Thank you!

I have already swapped both boards back to the originals. My plan was to track down a replacement fuse locally and see if it operated as it did before but I came up short. Closest I came was a SB 8A.

Would you like to see anything as it stands?

Did you find any thing close like a 5 or 6 amp fuse. These will normally work but could have nuisance popping. If you have LEDs in the game you can use a 4 or 5 amp fuse.

That is very interesting to know. I have LEDs throughout except for the 906 flashers that have yet to be operable. I played a TAF on location recently and the LED flashing was too blinding so I’m hoping to stick with incandescents for the play field.

Yes, 5A would be trivial to obtain. Maybe I’ll grab a pack on the way home.

Thanks, the problem appears to have gotten worse, lamps stopped working completely. Whats the best way to check the voltage on the bridge rectifier? Thanks for your help

This is a good thing as now it should be easy to find the problem. I have highlighted the bridge rectifier and the fuse for the lamps in question. Remove the fuse, was it tight in the holder, is it corroded, does it have continuity?

If questionable just replace it with a 8 amp normal blow fuse.

The bridge has 4 wires on it, two blue/white wires for the AC input and a violet and black output. With a DMM set to AC volts turn on the game and touch your leads to the blue/white wires at the bridge. You should read 13.5 volts AC. If you have no reading then replace the fuse. If you have a good AC reading then switch the meter to DC volts and test the black and violet wires, you should have 18 volts. If your reading is low or zero BUT you have a good input voltage then your bridge is bad. If your reading is good then you will have to look further for a bad connection. Let me know what you get.

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Really appreciate the help, unfortunately (i guess? Haha) the lights started working again and haven't stopped yet. I have your reply saved for the next time it goes out. I'll let you know

When it goes out again you can also check the solder joints of this inductor on the CPU board.

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Excited to be back in the Whrilwind club after trading my below average Bad Cats for this above average Whirlwind. Other than a small gouge near the flippers (of course) it's perfect. I'm going to add a little bit of extra lighting in it and an apron magnet but that all you could do to it. I had not gotten to play one of these in a while (sold mine 3 years ago) and this thing is a blast. Best topper ever.

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It's my turn to need the answer to this question! When I google "Williams b-13339" all that comes up is people wanting to buy one, no actual reference to the part being for sale anywhere. The most likely option I've been able to find is this one: https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-7861-K It's the same dimensions as the one that was on my game, and it is listed as weighing the same as what my broken one weighs. It's ordered and on its way, and I'll update with how well it does or doesn't work in the game. Hopefully this post will come up in the next person's search and help them out!

6 month update: this spinner has been working great in my game. I still don’t know 100% if it’s the exactly correct part, but it fits well.

I ordered the same exact one, unfortunately it hangs a bit to the right instead of in the middle but it does work perfectly, and I'm happy with it. The best way would be to get the one with the straight arms and bend it to fit the machine, but I would probably mess it up if I tried that.

I ordered some orange reflexive tape off amazon and I think it looks exactly like the original game (from the little information i could find. I saw it on a youtube video and verified on the ps4 game). It cost me $16 bucks but i could probably mail you a piece if you want it...
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Do you oil the topper fan? If so... would Super Lube work well for this? Thanks

I would mess it up too, haha! I’m glad to hear that the spinner works well for you

That looks really, really sharp, that orange! The spinner in my game is just black with a silver reflective decal, but I have no way of knowing if it’s original to the game. E3CF9DBC-A2EE-4685-86F1-E199E717E6E5 (resized).jpeg I have replacement decals ordered matching the ones on the old spinner, but that orange looks too good!

Promo material for the game seems to show an orange reflective spinner. I’d gladly send you a few bucks to cover shipping if you could send some my way. Pm sent.

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The only flaw in the game. Gotta fix this touchup in this one spot. The psint is a pattern if you look close.

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Welcome back to the club!

My most controversial opinion in pinball is that Whirlwind is a better *playing* game than TAF (since their layouts are so similar). Much more flow and speed, better music too. Just an all around classic.

I agree! I’m so glad Whirlwind hasn’t been swept up in the collectible, must-have mania like many of its contemporaries have been, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to buy mine. It’s such a great game, and you could buy three for the price of one TAF!

Nice, I grabbed this screenshot off a youtube video where somebody was restoring a whirlwind, I thought it looked like it would be the original one so thats what I based my search off of.

I put a couple strips in the mail, lmk what you think when you get it

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Mine's silver.

I have a question about multi-ball. Once in a while - perhaps once per every few games - the ball that is locked will shoot out and I get a kind of multi-ball. There isn't any audio-clues and it is always a total surprise as the ball isn't in the ramp/trough or down in the cellar but it happens so seldom its hard to see if there is a pattern. I don't see anything in the manual about a set of shots that would create that kind of multi-ball.

I thought it might be a faulty switch so I replaced the number 1 switch in the left-side trough but it doesn't seem to have affected it. I can't really tell if something is wrong or if this is normal behavior. Is this something that is normal?

The only 2 multiballs are the quick multiball (2 balls) when you lock one ball under the ramp, and the full multiball when you lock 2 in the left and 1 under the ramp (or by hitting the third one up the left ramp). Oh and the cellar multiball when you get to the cellar within 15 seconds of the full multiball if you lost 2 balls and never hit the million plus.

