Check your flipper coil screws and bolts for security

[glasairpilot]

Played my new MMr about 30 games this weekend when all of the sudden the left flipper lost the ability to hit the ball with any force.  Popped up the playfield and found the coil stop bracket fell off due to the allen bolts falling completely out.  Put the assembly back together and checked the other flipper assembly and found them loose also.  Tightened everything up and it works fine now.  Other than that the only other adjustments I have made are:


1.  Bent the catapult switch arm up a bit to ensure it fires when a ball is present.  Before bending it up it would not fire about 25% of the time.
2.  Turned the flipper strength up to +2 to make better ramp shots.  I really like this feature.  My home voltage is pretty constant at 119V, but liked a little extra power.


Also replaced the cheap single cone speakers with pioneer 2-way and a Polk powered subwoofer.  The speakers make the speech MUCH more clear and the powered subwoofer really makes a difference as well.  I would encourage CGC to include the ability to adjust call out volume separate from the music volume like Stern does.  Many of the callouts could barely be heard before the speaker swap and even with the speaker swap are still not ideal.


Other than that, this is a well built machine.  I enjoy it.   

[swagger]

Played my new MMr about 30 games this weekend when all of the sudden the left flipper lost the ability to hit the ball with any force.  Popped up the playfield and found the coil stop bracket fell off due to the allen bolts falling completely out.  Put the assembly back together and checked the other flipper assembly and found them loose also.  Tightened everything up and it works fine now.  Other than that the only other adjustments I have made are:


1.  Bent the catapult switch arm up a bit to ensure it fires when a ball is present.  Before bending it up it would not fire about 25% of the time.
2.  Turned the flipper strength up to +2 to make better ramp shots.  I really like this feature.  My home voltage is pretty constant at 119V, but liked a little extra power.


Also replaced the cheap single cone speakers with pioneer 2-way and a Polk powered subwoofer.  The speakers make the speech MUCH more clear and the powered subwoofer really makes a difference as well.  I would encourage CGC to include the ability to adjust call out volume separate from the music volume like Stern does.  Many of the callouts could barely be heard before the speaker swap and even with the speaker swap are still not ideal.


Other than that, this is a well built machine.  I enjoy it.   

Thanks for those tips, my Cat seems to not detect the ball every now and then, will be adjusting the switch and will also check my coil stop brackets.

[Quadrat]

Played my new MMr about 30 games this weekend when all of the sudden the left flipper lost the ability to hit the ball with any force.  Popped up the playfield and found the coil stop bracket fell off due to the allen bolts falling completely out.  Put the assembly back together and checked the other flipper assembly and found them loose also.  Tightened everything up and it works fine now.  Other than that the only other adjustments I have made are:


1.  Bent the catapult switch arm up a bit to ensure it fires when a ball is present.  Before bending it up it would not fire about 25% of the time.
2.  Turned the flipper strength up to +2 to make better ramp shots.  I really like this feature.  My home voltage is pretty constant at 119V, but liked a little extra power.


Also replaced the cheap single cone speakers with pioneer 2-way and a Polk powered subwoofer.  The speakers make the speech MUCH more clear and the powered subwoofer really makes a difference as well.  I would encourage CGC to include the ability to adjust call out volume separate from the music volume like Stern does.  Many of the callouts could barely be heard before the speaker swap and even with the speaker swap are still not ideal.


Other than that, this is a well built machine.  I enjoy it.   

Thanks for the info, good to know

[glasairpilot]

You can get a tiny bit of adjustment when you tighten the switch in the bracket by keeping upward pressure on the switch while tightening.


When you do bend the arm up use two pair of needle nose pliers so you can make a nice bend at the hole itself as you do not want to bend it up before the hole and have the switch arm hit the bottom of the playfield. 


Fixed the problem 100%.

[Gatinho]

Also replaced the cheap single cone speakers with pioneer 2-way and a Polk powered subwoofer.

Did you wire them in series?

And if so, don't you think you'd loose some stereo-phonics?

How did you wire in the sub-woofer?

Can you provide a link to the speakers you bought?

I'm considering a speaker upgrade as well.

[glasairpilot]

Desoldered the wires from the cabinet woofer and soldered it to another pair of wires going to the powered subwoofer.  I also used heat shrink tubing to make it look nice.


