Slick Chick
Gottlieb, 1963Hi everyone, on my Gottlieb Slick Chick I've noticed that my pop bumpers feel a bit weak, besides cleaning the switches for the pop bumper and doing a rebuild, is there anything else I should check out? Also, I was looking at the rebuild kits at PBR, the only ones I see for this era are AC pop bumper rebuild kits. Would this be correct for this machine?
You probably won't see much power improvement from that rebuild kit. Just take them apart and fully clean all the parts and replace the coil sleeve. Then clean and adjust all the pop bumper related switches. If that's still not enough "High Tap" it.
Hi cperro
I do not have the schematics to Gottlieb Slick Chick. I show on "Ice Revue" - see the many switches and the wiring on the right side in the JPG --- maybe not good connection. Just to test the bumper action You may set "permanent jumper" (see left side of my JPG) --- does the bumper action improve ?
You may do "jumpering on the powerside connection" BUT MAKE connection after start / reset. And this "jumpering on the powerside connection" You only should do for a test --- to learn about "is the powerside-connection in the pin of not so good quality (?)". Greetings Rolf
0Ice-Revue-Work-01 (resized).jpgI was getting a Slick Chick up and running last year, and even after cleaning all bumper-related switches and parts, the pops were still weak enough that it wasn't that much fun to play - just not much action up at the top of the playfield amid the pops. I ended up taking the pop bumper coils out, taking the paper wrapping off, and unwrapping about 2 to 2 1/2 layers of wire off the coils. Just be careful not to over-do it - there's a point of diminishing returns where you could have too few coils to produce enough magnetic force and they'd draw too much current anyway at that point because you've removed too much resistance. So just be careful with it, but I had great results removing up to 2 1/2 layers of wire. The ball bounces around alot more up top, you can actually bounce your way up the playfield. The pops aren't crazy strong, just strong enough to make the game a lot more fun. The pop strength seems like it's in character with the game now.
Good luck - it's a great game!
Thanks for all the replies.
KenLayton Thanks for the info, I didn't realize at first that older pinball machines ran on AC instead of DC.
edednedy Ok good to know, I'll clean/adjust all those parts first
zacaj ok, I'll make sure to keep the gaps as small as possble.
rolf_martin_062 thats a good idea. What is the reason for making the power side jumper connection after start up? Just curious.
paulace That's good to know. I was comparing my pop bumpers to a youtube video (
) which showed some gameplay from a slick chick and mine were significantly weaker than that. If I'm still not happy with the game after I try cleaning/adjusting, I'll think about trying that as well.
I was busy working on the flippers/score reels today so I haven't had time to try any of this yet, should be able to in the next couple of days. I'll update once I try some of these things out. Thanks again!
I like to take my pop bumper coils off, measure their resistance beforehand so I know they are all good then remove about 2 turns of wire off. And replace the sleeve helps too, then clean and adjust the spoon and eos switches. Theres a good description on how to do this on Clay's pinrepair website.
You might want to read the post on this link about adding a bridge rectifier to the pop bumper coil. i have done this to a few of my machines you will notice the difference.
Raff
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sluggish-pop-bumpers-1971-dipsy-doodle#post-4515516
Hi everyone, I was looking at my pop bumpers today and noticed something weird. Attached is an image of the 2 switches on the pop bumper itself. The bottom switch only has 1 wire connected to it and this is the same for all the other pop bumper assemblys as well. I don't exactly know what this switch is used for. It is normally closed and opens when the coil is energized. I've attached a portion of the schematic as well in the second image. The H coil is an example of one of the pop bumpers. There are 2 ways to connect to the "H" pop bumper but I don't really understand the reason for the "On H pop bumper" connection. There also appears to be 2 red/white wires attached to the first set of pop bumper switches so I don't know if this is the second wire that is suppose to be connected to the bottom switch. If anyone can explain this, that would be great.
schematics pop bumper (resized).jpgIMG_0362 (resized).jpgThe bottom blade in your photo connects to the spoon switch through the clamp bolt that holds that switch stack to the mounting bracket.
The bottom switch is an end of stroke switch that is supposed to release power to the pop bumper relay as soon as the pop bumper strokes.
It is all good as it exists today.
Ah okay, its starting to make a bit of sense now. So I have a situation where 2 of the pop bumpers are missing the bottom blade on the bottom switch (See attached image). If the bottom switch normally allows the pop bumper relay to stay energized longer (until that switch is opened by the pop bumper, would not having this switch cause the pop bumpers to be weaker since the pop bumper relay wouldn't be energized as long? Does anyone happen to know the part number for this as well? I don't have a parts catalogue for this machine.
pop bumper 2 (resized).jpgIt’s hard to tell from the picture, but there has to be two blades to make a switch, so a missing blade isn’t right. It seems that would give you no pop at all, unless that game uses a relay, and then I guess you’d get a very short pop until the ball is off the skirt and opens the spoon switch.
I think you want the 60s setup GTB-B8704+ or GTB-B8549+, but all you really need is that one long blade on the EOS switch. Steve sells just the blades and contacts to make your own. You could also call him and ask what he’d recommend. I’ve never had him oversell me anything.
Dave
Do not forget to clean the crud out of the spoon. Years of sludge collects in there and makes the less responsive. It does not have a big impact on strength but does make them sluggish
dgAmpGuy I looked at those but they had only 1 wire connection on the spoon switch but 2 connections on the bottom switch while mine was reversed (2 on spoon switch, 1 on bottom). The more I look at mine though, it looks like none of these pop bumper assemblies may be original (they look too new compared to the rest of the parts in the cabinet). I'm thinking the originals may have been replaced at some point with 17108's. I'm guessing it doesn't make a big difference, they would just be wired a little differently.
PinballAir I didn't think about checking there, makes sense though, thanks.
Quoted from cperro:dgAmpGuy I looked at those but they had only 1 wire connection on the spoon switch but 2 connections on the bottom switch while mine was reversed (2 on spoon switch, 1 on bottom). The more I look at mine though, it looks like none of these pop bumper assemblies may be original (they look too new compared to the rest of the parts in the cabinet). I'm thinking the originals may have been replaced at some point with 17108's. I'm guessing it doesn't make a big difference, they would just be wired a little differently.
PinballAir I didn't think about checking there, makes sense though, thanks.
I buy blank switch blades and loose contacts from PBR and build my own replacement switch blades when I find a broken one like you have on this pop bumper. And on the pop bumpers is where I replace the most.
Go to the Common Switch Parts section here to select what you really need.
http://pbresource.com/pfswitch.htm
Be sure to get a few of each of the different thickness blades and measure the thickness of a good example in the game with a micrometer. It makes a difference to select the correct thickness blade.
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