Today, I finally completed the project. After having the machine split in 2 (thus unplayable) for so many months, I put the finishing touches on the front half today and joined it all back up for a game.
The first step was to remove the existing decals from both the left and right front panels. As it was, some of the decals had already come off. In some places there were chips missing from the side panels and even what look like burn marks (assuming cigarette).
I’ve often heard people talk about how important the flippers are on a pinball machine and it makes sense. It’s your primary interaction with any pinball game and if the flippers have issues, then making shots becomes difficult and it can have some negative side effects on the game play. The flippers on my Nugent are in need of some attention. While I can make any shot on the table with them, they often bounce when catching the ball. This sometimes acts as a trampoline by making the ball jump or causing the ball the bounce off in unexpected directions. I’ve seen this described as “doughy flippers” by some people.
I purchased two sets of flipper rebuild kits from a local pinball supplier here in Victoria, Australia. They only came in sets of two, so I will have a left flipper kit spare once all three flippers have been rebuilt. First step was to get the play field lifted up so I could get access to the flipper parts below the play field. I decided to start with the left flipper since it was the worst of all three.
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After doing some work on my Nugent yesterday, the game play had some scoring issues. The game would start fine, but the moment the ball was in play, I was being awarded many more points than I should have been. Further to that, certain targets failed to register and some roll overs would cause the lights to flicker.
I took the glass off, started a new game and hit each target with my finger. I narrowed the issue down to the three roll overs at the top of the play field and the static target. All other targets and roll overs were functioning fine.
I then put the game into test mode and found that switch #4 was stuck. Looking at the Nugent manual. Switch #4 was the left and right roll overs at the top of the play field. Ok, so getting somewhere.
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I just have to keep tinkering with my Nugent. Since it’s my first pinball machine and my knowledge on pinball is small, I enjoy getting under the hood and making changes. I’ve started with a number of simple things like changing the bulbs and rubbers but want to start focusing on a few other areas of the game play. I’ve purchased a flipper rebuild kit, which I plan to use shortly. Before that though, I decided I’d change the flipper buttons and shooter/plunger.
The old buttons has faded in colour and were quite dirty. They are cheap to replace, so wanted to do it.
The coin door on my Nugent isn’t too bad. It has some rust, and the bolts could do with a polish, but otherwise it’s fine. I wanted to make a few minor tweaks to it though.
I firstly gave it a good wipe down and clean, removing built up dust, gunk and what looked like the remains of a drink spill.
