Pinball Cleaning Tips
by Johnathan Deitch
e-mail: litz@bellsouth.net
This is a set of tips for making your pinball clean, fast, and
healthy.
First, you need to clean the machine ... here's how:
1. Remove the glass and as many ramps and habitrails as possible. If
you are going to do a major cleaning, also remove any
mini-playfields (ala powerfield on TZ or Path of Adventure on IJ)
or other plastics / playfield parts that may get in your way. Make
sure you unplug the miniplayfield or any other lights and switches
from their wiring harnesses (turn the power off first!) before
removing any restraining screws.
2. Remove all the pinballs from the game. Make sure you check for
balls in various lock mechanisms or traps (Swamp on TAF, Lock on
TZ, Idol on IJ). Cycling the power or switching into then out of
test mode will usually clear the playfield of missing pinballs.
3. Check the entire playfield surface for burned out bulbs (use the
Test mode to activate all the lamps or cycle through them one at a
time) and replace any burned out bulbs. Also remember to check the
flashlamps. Now check for hidden G.I. lights that may be burned
out. These will usually lurk under some hard to get to piece of
playfield plastic. Replace as needed. Remember to make a note of
any lamps burned out that reside under the playfield as you will
need to replace them when you raise the playfield.
4. Double check that you got all the burnt out light bulbs -- some
may have been just 'loose'. Raising and lowering the playfield
will reseat the sockets. Replace any suspect bulbs (so you don't
have to come back after them later).
5. Raise the playfield and check for any loose screws. Any nut or
screw laying in the cabinet body has to have come from somewhere
... loose screws and bolts mean loose game pieces. Loose solenoids
will bind and burn out. Tighten all the solenoids. If you can't
find where a screw comes from, check for loose things above the
playfield ... it is not unheard of for screws or nuts to work
loose from playfield features (Indy's Path of Adventure, for
instance) and fall through playfield wiring holes or switch
cutouts to the cabinet floor. If a tunnel isn't working it is
likely a screw, nut, or something else has fallen into the tunnel.
As an example, broken electric chair light bulbs on The Addam's
Family tend to fall into the swamp tunnel.
6. Lower the playfield and remove all rubbers (including flipper
rubbers) and clean with Wildcat RC-88. If they do not clean well
or are worn, then replace them. Clean the flipper paddles
themselves with rubber cleaner (this will get the rubber gunk
off). If the game has a manual plunger, be sure to check the
plunger tip for wear. Don't forget to rotate the flipper rubber
when you reinstall it so the worn spot at the tip is on the
backside of the flipper, providing fresh rubber for the tip.
7. If the playfield is Mylared or Diamondplated (ie: virtually any
game within the last five years), use Novus #2 plastic polish. If
the playfield is bare paint, use Wildcat 125 or Mills Wax. Use a
soft cotton rag or towel to spread the polish thinly and evenly
over the whole playfield. Novus may be used on plastic ramps, but
not Wildcat 125 -- Wildcat will damage ramp plastics!. After it
dries, buff it off. Make sure you get it all as the liquid will
seep under metal rails, into screwholes, etc. Be sure to get down
the inlanes, outlanes and into the drain area. Take extra care
around any jet bumpers as these are high traffic areas. This is
like car wax -- the more you buff, the slicker the surface. Don't
skimp here ... this will be your polished playing surface.
8. On Diamonplate playfields, an optional final coating of Novus #1
may be applied at this point -- this will cover any fine scratches
the #2 may have missed.
9. On other playfields, an optional final coating of Mills Wax may be
applied at this point -- this will cover the playfield with a
protective wax coating.
10. Use diluted glass cleaner to clean each ball. Check each ball for
damage and wear. Damaged or worn balls should be replaced as they
will damage the playfield. Note that special balls such as
Twilight Zone's power ball will almost always look dirty -- the
trick here is to check the surface to see if it looks smooth and
polished. Any scratches, pits, gouges, or scrapes indicate a
damaged and worn ball that needs replacing. Don't gamble on your
playfield's life -- if the ball looks scratched, dull, or is
damaged, then replace it. New pinballs are only $1.25 or
thereabouts ...
