I acquired a Williams Space Station recently that occasionally tilts when the ball strikes the left jet bumper. This happens rather infrequently; maybe once every 3-4 games.
I'm a novice at pinball troubleshooting, maintenance & repair, so I don't know which of the following may be relevant:
- I can't tell if it's a plumb-bob, playfield, or slam tilt, but there is no warning before the tilt...so I suspect it is a playfield or slam tilt. When I manually (by hand) activate the playfield tilt switch during gameplay, it tilts exactly like when the game randomly tilts. When I manually activate the plumb-bob tilt switch, I get a warning. When I manually activate the slam tilt switch, nothing happens (the slam tilt does not activate in the switch test either. None of the coin door switches seem to work except the game adjustment/diagnostic switches...fixing these will be my next priority.
- I have put a piece of electrical tape between the leafs on both the playfield tilt switch and the slam tilt switch to ensure that they weren't activating during play...the game still tilts occasionally when the ball strikes the left bumper
- When I acquired the machine a few months ago, I kept blowing F3 when the ball was in the jet bumpers. I replaced the left bumper with a complete assembly. I rebuilt the right and lower bumpers. Aside from the tilt, the bumpers work great and I haven't blown F3 since. It may be worth noting that the switch that came with the jet bumper assembly did not include the leaf switch for scoring (it only included the 'spoon-looking' switch)...so I used the leafs from the old assembly. Scoring works fine. The left jet bumper switch isn't in same column or row as any of the tilts, so I'm doubtful that my rebuild of the leaf switches is the problem (but I'm a novice, so what do I know).
- I couldn't really play the game before replacing/repairing the pop bumpers, so have no idea if the tilt problem was occurring prior to my work on the jet bumpers.
Did I mention that I'm a novice? I have an analog multimeter, but really don't know how to use it effectively. I basically just measure resistance to check continuity.
Would appreciate any troubleshooting tips/advice.