I've recently played this game for the first time and had a lot of fun with it, thus now thinking of buying one.

Could you help me and list a "top 3 or so" things to look out for when buying one?

I know the topper is hard to find separately but what else to think of? I know the ramps are expensive (and many). What about mechanical problems, any common problems there? Any unobtainable part that is crucial to its function?

Any help is appreciated.

Not in the club yet but thinking I should be. I've read on several occasions that the whole ramp-a-thon on this game is basically a nightmare to work with (when cleaning /servicing below) and want your oppinions on it.

I have played the game and like it quite a lot, just not sure I want it at home if its a bitch to work with. So honestly, how bad is it to service and keep in good shape?

Also worried about the mountain plastics breaking as those seem hard to get.

New in the club, got my game today. I've got some work fixing it up properly (its rather filthy inside but the PF looks ok).

I will rebuild the pop bumpers and was wondering if anyone tried blue skirts on them? I've tried to find some pictures of a Wh2o with blue skirts but my google-fu seem to be weak. Anyone have tried blue skirts and/or have some pictures to share?

Also, is this fastening of the red flasher dome how it's supposed to be done (that long single screw)? Its inside the mountain at the lost mine kickout. If not, then how should it be fastened? As half the red flasher dome is inside the mountain it doesn't stick up that much on the topside and it looks weird to me.
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I know this might be hard to answer right off the bat but any advice on what screws to get if I want to replace most screws fastening the mountains and ramps to PF, edge rails, posts and so on? The current games screws are both worn and also seem wrong; some have normal washers, some have lockwashers, some have an extra flat base on the screw and some screws are without any washer at all. Any suggestion on screw types is appreciated.

Could anyone post a picture of their ball through and specifically the position of the ball feeder mechanism and coil? My game works (balls are fed to shooter lane) but the coil assembly mounting screws are actually going through the playfield and I can see two screw ends down in the recess where the ball wire-form starts, is this normal?

I really want to see how this is mounted on other Whitewaters.

The strange thing is I can't see any old vacant holes on the underside either, so I'm not sure it has been moved, but if feels wrong where it is now too.

And yes, its dirty, I just bought it and are going through the game so haven't really cleaned it properly yet

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One of my slingshot coils had a broken lug (it's hanging completely loose) so I ordered a replacement coil. Both old and new coil are AE 27-1200 but they differ in wrapper paper color, guess that's not really an issue but I was a bit surprised. What really confused me though is that the new coil got a diode between the lugs while the old one doesn't have one at all.

So, what should I do now, remove the diode completely from the new coil and rely on the diode on the power driver board?

If I let the diode stay then what is the correct way to solder the cables. The old coil have a thicker purple-orange cable and a thinner brown-red one; how should I solder them on the new coil if the diode stays?

Edit: According to the manual, the left slingshot coil drive wire is "brown-red" so that's the thinner cable. I had the impression that the thick purple wire was the power wire and should go to the banded side though. The diode ring is really hard to see in this picture but it is on the left side, so what cable goes where?!?
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I have just bought this game and have no idea if this is a protector from another game or a specific cliffy but I have a protector mounted on my ramp exactly where your damage is, seems like it is needed.

1 (resized).jpg

I agree, those ramps (whole game) looks great! Wish my ramps were in that condition... I've bought a new suicide ramp (as it was smashed at the entrance) and I will use the old ramp to train flame polishing on, before doing the other ramps. Now I just need to gather the courage to actually try it out

daveyvandy The Spine Chiller entry switch assembly seem to be missing a screw at the left side of the ramp, just saying.

I was rebuilding the mini playfield flipper assembly today and came to think about the conical spring used there. Why is it a conical spring there and not the "usual" small spring attached to the EOS mounting bracket, like for the two main flippers? Why is this upper flipper special? Please enlighten me.

I think I've read earlier that the conical spring was common in older games, but why have two different solutions for the flippers in the same physical game?

Sure, It could be to get less flipper action (more "resistance" with the spring) but wouldn't it be easier to just mount a weaker coil instead? I'm really curious about the cause fore this.

My bigfoot turns as it should but the motor/gearbox sounds quite a lot. I removed the whole bigfoot assembly and tried moving the big shaft that the head is screwed to and its not a smooth rotation of the shaft but rather "stuttering" when I turn it manually. My question is if anyone have opened up the gearbox and cleaned/lubricated it; is it hard to do or should I leave it alone?

