I Did the exact thing to my fish tales and the upgrade was wayyyyyy better. Cheap and worth it.

I followed this thread

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/how-to-add-a-cheap-sub-under-40-that-sounds-awesome-to-your-wpc-game/page/2#post-5093657

Decided to give my Whirlwind a hometown touch

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I don’t own this game but I am actively looking for one to come up near me. What did you do? I can’t tell, it’s probably looking me right in the face though.

Check the ball cap

Wow. Would probably never notice that if I owned that one that’s funny

Does anyone know how to make the spinning disks less noisy? (Apart from letting them spin slow or turning them off lol)

The poorly designed gears are just loud because they don't mesh well. Short of designing new gears, there's nothing that can be done.

Crank the volume up

Speaking of loud gears... Does anyone else's spinners make a loud squeak at high speed? About 1/3 of the time when my spinners Rev up to full speed I'll get a weird screech, and I can't figure out what could be causing it.

That might be the motor shaft vibrating.. Mine did that on the fan as well until i lubed it up.

My fan motor wouldn't even spin until I took it apart and lubed it But the spinner motor doesn't seem to be the type you can take apart; do you think I should just drip some oil onto the shaft where it protrudes, or?

try some 3 in 1 dry lube. That usually permeates quite well.

Hahaha that's what I suspected, designing new gears would be a pita So I guess I will take it apart and try to clean/lube it. Have to adjust the height/position of the disks too and also add new (sandpaper) decals.

We live in a bungalow without direct neighbours so why not

That is some good stuff.

The disc are loud because if i remember right the teeth are part of the "disc" an that is a large hollow plastic piece and acts like a resonator. You could take it apart and try to add some rubber or something under and inside the disc to deaden the sound of the plastic resonating.

white lithium grease, or "plastic" grease
https://www.amazon.com/Super-Lube-92003-Lubricating-Translucent/dp/B0081JE0OO/ref=sr_1_3
doesnt silence them, but quiets them. apply to gears and wipe off excess, after running them a few seconds

already packaged and ready to ship $20 U.S. shipping included
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Also have the metal circuit board mounting plate $25 delivered to PATZ

all plastics sold..........still have plate

On my Whirlwind I am missing these (and original parts/remade parts are nowhere to be found near me or very expensive) :
-Triac board
-Blower motor
-Fan blade
-Mounting plate for blower motor

I don't want to pay full dollar to fix it and I don't care if parts are original or not.
Does anyone have advice for me on buying something like a relais board, a motor and a fan blade?
I can design a mounting plate myself and 3d print it here.

I’m missing the same. Marco’s have them, but yep as you mention it ain’t cheap!!

You guys might get lucky and be able to piece together a fan from used parts here and there. My guess is probably not though, and if Marco has it all, I would say go for it. Even the fan motor bracket. It is 21.00 for a new one. Can you really 3-D print a plastic one and beat that?

The Problem is the price..
On top of the €135 shopping cart, will be €72 of shipping, and 21% of taxes (hooray for living in the Netherlands)... Total amount is about $270 for these 3 items And I would still have to find a triac board then, or something else that works..
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Right. I hear ya on the shipping and tax. That would make it tougher to pull the trigger. You probably know this, but I will post just in case. It looks like the triac board is available here. I would contact and verify first just to make sure. http://www.greatlakesmodular.com/index.html?http://www.greatlakesmodular.com/products/pinball/sy11tb1.html

RobDutch i use myus for shipping. Works great and cheaper than Marcos shipping.

Definitely try to contact Tony before sending any payments. From a few other threads on this site it looks like he's no longer selling products in his store. I could be proven wrong if you contact him and he replies.

The triac driver board is small and fairly simple to reproduce.

I can help you on a homemade board for that triac board. Did that for a friend of mine and it works like a charm, the schematics aren't too difficult.

Count me in guys! My favorite game, hands down. Fits in nicely next to Pinbot

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Congratulations! - looks to be in really nice shape. I have had mine for around four months now and it is more addictive than any of my other games ever were. Even my 12 y.o. daughter is playing it every day. Whirlwind blows!!

Thanks! I just went through it and installed GameBlades- they really make the game pop!

I’m doing a restoration on my WW and noticed that the flipper coils are FL-11629 whilst the manual says they should be FL-11630.

My understanding is the 11629’s are more powerful. But I’m worried about smashing plastics etc if they are too overpowered. Any advice on whether I should change them back?

I have seen it said a few times that a 11629 is a good coil for the upper flipper, while 11630's should be used on the 2 lower flippers. Seems to work well for me as well.

Hello..I’m needing some help with a cellar door coil that will not fire. 48volts present at coil, both switches register on test and diode is good. Any suggestions?

Mine flies around gets plenty of airballs even with the 11630s. It's not like there are any large ramps on this game.

11630s on mine as well, moves the balls around without issue.

