MrMaloo Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 (edited) Title : Fish Tales Manufacturer : Williams Year : 1992 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Quote from Tony at The Pinball Shed : Worked on 8 of these in the past year. 4 had a broken belt that drives the ball locking reel on the left handside. You need to remove this assembly from underneath, bit of a tricky one, just take your time. The belts are available here in Aust and are under $10. The boathouse on the righthand side has a small single drop target that also seems to give a bit of trouble, underneath it drops down onto a switch and has a spring attached to flick it back. Have had to either adjust this switch or in some case replace it, spring also known to snap or jump off. 3 of these games also had the flapping fish topper not working, there is a coil behind the fish that causing the slapping effect. In all cases, a wire had come off the coil. Overall a good family game, that is fairly reliable with not too many problem areas. Edited August 21, 2009 by MrMaloo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Tales Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Problems I have noticed. Missing flapping fish and/or plastic bubble cover (often damaged). Missing pistol grip shooter handle, often substituted for a manual plunger or a large press button. Decals nearly allways faded, often one side worse than the other. Playfield wear around the large fish inserts, wear around the boat ramp. Little gate that opens for long cast (at top left of PF) often not working (activated by roll-over switch at top right if PF). Like Tony said reel belt needs to be kept good. Optos on reel need to be cleaned to maintain proper function. Bottom corners of slingshot plastics dont last long. All in all a very reliable machine really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maxprofits Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 Both plastics either side of the boat ramp get smashed, also the boat ramp plastic and both slings. Fit fender (mudguard) washers to all these places. Also blow a 240V surge protector on this machine, never done one before. :o One of the most reliable games I've owned. Great family game, my kids love it. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syzlack Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 The damn cast button sticks all the time and Im too lazy to buy a new one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Railways Posted June 17, 2010 Share Posted June 17, 2010 +1 to the above probs. Apart from the parts missing thing (topper etc) both my FT have had broken belts,boat plastics,blue plastics on both sides of ramp,finicky caster house drop target adjustment,dirty optos esp.reel as greg said(they are hard to get to so a good chance no-one has ever cleaned them) and one had a broken leaf on the VUK but all in all apart from insert wear and cab fade never had an ongoing problem. My guess is with the amount of FT made and a pretty good reliabity it would have made a lot of money on-site.:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Pubstuff Posted July 4, 2010 Share Posted July 4, 2010 +1 for the topper, mine had broken off, nothing that a bit of solder didnt fix. +1 for the belt also and the optos, as mine also had this issue. otherwise a good fun simple machine to play and everyone always enjoys it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flipperage Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Problem with FT Reel Hi - I am new to the site but have a problem with my recent purchase of a FT. Everytime you shoot a ball into the reel it pops it straight out again making it impossible to load 3 balls for multiball. Appreciate some advice from anyone that has had this problem and/or may have solution. Cheers, Flipperage:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fire_Power Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Run the diagnostics from the menu - there is one that tests the reel and indicates the state of the optos - this may reveal your problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Pubstuff Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Run the diagnostics from the menu - there is one that tests the reel and indicates the state of the optos - this may reveal your problem. i had this problem last week. the switch on the x-over rail just b4 it enters the the reel had a wire break loose and was not registering the ball passing thru the switch which tells the reel to lock it. a dob of solder to replace the wire and all working again like it should have. check that switch for adjustment and/or wire adrift would be my suggestion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishburgr Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 Anyone have any idea why when the ball pops into the shooter lane, about 50% of the time it fires itself without me pressing the button? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kayakkingoz Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 it does this if Auto cast.ie:if you lose the ball too early it gives it to you again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishburgr Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 Yeah even when you start a new game it will often just shoot the first ball out without pressing the button. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rod71 Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 There is also a setting to let the flippers cast the ball instead of pushing the button. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMaloo Posted July 22, 2011 Author Share Posted July 22, 2011 Yeah even when you start a new game it will often just shoot the first ball out without pressing the button. Sounds like your button on the reel shooter could be stuck . It's a pretty common problem . Remove the whole shooter handle assembly , pull apart and give everything a good clean . If it's not the actual button that's stuck it could also be the switch directly under the button . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishburgr Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 Rod 71, yeah Ive checked that one too thanks. Cruiser, the switch test for the button seems to be working but I guess it has to be a problem in there somewhere. I will investigate and report back if I find anything useful that someone else may use in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fire_Power Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 I think there's a setting that will fire the ball after a time if you just leave it sitting there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Tales Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 timed plunger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claude Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 My Fishtales has just been taken out of a ~4 year hibernation and I have no sound at all (amongst various other issues). Any suggestions on where to start with fault finding or pointing me to an existing resource. Went through sounds self test and no errors but no sound for each sound bite. Machine came up with factory settings as I guess the batteries ran flat. Cheers Claude Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rod71 Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 (edited) My Fishtales has just been taken out of a ~4 year hibernation and I have no sound at all (amongst various other issues). Any suggestions on where to start with fault finding or pointing me to an existing resource. Went through sounds self test and no errors but no sound for each sound bite. Machine came up with factory settings as I guess the batteries ran flat. Cheers Claude Batteries probably leaked f you failed to remove them before storing it. Edited August 27, 2011 by rod71 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claude Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 Batteries probably leaked f you failed to remove them before storing it. First thing I checked and surprisingly they were OK but I put fresh ones in anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rod71 Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 On power up, how many beeps are you getting?. Not to be confused with "bong bong bong" if there are switch errors etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claude Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 On power up, how many beeps are you getting?. Not to be confused with "bong bong bong" if there are switch errors etc. I'm not getting any distinctive system generated beeps, just a bit of clicking or popping sound as soon as the pin powers up, then silence or just a low level hum. I'm guessing the amp is gone, but could be wrong. Will try and figure out how to get line output to an external amp and test for sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rod71 Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 check fuses F501 and F502 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claude Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 check fuses F501 and F502 Thanks for all your tips Rod. Did a continuity test on those and other unrelated fuses while I was at it and they appeared OK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rod71 Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 Hmmm, you might be on the right track with the amp then. This is from pinrepair guide. "No output at all. The LM1875 audio amp is probably defective. This amp should have -26 volts on pin 3, and +26 volts on pin 5. Anything else indicates a problem. The sound ROM or RAM could be defective. There should be high pulses on the output pins of the Sound ROM and RAM. The MC3340 attenuator can also cause this problem." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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