I've have taken apart and cleaned/lubricated the gearbox for the ToM trunk so if it's not worse than that I should be able to make it.

Tried google but couldn't find any pictures of the gearbox insides, anyone have some to post before I decide to dig in?

Edit: just realized the gearbox is riveted(?) shut and not using screws as I assumed it would. This is probably the reason I couldnt find any good info or pics of people servicing it too I really wanted to get into mine and see if I could make it run smoother but on the other hand it works and I don't want to destroy something that is expensive to replace, so I will probably leave it alone.

Also, my gearbox pcb board is mounted with three hex posts but there is a hole for a fourth. Am I missing a hex post?

The entrance of one of my ramps has somehow been bent and it is making the ball go around the "hill" and sometimes jumping up a bit when hitting the edge.

I've flamepolished ramps so I am a bit familiar with heating ramps, but I also know how easy it is to heat too much and how hot the plastic gets. I'm not sure if heating it up and putting a weight on it would make the weight get stuck to the ramp. Would heating the end and keeping it straight with my hands while it cools of for a few minutes work, or will it simply resume the old bent shape when I let go of it?

The "bake it in the oven between two sheets" trick obviously won't work here as it's a ramp with edges and not a flat playfield plastic.

The second alternative would be to drill a new, third hole, in the ramp and put a ramp screw in to keep the bump down but it feels more like a hack. I'm also hesistant to drill in the plastic as it will be very close to the ramp edge and its a risk the plastic will crack and look ugly.

Any suggestions on what to do (and how)?
ramp (resized).jpg

Area where the VUK delivers the ball to the upper mini playfield. Best case there is a metal protector/cliffy there or the pf will be damaged.

Check condition of all ramps, they can be bought but there are 7? in total and it will be very expensive if replacing all. Look especially close at the whirlpool ramp (where the ball goes around in circles) and the two ramp entrances behind the green standup targets (ramp plastics get smashed by the ball).

I would also check that bigfoot works properly (turns head and divert balls).

Check condition of all mountain plastics, can be bought but not colored exactly the same as originals and also rather expensive.

Check playfield in front of "lost mine" kickout as that area often get really worn and missing paint.

Check topper works properly. The waterfall should look like the water is flowing when working correctly. A working original topper is unobtanium as spare part so if you find a game with a working one it adds quite a bit to the pin value. If the topper is missing then the price should be lower, topper is an iconic piece that shows the game name (game title is not present on the translite).

Currently my game got FL-15411 coils in both lower left and right flippers. I know it's supposed to be an orange FL-15411 (strong) in the left one and a blue FL-11629 (even stronger) in the right one.

I've recently bought this game and immediately teared it down for maintenance so I don't really know how the current coil strength configuration "feels" and works. I have played some Whitewater pins before but of course I have no idea what coils they had.

Normally I would just mount the stronger FL-11629 in the right flipper and be done with it, but I'm worried the extra strength may be the actual cause to the broken ramp entrances and mountains this game had when I bought it. I've replaced both some mountain plastics and some ramps with brand new ones and I'm frankly a bit scared that a really strong coil will break them too.

In short, I'm interested to hear what coils you have mounted and what you recommend. If the strongest FL-11629 coil is needed to properly make the steep ramps then I will mount it (game play comes first) but if the weaker FL-15411 is enough to clear all ramps then I will gladly keep it in my game and hopefully save some plastics from breaking (or am I overthinking this and the difference between the coils isn't that big?).

Bump

Noone want to chip in on their flipper coil experience for this game?!

I thought its commonly said to not create much more outlane drains but more pop bumper action, I could be wrong though.

I'm in the process of fixing a wh2o that I recently bought and when I assembled the ramps I noticed these two screws that seem to be wrong. When I roll a ball past them following either ramp side the ball hits the screw heads noticably.

It seems I have the wrong screws but what is the correct ones? The ramp holes are not conical but the screws are. On the underside there are two nuts with a jagged spacer.

I would say the worst screw head protrude about 2mm up.

I would love to find a way to attach the two ramps without any screws but still being able to take them apart (no glue). Any suggestions?

