The Pinball Diaries

Much to Bill H.‘s chagrin, I replaced the RAM backup batteries. Bill lost his 5.5 billion high score.

Replaced missing jet bumper cap.

Ug. Now the drop target behind the Borg ship is screwed up. Target won’t always stay in the up position and the machine rapid fires it. Sheesh. It’s not like I don’t have a day job…

Disassembled and removed the ’1-Bank Drop Target Assembly’, part A-14615, page 2-27 (that’s the drop target behind the borg ship). Item #14 in the diagram (‘Single Stop Target’) is cracked in half. It’s been glued at least once before. I’m pretty sure I glued it when I first got the machine (before starting the journal). Here’s a photo of it, and the diagram from the manual:

I’m gonna have to glue the plastic again, but this time I’m gonna try using epoxy.

I replaced the coil sleeve in the assembly while I had it out since the one in there was filthy.

While I was swinging the playfield into the upright position, I noticed that the backbox felt really flimsy and had a lot of play to it. I checked the bottom corner hinges inside the backbox and the nuts were super-loose. Tightened ‘em up and backbox feels nice and solid.

Test Report:

CHECK SWITCH 32 UNDER LEFT GUN SW. 2
CHECK SWITCH 33 UNDER RIGHT GUN SW. 2
CHECK SWITCH 36 UNDER LEFT GUN SW. 1
CHECK SWITCH 38 LEFT GUN SHOOTER

Ran the ‘Right Under Divertor’ & ‘Left Under Divertor’ tests.

Test Report:

CHECK SWITCH 32 UNDER LEFT GUN SW. 2
CHECK SWITCH 33 UNDER RIGHT GUN SW. 2
CHECK SWITCH 34 RIGHT GUN SHOOTER
CHECK SWITCH 36 UNDER LEFT GUN SW. 1
CHECK SWITCH 37 UNDER RIGHT GUN SW. 1

Tested:

• 36 OK

• 37 OK

Machine is happy again after testing just those two switches. Go figure.

Cleaned the playfield with Wilcat No. 125. Wow! Plays fast! So fast that it broke one of the lane guides above the jet bumpers. Damn.

The guns have spontaneously stopped working again.

10x multiplier bulb is working again (with no intervention from me).

Test Report:

CHECK SWITCH 32 UNDER LEFT GUN SW. 2
CHECK SWITCH 33 UNDER RIGHT GUN SW. 2
CHECK SWITCH 34 RIGHT GUN SHOOTER
CHECK SWITCH 36 UNDER LEFT GUN SW. 1
CHECK SWITCH 37 UNDER RIGHT GUN SW. 1

Swtich 34 tests okay. I powered off the machine to scout under the playfield, then realized I forgot to empty the balls. After powering back on, new test report:

CHECK SWITCH 37 UNDER RIGHT GUN SW. 1
CHECK SWITCH 38 LEFT GUN SHOOTER

I went ahead and tested all of ‘em despite the reduced test report:

• 38 OK
• 36 OK
• 32 OK
• 37 OK

• 33 OK

Everything seems happy now and the machine is using the guns.

10x multiplier bulb is out.