires when you plunge a ball you have a problem.

That’s what I thought. Thanks

Not sure. Never saw the Mayfair backglass in person.

I bought the Mayfair at Pintastic for I think $300 and had it for a couple of years and loved it. I then bought the Planetary version thinking it would be an upgrade but I hated it. The ink is too thin and some of the reds are pinkish so it's sitting in the box and the Mayfair is back in. I did like the blue and the green on the ships of the PPS version but to me the Mayfair is much better.

I also found with the Planetary repro the ink was thin causing obvious spotting. I placed the white condom/caps on the #47 globes, the end result looked pretty much spot on to how it should to me, only slightly dimmer overall due to the caps. The colours seemed to be correct on my glass. Very happy with it, I prefer this version.

double post

Great info about the back glass everyone…thank you!

Here is how the Planetary backglass looks with #47 incandescants (without condoms on the globes). Looks close to the original IMO, if you don't like the spotting like you can see in this pic install the condoms on the globes to address this.

One other thing I noticed with the Mayfair glass is the jets are a very pale blue when backlit - the Planetary blue looks correct as per original.
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I added my Hardtop experience to the Firepower Hardtop thread here:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/firepower-hardtop-restoration#post-4741432

Ready to tackle the playfield swap now.

Just finished my restore. Here is the glass from Bally Bingo in the Netherlands. I'm very happy with it.
Pics are a bit blown out colour wise due to phone camera sorry. Its not that rainbow puke in real life!

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I really like the red skirts on those pop bumpers. That looks great!

Not really a “restoration” but I got my firepower playing tonight. Still have a few parts on the way so it’s not 100% but I have never played one besides on a computer so I had to. Great game!

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Excellent work! Just curious why you used the round bullseye decals on the 6 standups in the middle and the explosion decals on the 3 standups on the right. Not meaning to be critical, just like to know how different people think...

Just personal preference. I like it how they are separate areas/target groups. I bought a full set of bullseyes but decided against it.
Also going to put a decal on the rear back one which is currently black.

Stripped and cleaned the playfield, touched up the paint, redid all the header pins on the boards and added nvram and a solenoid fuse block. Led's on the playfield and I will do the backbox later.
Just waiting for the new rubber to come in the mail and it is ready to play. Next I will get new backglass and possibly a playfield protector, but with $50 shipping....
Playfield is in worse shape than I thought, maybe CPR will be able to do them again eventually.

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Can someone tell me what size wireform ball guide goes on the left ball capture lane?

I did a pf swap a while back and just now noticing the guide is missing. Went back through my parts and cannot locate it so don't know if it was not on the original pf. Looking at online pics it looks like some playfields have the guide and others do not.

Thanks,

Robert

I've seen a bunch of original games including mine that never had wire form there. I think Williams realized it wasn't needed and stopped putting them on.

Whereabouts is this? Anyone have a photo of what it looks like?

With regard to the PPS backglass, I have been very satisfied with mine. I think the color, with some accent LEDs, really looks nice. Just my opinion:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-firepower-club/page/43#post-4420363

Never implemented during production: cost cutting.

My CPR repro playfield had the holes in the pf for a wireform in the left hand capture lane. Took me ages to figure the ball guide was never there in the first place!

Hi all,

I've been running my game without the upper left gate so that I have the "skill shot" we talked about a few pages ago in this thread. This past weekend I noticed a flaw in running the game this way. If you lock a ball and are launching a second ball, the spinner is lit so you get good points when it spins fast. Well, I launched the ball with my left thumb putting pressure on the plunger while my right hand pulled back and released - this delivers great speed to the ball and to the spinner. It also delivers the ball quickly to the drain.

Well, because the spinner points aren't awarded until the spinner stops, the game sees the ball in the drain with zero points scored and serves another ball. Then the spinner stops and the points are awarded. I did it 3 times in a row and cranked up points without an increment in ball count, so it is repeatable. I'd be interested to hear if others with the gate removed have the same experience. I guess I'm going to put the gate back in because I don't want the game to have a "cheat" available. Too bad because I like the added interest created by removing the gate.

-Rob
-visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets or my Williams system 3-7 sound board potentiometer solutions

I too have been playing with the gate removed and I like how it makes the game more difficult. I’ve never experienced the situation you describe but I try not to plunge the ball so hard because it will drain through the flippers. Later on when I get home I’ll give it a try and see what happens.

Doesn’t work on my game. Plunge and drain at your own risk.

I had it all up and running for Christmas and then I turned it on this morning and my displays wont work correctly.
Any Ideas?

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Usually when you get the 0_0_0 displays it's one of the PIAs. Probably IC10 but maybe IC5

If those chips are socketed, press one of them back down and reboot. If that fixes it, replace that IC socket (it's bad).

ONLY PRESS ONE CHIP AT A TIME, or you won't know which one was the problem

Thanks I’ll try it right now.

Are you going to let us know what happened? or do we need to hire a private detective.
(Just kidding, another dumb joke)

It didn’t work. I’ll try to reflow the solder.

My Firepower has been doing a bunch of different strange things when I power it on. Examples include: lighting up but not starting, only starting in adjustment mode, starting with only partial sound, starting but with a weird scoring system, starting but going back to all default settings. I can get it to play normally by turning it on and off enough times or playing through the first game, but it seems like it’s getting worse.

Someone suggested changing the batteries, does that sound right? There are no regular disposable batteries in the back box, but there’s a lithium battery on one of the boards in there- is that what I should change? Thanks for any help.

You can measure the battery with a meter and make sure it still holds a proper charge.

Bad RAM or bad RAM socket can also make the machine go crazy, sometimes starting out fine, but getting worse as the machine warms up

One of my pop bumpers stopped firing and I cannot for the life of me understand how to get into the switch test or solenoid test. The instructions say turn to page 7 where it tells you how to reset the high score :/. Any tips?

No it's on the bottom of page 3 under "diagnostic procedures"

Looks like IC10 and 5 are bad. Does anyone know if the replacements from Marco will work?

Does the game play and just the displays are flakey? Are they locked at the digits in your picture or are the numbers in the digits changing?

The display PIA is IC18 on the CPU board. Is that chip socketed? Are the PIAs on the driver board (IC5, IC10, IC11) socketed? If so, you can try swapping the PIAs between sockets to see if the problem changes.

I just reseated those and it works now. Looks like I’ll have resocket the board. Thanks

Congrats on the fix! While you have the soldering iron out, replace the 40 pin interboard connector if you have not already. Also, you can use a fiberglass sanding pen to clean up the legs of the chips. Sometimes cleaning that side of the connection will prevent or delay you from having to replace the socket.

Will do. I already did the 40 pin and all header pins on both boards.