Nugent – Stern (1978)

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.

Old nugent buttons
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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.

Coin door
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The pop cap bumpers on my Nugent have been there for a long time. In the middle, right above where the light sits, each cap has experienced some melting. The colours have also started to fade over the years. Replacing them was only going to cost $20, so I decided to do it.

Old Nugent Pop Bumper caps
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I performed some minor changes to the playfield today. The original Nugent machines came with solid red lane guides at the top of the playfield. They look OK, but are a little dull. When looking around at various pinball spare parts shops I spied a few transparent red guides that would look awesome, so I purchased them. Replacing them is as simple as removing two screws.

This is how the original red guards look:
Nugent playfield lane guides
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One of the first things I wanted to when I got the machine was have a look at the game board and power wiring. Most of this lives behind the backglass. There is a lock on the top right of the machine. Sadly this lock came with no key, and I could not locate one inside the machine. Looking at the lock, it appeared that the previous owner had also misplaced the keys as the lock itself looked like it had been attacked with a screwdriver. Using a screwdriver myself, I undid the lock.

With the lock undone, I could then slide the actual backglass up and out to reveal the bulbs, score displays and door containing the components.

The lock itself controls a long metal rail that runs across the top of the backglass. With the lock engaged, the backglass cannot be moved. With the lock open, it removes the metal rail, allowing the backglass to be slid up and out.

backglass lock
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