Diagnosing Stern Spike 2 Node Board Problems With Jaws Pinball

In this video I dive into diagnosing an error condition with a 48v node board for Stern’s Spike 2 pinball system. In this case, I have a Jaws Pro where most of the switches went out and a lot of coils stopped working. The machine says “Node 9 not found” so we’re going to take a look at what the problem is.

the fin up kicker coil was melted and shorted

The fin up kicker coil was fried and shorted.

Here is the damaged Node board 9 – there’s a driver transistor that exploded and isn’t there in the middle

corrosion on the underside of the board??

On the underside of the node board, there was a bunch of corrosion. The problem is, there’s no indication of where this came from? It’s at the top of the playfield underneath the playfield, not near any area where any cleaning solvents could lead, and I didn’t use any cleaning solvents on the playfield. It must have come this way from the factory.

Upgrading the bottom speaker on a modern Stern pinball machine

The woofers that Stern puts in their games are pretty flimsy. If you accidentally drop the playfield on them – ooops, you can dent the frame and make the speaker sound like crap. So now I have to replace this speaker but you can find far better quality replacements on Amazon that will drop right in. Here’s a quick video on how to do that without having to spend $100+

Working on a Jurassic Park pinball on location

After having this game on location for awhile, I thought I might report on what types of wear and tear and damage I’m running into, and what was wrong with the game. I think we’ve found a few “weak links” relating to parts that probably should last a little longer. Check it out:

Problems with coil stops in newer Stern games

Lately there’s been a bit of a hullabaloo (is that how it’s spelled?) regarding coil stops on newer Stern games. I had it happen to me as well, and I made a video to describe what’s happening. It appears whoever is manufacturing the coil stops for Stern has used inferior materials and they prematurely come apart. I’ve reported this to Stern and will let you all know what they are doing about it. I expect this supply issue to be resolved soon and if you encounter this problem, contact Stern support. They should be able to send out replacement coil stops.

coil stop literally fell apart. There’s a non-ferrous “washer” that separates the stop from the bracket that appears to be made of low quality alloy that disintegrates.

The next day I returned with the right parts. Here are two videos covering the repair.

https://youtu.be/rWnNejDq-uI

https://youtu.be/dtC6Sg-8tq4

damaged coil stop can also cause the plunger to mushroom and then damage coil sleeves and get stuck.

Installing a dollar bill acceptor (DBA) in a pinball machine

This is a short video demonstrating how to add a DBA (dollar bill acceptor) to a new Stern game (in this case, Jurassic Park). The older Stern games came with the cable necessary but now they’re not bundling them. I take a cable from Iron Maiden, along with a DBA I pulled from Wizard of Oz, and install it in Jurassic Park before I put the game on location.