Worst case I have to get me a small file and make the holes conical so the heads sink down properly but if that was needed then shouldn't the ramp have that already from factory...
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I'm to scared to drill into these brittle plastic ramps. There are already cracks in the ramp because of previous owners over tightening the nuts. Guess I have to counter-sink using a small file then. Was hoping I just had the wrong fasteners.

Edit: Ok, so I went with the counter sink approach but used a hand driven tool for better control/slower drilling to make sure I wouldn't crack the plastic or go too deep. Used a 7mm wooden drill and drilled just a tiny bit down. Now the screws fit nicely and doesnt protrude at all.

10/10 would drill again
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To me your screws doesn't look smaller than mine but I could ofc be wrong. I didn't mesasure my head size and simply took a drill a few sizes larger than my screws so I would get a nice counter sink that wasnt too narrow without going so deep.

In second pic one hole is not fixed yet.
In my last pic you can see both screws are completely flush now.

Btw would flame polishing improve the looks around the holes and make those ugly cracks less visible?

So I just finished my fixing/restoration and had a few games on it after testing all lights/flashers/coils/switches.

All test run ok but the bigfoot motor sound kind of bad while turning. Maybe I think it sounds bad only because I haven't put the playfield glass on yet, but currently without it the sound is loud, rattles and almost sound like a gearbox problem. I couldn't get into the gearbox and check (it seem to be riveted shut and no screws).

Should I just wait and see if it breaks in the future or what, suggestions?

Getting a replacement gearbox is rather expensive so not that keen on it if not really neccesary. Anyone serviced their gearbox and have info/pics to share?

Could it be the motor that make the sound (Is it even possible)? I dont have a spare motor to test with unfortunately.

If you don't have the suicide ramp protector (01-11031 I think, left side of ramp entrance) already then get it now. The protector is impossible to mount without the mini pf off as the mounting screws are obstructed by the whirlpool ramp above.

I'll add my pics too, not sure if you need them or not now.

It's hard to see but in the "above photo" the plastic edge starts about 1 o clock and go clockwise around to about 8 o clock (it ends at the plastic seam in the bottom).
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When I bought my WH2O it also came with a set of new boulders, they all had the same problem as many others have pointed out, they are painted way to dark and differ quite a bit from the original plastics. I knew I had read about someone using liquid to remove some paint in an old post somewhere, so I decided to test that out myself.

I took some different liquids on a rag of cloth (one at a time ofc) and swiped on a boulder until I found something that worked. Unfortunately I cannot remember exactly what liquid worked best (this was a few months ago) but I think it's what we in Sweden calls "T-Röd", an Ethanol based liquid. I initially tried to apply the liquid using a brush but it didn't work that good, the friction from the cloth was needed to get the color off properly.

New untouched boulder, looks like a dog turd:
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"Fixed" boulder, much better:
After2 (resized).jpg

New untouched:
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"Fixed":
After1 (resized).jpg

Rags after moderate wiping, see all that brown paint I removed. I could have continued but I was afraid of removing too much paint so stopped when I thought it was good.
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As the last step I washed the boulders with tap water for a few seconds to remove any remaining liquid; not sure if needed but can never be too careful. Now the replaced boulders match the other original ones much better (not a perfect match but much closer anyway) and it took maybe 30 minutes in total.

sexy

Why not make your own? It's a simple plastic hidden by the mountains so it can look as ugly as you want.

I made one myself from a translucent scrap plastic I had and it works great in protecting the switch further up.

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Oh boy, that's just ugly. So many rafts, animals and other crap, its closer to a toystore than a pin. Ewwwwww.

If you don't have the game manual, go to ipdb.org, search game name and find the manual as pdf. On page 2-43 you will see all switches and where nr 54 is (above right outlane).

Now a switch can be flagged as "not working" by the game simply when a ball haven't hit it in a while, so depending on your rubber placement in the pop area this can be your case. Simply activate the switch by hand when game is running and see if credit dot disappear.

If this doesn't work go into the test menu, select switch test and press the 54 switch and see if the game recognizes you pressing it. If it doesn't either the switch is bad or some wiring might have come loose, either way you have to open the game and check below the playfield.

I removed that post completely and I dont see much balls draining on the right side, just more pop action ,which I like.

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I removed the post and long rubber blocking the path, then put a small round rubber on the second post. Also put a small mylar patch over the hole to not damage the PF.

Works fine, haven't seen any noticeable increase in drains to the right outlane.

