Has anyone disassembled and reassembled the ringmaster to replace the spring coil bracket? They are available again and I would like to replace mine. Just looking for any tips or pointers before I begin. I assume I need to work from the bottom of the assembly up?

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I took the entire mechanism apart and recall it being a pain to get back together. I also had to bend the spring with some significant force to get it to align back up.

Why do you want to change it?

Good luck!

Thanks, it does look fairly complicated in the owners manual to take apart. I wanted to replace the coil base under the ringmaster’s neck due to some corrosion and dents from years of play. I also have a chrome plated version of the metal “bowl” which catches the ball under the ringmaster to install.

Cool, that is the sane reason I replaced mine. The mirrored bowl looks great in the game!

It is a bit of a pain, I did the same thing with the mirrored finish bowl and IIRC getting the wires for the magnet and flashers routed and secured properly was a tedious task. I always find getting the ringmaster to fit back properly a major pain too so I put in LED flashers (mild ones, not the crazy super-bright ones) so I won't have to take it apart again to replace them.

Good idea. I’m hesitant to even undertake this project because I’ve been through these before, where you start removing a mech for a “simple” upgrade then 3 hours later find yourself surrounded by parts and scanning cell phone images to recall what goes where.

Original board has some battery leak. In the meantime I purchased a new board. Think I hooked it up right. Would anyone know why only the neon light turns on, together with the board leds, but nothing else? Do I need to change the dipsw “code” or leave as is? I tried coding it like the original, and also tried leaving them all off but it has made no difference. Any help is greatly appreciated. Have had this game for exactly a yearNow but have yet to try switching on until today.

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Looks like the CPU is upside down

This one?

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Spot on! Thank you. Now that it turns on, time to get to work. New ramps, replace lights, and then find out what else is wrong

If it wasn’t for your question I would have also had to ask. So you helped too.
Forgot to match the little mark on one side of the chip to the mark on the housing.

Good eye!

I had to ask because I’ve made that mistake before myself, and wasn’t sure if that was the CPU. I installed an NVRAM chip upside down in my LOTR a year or so ago. Turned it on and the game didn’t boot correctly, and then I smelled a burning, electrical smell. I flipped it off within 3-5 seconds and pulled the hot chip out. It cooled off and worked fine ever since once installed correctly. I was very lucky, but was really ticked at myself. Good luck with your project. I have been restoring and upgrading my CV for weeks now. I’m a huge CV and JPop fan.

I recently joined the CV club, with a sample machine. The one infuriating thing about it is that when trying to lift the playfield up, the underside of the ringmaster assembly just barely catches the speaker. You have to lift the playfield from the back to get it up over the speaker, and then it can raise easily.

I'm wondering if perhaps the bracket/assembly for the ringmaster was redesigned in later models so this didn't happen?

Any suggestions for how to deal with this? (The speaker is original BTW). Is there perhaps a more low profile replacement speaker that exists?

I have a later run sample machine and mind does the exact same thing. I just try to teter-totter it over the speaker. Doesn't seem to be doing any damage.

I learned the hard way about this when I got my CV. I replaced the speaker with an upgrade that sat higher than the stock speaker. I attempted to lower the pf back down and it made contact with the speaker, scraping the top. I had to go back to the stock speaker for now. That ringmaster assembly housing is quite large.

Have you tried adjusting the bolt that sticks out the bottom for the lowest height adjustment of the RM? I think that's what actually hits and IIRC from completely dissembling and adjusting switches, several times it's not really necessary.

Does anybody know where this connector goes or is even used? It comes off one of the gi bulbs.

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Pretty sure it goes to a bulb under the apron.

Anyone have experience with these blades? As far as installation, durability, and of course the WOW factor?
Haven’t been able to find anything else, and these look pretty neat. Are they High res or pixelated ?
Thanks
https://pinballpro.net/shop/cirqus-voltaire-pinball-art-blades/

Those are the Tilt blades for CV, which are pretty common on this pin. I have a set on my CV. Tilt are my personal favorite art blades. They are extremely thick and durable, and adhere very well. Great quality!

Those look identical to the ones I purchased from modfatherpinball. I have been very happy with them.

This machine is used in an arcade environment and with multiple arcade attendants and it's really hard to remember to lift the playfield high enough to clear the speaker (myself included). The RM mech has been partiality ripped off the underside of the playfield multiple times. I've suggested to Ryan (the originator of this particular subtopic, who is currently unavailable) about moving the speaker either forward or backwards. But now I'm thinking just hanging a brightly colored sign on a string attached to the underside of the playfield that pops out as the playfield is lifted to remind people about it.

what would be the best rom to get for a CV at home? I noticed the one im working on has 1.0 (!!)
Thanks

2.0 home rom.

