Price Check - I have a firepower playfield that I am thinking of selling, but I am not sure how much I should ask. I know shipping would be around $40 - $50, so that may scare aware some buyers. I have the wood side rails for the playfield, but nothing else. I've attached pictures of the playfield so everyone can see where the worn areas are. I know I've seen a lot worse playfields still out in the wild, so I think this may have some value to someone. So, any ideas on how much I should ask for this? Thanks

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Playfield has been sold to Stephen - he is going to try and restore it. He said he would keep us apprised of his progress.

Put the red lead on TP 7, and the black meter lead to ground. You can use the ground braid as ground.

Walamab -

There's lots of threads on how to straighten warped plastics - do the search.

I'm not sure a hair dryer is hot enough. I think everyone has their own opinions on what works best. Personally, I use a hot air gun from a distance, slowly warm up the entire piece, and let gravity do its thing. I put the plastic on a clean piece of glass so it does not pick up any dirt- the plastic is soft and can pick up stuff pretty easy.

Read all the opinions and decide what you think will work best for you. Good Luck

425270 has good pop bumper caps

Just to add to La_Porta's comments: If the arcing were bad enough to create carbon between the pins, you will have to clean out the carbon before sealing it. I had the same issue between two pins, and ended up having to remove the carbon before I lost continuity between the pins. It sounds like you didn't have a lot of carbon, so you should be OK with your boards.

Canoncity -

Check the power supply, especially the 5 volts - monitor the voltage and have someone operate both flippers to see if the power dips. You may be better off using an analog meter, but try with a digital. If the power dips, then you found the cause. Otherwise, check the diodes on the flipper coils - I have a machine that eats the coil diodes, and when a diode goes bad, and you flip both flippers, the machine resets. Note you have to lift one end of the diode to check it.
Report back.

Basics - verify voltages on all the test points, especially the power supply, then on the Rottendog.

http://www.firepowerpinball.com/ the schematics show actual voltages at different points on the schematic.

http://pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Williams_System_3_-_7 This is an excellent writeup on all Williams system 3 thru 7 systems.

Between these two references, that should be just about everything you need to troubleshoot and get the game going. Continue to post progress.

Don't worry about the 32 volt, the important thing is the amperage, and whether it's slow blow or fast acting. I doubt you could find a lower voltage rating fuse, but just in case, don't go below the 32 volts. Most fuses used now are 250 volt.

It sounds like the plunger is binding. Make sure the plunger and coil are a straight line when the plunger is fully extended. Eyeball should be good.

If you can't find any, you can bend your own wires for under the flippers. I think PBR or Marco sell the wire, and somewhere on this site is a tutorial for bending.

Hope you can repair the holes that someone put in the playfield for the post in the center drain - FP does not have that post.

You will need to remove the board to solder in the transistor. I don't know of any way to solder the back side of the board from the top. With the boards out, it may be a good time to replace/reflow the 40 pin connector anyhow.

Swap player two with player four and see if the problem follows. If so, look for cracked/cold solder joints. Same with player one and three - you're missing a digit.

Go with the flipper rebuild - if all the the other coils seem to work fine, its unlikely you will have voltage issues. Concentrate on the flipper coil stops, sleeves, and EOS switch.

It’s not surprising that the slingshot switches look mangled. Straighten them and adjust them like you would any other leaf switch. I have a leaf adjustment tool that I use. With the plastic off, and the ring on, adjust for a proper gap. If you try to adjust the gap when the switch is not installed, it will be too close when installed.

The resistor and diode install is correct. I’m going by memory, but one switch is for scoring, and one is for activating the coil.

Did you look at the plunger stops on the flipper coils?

You have to lift one leg of the diode to test them. At that point, you’re half way there to replacing them, so it may be just as easy to replace them with new ones.

Based on what I see of those batteries, you will need to replace the battery holder, and likely repair some damage caused by the leaking batteries.

Since you will have the board out, I suggest you go with NVRam to get rid of the need for batteries, and then change out the 40 pin board header, and plan to do the same thing to the MPU pins. Lots of solder work ahead of you to make this more reliable. Good machine!

I’m away from my machine, so can’t look, but does this have a diode across the coil? If so, you need to lift one side of the diode to measure the coil resistance.

I’ve always lifted one side of the diode when measuring coil resistance. Otherwise, you’re reading forward bias on the diode or resistance of the coil, and you won’t know which one you’re reading.

I’m not sure about what causes a weak coil, I’ve only seen them open winding.

