I installed one about a year ago and think it's great. The ball is fast and the playfield looks as good as new. I don't notice any difference on how the ball behaves compared to a new "normal" playfield. For my machine, it was a massive improvement.

I posted about installing the hardtop here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/firepower-hardtop-restoration

Just replace them all and not worry about it anymore. I sent you enough for the whole board.

Yeah that's a good point but I am afraid I'll screw up one of them.. lol

Let that fear go man, I’ll just send you another one.

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Thanks for the info

Installed a new coil today and that did the trick.

Glad to hear. There was some flipper rebuild kits that came out that had the wrong plungers. This was making the plunger to not come in full contact with the coil stop. Creating weak flippers.

I am changing out the electrolytic capacitors on the sound board & see 1 of them in the parts list says it's "tantalum" not electrolytic.

I am assuming the electrolytic that came in the kit will be fine but is there a difference?

Tantalum capacitors do not die of old age like electrolytic. They also have different electrical characteristics. Some circuits call specifically for tantalum caps for this reason.

I would not replace a tantalum cap with an electrolytic.

Thanks... I replaced it with a electrolytic but I could put it back.

Here's a picture of what I took out... is this a tantalum style? I notice it's radial & not axial like the others I replaced.

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Nope, that's an electrolytic for sure. Good idea to replace it. Even better would be to replace it with a tantalum especially if the original circuit called for one.

https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=CTR-1uF-35V

Hey... thank you very much. I appreciate the info & link.

The Tantalum capacitor is used as a spike protection for the +5 volt regulator.
The part best fits if it is in the axial format.
( rather than the dipped Mylar version )

Recently started having this problem myself. Look like the coil springs are too tight. Right flipper in not contacting the coil stop cleanly. Spring appears to be gathering too tightly. It isn’t the sloped style pinball spring. It looks like a standard Home Depot spring....lol.

Take a picture of your plunger and link assembly at rest and then another picture of it pushed in.

I have 2 switched that I think are for the outlanes. Can someone confirm which one is for the ball save kick out on the left? I want to say it’s the shorter one closest to the camera.

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Critique this image...
Short one goes to the right outlane.

FINALLY! I bought a Firepower to restore and this was how I was going to do mine. I did a Pinbot powder coated everything black also. Thanks for posting with these decals I was going to go with also.

Got the new switch installed but the lane change still isn’t working. What am I doing wrong here? Is the diode backwards?

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Fixed the diode was backwards.. lol

My newly designed Firepower apron cards are now available for purchase. The price is $10 per pair including US postage, so please PM me if interested. You can see the cards here along with my other designs.

http://aproncards.com

Unless im missing them, i only see Firepower II

Apron Cards – Custom Printed Pinball Cards
http://aproncards.com/index.php/nggallery/pinball-apron-cards/firepower

Nice work. Just for future reference, the non-banded anode side of the diode on a switch always goes to the white wire.

My eye for art isn't the best.. which 2 would you choose for apron cards?

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I think I’m sticking with @beatmaster’s design

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-firepower-club/page/6#post-2278260

If the manual is correct.... I have my 2 right pop bumpers switched around. Would this cause any lamp issues? (Which I have). Thanks

How is it that they are switched around? If the wires for the pop lamps have been swapped in pairs, I can’t see how that would cause problems. If only one of the two wires were swapped, it could cause problems based on which were swapped and which were not.

Right... I found out the pop bumper brackets were switched below. I switched them to correct places & solenoid tests are correct.

The bottom right led still is acting up.

What color wires are on each pop lamp? Which wire has the banded side of the diode?

I switched sockets to new 555's with wires attached.

Top left pb 1 to resistor & 1 to red with yellow

Bottom left pb 1 to resistor & 1 to yellow with blue

Top right pb 1 to resistor & 1 to red with green

Bottom right pb 1 to resistor & 1 to red with blue

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The Yellow with Blue wire should be connected to one side of all 4 pop bumper lamps. This should be the side of the lamp socket WITHOUT the diode. You may have different color jumper wire connecting them all together but the jumpers should all lead to the yellow with blue wire for all 4 pop lamps.

