Hi vid1900 I went to rebuild my 1965 Williams Lucky Strike's flippers and found the EOS switches included in my era-specific rebuild kit did not match. Apparently Lucky Strike (and a few others, Full House maybe more) use a Make / Break EOS switch (SW-12A-6 / A-5325-2) that is, according to Steve Young, no longer manufactured. I've been trying to track down what my solution is here but I'm not smart enough to figure this out on my own.

I only found one thread in all of pinside referencing these switches and that guy said he had to make his own. Have you encountered this? Thanks in advance!

The other variable is the diameter of the crank, the part that clamps to the flipper bat. When I was modernizing a Gorgar, I believe the 1969-79 crank had a slightly different diameter (distance from the flipper bat shaft to the plunger pawl) than a WPC era crank. That will also yields a change in bat travel for a given pawl movement distance.

It also had a different overall pawl length (from link hole that connects to the crank to end of pawl) if I remember correctly.

vid1900 is it necessary to bend the tip of the longer blade down a bit so that it makes better contact with the crank? It looks that way in your pictures. I did that and followed everything in your guide. Yet on my Mata Hari my left flipper seems noticeably weaker than the right flipper. I think I can’t get that EOS gap quite correct on the left side. I may have over adjusted it to the point where I have weakened the blades.

Thanks vid1900, I am going to swap out the EOS switch. I have to place an order with PBR anyway.

I have to rebuild the flippers on my T2. I ordered a rebuild kit many months ago, just in case I needed it and lo-and-behold, now I do. I re-read the guide, and saw that Vid recommends replacing the coils. Since I was at work, I looked in the manual (posted on ipdb.org) and it said to use FL-11630 (https://www.pinballlife.com/williamsbally-fl-11630-flipper-coil.html). That matched what Pinball Life's site said too, so I didn't think anything of it. I got home and looked at what's there, and saw it's FL-11629 (blue).

So I checked ipdb.org again, and while the manual does say 11630 (red), the "Parts list" text file on the site says 11629 (blue).

So which is correct? And more importantly, does it matter? Can I use the red one I ordered?

Edit: Looking at this thread, the person has 11629 (blue) coils... :/ https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/terminator-2-weak-flippers

Edit2: This thread from 2004 says I should use red... even though most have blue... https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.games.pinball/qmx97KWng2k

Just put modern flipper mechs in a Stellar Wars I was cleaning up. Wow, what an improvement over the EM style flipper mechs that came in that game!

I thought mine played much better with blue. Could make the left orbit consistently

Thanks, Vid! I guess I'll leave my blues and see what happens as it sounds like things should be fine. I'll keep the red coils for parts I guess.

When I was messing with my T2 today, I found out that my lock hole at the end of the left orbit isn't working consistently either. After nearly two years, I finally have to learn how to fix stuff, so next up is to figure out how a lock hole works.

It seems like the arm isn't extending all the way -- it squeaked when I pushed it down manually. So I think what's happening is that the switch is closed more than it's supposed to be and it tries popping up, but because it's "sticky," it doesn't pop the ball out very well, so it keeps clicking. Probably an easy fix (for those who know what they're doing), but hopefully easy for me too with some work.

Thanks! I'll check it out this weekend. Any special kind of oil? Just WD-40 (assuming that's the issue)?

The game came stock with the FL-11630’s. The 11629’s have less resistence / higher current - which make them stronger coils. On T2 this is ok since you have a lot of long shots and it makes it easier/more consistent to make them. However not recommended on games where you have closer targets to shoot at due to risk of breaking things. So either are ok in this game. I read somewhere (maybe on one of the part supplier’s sites) that this was a recommended “upgrade” so i bought a pair of 11629’s for my T2 - after i already rebuilt with 11630’s. but never ended up installing them. My game played fine with the originals. I think clean, tight mechs and linkages where you don’t lose power is more important.

Thank you again - like I said, I still have a lot to learn, and I'm thankful for people like you on this site that are willing to help.

Just to make sure I don't screw it up -- you mean this for the oil: https://www.amazon.com/Supco-CE441-Zoom-Spout-Oiler/dp/B00DM8JK2G/ref=sr_1_5

And this to apply the oil: https://www.amazon.com/Precision-Applicator-ARES-Precisely-Lubricants/dp/B017L1MOJA/ref=sr_1_4

vid1900 eBay link is not working. How exactly do you apply 1/10 of a drop?

Thanks vid.

To close the loop - the issue was the switch for the hole. It wasn't making good contact and also wasn't always opening when the ball ejected. I adjusted the switch and all seems good.

I did find this bit of humor by that area though - didn't know pennies were something that should be in my repair kit! Lol.

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Is there a reason to replace the capacitor if the flipper already has one?

Great, thanks. Saves me some time.

Just took apart the flipper for the first time (including my first time desoldering! Woohoo!). However when I took it apart, the assembly looks pretty good... It looks more like the new kit I bought than the pictures vid showed in the thread. Should I just put this back together? Maybe it was some sort of tension issue causing the flipper not to go down? Or am I missing something here?