As for the backbox speakers - yes, had to wire them in series to get the correct impedance.  If I am losing sound quality I cannot tell; however, I would be willing to try correct ohm speakers hooking them back up in stereo if it were to make a difference.  I do not want the full pinball kit with the unpowered subwoofer that is offered.  Open to suggestions here.


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Also, my left flipper coil stop worked loose again.  I guess I will have to use blue locktite  to keep it in place.  I made sure the lock washer was present - it was.   I had it cranked down about as hard as I could with a hex wrench.

[glasairpilot]

Also replaced the cheap single cone speakers with pioneer 2-way and a Polk powered subwoofer.

Did you wire them in series?

And if so, don't you think you'd loose some stereo-phonics?

How did you wire in the sub-woofer?

Can you provide a link to the speakers you bought?

I'm considering a speaker upgrade as well.

I posted the question on Pinside and was informed that MMr (as well as the original) is mono.  Stereo sound did not happen until Pinball2000 with RFM and SW1.  So, I think I am good to go.

[glasairpilot]

Figured out why the left flipper coil stop hex screws kept backing out and the right side did not:


1.  The right flipper screws had blue loctite on them from the factory the left side did not.
2.  The left coil sleeve was in backwards from the factory.


Inserted the sleeve correctly and put locktite on all screws.  Perfect now.

[swagger]

The exact opposite happened to me tonight. My right flipper coil stop and coil fell off while my son was playing. Took me over an hour to get it all back together, as I didn't want to remove the flipper mech and those nuts are hard to put on the underside of the mech. I put locktite on the coil stop bolts before I screwed them all back together. None was used at the factory.


If I wasn't accustomed to working on Pinballs I"d be freaking out. My game is not even 2 weeks old.

[glasairpilot]

I had my right flipper end stop fall off the other day after 6 months of play, I put it back on without loctite but will use some if it happens again, I checked the left and it seemed tight.

I upgraded my speakers with those Pioneer ones also after reading the Pinside thread, what amazes me is how much better these US$30 speakers sound and how rubbish the speakers that CGC supplied were, I wonder what they paid for them in bulk about $10 a pair? it would have been nice if they came with speakers that were up to the task already.

I have not wired up a sub yet but I'm on the lookout for one secondhand and local, so will grab one soon.

As for the Stereo question it's something I didn't think of when I wired mine up, but glad to hear that it's OK as it is.....I don't know if it would be possible to tell the difference between stereo and mono anyway with the speakers close together and the position when playing.

Yes, the speakers are a big improvement and the subwoofer will really make the sound pop.  I can't remember ever having a flipper coil fall off before it happened on MMr.  I would like to blame it on the shaker; however, the coil sleeve in backwards did not help and my other pins have a cointaker Red Tremor shaker in them that is much more violent than the MMr shaker, so I don't know.


I suppose they keep putting in cheap speakers (probably more like $5 for a pair in bulk) because pinball historically was put in noisy arcades where you really could not discern much sound quality anyway, so why put in good speakers?  Most of these machines are for home now.

A nice LE option would be factory installed Polk, Harmon, JBL, etc backbox speakers with a built-in powered cabinet subwoofer to replace the unpowered subwoofer along with a headset jack port.  It would not be hard to do and would have great sound without having to place a subwoofer below your machine.  Might add $150 to the actual cost of the machine maximum.

[wolfman1138]

Hahha.  I just got done rebuilding my left flipper too. 
Same exact scenario of the allen bolt falling out.  I never found the lock washer either, so that may also have been a contributing factor.
My "rebuild" came about because I accidentally cross threaded the lock nut and then sheared the bolt trying to disassemble it. *sigh*


It seems to be fixed now, but it was a mess.

[vyzer2]

Had my left flipper fall off as well 2 days ago.  Took a while to find the hex screws.  Right flipper was tight. Besides the upper rail not allowing a slow ball to pass through, game has been solid.

[rand]

yup had the same thing happen to me about 3 months ago ...
the one that came apart was re-installed with Loctite blue and the other got the soaked Q-Tip of Loctite blue ...better safe than sorry ..
also had issues with one of the trolls coming loose and very noticeable while in play ...think I got it tight this time ..

[brentj]

Me too, left flipper...