Diagnosing and fixing stuck flippers (on a Gottlieb System 80 and other machines)

I got a new pinball machine in the other day and one of the flippers was sticking up. In this video series I go over examining what was wrong and how to address it. There are a number of causes for stuck flippers. The most common cause is a dirty or worn coil sleeve. Also sometimes there can be a hang up with the EOS (end of stroke) switch (more common on Bally/WMS than older Bally or Gottlieb games).

1963 Gottlieb “Slick Check” – Flipper Maintenance

People were complaining that one of the flippers in our Gottlieb “Slick Chick” was not working properly. The metal was fatigued on the assembly and the switch contacts were well worn, so I’ve ordered new switches and am showing how to remove and replace the flipper switches and make your flippers perform much better.

First Look: 1968 Gottlieb Target Pool – looking over a new game before turning it on

This is a first look at a 1968 Gottlieb wedgehead electro-mechanical pinball machine “Target Pool”. I unloaded it and what you see is what I see in real time as I take a look at the machine and what needs to be done with it. This video goes over a few things that I typically do before I even try to turn a game on.

Securing and adjusting stand-up targets and their leaf switches

On many games such as this Theater of Magic, there are stand-up targets in the middle of the playfield that take a constant beating from the ball. The switch blades in these targets, as well as the entire assembly will often get bent out of position and stop registering. I demonstrate how to use a simple tool to fix the leaf switch blades and put them back into position, as well as some other techniques for making sure the targets are solidly-attached to the playfield.

Stand-up targets have changed very little over the decades so this technique works on both old and new pinball machines.

First Look: Williams “Flash” and Gottlieb “Grand Slam”

Here is a quick video of two new machines that are in the shop to be brought back to 100%. Usually I run across games that are not this nice. This was a pleasant surprise. Take a look along with me as I examine the games after unloading them.

First Look: Gottlieb Target Pool and adjusting stepper units

I’ve been on the lookout for more 60s-era Gottliebs with the small flippers. We don’t have hardly any in the collection and after hearing Bowen Kerins say “Target Pool” was his favorite game from the 60s, I knew I’d made the right choice in picking this machine up. Unfortunately, I never turned it on or checked it out electrically/operationally before I bought it. But I could see the game was complete and the seller said it did work. This was one of those times where I knew I was going to get it any way. So here’s the first look so far, a playlist of 3 video clips covering the initial examination of the game, and finding out what’s wrong and fixing some issues. This is a good example of how to fix certain problems with stepper units.

If you watched the previous story on the Target Pool you may see the same first-two videos. I am keeping them all together in case someone sees this story by itself. If you’ve watched some of the videos in the series before, just hit next on the player to skip to the next video.

Changing Ball Settings On Gottlieb EM Pinball Games

I’m slowly catching up on the maintenance of various games and working my way down the EM row. One thing I wanted to do was switch one of the games from 5-ball to 3-ball. I feel some of these games are a little long on 5-ball and since they’re on free-play and there’s dozens of other games around, a shorter game time is recommended. In the video below I go over how to make changes to game settings on EMs like this…