I haven't learned much despite years of owning pins. Sure I have restored loads and am driven to do so by an irresistible urge to play them.... but as soon as a game is restored I forget everything and have to re-learn it all again next time around. Goldfish memory and as sharp as a tennis ball!

Luckily there are some good sources of helpful advice and "how to fix it" guides only the name of them escapes me at the moment.....

Everything you ned to know can either be found in this forum or a member can tell you what to do or where to go. This will likely become your greatest resource. It's like the movie Field Of Dreams ... If you post it (your problem or question), they will come (the answers)...

hey, i'm in ct and also a borderline broke college kid! i'm far from an expert but two heads are (sometimes) better than one. welcome to come play my pins some weekend too!

By the way, how the heck have you had time to play and rate 238 games? If you have that kind of time and patience, you'll be a repair whiz in no time!

Edit: my bad - that was "Emo" who has reviewed all of those games. My advice is to listen to people like him!

I have just began to learn repair this year and have had a load of assistance on this site and through the pinrepair guides. Pdxpinduck is correct this site and the pinheads on it are the single best source for info.

Search the torrent sites for "pinball repair", download that information and study it like you would a college textbook.

Then, just do it. Like anything else, book learning is fine, but practical experience is what makes you good. The ability to think in a linear, analytical fashion helps, as does a bit of common sense. Especially as it relates to using metal tools around live electrical circuits.

If you don't have anything to start with, you are probably looking at about $80-100 to get set up....a DMM, a decent soldering solution, general screwdrivers, nutdrivers, etc. The only real "pinball specific tool" I regularly use is a leaf adjustment tool, which costs $6.

I am/was self taught. I owned my first pin (eight ball deluxe) about 20 years ago. At that time, there was no internet, only the blueprint manual - which I learned to read. I didn't have any "parts", but there was a variety of arcades, that had at least one operators that knew how to work on the pins. I would sometimes ask them questions, but for the most part, I would fix it crappily fix them with whatever sources I had available. I used (no laughing ) a Paper Clip as one (maybe more than one) of the switches that was broke. EBD was added with Dragons Lair and Lunar Landar for a trade (3 for 1) Gauntlet II arcade machine. About 3 months later it ended up at Scandia (which had no pinball operator) and it worked for about 1 month, and sat turned off for about 6 months, until they got rid of it.

I didn't own another pin 'til about 3 years ago, and have had about 8 different ones since. I now have none again.... I just don't have the funds available. I do have my Hyperpin, although, so I still get my pin fix almost daily

I recently obtained a T3 (trade for Need For Speed Underground) and it was in overall great shape. It was really, really dirty. The first Assualt multi-ball that I got caused a flipper to break. I fixed it correctly, then a day later, on my next assualt multi-ball, the other flipper broke. (Both were the plastic pieces of the flipper link assembly) I believe that the guy that I traded, didn't disclose that these were broke, and fixed it the way that hey knew how. Luckily, I had a spare set of WMS, so I put them on, and yes it needed a little modding, since the Stern and WMS flippers were a little different.

Big Thing, which is the KEY to self repairs..... Learn to read manual.
Search for item #'s, get correct parts, learn to solder (practice on junk parts first), always turn off machine while working on them.
After repair, or setting up pin for first time - have coin door open - this will prevent any major high voltage shortage - and test your switches.
Don't be shy, if you have an issue, post it. There are so many helpful people that have went through the same thing that you might be going through.

I had to take a pin to a repair shop once, and got it fixed, brought it home, and it was broke again as soon as I turned it on. I brought it back, and got it fixed again, brought it home, and opened coin door, before turning it on. I clicked a couple switches, and there was a column short. It was the second phase of my flipper switch touching a high voltage coil. This didn't happen at the repair facility, but did happen at my house due to the levelness of the floor. I remebered that I moved my pin prior to the initial problem, so I leveled my pin, then it was no longer touching. I put some liquid electric tape on the switch to prevent it from happening again.

First post in a while. I learned with 25+ years of repairing and troubleshooting telecom equipment from the old mechanical switch stuff to the new surface mount "gotta use a microscope" repairs.

By making mistakes and the guys here on pinside lol

Start going to local shows, tournaments etc. wherever the local pinheads hang out. I learned the most about repair from friends I made doing this.

good to see you back around once again BD.

stang, print out and memorize the pin repair articles. you can find the links in the forum somewhere, my bookmark is out of date

Stang here is the link you will need to get the pinrepair guides, hope this helps

http://www.thepirates.net.au/arcade/index.php?directory=Pinball/PinRepair/Apr-11/Pinrepair/Pinrepair.com

This site was and still is very helpful. I picked up most of it from hiring someone to come shop/fix my first machine. I spent every second with him and asked a ton of questions. It cost a bit but really worth it in the long run since it gave me the confidence to start fixing things myself. I like working with my hands and luckily I learned pretty quickly how to troubleshoot and fix pinball issues.

Its a continous learning process but quite enjoyable. Theres no better feeling than to be able to diagnose and repair your own game....or so I've heard. Until then I ask about everything I can and usually get some darn good answers on here. Good to see you around BD. welcome back.