yoke

All posts tagged yoke

Playing pinball is fun and it’s something people of all ages can partake in and enjoy. For me, learning how the machines work and getting your hands on the parts that make the games tick take it to a whole new level. In fact I spend more time with my hands on parts than I do on the flipper buttons.

When I was working on that first machine back in January and February, I often found the process very stop-start. In part, this was due to my inexperience with pinball machines and not really being able to plan what I was actually going to need (or being aware of what was available). I kept finding myself held up while trying to source random parts. Certain screw types, nuts, plates, frames, wires, housings, bulbs, etc. Some were easy to source while others more obscure and no real part number to reference. I experienced it again (although to a lesser degree) when working on my Fireball Classic. In most cases the part (or a suitable alternative) were sourced thanks to various sellers or through wanted posts on Aussie Arcade. I decided part way through the Fireball I was going to somehow source a pile of random spare parts from different machines which would help aid me with future repairs / rebuilds.

Enter the “crap box” (or boxes now that I’ve picked up a few). I found these boxes irresistible. Like a big box filled with lucky dip prizes. Some will be cool. Others will be.. well.. crap. Who knows what I’ll score – it brings excitement 🙂 In this first example, I have a 15kg box of random parts that cost $6.60.

Pinball spare parts crap box
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One of the final parts of the play field to get some attention is the pop bumpers. The main reason I had left these for so long was due to waiting on parts arriving from the US. There were some immediate issues I noticed with the pop bumpers. Firstly, the lower of the three should have a Medusa cap and not the “1000 when lit” instructions. The “1000 when lit” and “3000 when flashing” apply to the top two bumpers. These are activated by achieving one of the two skill shots on the upper area.

Fireball classic pop bumpers
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I’m beginning to run out of things to do on the Nugent now. I’ve gotten into most corners of the machine and sorted out many issues as I’ve gone along. There are two main things left to look at – the drop targets and 3 pop bumpers. I’m going to focus on the pop bumpers and get them serviced.

Awhile ago I replaced the 3 caps on the pop bumpers (seen in an earlier post). Now it’s time to actually remove all three pop bumper assemblies to clean and service them. At this point the only real complaint I could make about the pop bumpers is sometimes they don’t activate when they should. Most likely solved by cleaning and/or adjusting the switch.

There is a bit of work to actually get them out as I found, but once I had managed to do one, the others were much easier. I decided to do one at a time. That way I had two working pop bumpers to use as reference in case I mucked up.

To begin with, I need to remove the cap and also undo two screws that sit inside pop bumper. The two screws attached the pop bumper body to the playfield. But I can’t simply lift it up as the bulb socket is soldered under the playfield and the metal ring is attached to the plunger.

Nugent pop bumper
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