I had a similar issue and it was due to the wire bouncing off on the number 1 switch. I resoldered and haven't had a problem since. You said that you replaced it but double check that you don't have any loose wires or anything like that

It could also be any of the 3 ball lock switches. Most likely lock 2. If it sees a closure of that switch while there is still one on the playfield and one in the trough, it will eject the ball as it sees too many balls in the game.

thanks guys!

The blue alphanumeric display suits this game very well!

What is the method for fixing that paint pattern? Looks difficult, but maybe there is an easy fix?

Update on my progress:

5A fuse has been holding up fine so far, thank you for the recommendation! I successfully swapped out my MPU with the recently acquired refurbished original System 11B board. It has restored full functionality to the rottendog display (haven't tried swapping back to the original display) and the game plays just fine without any hint of locking up so far. Just as DumbAss stated, I am getting louder callouts with the correct MPU installed. I even hit my all time high score of 21.7M! I achieved a moment in the game I'd never seen before where all cellar bonuses activated at once! I got a little worried for a moment because I thought the game might be glitching out but it was quite a show!

I still need to get the the A/C relay corrected. I will tackle that later this week.

In the meantime, I'm curious about a couple of things:

Is it normal for the backbox lighting to flicker/flash when the ball travels the ramp en route to a ball lock? Or other in game events? I'm still kind of wondering if all of my wiring is correct.

When I turned the machine on with the System 11A board installed, the storm spinners would fire up at full speed. With the System 11B board, that doesn't happen. I just hear the game start humming. What is the correct bootup sequence?

Thanks again for the help! I would have never gotten this far on my own!

They shouldn’t spin on power up unless there is a missing ball detected. It spins them in case one is hung up on a spinner. If all 3 are in the trough, no spin.

The Mega Door Bonus. Y'all come back now.

I would not trust anything on that 11A board. It clearly has alkaline corrosion.

Tonight, I decided it was time to tackle the auxiliary power relay. I was quickly dismayed by the fact that my desoldering gun's tip had too small of a hole to properly desolder the large pointed pins of the relay. But, I soldiered on and with my silicone tipped pump I was able to remove about 98% of the solder. The relay was still wedged in there and I tried a few things with no luck at first...

What did work was to gently twist each pin with needle nose pliers until the relay wiggled free. And thankfully, soldering in the new relay was fairly easy. After reinstalling the board I cut the old relay open to see what it looked like.

I was hoping to see something obvious, but alas it looked clean to me. I was getting worried that my efforts were not going to bear any fruit. With a few moments pause and a quick prayer, I flipped the switch...

Complete success!!!!! What a relief it was to see and hear the various tests execute correctly! I can now play my Whirlwind as it was intended to be enjoyed!

There are a couple little things I'd like to clear up though. One is the post on the right side of the cellar door lights (on the red light side). The threaded stem seems too short for holding this metal bracket and the plastic piece. It could only catch 2-3 threads as it was, but has now stripped to the point of catching nothing at all...any advice for this?

And finally, I take this threaded candy cane of a rod to be the tilt sensor. If that's the case, should there be a weighted nut on the end of it? I never get any tilts no matter how hard I push the playfield.

Thanks again for all the help! Very happy right now!

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Since you read .681 volts, which really is zero volts. This means the coil in the relay has an open in the winding. You will not see anything out of the ordinary.

For the tilt issue you need something like this. https://www.pinballlife.com/plumb-bob-with-thumb-screw.html

Picked up a Tilt apron. Really dig these. Getting closer on my one touchup. I think I'm going to replace these tastful LEDs with 2 smd LEDs and pop ring lights... couple extra strips. I like bright games.
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Sooo pirdy! Nice dude love that upgrade

I think i may have found the problem

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Id say that’s a good chance of being the problem

still looking for item (2-slot coin door bezel #27-1021) #7 (i found the other parts)

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This?

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/27-1021

looking for the wide coin bezel used on system 11 coin doors

Figured that would be too easy...

Joined this club recently with a diamaond plate game in nice condition
How 'rare' is the diamond plate edition- I read something about 200 made or was there a bigger number produced?

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Good question. I’ve been wondering the same thing. I also heard less than 200.
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FWIW, mine is diamondplate. When I bought the machine I didn't even know what that was, just that the playfield looked great. Happy to find out that what I have should last.

Nice collection!

LOL, likewise!

Where did you get your rule cards from? They look nice and I like them better than what I found to print out for myself.

Those are the same ones I have, there’s a thread in here somewhere with custom cards for a lot of games. They came from that.

The grandkids of a friend managed to break the shooter knob on his Whirlwind. There's a chunk of plastic that's missing. I haven't run into this before, can I just use a pliers to break off the rest of the broken knob and screw or press on a new custom knob? Or does the whole shooter rod have to be replaced? Not a big deal either way, just haven't seen that before. Thanks.

I see the flyer shows red flipper buttons but notice a bunch of machines via Google show yellow.

What do you guys prefer?

Yellow buttons on mine (so far)

Original knob for this should be metal. I would recommend this one:

https://www.pinballlife.com/bally-nickel-plated-shooter-rod.html

Not expensive and will be an easy swap.

I got a 3 way combo tonight for the first time ever! I was so distracted by watching it I drained my last ball. Worth it though! I'm really happy with this pin!

I think I'm done messing with Whirlwind. What a great game. I opened up the out-lanes all the way to shorten up the games, replaced the pop bumper lights and some of the insert lights, added an 18" LED strip in the back, a 4" outhole light, and a spot light on the right side. Really happy with this game.

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