Just a curiosity - do you have new sleeves and stops or at least clean ones? Little to no slop in the linkage pins? All that will contribute to a weaker flipper.

You can measure the voltages safely as long as you don't accidentally touch the metal probe tips. (Don't ask how I know !)

If cleaning a game for the first time, I plan to replace all the coil sleeves since I don’t know when it was last done.

It might be easier to buy a new switch and rob the nut from it.

I don’t recall seeing just the nut for sale.

Did you verify you have voltage at the coil? Did you take a pic before you took it apart so you can compare past to present?

For the left flipper, go back towards the driver board to find where you're losing the voltage. 8 volts is bad - maybe a bad connection somewhere that you aggravated when you changed the coils. Start by lifting the power wire to the coil (With power off), then power up, start a game and measure the voltage on the wire without it being attached. Report what you find.

The 50 points is caused by a switch being activated by vibration from the flipper. Figure out which contacts are 50 points, (I think the targets are the only ones, but I'm not near my machine.) and put a piece of paper between the contacts, one target at a time, then flip. When the points stop, you found your switch that is causing the problem. Open the gap on the switch just a bit.

Not sure what would be causing a three ball game to only go on two balls. My thoughts are a set of contacts in the trough bounce when the ball is put into the shooter lane. When starting a game, observe the ball in play indicator. Does it jump from one to two when serving the ball?

My Firepower stopped working while I was playing - the scores suddenly went bright and were strobing, and lots of points were being racked up. I troubleshot the problem to something in the solenoid 1 - 8 area. Removing pins from the connector to isolate it down to one solenoid, I found that the issue is solenoid 3.

The problem is, per the schematics, Solenoids 2 & 3 are not connected. Since there's a wire connected for them, I can declare the schematic is wrong. So, before I start going hand over fist following these wires, does anyone out there know what solenoids 2 & 3 are? Thanks

Interesting - I don't have drop targets - so I 'm thinking they ran the wires and just left them hanging, and one of them finally shorted. I'll look in that area and report back on what I find.

I traced the wires to 8P3 pins 18 & 19 per the schematic. (The 24 pin black connector) The wires end there, and go no further. I am going to leave the solenoid 3 wire out of the connector on the driver board, and put a note on it saying it is not used. Not sure why connecting this dead end wire causes the machine to go bonkers, but at least for now, its working.

Thanks for the directions.

RM -Run a switch test and find out which ones are showing multiple closures. I suspect you have a switch matrix problem.

Boards look good to me - nothing out of the ordinary. You should have no problem selling them. Look at the marketplace ads to get an idea of what to sell at.

I measure about 1 1/16”. No washer. Here’s pics from my machine.

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I should add the screw has a shoulder on it

Replace the horseshoe contacts, too. Troxel or Old School Bob, or search for Wms drop target horseshoe contact replacement. Well worth the time.

You just did! Welcome to the madness of pinball playing, collecting, and fixing. I recommend making a donation to Pinside, and update your profile, at least location wise. That way, you may find there are others close by to visit or swap stories.

Up at the top of the page is a star and its labeled favorite topics - click on that for this string (Club). After that, you can go to the Topics tab and click on favorites to only see this string. However, I personally look at front page so I can see all new posts. I find I can learn a lot from other posts, and oftentimes find their fixes and comments are applicable to other machines that I have.

DBP99. I only have one staple on mine

Dave - here’s what is on top of my Firepower. It does look like there was a piece of card stock stapled to the top. I’m not sure of the sticker - no idea what/why it’s there.

I’m guessing the card was a checklist for the head, much like the card on the inside of the body. (There was a whole thread dedicated to figuring out what/why there were staples on the inside of pinball bodies - that’s why this seems to have a familiar ring.)

I put this in the curious mysteries of life bucket, something to contemplate when I’m really, really, really bored.

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Jumping Box
Take a look at the inside of the trough and make sure there’s not divet or a gate that’s preventing the ball from falling all the way down to where it should be.

The NMP sensors replace the horseshoe style contacts that tends to give everyone fits.

What has been found thru extensive use is that on SOME machines, the residual magnetism from a pop number operation will cause one of the sensors on the NMP boards to think a drop target dropped. A fix has been found - basically, it’s a small metal shield that reduces the effect of the pop bumper operation on the NMP sensor.

There’s several strings about the NMP boards - do a search.

I highly recommend them as a reliable replacement for the Wms. Horseshoe contacts on their drop targets.