I've made my first assessment of my Fun Land pinball machine and was at last ready to make my first parts order. I checked out Pinball Resource and Bay Area Amusements but, even though they're a little more expensive, Marco Specialties was the only resource that had everything on my list and I know from experience that they're lightning fast and highly dependable. Here's my shopping list:
- 50 #44 bulbs
- Game-specific rubber ring kit
- Game schematic
- Felt cabinet protectors (that go between the legs and body)
- A leaf switch blade
- A set of leg levelers
- New acorm post caps for the plastics
- Two keyless latch locks
- A pair of plastic flipper bats
- A bag of 100 4" cable ties
While I was waiting for the order to arrive, there were a few small things I could do. First, I disconnected the tilt mechanism.
I tried adjusting it first, but that thing is so sensitive that I ended up unscrewing the wire and disabling the whole thing. Now I can play a decent game.
Next, I set out to clean the contacts. The best tool for the job is good old fashioned US currency - the linen paper has just the right texture and weight. Just fold it up, slip it between the contacts, press them together, and pull the paper out. So how dirty were my leaf switches? Here's Abe before I started:
And here he is after cleaning all the contacts:
It's amazing what a difference clean contacts make. Bulbs that I thought were dead came back to life and features that I thought I'd have to take apart started working. Finally, it was easy enough to create new instruction cards, so I got that done too.
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