Replace the coil, they are only $10.ĭiscard the old Coil Stop, the Spring, the Plunger/Link assembly, the Bushing, and the EOS Switch. If it is absolutely stuck, the coil may have overheated at some point.
If the sleeve is tight, press evenly on the bench to get it out. Take the old Coil Sleeve out and discard it. Unsolder the EOS Switch Capacitor, and put it aside. Some more dust comes from the spark that occurs at the EOS Switch. The dust comes from the metal on metal pounding between the Plunger and Coil Stop. If you don’t cover your workbench, you will soon be sorry as the whole bracket will be covered with black carbon and iron dust. Take the whole assembly out of the game and onto a well lit workbench covered with newspapers.
Transistors pinball life driver#
Next, get out a 1/4″ nut driver and remove the hex head screws from around the flipper bracket. Loosen the flipper nut, and carefully pull the flipper bat out from the top of the playfield. The first pull will be very black with carbon. Just pull a crisp $100 bill through the held together contacts, until the bill pulls through cleanly.
Unlike the EOS Switches, the Lane Change switches usually do not need to be replaced, only cleaned. If there are any “lane change” switches and wires ganged up with the EOS switch, label and unsolder those too. Don’t buy one for less than $20, trust me on this. If you don’t have one yet, your going to need one constantly to maintain a pinball game. Unsolder your now clearly marked wires with a 25w soldering iron. Now you can put the game back together again without blowing anything up. You can write on the coil plastic with a Sharpie (it cleans off with alcohol). Start by labeling the wires that go to the flippers, you can use Blue Painter’s Tape. They don’t come in the rebuild kits, but you absolutely need them for a rebuild. These are very important if you want to keep the flippers from cutting into your playfield, or creating unnecessary airballs. Sometimes the wrong coils were installed at the factory (like many F-14 Tomcats), so you really need to check this.įinally, you need to order some flipper bushings. 50% chance if your game was once on route, at least one of them will be wrong.
Transistors pinball life manual#
Also get a pair of high voltage EOS switches ( Williams reference #03-7811) as the ones included in the kit are for low voltage games:īefore you order, check page 2 of your owner’s manual and make sure that the correct flipper coils required for your game are installed.
Transistors pinball life install#
It will have the much desired stronger return spring, and only requires a small (one time) modification to install it. If you have a System 11 game, get the newer (Williams reference #A-13524-8) kit anyway. Nowadays, the patents have run out, so you get an overseas made kit. Don’t expect to get a genuine Bally/Williams kit in the little plastic box. You can get a kit from Pinball Life, or any other mail order place. You spent thousands of dollars on your game and now you are going to try and save $20 on a kit? Your game deserves to play at factory (or better) condition. I know, there are people who file the mushroomed tips, clean dirty sleeves and re-stretch springs, but the flippers are the most important part of the whole game. So, how do we fix all these common problems? We throw all that junk away and get a rebuild kit.