I thought Tigerlaw snagged his for $3,000.00 and then spent some dollars cleaning it up.

Third Coast can make you a displays harness for any classic Stern since they are all so similar. Big Game, Dragonfist, Flight 2000, and Quicksliver are pretty much the same except for where the credits and Ball in plays are located.

Seawitch, Nine Ball and Catacomb are mostly the same.

I know Third Coast is tooling up for Seawitch play field harnesses. I know Shawn has Quicksilver play field harnesses in his sights but don't know if he is there yet. He is making harnesses for Star Gazer; I am installing one of those now. The quality of the SG harness I bought from him is fantastic.

He does great work.

Where are you coming up with this this shit from? Pinlawyer had just about every classic Stern made but he did not have a Quicksilver or a Star Gazer.

He had an Ali, a Seawitch, a Big Game, a Catacomb, a Dragonfist, and I think a Viper. I don't know what else he had but there was no QS or SG in his collection.

I'm sorry. Since the post was not linked I assumed you were still talking about QS. I hate it that happens.

Well, Levi, let me bring up Catacomb I think you played Catacomb in a tournament and got your ass kicked. Didja

Catacomb is a great game. It takes a bit to learn how to play it, but once you cross that threshold there is no looking back. I would not want to play Catacomb in an arcade because it is a pocket picker, but at home............It is a nice addition to a collection.

My Big Game is nailed to the floor. I had a chance to sell it awhile back but passed because I did not want to take a chance on selling and not be able to replace it.

Public Service request: Shawn at Third Coast Pinball is in need of a blown out Quicksilver play field that he can use as a template to make a wiring jig so he can make us some QS play field wire harnesses.

I provided him with a template for making Seawitch harnesses and that is what he has been doing.

I have a QS play field wire harness that he might have to use a pattern but a play field would be better. I'd lend him my play field but it is already at the restore's shop.

If anybody can help him out then please let him know. Here is his website and how to contact him.

https://www.thirdcoastpinballandgraphics.com/

No. The legs are not trash. My Big Game and Catacomb have the original legs. Two others look like the have the Bally replacement legs.

These is some possibility for confusion, though. Recall those Bally home pins like Captain Fantastic and Evil Knievel. Those legs look exactly like the Bally legs. And they will bolt up to both Bally's and Stern's. But the difference is the legs for those home pins are made of lighter gauge steel. Installing these lightweight legs on a commercial pin is slow suicide.

AKAIK, Stern used two different styles of lockdown receivers. One style used the ball and socket type of affair. The later style moved to the slotted style of receiver. For a long time, I figured Stern thought the slotted style was better the ball and socket and this is why the ball and socket was replaced. However, I do have a ball and socket style lockdown bar and receiver and I like it because the ball is adjustable. If your lockdown bar is a little loose, the ball can be adjusted.

With the ball and socket style, Stern had to produce the ball with a threaded shaft. The receiver unit has to be drilled and threaded. And a special lock nut had to be produced. And then someone had to thread the nut onto the threaded shaft of the ball. Then the ball and lock nut had to be screwed into the threaded holes on the receiver. And then it had to be adjusted.
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The lockdown receiver assembly that replaced the ball and socket style with the slotted style was just one piece of metal that is spot welded to the lockdown bar.

Gone was the the ball that had to have threads machined on. Gone was the nut that had to have threads machined on. No machining was required on the new receiver assembly.

I'll hazard a guess that the later slotted style of a receiver assembly was a cost saving measure only. The slotted style worked OK and was cheaper to produce.

Can I prove all of this? No. But in my mind, a cost savings was the only reason for Stern to change styles.

As I work on my Sterns cleaning them up and restoring them, I don't see too many sub-standard parts. What I do see is wiring that is a mess.

I open up a Williams machine and the wire is all running nice and straight. The diodes are soldered on with just a little bit of wire and they look all nice and neat.

Classic Stern wire harnesses, OTOH, are a tangled up mess. It is like the harness builder ran wire #1 straight from point "A" to point "B". And followed with wire #2 from point "A" to point "B". But wire #3 did not go straight to point "C". Wire #3 got wrapped around the first 2 wires 4 or 5 times before it was attached to point "C". And then wire #4 gets wrapped around the first 3 wires and starts being woven inside and all around. They are just insane wiring harnesses that are terrible to have to trace wires in.

And the diodes use a lot of wire. Works OK, but not as neat as Williams.