Stupid Fixes

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

RGP'ers,

Besides the obligatory use of drywall screws, what are the most stupid
fixes you've seen done to a pinball machine?

Someone tried to solder a broken pop bumper bracket with a little 15 W
soldering pencil. When that failed, the guy used electrical tape and
the pencil to make a splint for the broken bracket.

One customer replaced a blown transistor on a board. He got the
transistor type and pin-out correct. But he didn't have the skills to
solder the transistor back in the row from whence it came. So, he
soldered the transistor on the back of the driver board. Yep, you
guessed it, the tab of the transistor shorted out against the back of
the board.

Finally my favorite, I've seen several homemade metal flipper links.
For one customer, the holes in the metal elongated. This interfered
with the proper operation of the EOS switches. After the guy replaced
his second set of coils, I was called to keep the game from eating
coils. For another customer, the guy wanted me to quit making the game
shock the players every time they flipped.

--
PinTed

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

Check out the upper playfield car and skull mods

http://cgi.ebay.com/Williams-Termi [...] dZViewItem

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

http://groups.google.com/group/rec [...] 460192e55d

Here was mine.

Mario
Pinthetic

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

My reoccuring favorite has got to be the 'ol "pile the rubber bands on until
it replaces the pinball rubber" trick, I had an old wedgehead one time that
had ALL of the rubber replaced with varying qualtity and thicknesses of
rubber bands (it did however play), other classics include:

- a drop target carved from wood (worked, sort of)
- permanant marker to redraw worn inserts
- a section cut from a milk jug and glued in to repair a hole in a ramp

I will remember more....

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

A Euro Dr. WHO where they lost the 5 volts section and wired in a video
game power-supply and ran the wires directly to the board. Did I
mention they used speaker wire.

A WCS94 where the VUK was gone. They took the best clear tape and cut
it out just perfect over the hole. I played for a half-hour before I
realized I just could not make that shot no matter what I did.

Can't tell you how many video game buttons I pulled out as flipper
button.

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

A fan in the backbox of a JP, clearly to provide some cooling to
something, mounted directly above the batteries. This was wired, with
speaker wire, directly to the mains via a connection in the power
control box (the connection was before the main game on/off switch, so
was in effect permanaently wired). No fuses to be found anywhere in
the wiring. This was clearly a standard "upgrade" for the operator I
bought these from, as I had 3 machines all "upgraded" the same way. He
also used 4 inch nails and some copper wire to attach the fan to the
backbox. The nails stuck out of the backbox about an inch. After
seeing this, I now check over all my games very carefully before
turning them on for the first time.

Paul

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

How 'bout a CV... right of Ringmaster there's an area of ball trap that the
Wms add-on kit addresses. Not the owners of this one, they used a cut-out
piece of plastic to prevent them but the best was the logo on it.... N.Y.
Mets.

GRY

"Cliffy" <crinear@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:htCdnUykQf7wXaXeRVn-rQ@comcast.com...
> You guys should see this Dixie Land I picked up. My God. Someone used
> paperclips to extend the solder lugs on the flipper coils! HELLO! Why? I
> have NO idea! The wires are long enough to reach so why would they do
> this? It's so funny looking I literally cracked up when I saw it. No lie!
> PAPER CLIPS! Still shaped like paper clips! And if some is good more is
> better right? You should see how much solder is slathered on everything!
> The guys selling it to me says "It's not working, ya know" Ya think!?
>
> PinTed wrote:
>> RGP'ers,
>>
>> Besides the obligatory use of drywall screws, what are the most stupid
>> fixes you've seen done to a pinball machine?
>>
>> Someone tried to solder a broken pop bumper bracket with a little 15 W
>> soldering pencil. When that failed, the guy used electrical tape and
>> the pencil to make a splint for the broken bracket.
>>
>> One customer replaced a blown transistor on a board. He got the
>> transistor type and pin-out correct. But he didn't have the skills to
>> solder the transistor back in the row from whence it came. So, he
>> soldered the transistor on the back of the driver board. Yep, you
>> guessed it, the tab of the transistor shorted out against the back of
>> the board.
>>
>> Finally my favorite, I've seen several homemade metal flipper links.
>> For one customer, the holes in the metal elongated. This interfered
>> with the proper operation of the EOS switches. After the guy replaced
>> his second set of coils, I was called to keep the game from eating
>> coils. For another customer, the guy wanted me to quit making the game
>> shock the players every time they flipped.
>>
>> --
>> PinTed
>>
>
> --
> Cliffy - CARGPB2
> A passion for pinball!
> http://www.passionforpinball.com

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

Just found a thread in an german forum with many pictures:

http://www.pinballzforum.net/start [...] topic=1391

Sebastian.

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

I'm slightly ashamed to admit my first "repair" was a laughable, aleit
very temporary, kludge of sorts. A week into owning my first machine (a
TM:B*oP) the shooter lane feeder stopped working. I found there was a
broken coil winding somewhere, but I couldn't see if it was possible to
resolder the wire to the lug (I later found it wouldn't have been
without unwinding the entire coil). I was still keen to play the game a
lot, so rather than wait a few days for the new coil to arrive, or
borrowing one from a non-essential area (the pop bumpers were the only
viable candidates, and I was too chicken to prat about with them so
soon!), I tied a piece of string to the feeder mechanism and fed the
other end out of the coin door so I could launch the balls manually! It
worked okay too, and had an intriguing side-effect where, if you
launched a new ball quick enough after draining you carried on playing
as if you'd never lost it! When the new coil arrived two days later I
fixed it properly.