11. Reassemble the playfield making certain that playfield parts with
solenoid shafts sticking through them (ie: the back ramp on IJ
with the ball stopper shaft sticking through it and ball diverter
shafts) don't bind. Use a dry cloth to wipe down any fingerprints
you may leave on the playfield as the oil from your fingers will
attract grime. Be sure to make sure each and every post, nut, and
screw is tight and secure. Loose things will come loose and mess
things up.
12. Reinstall the balls and play a test game. After checking ball
travel, grab the ball and try each ramp, specialty item, and tunnel
for proper operation. If you rack up too many points in doing so,
be sure to slam tilt prior to the third ball to avoid messing up
game statistics.
13. Clean both sides of the playfield glass, reinstall the glass and
lockdown bar and you're done !!
Preventative Maintenance : any of the following should be performed as
needed depending on machine use.
* Remove the flipper solenoids and wipe down the flipper shafts and
check the shafts and sleeves for wear. Replace as needed. Wipe the
solenoid down and reinstall. Check the E.O.S. switch and rubber
for wear and replace as needed. The flipper should move smoothly
without any kind of resistance other than the spring. Any
resistance felt should be investigated and corrected as it
indicates something is binding somewhere. Fix it before you have
to replace it.
* Check near the flippers for things coated in flipper dust. This
includes playfield inlays, light bulbs, and just about anything
else within 10 inches or so of the flipper solenoids. Make sure
you check near every flipper. Wipedown anything badly coated. Use
a Q-TIP and Windex on the inlays to prevent scratching the
plastic. Note that a coating of flipper dust on bulbs and inlays
will make them very dim ... just wiping the bulbs and inlays will
often restore an impressive amount of brightness to a dark, dim
game. Replace any blackened/burnt out light bulbs and flashlamps.
Flipper dust creates heat, is conductive (ie: short circuit) and
is generally not good.
Hints :
* Use a small plastic bucket to keep loose hardware or (even better)
reinstall nuts and screws back in their holes/posts after removing
whatever they were fastening. This will help you avoid the
"where'd this screw go?" syndrome.
* Use soft cloth -- standard industrial paper towels will scratch
most playfields. Rag on a Roll (or ROAR) or chamois cloth work
fine.
* Be sure to rotate flipper rubbers to keep the flipper tips from
wearing thin.
* Check the leveling on your game often -- well used games will wear
down carpet and shift on floors causing changes in the leveling.
Even a slight slant left- right can cause big problems, especially
on modern games like No Fear and Theatre of Magic.
* Flaky Opto switches are often caused by one of two things : dirty
optics and loose wires. For the former, use glass cleaner and a
Q-TIP to clean the emitter and detector. For the latter, heat the
solder joints to correct any small cracks and reattach any broken
wires. If in doubt as to where a wire goes, do not attempt to
figure it out unless you know what you are doing -- hooking up a
12 volt detector source to a 5 volt emitter supply will blow the
emitter and you will have to replace it.
* Never use cleaning spray or compressed air on an opto-switch.
These blow cold air (frigid air if the can uses freon) that can
and will damage sensitive opto switches.
* Keep any eye out for delicate playfield parts. For an example, it
is really easy to damage the Powerfield switches on Twilight
Zone's mini playfield while removing the rubbers for cleaning.
* Make sure you reattach anything you remove from the playfield
exactlyas like you removed it -- some games, like Twilight Zone,
have idential plugs on some of their parts (ie: TZ's powerfield
coil and opto plugs) ! Reversing these when reinstalling can cause
MAJOR damage !
* Make sure you don't bend slingshot switches when removing
slingshot rubbers for cleaning or replacement.
* Never use anything other than a leaf switch adjustment tool to
adjust a switch. Bending it with your fingers is just asking to
have to replace the switch down the road.
* Pay close attention to your game's diagnostics -- Williams/Bally
games especially are very good about reporting game malfunctions
and bad switches. Watch for a "." after the credits number as this
indicates a problem the game wants you to check out. Note that
some recent games have permanent problems -- prototype TZ and
Judge Dredd machines had a nonexistant switch marked as bad. This
is generally not the case, however, with production machines (or
even prototypes with production ROMs). Note also that sometimes a
switch can be marked as bad but is still good if nobody has hit
the switch recently. A perfect example is BigFoot Bluff on White
Water.
* Finally, play your game often ... a sudden difference in gameplay
will alert you that something has gone wrong -- this is often the
best way to find a problem with your game. Your game sense is
usually sharper than the game's diagnostics.
Editted by Jonathan Deitch
