Pinball

Documenting my adventures into pinball repair and restoration

With the lower play field given an initial clean and service, it is time to go over the middle area. The main feature of the middle play field area is a central “spinner” (or spinning disk) which rotates constantly during gameplay. It’s covered with a rubber pad used to grip the ball and fling it off (….like a fireball). I won’t be servicing this for now, but will return to it at a later date. The spinner works fine, but really could do with a service.

I will be removing the rest of the mylar up to the pop bumpers, along with servicing the rest of the play field components in that area.

The mylar in the middle section was not as bad as in the lower. But just as with the lower section, someone has attempted to remove parts of it, while leaving the goo and not really doing the best job.

Both sides contain one plastic each, along with some switches, mini mushroom bumpers and a saucer to trap a ball in. The right side also contains a gate which can allow the ball to either return to the shooter lane, or back into play.

(note I had removed the small mushroom bumper on the right side before the starting photo was taken).

Fireball mid play field left
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Time for another installment on the progress so far.

This time, I’ll be focusing on the lower play field. I’m working my way up the play field – from the apron (which I covered in previous posts, all the way up tp tje top). This allows me to focus on specific areas and assemblies and then test them once they have been serviced. It also helps stop feeling overwhelmed with everything still to do.

The lower play field is quite dirty. Mylar covers some sections, while others either have chunks taken out of it (or it was removed by a previous owner). When it was removed you can see some damage that was done to multiplier and bonus inserts 🙁

I needed to service the slingshots, so figured that while I was doing that, I could also remove the remaining mylar and give the play field a much needed clean. Before I’m done with the machine I plan to give the play field a solid wax too. Doing the play field in stages will mean more work in the future as I’ll have to remove everything to clean and wax it, but I’ll live with that.

Fireball lower playfield
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My Fireball machine came with 1 orange button and 1 yellow button. Both very old and dirty, so needed to be replaced. I wanted to swap them out with new red buttons (to match the red credit lamp and red t-moulding). Brand new flipper switches were installed, along with the buttons. I had a bit of an issue tracking down the correct size buttons.

Fireball classic buttons
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Still working my way through the assemblies located under the apron. This time I’ll be focusing on the ball trough and ball eject assemblies. I also need to sort out an issue with the ball trough where the ball bounces back down into the drain hole.

First up though, time to pull the ball trough apart and give it a really good clean. Even at a first glance, you can see how much dirt has built up.

Fireball ball trough

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