Oh, the chick finally got a life jacket too

Really nice art, I do want it but not sure for that price.

If I recall correctly the gear housing is unfortunately riveted shut (no screws on mine anyway) so getting into it is troublesome and even more so to get it back closed again. I had to skip cleaning/regreasing mine because of this.

Sure, but it's just so strange they riveted this shut when my ToM trunk gearbox, RS dozer gearbox and BR cannon-swing gearbox had screws in them.

My bigfoot gearbox works fine and doesn't sound that much so I decided to let it be.

The lit sign look great but the house below it is kind of underwhelming imo. I would be interested if the whole package were a bit more refined.

While I do appreciate all the work going into the making of that topper, I must say it's not to my taste. Bigfoot look really scary and I would get a fright every time I passed the pin.

Your metal "Z" bracket looks normal.

Have you checked the inclination of the game sideways? If the pin leans toward the right I guess it could prevent the ball from rolling to the left in the subway.

The plastic spacer that fasten the right side of my subway is about 3-4 cm long from memory.

I have a vuk plate, ball still get stuck where ramp meets mini playfield when the ball have too slow speed up the ramp or a lot of spin on the ball coming out of the vuk and traveling to the right and getting stuck. I've tried mylar, rubbers at the vuk exit, steeper pin angle but all that only make the ball get stuck a bit less, not eliminating it.

My problem is not the metal ball guides but the actual crack between the mini pf and the ramp. I tried to "stretch" the ramp a bit further but as it's fastened in the other end too I can't close that last little gap. The gap is only about ~2 mm in size but it's still enough to get the ball stuck if it travels slow enough over it. I tried to cover the gap with mylar but no big difference. Also tried to put a partial toothpick below the mylar to even out the gap but still capturing balls.

The previous owner "solved" this problem by increasing the game inclination a lot, but that only made it really hard to go up all ramps, so that's not a viable solution imo. Currently I'm used to shake the game now and then to get the ball loose (often tilting the game in progress) but I really want to solve it once and for all somehow.

Been thinking of maybe using synthetic wood to fill the gap, but I want a solution that doesn't damage the game and still make me able to remove the ramp/mini pf for service and so on.

So the idea was to raise the ramp exit higher than the mini playfield surface to create a downward slope? Any pics? The idea sound interesting.

Its ordinary colored bulb "condoms" put over star posts. Yes, you can easily remove them.

We all have this same problem, or at least I do and I've seen other write about similar experiences. Not aware of a reliable fix for it.

I've tried the "fix" of putting rubbers at the VUK exit and while it may have made the backspin slightly better it's still there. I also increased the playfield angle slightly to get the balls faster down to the flipper and it helps a bit, but also made ramps harder to get up so...

If you find a reliable remedy without side effects then please tell us.

I've ordered at least 10 times from them, good supplier.

Only downside I've noticed personally (and as other mentioned here) is that some of their repro plastics and stickers have the wrong color tones. Other items have always been good.

I have a hard time understanding exactly where that switch is located (this game got loads of ramps in several layers) but a switch without an actuator is useless. Also I can't see any cables leading to the switch. You should remove more stuff and show us better pictures. You need to do this anyway if you intend to remove/repair that switch.

.

This game have lots of GI dimming for different modes and disabling that will give you a lesser pinball experience imo.

Of my eight games this is the only one I've kept normal bulbs in the GI just because of this. The inserts are all LEDs though and looking bright and nice.

To sum it up for GI, either:

*go with LEDs and disable dimming in settings - no cool dimming effects at all

* go with LEDs, enable dimming and use an GIOCD add on board (costly but looking great)

* go with original bulbs and enable dimming - looks good for a good price

LEDs doesn't work properly for dimming so you won't get any nice light effects with them installed.

When I tested full GI LED in my game the "dimming" effect was more of a stroboscope effect and was HIGHLY annoying, I almost thought I was at a rave party but without the drugs. I very quickly removed the LEDs and went with normal bulbs as intended.

You got 3 balls? I thought standard had been 2 since humans evolved from fishes. 3, that's some crazy Total Recall inspired stuff!

Not only did it sound awful, many sounds wasn't complete like the end-of-ball tune missing the last tones. I would never use this package.

A sheet of adhesive mylar.

Protecting the shooter lane in a home environment isn't really necessary though imo.