Matt
====

PinTed wrote:
> RGP'ers,
>
> Besides the obligatory use of drywall screws, what are the most stupid
> fixes you've seen done to a pinball machine?
>
> Someone tried to solder a broken pop bumper bracket with a little 15 W
> soldering pencil. When that failed, the guy used electrical tape and
> the pencil to make a splint for the broken bracket.
>
> One customer replaced a blown transistor on a board. He got the
> transistor type and pin-out correct. But he didn't have the skills to
> solder the transistor back in the row from whence it came. So, he
> soldered the transistor on the back of the driver board. Yep, you
> guessed it, the tab of the transistor shorted out against the back of
> the board.
>
> Finally my favorite, I've seen several homemade metal flipper links.
> For one customer, the holes in the metal elongated. This interfered
> with the proper operation of the EOS switches. After the guy replaced
> his second set of coils, I was called to keep the game from eating
> coils. For another customer, the guy wanted me to quit making the game
> shock the players every time they flipped.
>
> --
> PinTed

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

Cliffy:

Don't forget that I have a populated playfield for this game with all
the parts sitting in my garage. The rest of the game was long gone by
the time I got the playfield, so no real use for this stuff other than
as donors for other machines. Let me know.

Ron


Cliffy wrote:
> You guys should see this Dixie Land I picked up. My God. Someone used
> paperclips to extend the solder lugs on the flipper coils! HELLO! Why? I
> have NO idea! The wires are long enough to reach so why would they do
> this? It's so funny looking I literally cracked up when I saw it. No
> lie! PAPER CLIPS! Still shaped like paper clips! And if some is good
> more is better right? You should see how much solder is slathered on
> everything! The guys selling it to me says "It's not working, ya know"
> Ya think!?
>
> PinTed wrote:
> > RGP'ers,
> >
> > Besides the obligatory use of drywall screws, what are the most stupid
> > fixes you've seen done to a pinball machine?
> >
> > Someone tried to solder a broken pop bumper bracket with a little 15 W
> > soldering pencil. When that failed, the guy used electrical tape and
> > the pencil to make a splint for the broken bracket.
> >
> > One customer replaced a blown transistor on a board. He got the
> > transistor type and pin-out correct. But he didn't have the skills to
> > solder the transistor back in the row from whence it came. So, he
> > soldered the transistor on the back of the driver board. Yep, you
> > guessed it, the tab of the transistor shorted out against the back of
> > the board.
> >
> > Finally my favorite, I've seen several homemade metal flipper links.
> > For one customer, the holes in the metal elongated. This interfered
> > with the proper operation of the EOS switches. After the guy replaced
> > his second set of coils, I was called to keep the game from eating
> > coils. For another customer, the guy wanted me to quit making the game
> > shock the players every time they flipped.
> >
> > --
> > PinTed
> >
>
> --
> Cliffy - CARGPB2
> A passion for pinball!
> http://www.passionforpinball.com

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

offical from whom? Still sounds like a hack.

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

I know Ron I may be hitting you up as I tear into this game. If you
would keep your eyes open for a backglass I would appreciate it! Thats
whats really missing on mine

Ron Donohue wrote:
> Cliffy:
>
> Don't forget that I have a populated playfield for this game with all
> the parts sitting in my garage. The rest of the game was long gone by
> the time I got the playfield, so no real use for this stuff other than
> as donors for other machines. Let me know.
>
> Ron
>
>
> Cliffy wrote:
>
>>You guys should see this Dixie Land I picked up. My God. Someone used
>>paperclips to extend the solder lugs on the flipper coils! HELLO! Why? I
>>have NO idea! The wires are long enough to reach so why would they do
>>this? It's so funny looking I literally cracked up when I saw it. No
>>lie! PAPER CLIPS! Still shaped like paper clips! And if some is good
>>more is better right? You should see how much solder is slathered on
>>everything! The guys selling it to me says "It's not working, ya know"
>>Ya think!?
>>
>>PinTed wrote:
>>
>>>RGP'ers,
>>>
>>>Besides the obligatory use of drywall screws, what are the most stupid
>>>fixes you've seen done to a pinball machine?
>>>
>>>Someone tried to solder a broken pop bumper bracket with a little 15 W
>>>soldering pencil. When that failed, the guy used electrical tape and
>>>the pencil to make a splint for the broken bracket.
>>>
>>>One customer replaced a blown transistor on a board. He got the
>>>transistor type and pin-out correct. But he didn't have the skills to
>>>solder the transistor back in the row from whence it came. So, he
>>>soldered the transistor on the back of the driver board. Yep, you
>>>guessed it, the tab of the transistor shorted out against the back of
>>>the board.
>>>
>>>Finally my favorite, I've seen several homemade metal flipper links.
>>>For one customer, the holes in the metal elongated. This interfered
>>>with the proper operation of the EOS switches. After the guy replaced
>>>his second set of coils, I was called to keep the game from eating
>>>coils. For another customer, the guy wanted me to quit making the game
>>>shock the players every time they flipped.
>>>
>>>--
>>>PinTed
>>>
>>
>>--
>>Cliffy - CARGPB2
>>A passion for pinball!
>>http://www.passionforpinball.com
>
>

--
Cliffy - CARGPB2
A passion for pinball!
http://www.passionforpinball.com