(Topic ID: 70775)
Linked Games
Firepower
Williams, 1980-
Firepower II
Williams, 1983
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Westerville, OH
1 week later
Quoted from Madal:Looks as you be having fun!
Wheres the side stencils from?
Those Are Pinball Pimp stencils.
Here is progress so far.
Fixup1 (resized).JPGR Pimp1 (resized).JPGRed Done (resized).JPGMore cabinet progress today. (this cabinet is 38 years old)
Yellow was much easier than red. 
If you do rattle cans with these stencils always remember that less paint is better.
All kinds of bad things happen when you put on the colors or clear too thick.
Also really clean the surface before you paint, I just use a ZEP Cleaner & Degreaser before applying the stencil.
Y Pimp2 (resized).JPGYellow Done (resized).JPGZep (resized).JPG 2 weeks later
Quoted from Aniraf:Mine is finally looking and playing pretty good.
Mine is not that far along, but at least it is up on four legs. 
Next up the playfield !
Bud
OnLegs (resized).JPG 4 weeks later
Quoted from Aniraf:Nice. I wish I was brave enough to try the hard top. Can’t wait to see it.
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.
2 months later
Just put on a HardTop.
I found a donor PF and I am saving the old one for restoration.
Not sure anyone is looking to restore these anymore with the HardTop and CPR options.
Quoted from Budwin:After sanding down to 320 grit I sprayed Rustoleum 2X gloss clear on the inserts for a nice shine.
I also blacked around the roll over switch slots since they show after the Hardtop is on.
[quoted image]
Now is the time to clamp the Hardtop down and stick it.
(2nd set of hands thanks to my wife for holding the Hardtop up while I pealed off the backing)
[quoted image]
It is done, the Hardtop went down and the inserts are aligned. (inserts are all that really matters)
[quoted image]
Next was the routing out of the Star roll overs, slowly and carefully.
Then a quick coat of wax.
[quoted image]
Now on to the playfield swap.
I will have a pretty nice restore-able Firepower playfield left over when this is done.
This is my version of the Firepower Hardtop experience, I am feeling really good about it.
I still have a ways to go before I can play it.
4 weeks later
Quoted from AdjustFailure:Hoping to hear from Firepower owners, I am trying to trouble shoot a continuous hum on the audio output.
The hum is not a big deal normally but since I have hooked up to external speakers and a powered sub woofer it is quite annoying.
On power up, does your machine make a short buzzy blurb sound for about one second then tapers off to a milder ongoing hum?
I have checked the grounding etc on the sound board, but am wondering if all Firepower machines have this same audio characteristic?
I just finished up a restore and I do not hear any hum.
If I crawl under the cab and put my ear up there I can hear a little, but not while standing in front of it.
My first guess would be dried out filter caps on the sound board.
I would also recommend replacing the audio AC power connectors (male and female at J1) to the sound board.
Bud
Quoted from AdjustFailure:Thanks for the advice, Budwin! Sorry to be so basic but looking at the sound board layout diagram, there appears to be 34 capacitors of different types on the sound board ... so which ones are the filter capacitors, and are there a few that would most likely be suspect in creating hum, and need to be replaced first?
Sorry, C27, C26, C25, C15, C14
Bud
SoundAssy (resized).JPG 1 week later
2 weeks later
IMHO never trust header solder connections on a 40 year old PC Board. 
As I have been repairing several old PCBs I pry off the old plastic 9 pin header leaving the pins in the PCB.
I then heat the pins to let them fall out, this protects the PC board traces from heat and mechanical forces when using a de-soldering tool.
What I have noticed is that a large number of these pins come out when I pry the plastic off indicating they are not 'really' still connected.
These pins solder connection looked fine before I pried on the header housing.
So, the bottom line is the 'solder' ages and de-bonds from the pin to the PC board trace even if they look OK from the bottom side.
This de-bonding is likely caused by temperatures cycles as well as mechanical forces from plugging and un-plugging the connector over many years.
That is why Todd Tuckey's shop re-solders ALL header pins on PC boards as a standard procedure on all serviced pins and arcades. (watch the YouTubes)
7 months later
Quoted from mrm_4:Anyone know where to find these beasts? I need the 27 ohm 10% 2 watt resistors on the driver board.
Seems I’m only finding the 5%. Or does anyone know of compatible replacements?[quoted image]
I recommend doing this:
Eliminate the heat problem forever !
1 week later
Quoted from D8n-flipped:hello Firepower squad, I just got a Firepower and wanted to paint the cab. Has anyone downloaded and used the stencils from the Firepower website?
if so, what did you print them out on?
thanks
IMHO save yourself and just buy them from PinballPimp. 
I did it and it was hard enough getting the paint on the right amount, I can't imagine fighting with the stencils too.
92bc7e51b89662db051932666df56c87b28f43dd (resized).jpgIMG_1652 (resized).JPG 11 months later
Quoted from alexmogil:How about in test? I can't remember if you can go sequential testing lights or not but results could help understand it.
Mine had a bunch or lamp random re-wiring done in the past on my FP.
To un-tangle all of that I used the Pincoder ROM #11 - Lamps test.
With that I was able to get all the lamps correctly wired and working.
3 months later
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