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Once they were Pins - Meteor Firepower and Flash


poidapoida

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Got onto the playfield last weekend after doing some other prep work

 

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I used a heat gun to get the vinyl wrap off the rails. The glue residue remains and is still a bitch to get off.

 

Had a few common issues appear that I found out about for the first time, First one was the clear blocking up the star inserts Initially thought this was major problem but with a lot sanding emery boards they nearly fit. Just tested with the swithes installed and they need a bit more sanding to move freely.

 

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The other one was that the decals for the drop targets sat a bit lower than original. Didn't want to buy another set of decals to fix this so added a 2mm bit of plastic to the mechto make the decals sit higher. I haven't done the 6 bank yet but will either do the same or adjust the drop target themselves.

 

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So have taken the drops off the playfield until I get the rails painted. Got onto the underside.I had the loom all marked up but half the labelling came off when it went through the dishwasher. Didn't really matter as its a pretty simple loom and had plenty of photos. Once the loom was on it came together pretty quick. Nearly got most things installed until I get an order from the US

Flippers- awaiting 1 right rebuild kit and the three bushings. Also need to make the switch stack for the lower right flipper.

Slingshots - one arm was broken, arm is very close to a WPC one. Ordered both WPC arm and foot. Foot was slightly different so ended up using the original stern with new arms on both sides. Just need to a couple of roll pins to finish off the slingshots.

 

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Edited by poidapoida
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My right lower flipper switch stack is fried. It’s a double one to operate the upper flipper and the rebuild kit has only a single switch. If I could get some pics of a good switch to see what blades I need to replace. The middle blade looks like it’s missing an end.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I got to the stage of plugging in the playfield earlier this week. Just went through my photos since last post and I have virtually none. Things come together pretty quickly and is a lot more satisfying at this stage.

 

So got the right lower flipper switch sorted with the above part. And got coloured incandescent bulbs for the inserts. I have heard that there are issues with LEDing Meteors/Sterns even with after market products added so went down this path.

 

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So after booting it up sounded all good, but there were under half of the feature lamps cycling through in attract mode. Can get most to work intermittently but they are very flaky. Started a game, flippers worked well, drops weren't resetting the first try most of the time, slings and pop bumper not firing. Next night I came back to it for a better look. Had a look at the drop targets and adjusted the back plate as it felt like things were a bit tight and this might be causing the targets not to reset the first time. After starting up a game the Q3 transitor on the driver board, the knocker, fried and exploded. The knocker was not connected when I got this game so maybe should have checked it out a bit more.

 

Tthe right sling coil wrong and cooked the transistor, so with the wiring unsoldered from that sling the rest of the solenoids worked. The drops were resetting well and pop bumper working. In test mode the only issue that come up was the 3 of the 6 bank memory coils weren't dropping the targets, thinking this is due to mod I did to raise the targets slightly so will pull it out and adjust.

 

The star rollovers still need a bit of work to get the inserts to move freely. Will give them another round of sanding , but feel like they might be catching on the lower part of the insert where I don't want to go near in case I break it.

 

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I have 4 main issues to sort out now.

  • The clearcoat that has got into the star rollovers
  • The knocker that has blown the transistor on the driver board
  • The right sling shot that stays locked on
  • 6 feature lamps that do not light.

My first attempt at getting the star rollovers to move freely was using emery boards to sand the clear out. Admittedly I was hesitant as I did not want to break of part of the insert at this stage, but thought I was close by using the original star rollovers I cut out of the playfield to test. I had ordered double the number of star inserts I needed in case I would I had to cut the new ones out again. So tried 2 inserts and they both jammed at the the lowest point of travel, didn’t even feel like being close to moving freely. I got a set of mini files from Jaycar, they are just under 2mm thick and just fit into the insert, that was after the initial use of the emery board

 

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Ended up using 3 of them to clean up all over the star insert, took about 5 minutes an insert and now all 3 work smoothly. Glad I got that out of the way.

 

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The knocker was disconnected when I got this pin. On second power up, and first time I started a game, its transistor at Q3 blew up on the driver board. So looking at the manual the wiring on the coil was wrong and the power(green) was not at the banded end of the diode. It was how I got but didn’t check till now. Have tested the coil and it read 11.9Ω compare to 11.5Ω from the spec sheet, so still good.

 

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Once the board is repaired, I will replace the diode and wire the coil correctly. Hopefully I am not missing anything.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

So with the issues with the knocker and right sling I have followed this guide, http://techniek.flipperwinkel.nl/bal...ex3.htm#driver, it’s been really easy to follow. The right sling was locking on, so tested the coil which was good. Replaced the diode. Checking the Q14 transistor showed the left leg was 0.61v while the right was 0.004v, so that is likely the problem. Still went on and checked the resistor and chip and they tested good.

 

I usually send my boards out to get fixed but as I had some new TIP102 so I decided to give something new a try. I set myself in my office with good lighting, instead of sitting on a Caroma stool in poorly lighted shed. Did a couple of test runs, removing and resoldering the transistors on an old Bally board I had. Got the new transistors on with no problem, reinstalled the knocker with a new diode and the correct wiring and connected the power to the right sling. Started up and put the pin in solenoid test mode all solenoids fired as they should.

 

A lot of the feature lamps on the metal lamp boards are really flaky, so I will have to replace the lamp boards with these PCBs. https://pinballreplacementparts.com/...=8373425602605 . There were 6 feature lamps that we not working at all, so check crimps on the repinned connectors. Found one bad crimp and that fixed an issue. Two SCRs tested bad, so they were replaced and those lamps now worked. So had 3 non-working lamps left, 2 on the rocket bonus boards and a stand-alone lamp for the #2 drop target bank special.

 

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Had this back playing yesterday and have adjusted and tweaked a few things and its playing really smooth. Love how it feels for a 40 year old game! Its set up at 5.8°, back legs maxed out with a couple of couple of rubber feet under both legs, but will be setting it higher. A few cosmetic things to do ti finish it off, but nothing stopping me from having a game.
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Cheers guys, I am so stoked with the finished product.

 

@Railways Thanks for your side rails, it made the pin look complete once I peeled off the protective coating.

 

@robm Did a lot of things for the first time in this restore and was really happy I gave the minor board repairs a go myself.

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Incredible result given your starting point, amazing work! Can I ask what speaker you went for? I'm looking around for a replacement for a similar Classic Stern. Was the volume dial/pot working ok for you?

 

I used this one from RS Online. It was $37 when I got it last year. I have used the original pot and it works/sounds fine. Just the volume can't get to zero, I haven't looked into that fixing that yet.

 

https://au.rs-online.com/web/p/speaker-drivers/0512796/

 

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Fantastic restoration - to look at what you started with and to get it back into pristine condition in just 3 months is outstanding. Congrats!!

 

Cheers Manny, but this one took 16 months. Started in January 2019 not 2020 :)

 

 

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Cheers Manny, but this one took 16 months. Started in January 2019 not 2020 :)

 

 

Haha doesn’t seem that long ago that I read your original post ... where the hell has the time gone??

 

Clearly needed to put my glasses on 😂

 

still it doesn’t lessen the amazing job you’ve done ... so what’s next Firepower??

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