Does anyone have a picture of the underneath of the apron, just wondering where that connector connects to under the apron if there is some kind of bulb.

Thanks

Could anyone help me find the part number/marcos for the item named “lift spring” in the photo? I can’t see it in the manual and I want to make sure I get the correct one. Thanks

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looks like in the manual it's #5 in the diagram on page 2-27 (yeah, the pic doesn't make it all that obvious.)

standard jet/pop bumper spring, #10-517.

Thank you! The current one in the game is finiiiished. Couldn’t figure out just by comparing to a new one

Next im not sure regarding Part number for this carriage bolt there are so many sizes and lengths. Which would be the correct
One for front of cabinet? Since the other three don’t look great either I’ll just replace all Four if I’m Putting a new Order together.
Cheers

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And just one more for today - Where can I find the metal piece on the other side (right) of the blue rubber? Is there a part Number?

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those holes are for the mounts for the lockbar that B/W offered on later WPC games. i just checked mine and i think the carriage bolts in those slots are slightly longer than the ones that hold on the coin door, but that would only be important if you were going to install the lockbar and related brackets. you should be able to fill it with these (though you can look for similar elsewhere):

https://www.pinballlife.com/14-20-x-1-14-carriage-bolt.html

the originals likely didn't have any raised lettering on top but it's now pretty much impossible to get any new that don't; the only way to get around that is to grind them off and repaint which IMO isn't worth it.

oddly enough, i was reading backwards through this thread last night (starting on this page) looking for some other information and i came across this subject. apparently it's long since been discontinued, of course, but someone is making them. the big drawback for some is that it's without threads so you'll need to have a tap & die set to put the proper threads in yourself. i'm feeling too lazy to skim back at the moment, but the relevant posts are likely within the last 200 or so.

Thanks for your time and info. Great help in getting this beauty back to its former glory

Just wondering if there was any reasoning behind the color of the neon tube in the games. Mine is that orange color and have been thinking about changing it to the green which I prefer. Thoughts??

I have orange too, worst color. The frosted tube green and purple look really good. Those are my favorites that I have seen.

from what i understand it was random from the factory (as was the color of the Menagerie ball.) i believe there were at least four or five different options of which green is one and replacements are readily available. personally, i think blue, green, and purple all go quite well with the theme colors but i don't dislike the others enough to spend $150+ to change 'em out. i suppose i got lucky and mine came with blue so i don't have to make that choice.

Thank you fellas

If you change out your neon and you are doing the ball too. Let me know if you find a yellow ball. Mine is red and yellow looks great.

Every day I ask a couple questions, get great help and implement the following day. (Games are in my office). As soon as I’m done I find the next thing.
And todays question is… I have an orphaned molex connector. I’m not even sure the others that are plugged (in photo) are correct, because not all of them have matching wires on both ends…
still, I can play around and figure those out but still there will be one with nothing to connect to. Is something here missing?

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Nigh impossible to find.
I made my own, posted, and somebody on this thread commissioned me to make a small run, which he put up for sale. Do some digging here or in the marketplace.

Thanks,
Jason

Marcos has the same part but for the opposite side. Would it work if I put it on upside down, and drilled a hole on the other end?

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I bought that part, carefully located and drilled the correct-sized hole, and pressed in the correct PEM threaded standoff with a PEM press.

Back then, I had access to a machine shop with the right equipment.

But you've got the right idea, and it can be done with simpler hand and power tools.

Jason

Sweet, my brother has all the equipment in the world at his work, I’ll go for it! Thanx

Yes - Jason helped me put together a small run of these, complete with the rubber and screw. They all sold, and I have no more. Happy to have helped a dozen or so folks with Jason's help and expertise.

Rob

Then, because your bracket will now have 2 threaded standoffs, punch 1 more hole in the blue rubber. Tool like a leather punch or hole punch works well enough.

Jason

going off what i can see of the the wiring colors, white/blue and green/white should go to #46 on the matrix, which is the "trough upper" switch visible right above your fingers in the pic. looks like those wires are connected to something else.

just checked my machine and confirmed. the background is a bit out of focus but you can see that connector hooked to that switch.
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Thanks so much. Haven’t wanted to go back to the office so bad in ages you guys rock. Wait til I get to the ring master :-/ there’s no screw on top! Someone used a rivet

My first experience with removing the Ringmaster mech to replace his coil/spring base. It takes a beating over the years and the new one looks nice. I also replaced the ball-catch basin underneath with a mirror-finish chrome plated one and new sticker. Looks awesome!

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