I'm an old EM fart, but the one SS I'd love to have is a Firepower.

I'm mostly an old EM guy, but I'd love to have a Firepower. Unfortunately, I live in a pinball (and most everything else) desert, so the chances aren't good I'll get one any time soon.

Looks like a simple spacer. Anything special about it? Threaded inside? If some one could provide accurate measurements, or let me borrow one long enough to measure it, it would only take a few minutes to turn one.

Not sure I understood what you were asking for, but I hope these help:
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Now maybe you can help me. I pulled the main ac fuse from my Firepower II, but before I could get my super magnifiers (it's hell to get old) to read what it was, I lost the fuse. The manual only says "ac fuse", and the label on the board is long gone. Can you tell me the value of it? I've got a 5 amp in it to chase my switch problems, but I don't think that's going to run it all.

More like -20% to +80% on big aluminum electrolytics, especially of that era. I agree, the smaller one should be fine.

If someone could get the part and a set of calipers in the same place and get me the measurements I could turn a few.

So what I have at this point is no length, no outside diameter, and two guesses at an inside diameter. No spacers going to get made this way.

That's why pinball receipts go the same way as race car receipts... straight into the trash. I don't track or want to know how much I spend.

We have a couple of sayings in racing that probably apply equally to pinball:

Race car: A device that turns money into noise.

How to make a small fortune racing: Start with a large fortune.

Yes, but those displays are high voltage and low current. There must be a short somewhere causing the resistor to burn.

Instead of sandpaper, consider a burnishing tool. It was made to do just that job.

burnishing_tool_(resized).png

Is this something new? I don't recall ever seeing gold plated contacts in a pin before. But then I haven't worked on anything newer than a Williams System 7.

Nickel plated steel, possibly with a top layer of chrome.

There's some very good information on the process here:

http://www.finishing.com/faqs/chrome.html

FP or FP2?

When I click on the link, I get the bad site. Leave off the "www.", and I get to the real deal. Go figure.

I've spent plenty of time on the business end of a buffing wheel. It's a slow process.

What you have is plated steel, a simple magnet test will tell you. Probably nickel plated. It could be chrome, but since nickel will polish out as shiny as chrome and chrome plating starts with multiple layers of nickel, they may not have paid the extra for chrome.

I know a lot of people think that if it shines, it's stainless steel. But I don't think you'll find much stainless on a pinball machine. Was really no need for the added expense.

Don't know what you mean by "burning switch rows", but those resistors won't stop the machine from functioning. They're there to suppress the arcing caused by high current switching and extend the life of the contacts. Only switches that directly control solenoids would need them. Switches that report back to the cpu have diodes.

Look again. Is it scrolling (Characters stepping from left to right) or strobing (characters staying in position, but being displayed left to right)? If it's strobing, it's the bad caps. They're not filtering anymore, so you have the high voltage DC pulsing and it's arguing with the strobe rate of the display circuits.

Best of luck.

You'll find is two sets of contacts on pop bumpers (or, as the documentation refers to them, Jet Bumpers). A low voltage set that sends a signal to the computer for scoring, and a high voltage, high current set to fire the pop bumper. The resistor/capacitor combination is on the high voltage set. It reduces arcing and helps to save the contacts. According to the schematics, it's 22uF.

Look for something called an "attenuating patch cord". Knocks the signal level from speaker down to something more manageable like line level.

Yes, but consider getting the appropriate connectors to hook it to, or clip leads. There are resistors in there somewhere, probably in one of the connectors. If you cut off the wrong connector, you defeat the purpose.

Side note: Phono is the correct term for the RCA plug. And the other end is a 1/8" phone. The reviewer didn't read closely. Phone describes the shape, not the size.

When you say the diodes are glass, that sounds more like the general purpose switching diodes used in the switch matrix, like a 1N914 or the 1N4148, which is glass.

If it's a counter EMF diode, across the coil, you have several choices. In the 1N4000 series general purpose rectifier, the last digit is the voltage rating. 1N4001 is 50 volt, 1N4007 is 1000 volt IIRC. But if the original is 1N4004, I wouldn't use anything less than that. I just keep 1N4007's handy. Then I don't have to worry about it.

Best of luck!