Firepower!

[dtown8532]

Before I go to sleep I thought I'd post some before pics of my Firepower which I picked up today at Pinfest in Allentown. The seller wanted $700.00 and I managed to get him down to $550.00 before rolling it out to the truck. This is my third pin that I've owned after a T2 and Sorcerer (something about Ritchie pins that draw me) and certainly the oldest. I have to get some parts for it and do a little rebuild to the power supply. I checked all my fuses tonight and I only need one, a quarter amp where someone put a four, sheesh!. The old !@#$%^& forty pin connector gonna need to be serviced too. All in all the playfield is in pretty nice shape considering most of these are beat to death. Just a little wear at each of the slings and outside the top kickout. The seller told me it was in an older couple's basement for the last twenty or so years and hasn't been played in all that time. I have to admit, the boards are really nice (the connectors are actually white) as is the the underbelly. Just needs cleaning as I can tell so far. I'm gonna take my time (as I usually do) with this baby. I spent over an hour tonight disassembling and cleaning the lockdown bar (always filthy) and plunger so that will give you an idea of the time these things suck if you've never done it before.

I did pickup an LED kit from Cointaker since they're cheaper at the show than online. Can't wait to see what these baby's look like in here. Well, gotta order some stuff, then it's off to bed.


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[dtown8532]

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Look at how clean those fricken' boards are!

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[dtown8532]

Can you believe that battery holder??? No corrosion!!!


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[netizen]

That looks like a really, really nice machine. Congrats.

When you get it set up, can you post some pics and say what the differences in play are like when the right side post over the put lane is in it's different positions?

For reference I am talking about part #42 on this rulesheet.

 

[Kolchak357]

Congrats dtown! Excellent table to own. I looked for you yesterday but as you know, I didn't see you. It is pretty tough to find someone in there. I'm going back today with my wife. I assume you'll be home with you new pin having fun. Enjoy sir!

 

[dtown8532]

Thanks. Actually, my dad took off work and came with me on Friday since he had something going on Saturday. Is was nice because it's much easier to get a pin into his pickup than my Forester. I've done it before but it's really close. I ordered parts last night, so until they come I'll work on cleaning up the inside of the cabinet. It's got a little bit of a besement smell that's shouldn't be too tough to get rid of.

Going Saturday? If you thought Friday was busy, wait to you see Saturday. . I did take some pics of the show which I'll post on the Pinfest thread then.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Congrats man!

 

[Kolchak357]

Thanks. Actually, my dad took off work and came with me on Friday since he had something going on Saturday. Is was nice because it's much easier to get a pin into his pickup than my Forester. I've done it before but it's really close. I ordered parts last night, so until they come I'll work on cleaning up the inside of the cabinet. It's got a little bit of a besement smell that's shouldn't be too tough to get rid of.

Going Saturday? If you thought Friday was busy, wait to you see Saturday. . I did take some pics of the show which I'll post on the Pinfest thread then.

You were not kidding. It was very busy today. My wife was really enjoying playing too. We ended up playing for 7 hours straight. My wife took some pics. I will also post them on the pinfest thread. Can't wait to see your new Firepower with LEDs in it. Should look cool.

 

[shutyertrap]

I just bought one of these today!

Picked mine up for $500, it's my first pin. Have no idea what I've gotten myself into...

 

[karl]

Congrats to both of you. Well done!

 

[shutyertrap]

Yep, you're right...my sound board is way different! I don't have any extra slots on mine either for the speech chips. Might need a whole new board if I want some vocals on mine.

 

[shutyertrap]

Hey, can you take a pic of the left inlane/outlane support post? I think my metal lane might have busted at the tip, which is why I have a post with rubber on it. Trying to determine exactly what the screw/sleeve is supposed to look like. The list of little chotchkys I need keeps growing...

 

[dtown8532]

Sure. It's nothing more than a half inch metal sleeve with a 3/4" or 1" screw in it.


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[dtown8532]

It's been a little over a week now so here's an update on what I've accomplished so far.

