A Peek Behind the Curtain
Pinball machines require a lot of maintenance. Especially the older ones. Cleaning, diagnosing problems, and fixing them has to be part of the fun if you want your machines to stay in playable condition for very long.
When I’m playing a game, I’m not just thinking about the next shot, or how to keep the ball from draining. I’m also thinking about the previous shot. “Did that light come on when I expected it to?” “Does that post seem a little loose?” Some of these machines are older than I am, and checking that every part is working exactly correctly helps ensure they last long into the future.
You may have noticed recently that the flippers on Meteor were feeling a little sloppy. Several of the parts in the flipper actually wear out over time. The rubber around the bat is the most obvious consumable part, but the linkage under the playfield and the sleeve inside the solenoid also need to be replaced periodically. I’m happy to say the bottom two flippers on Meteor are fully rebuilt and should feel significantly better.
But once you start digging, new problems always come up…
Unfortunately Meteor is out of order until I receive another batch of parts. Flippers of this generation are made of four parts. The rubber band, the plastic bat, a metal base plate, and the shaft extending below the playfield. In this case, some of the noticeable slop of the flipper was caused by the metal plate being fully cracked.
Further along in the process of rebuilding the flippers I came across another surprise.
How do you remove a flipper that extends through the playfield when you can’t remove the screw retaining it? I’ll let you know when I find out! Working area is always tight on the underside of a pinball machine, but hopefully I can get a screw extractor in there.
I’ve found that the work on a pinball machine generally falls into one of three categories.
- Routine maintenance - Cleaning the playfield and rubber components. Flipper rebuilds would also fit into this category, but happen much less frequently.
- Annoyances and non-breaking problems - Something is wrong on the machine, but unless you really look for it, it’s not noticeable. These problems make it onto the list, but aren’t urgent.
- Game breaking problems - The broken flipper on Meteor would definitely fit in this category.
Fireball has a couple of the issues in the second category that I’ve been exploring as time allows. Sometimes the ball doesn’t successfully make it into the shooter lane. Maybe rebuilding the solenoid will help. One of the pop-bumpers fires when a different pop-bumper is triggered. Time to get out the multimeter and look for crossed or broken wires.
I’ve still got a lot to learn, but I love the hands-on nature of pinball machines. Both playing and fixing. I hope you’ve enjoyed getting a small look behind the scenes. They’re fascinating machines and it’s rare to see more than just the facade that’s presented during play. If you have interest in getting your hands dirty and learning more about how they tick, let me know!
If you have any questions or topics you think would be interesting to cover, please let me know!