Nah, imo the white snow mountain isn't fitting at all and that extra skull mountain is fugly!

I agree. Lit playfield looks nice but that backbox color-puke is ... not great.

Can't decide if I like it or not; one second I think it's nice then ugly then repeat...

If you want the buttons to feel the same then I suggest you buy two identical sets of"spring" and opto actuator. The parts are quite cheap and you only need to remove like three screws on each side to change it out.

Check the game manual to get the part numbers and you will then easily find them online to order. If you don't have a paper manual then get the digital pdf at ipdb.org.

I think the metal piece for holding the opto sensors at the mini playfield is one of these things. If you are handy and have some tools you could make one yourself, its basically a bent piece of metal with some holes in it.

I recently found the "missing" mountain here
https://www.pinballshop.nl/playfield-parts/toys-and-figures/white-water-waterfall-mountain/

Received it today and it doesn’t come with any mounting bracket or similar, just the plastic.

The base yellowish color is decently fitting but the darker spots are a bit off (but still within acceptable looks) compared to my original? backboard mountains. I might add some more dark spots with a paintbrush later on.
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It's closer in color to my repro bigfoot cave.
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By the way, click on the pictures to se the correct, brighter colors, somehow pinside darkens the preview pictures...

Anyone have any good ideas on how to fasten it to the playfield? I'd rather avoid drilling holes in it for screws/rivets if it can be avoided as I'm afraid it might crack in the process. Any suggestions?

I'm not familiar with furniture touch up, is it some kind of pen? I'd rather not buy 10 pens to find the best color match. Which one did you get?

Normally I think people add way too much mods (like plastic animals) to their games, especially when there are eagles, bears , rafts and half a toy store on the playfield, but these trees are actually really fitting the theme. Something about that green lush color amongst all the brown. Will consider doing something similar.

I've used the escspe routed a couple of times so yes, they are needed sometimes. Maybe it's not the ramp that's the problem but your game that isn't leveled properly sideways?

I agree they look great but I'm afraid they will release "dust and crap" when hit or just from vibrations in the game. Don't want to vacuum the game every day.

Or new legs, trim and cabinet

Playfield look nice.

I have no idea what the designer intended but both mine and one at location both go sdtm on full plunge. Seem to be the standard for this game.

I'm 100% sure I have the correct shooter spring according to the manual.

Do I like the behavior? Hell no, all my guests complain about ball constantly going out on full plunge.

A factory what?

If it is searching for balls that seem to indicate problems with the through switches/optos for detecting the balls. Have you checked they work properly?

Good, don't.

I flame polished all 7? ramps in this game while doing a proper restore on my wh2o. The ramps turned out great. I did take some before and after pictures but need to find them.

These ramps were no difference from other game ramps I've flame polished, like ToM for example.

For people interested in this technique I recommend you practice on a few old scrap ramps first. You need to move the flame quickly back and forth, never really stop as it will melt the plastic really fast (any sign of bubbles is too hot, abort immediately, but its already too late). Also you need to clean the ramp thoroughly before flame polishing as any dirt left will melt into the plastic and get stuck forever.

100% this.

I spend the money needed to get a game into great shape because I want to own and play such games. I don't think on when/if I will sell it and for what price.

Normally I would say the same but there is something about those trees that just look good.. I think it's the green color amongst all the brown in the game that really hits the sweet spot. Seriously considering getting some trees myself. The only reason I haven't got it already is the fact I'm afraid the trees will release debris inside the game when/if hit by a ball.

A closeup on that zip tie and clear tubing would have been great, hard to see how he mounted those.

I have four rings like that around the VUK habitrail exit but about 50% of the balls still roll backwards when landning on my game.
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If anyone have other suggestions to avoid this behavior then please tell.

I have the metal playfield protector that the ball falls down on, the photo in the post above doesn't. I guess my problem is metal doesn't kill the ball as efffectively as hitting the softer wooden playfield.

My pf was pretty banged up where the VUK dropped the ball so I kind of need the protector to bridge over the indentation in the wood.

Haven't tried putting rubbers on those inner rods, might work.

I cut a slit in them and put there yes, no glue or such. Not a single one have come loose in ~2 years of play.

No idea about the size, I just took some I already had. Think it's the same size as one normally put on those pointy miniposts.

Many have tried, unfortunately noone have succeeded in imitating the waterfall effect properly.