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Are you saying not to use a spring at all? My rebuild kit came with springs but if they aren't needed, one less thing to worry about

Make sure there's no play in the link

Oh, I kept skipping those steps because T2 isn't a System 11 according to IPDB, so I didn't think it applied. Back to reading.

Not a system 11, but they didn't upgrade their flippers until after the first 5-10 wpc games. Until then they still used system 11 'style'

Like a penny being used as a spacer! Lol

Success.....!!!! I think...

It seems like everything is working -- the flipper bat is in the right position, it has good power, I can hit all of the shots. Things seem good. The only thing I noticed is that I can pull up and down on the flipper bat more than I can on the other flipper. There's always the gap under both of them from the credit card at least. I went under the playfield and played around with the mech, and found out that there's more give there - but I can't figure out a way to stop that as there's no screws to tighten or anything. I went back to my rebuild kit vs. the one I took out, and overall there's just more play there... Am I missing something obvious?

I made my mission of getting it working before my coworkers come over on Wednesday, so that's good -- and when I play, I can't feel any difference from before -- but I can't help but feel like I did something wrong (mostly because I've never done anything like this before so I had to have screwed SOMETHING up, right?)

Different size coil stops? Older shorter stops let the plunger go into the sleeve further than later stops which leads to more flipper travel.

e.g. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-upgradingrebuilding-flippers/page/43#post-4608260 has a picture of a long stop vs a short stop.

No, it's the up/down motion that has play (pulling the flipper up from the playfield).

Ah, ok. Any difference in the plastic bushing? Otherwise I'd just say loosen the crank on the loose one and slide it closer to the playfield.

So, I'm coming to the end of a BK playfield swap, and have done all the things you're supposed to do but have no power to the right flippers. I can't figure it out and it's making me nuts!

I upgraded the flippers as per Vid's recommendation, and this is not my first rodeo doing flipper rebuilding/installation. Everything was assembled on the bench, EOS gaps dialed in, good solid solder joints (I checked them and even re-flowed a couple just to be sure.)

There's current going to the switches, there's equal voltage to all 4 coils, I've got good continuity from the cabinet switches to the coils. The right flippers *initially worked*, but quickly died completely. I don't have the wiring reversed (Upper right - BLUE to banded side of diode, BLK/YEL to non-banded. Lower right - BLUE to banded side, BLU/VIO to non-banded), and the flipper fuse in the backbox is fine, as are the fuses under the playfield (checked continuity through the fuse holder to be sure the old holders were getting good contact. They are.)

The boards are new. I have also done a continuity check from the power lug back to the driver board, and from the ground lug at the cabinet switch back to the board, just to be sure there wasn't a problem with the connectors themselves. Also have continuity in those places.

I am completely stumped. It's probably something dead simple staring me in the face, but I've checked through all the things I can think to. Very strange problem. Help?

[edit: wrong thread]

Do the coils fire when you run a jumper ground?

Re-pinned all the board connections. Problem solved.

So, I'm working on a Gameplan machine, and the flippers aren't horrible, but while I'm in here tearing everything down, it occurs to me that there's no real reason why one could swap out the flipper mechs for the much nicer Williams ones. Only thing is, I don't know what combo of plunger/coil stop would give the same flipper stroke as the Gameplan ones. Has anybody done this already?

Pinball Life will fix you up, just email them.

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Running the risk of beating a dead horse but still being fairly new to all this i want to make sure. I picked up a 1980 Williams Scorpion on the weekend. Unit plays but a few things need to be serviced. My flipper assemblies are all worn out and sloppy and one of the coils was burnt up. Reading this thread i see that upgrading to a new more modern flipper assembly is suggested.

The existing flipper assemblies are these https://www.pinballlife.com/full-flipper-assembly-for-williams-machines-from-021980-to-081983.html

Because Im planning on actually replacing the units is there a better flipper / coil assembly I should upgrade to ? Vid mentioned this one flipper assembly in a post and noted to change the coil in the selection back to match the stock coil listed (SFL 19-400 / 30-750) https://www.pinballlife.com/full-flipper-assembly-for-williamsbally-machines-from-021992-to-101998.html

Or is there a better or different recommended flipper and coil that is an option? Should I switch to a parallel coil as I believe what I have now is series because of the single diode on it.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I was able to complete the restore on Laser Ball with two minor issues, 1: the 4 type 89 bulbs still have issues (see other thread if interested)
2: had to properly gap my flipper EOS, I quickly went to this section of the thread, https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-upgradingrebuilding-flippers/page/6#post-1097672, grabbed my handy dandy leaf switch tools and started in. I prefer to deflect the leafs as little as possible and having worked on a few machines now, I have switch parts a-plenty. So I grab a few sizes, build up the switch stack to near perfection, then just slightly finish the fine tune with the tools. As Vid states, it takes a little time but I'd say about 20 minutes later, with as close to 1/8" inch, no more, no less gap. One switch did have to be physically mounted in a slight variation from factory as the pawl was hitting the nylon spacer. Once relocated, I fired her up and as the amigos say, "BOOM". I had no idea the flippers switches were that mis-aligned. Thanks again Vid for all your insight.

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