The red w/yellow, red w/green, red w/blue and red w/violet wires should first be connected to the banded side if a diode (orientation matters, 4 individual diodes, 1 for each lamp). The non-banded side of the diode should be connected to the other side of the pop lamp socket.

Hope this isn't a dumb question... but why stop now? ☺

If all 4 pop bumpers are connected to the same wire... wouldn't all 4 lights blink at the same time? I don't think they should be... right?

1 wire is the same, the other 4 wires to the lamps are different. That is how each one can light independently.

What’s up with this resistor always frying in this game?

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I get this when I turn on the game. If I leave it on more than 5 seconds the resistor burns in half

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Unfortunately, it means one of your displays had gone bad. One of them is drawing extra current on that segment. You can determine which one by disconnecting one at a time or moving them in player position. If moving them makes no changes, its probably the display in the master display board itself.

Thanks man! I’ll disconnect them and try one at a time to see what happens tomorrow. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the master. That thing was trashed when I got it. I’m surprised I was able to get it working like I did.

So you were right I disconnected the displays and hooked up one at a time and found the bad Slave Display. I rearranged the good ones so I would have a Player 1 display still and no player 4. However that resistors still getting blistering hot and you can smell it cooking. Hasn’t burnt up yet though.

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Ok now that I look at the picture I’m thinking these displays are going bad.
I can see a digit on both brighter than the rest

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Delete

I’ve already committed to getting a Wolffpac kit for my Firepower but I’m still puzzled by why R5 on the master is cooking. I traced it on the schematics and it shows that it is for the E segments on the displays for Player 1 and 2.

The displays are fine.

What should I be looking for here? Any chip legs I should probe?
This things is so hot it burns my finger and you can smell it. Replaced it 3 times now. Holding strong at the moment.

I’d hate for this master board to be wasted, I’d like to save it for another project or be able to sell it working to someone that’s in need.

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My upper right pop bumper lamp is not working. I'm going to rebuild these all soon, but can anyone please tell me if this is correct or if there should be another wire connected to the lamp lead? I also notice there is one light on the playfield outlane that permanently stays on.

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MMP it doesn't light in attract mode or during gameplay? Yes, there should be a diode on each one since the pop bumpers light differently during gameplay.

It won't light during attract or gameplay. That diode was not soldered, but I'm wondering if anything else is missing from that one. If it's just the solder then it should work out after I replace some pop bumper parts.

What kinda flipper Coil return Springs are best? May I see a pic of your set up?...thanks!

For the pop bumper, there other side of the lamp socket should be soldered to the ground braid nearby.

For the outlane that's always lit -- during attract mode (game over) -- this is the right Special lamp. It is always on, on all Firepowers. This is a known programming flaw embedded in the ROM code and is on all versions, including the Rottendog replacement boards.

I'm working on a Firepower System 6 MPU. I thought I had it all done but I just get two solid LED's. Moved the ROM's over to an extra MPU from a Blackout and changed the jumper to try it on a known good MPU board. Same thing. I suspect the ROM's but when I compare the contents with the L-2 version out on PinWiki they all match. I'm going to try the Blackout ROM's on both boards to confirm it is a ROM problem.

Just curious as to how many of you have had the original ROM chips fail. I could convert it to the combined 2732 ROM but I'd prefer to keep it original if I can. If anyone has already updated to that I may be interested in your old ROM's since maybe I can put together at least one good set of originals.

I was going to challenge you on this. I would’ve bet way too much money that my light blinked in attract mode and I’ll be damned! It’s lit solid! Now i kind of wish I didn’t know this

Lol, sorry. I guess the touch of ocd can be a blessing or a curse. It does help me in my current job.