Liked the Colts hat but had to make one more tweak.

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So I saved this classic pin from a damp basement a while ago. It had been standing there for over 15 years. I knew it had the following problems, but decided to get it playing 100% first. Now the time has come to tackle this problem:

My playfield (that I'm about to clean for the first time), has planking. At the end of the ruler (30cm) the difference is about 2/3mm. The middle of the playfield around the compass is higher then the outlanes, so now it drains even more then it should In the vertical direction it suffers from the same in the lower playfield area.

Also I have got these vertical lines and swirls (?), anything I can do about those? I do have a playfield cleaner but I don't think it will remove the this problem.

The playfield does have mylar that is kinda dirty and has some raised inserts, thinking of leaving it on and trying to hammer the inserts down

If anyone has advice for me: I am all ear
Thanks in advance!

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Cleaning the playfield as gently as possible with the least strong cleaning stuff I could find, and the paint still chips of a bit.
So I have got my answers to the questions above: just enjoy this players machine

That sounds like a pretty good choice You could always keep your eye open for a good used PF or a good deal on a reproduction one. It would probably be hard to do much about lots of planking from a damp basement. To me though, your play field doesn't look too bad and should make a good player!

System 11 playfields were belt sanded when manufactured, causing those parallel lines you see. It’s a trait found in pretty much every non-diamondplated playfield, so I wouldn’t be concerned about it. It’s probably been exacerbated from the dampness, but it doesn’t look much worse than what I have on my Taxi and Whirlwind

Will look a LOT better when cleaned, but given the history, I would do a full topside tear down and cleaning. Don't "hammer" the inserts down. I believe Vid has a guide somewhere on leveling inserts. It takes some heat and some patience to do it right, but hammering will just break the insert. A blow dryer, a weight and a straight block of wood will do wonders. I have leveled a couple of inserts under mylar, but you really need to be careful not to cause bubbling. If the mylar isn't roached, I would leave it in place. Clean her good and then re-evaluate.

Thanks @dozer1, mbaumle and Manimal for the messages and advice
Will leave my hammer in the toolbox!

Also I have the problem that my spinning disks are not flush with the playfield and not centered in the holes. They really slow the ball down and move the ball in a different direction when not spinning. I can only adjust them in hight right? That will not fix my problem.. Anyone advice on how to do this without a hammer?

After this is fixed, I can finally place my new disk decals!

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Speaking of spinning disc decals. Where do people recommend buying them from. I bought some from Marco’s a while back and finally took them out at the weekend to put them on, but they feel really smooth with not much grip/texture at all????

The disks are a pain to adjust. The height is the main adjustment, but if that's not solving your problem, then the location of the entire assembly needs to be moved. The only way that you can reliably do that is to fill the screw holes where it's attached to the playfield and then start new screws. The amount that you're going to be moving the assembly is so small, that the screws will try to go back into their original holes. On the one that I did, the layout of the disks in the mech is not 100% perfect with the playfield either. So there will be differing sized gaps even when done.

I haven't found a supplier whose disks aren't garbage. They're all too smooth. I'm working on a solution.

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When I did my playfield swap, I grabbed a set from the Allentown show a few years ago. Something tells me I bought NOS ones, because seeing all the options now, there’s no comparison. All the vendors have cheap looking ones.

Keep us updated if you find one. I’d be in for a couple sets just to futureproof myself.

There was a post to one of the facebook groups last fall where a guy said he had a bunch if new old stock to sell, but the original thread got deleted, and I never could find that person again.

When repopulating a new Mirco playfield with the disks, I managed to center the disks perfectly.

If you're working with the original playfield, fill all existing screw holes with toothpicks and wood glue. After dry, cut the toothpicks flush to the playfield.

1. With the playfield upside down (the underside facing up), roughly center the disk assembly.
2. Working beneath the playfield, patiently fill the gaps between the disks and the playfield holes with toothpicks.
3. Keep filling in the gaps between the disks and the playfield until there is no more room to insert toothpicks.
4. Your disk housing will now be held in place by the toothpicks and stationary enough to mark the holes.
5. Leave the mech housing in place and pre-drill the playfield through the mech housing holes.
6. Secure the disk mech housing with screws
7. Remove the toothpicks and admire the perfectly centered disks
8. Adjust each disk so that it is barely above the playfield surface.
9. Grab a beer and celebrate.

Can someone help me with how to lower the height of the spinning discs in Whirlwind? Thank you!!!

Shims?

On the underside you have to turn the white knobs. My game is not here but what I can remember. you will have to take a nut off or a c-clamp or something before you can do so.

I just did this myself a few days ago. Lift the playfield. Look at the backside of the spinning disks. There should be some nuts you turn to raise/lower them. As a matter of fact there should literally be instructions taped to the area beside the disks on how to do this. Good luck!