- Basic cleaning of inside and outside of cabinet
- Removal of all display boards and backbox lighting. Everything cleaned and reinstalled and LED's from Cointaker installed.
- Removal of coin door assembly. Everything cleaned and reinstalled. Grounding braid re-soldered to coin door. Was broken off.
- Ball tilt mechanism exhibited some surface rust. Removed assembly and ball. Cleaned with Never Dull and reinstalled.
- Following coil assemblies removed, cleaned and reinstalled with either new or cleaned sleeves: Four Pop Bumpers, replay knocker and flippers. Left flipper exhibited tightness when removing old sleeve and reinstalling new one. Postings on Pinside indicate this can be typical on Williams flipper coils but may be burnt out. Will have to watch this coil when booting up. Thin weather stripping placed on flipper linkage backstop to reduce impact.
- Following switches have been cleaned: Six center targets, flipper EOS and lane change, flipper buttons, start button, four pop bumpers.
- Six center targets removed, cleaned, single white target painted red to match others, Fire Power Decals re-glued. Small pieces of weather stripping applied to rear of targets to reduce impact. Will monitor switch contacts to make sure they are close enough during play.
- All center target plastics removed and cleaned. Right target printed plastic was broken and re-glued. Used very thin super glue. Looks good. Will attempt to flatten with hair dryer but should have done this prior to gluing the broken piece back on.
- Flipper buttons and start button removed, cleaned and reinstalled.
- Shooter mechanism removed, cleaned and reinstalled.
- Almost all 44's have been removed. All will be replaced with LED's or 47's possibly in GI areas that I believe LED's may not work well.
- Center bonus light strip removed and cleaned along with under playfield inserts. Under playfield inserts cleaned: Shoot Again, Bonus Strip, Six Center Targets.
- All arrow shaped inserts exhibited some raising at their tips. Hair dryer under playfield and pushing with fingers was able to almost fully fix this problem. Some very very slight raising still present. May work on this again or leave it. Not crazy about pounding on the playfield with a hammer and block.
- Four pop bumpers disassembled to inner light housing and skirt. 44's were difficult to remove due to oxidization. Rubber grip like used to open jars proved helpful. LED's installed.
- Old power cord removed and new one purchased. Old cord had end chewed off at one point. Seller had rigged a new end that was crude looking. Attempted to install new power cord but my old cheap 25 watt Weller Iron proved insufficient to the task. Had enough and Weller Soldering Station with temp. control purchased through amazon.com.
- All fuses have been checked and correct Amp ratings installed.
- Flippers removed along with bushings and cleaned.
- Speaker removed, cleaned and reinstalled correctly.
- Shooter lane to playfield gate wireform missing. Could not find appropriate replacement online anywhere. Formed a paperclip to fit. Looks like it'll do the job. We'll see once it starts taking abuse during play.
- Lock down bar assembly removed, cleaned and reinstalled.
- One coat of Novus has been applied to area behind center targets including four pop bumpers. Pop bumper under skirts cleaned with Novus and off brand q-tips till they were no longer black.
- Orders placed and received - new legs, rubber set, fuses, Clear plastic fender washers (gonna try them out instead of metal ones), sleeves, Testor's enamel paints paints to match the small amount of touch up the needs to be done to playfield, top lane guides to replace either broken or cracked ones. P/S Filter cap set was ordered from Big Daddy Enterprises but was not received with the rest of my order. Email sent and acknowledged and was told a replacement will be sent. Did not really want to order from them but couldn't find these cap sets in stock anywhere else. Will be cautious with ordering from them in the future.

Well. That's all for now. I'll get back to it next weekend when the real world grants me some free time.

 

[shutyertrap]

Going to town on it!

Quite the list. Keep it up!

 

[dtown8532]

Some minor updates.

- Rebuilt power supply with new filter caps
- Installed fuse protection mod to the two bridge rectifiers
- Installed remote battery holder
- All boards removed and cleaned
- New power cord installed
- Head reinstalled and game powered on with connectors removed from power supply to test. Voltages are correct.
- All boards connected and game powered on. Unfortunately, it will not leave audit mode even with the on/off flicking trick. Appears that issue may be with the 5101 RAM that has been known to cause tons of issues with tables of this era. New chip ordered from Marcos. This will be my first attempt at chip removal and installation. Ugh. 22 pins in such a small area. Pray for me.

PS. New Weller soldering station is the bomb. Screw that little orange iron.
PPS. Made a donation to Clay Harrel (guy from TOPcast) and joined pinballninja.com. Best money ever spent. Over 700 fixes listed to tons of different tables. All with pics and some with video. Fantastic.

 

[George Klepacz]

Congrats on your purchase! I want this one myself. I looked at one last week, but the price was too high. Looking at a different machine tonight.

Keep up with the updates!

 

[dtown8532]

Minor (but major) update tonight. Installed new 5101 RAM. Changing out logic chips are a b1tch. Game is working. Put it though it's paces with switches, coils, multiball, etc. Everything working except spinner is not responding. Will look into that later. Probably a dirty or bent switch contact. Ultimately, very happy. Now, back to removing each coil for cleaning. YAY! Then back to the playfield for more cleaning. Double YAY!

 

[dtown8532]

Whew! Underside of playfield is done. All coil assemblies have been removed, cleaned and reinstalled. All switches have been cleaned and adjusted where needed. All inserts have been cleaned. All under playfield light sockets have been cleaned. All under playfield LED's have been installed. Now, on to the top. Everything below the flippers has been removed and cleaned. I should have took a before photo but the area under the apron is typically one of the dirtiest on a pinball machine. Anyway, check out the photo below. Cleaned with Novus 2 and coat of Meguiar's Carnauba Wax applied. Note I did clean the initial pile of dirt with Windex on some paper towel because it was pretty thick.


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[SKILL_SHOT]

coming along nicely yeah under the apron is night and day after cleaning. wheres the playfield #?