Working on a members Batman Forever and came across some interesting hacks I thought I'd share. (these hacks were done by an Op or reseller at some point)  One is blatant, the other not so much so guess away!

Maybe others can post some hack-o-the-day pics?

D

Different flipper coils in the first one, I see they've replaced a diode on the left flipper by clipping one end and leaving the old one in place (but soldering in a new one).   The second hack, not being familiar with Batman Forwever, I am curious what it's doing, although it appears to be a brake of some sort???

Quoted from websherpa

Different flipper coils in the first one, I see they've replaced a diode on the left flipper by clipping one end and leaving the old one in place (but soldering in a new one).   The second hack, not being familiar with Batman Forwever, I am curious what it's doing, although it appears to be a brake of some sort???

Well, I don't have the manual but I am pretty sure the different flipper coils is correct.  The right one is stronger than the left because there is a left ramp that is steep and difficult to make, hence the stronger coil.  The diode is not really a hack, but more of just a lazy tech...  Any other guesses? :)

As for the second pic, this is the auto plunger.  Think about how it works and you'll understand the pic.

D

Games a piece of junk Doug, just give up and sell it to me :P

I think I can top all of that. I have pics of a wire hack in my home computer that probably took the operator 10 times longer than actually repairing it correctly.

Let's make it a contest... ;)

'nuff said.

Quoted from Subpacket

'nuff said.

Is that Bell's tech support in India?  

. . . and what's with the salt?

Bottom right, one green cable not attached.  Find where it goes.  Can't?  Eat the can of salt.

Quoted from QN

Bottom right, one green cable not attached.  Find where it goes.  Can't?  Eat the can of salt.

a)I think the salt is to throw in you eyes so you wouldn't have to look at that mess.  
b)it's to throw in your bosses eyes so he cannot see the mess and you won't get fired.  
c)it's a place to hide your stash since the person that created this must of been on something.
d)all of the above

The salt keeps the pixies away.

Quoted from Vengeance

Games a piece of junk Doug, just give up and sell it to me :P

LMAO!  It's not mine to sell...

Ok, so the flippers pic;

a)wrong coils  (these could be the equivalent DE / Stern coils though, I still have to check)
b)all the flipper links / plungers are WMS parts  (this is the hack)

Because of the WMS flipper parts, the plungers are not long enough to hit the coil stops, so the links are taking a beating. (not to mention the return spring is cutting through the plate on the pawl.

As for the other pic, the plunger bracket stop has broken clean off and someone screwed an "L" bracket to the PF and bent it over to act as the plunger stop.

Now I know these are not that serious in terms of hacks (I've seen my fair share of those), just found them amusing.

D

Quoted from Menace

a)wrong coils  (these could be the equivalent DE / Stern coils though, I still have to check)
b)all the flipper links / plungers are WMS parts  (this is the hack)

That's it? Man... I am dissapointed.

Here's mine:

I bought a classic Stern a while back on which all the wires were soldered onto the power supply board, instead of merely replacing terminal pins.

Not so rare, you say???

Well, here is the kicker...the operator probably realized then that he couldn't remove the head off of the pin at that point... hmm... what to do...

Oh yeah... I got it... cut ALL the wires a foot away from the power supply board and install an old EM-type connector!!! Yeah!!! So the guy painstaikingly soldered all the wires to two EM connectors, on top of soldering all the wires to the power board.

Brilliant.

I still haven't gotten to fixing it yet.  

I like using Williams parts in the flippers on Sega games, Learned what parts work from Pinrepair.com and since I always have Williams parts in stock, it just makes sense.

Here is the link, scroll down to "using Williams parts" and it explains what you can and cannot use.

http://www.pinrepair.com/de/index3.htm#rebuild

Dave

Quoted from pins only

I like using Williams parts in the flippers on Sega games, Learned what parts work from Pinrepair.com and since I always have Williams parts in stock, it just makes sense.

Here is the link, scroll down to "using Williams parts" and it explains what you can and cannot use.

http://www.pinrepair.com/de/index3.htm#rebuild

Dave

Thanks for the info Dave, I'll have to read up on this for sure.  What I do know is that whomever installed these Wms flipper parts either didn't read that link or they missed a couple of things.  I also like this option as WMS parts are much cheaper than DE/Sega.

D

Quoted from Menace

I also like this option as WMS parts are much cheaper than DE/Sega.
D

Steve at Pinball Resource first told me about this, he told me what parts could be substituted to both work and save money! Actually, he always said the Sega Parts were way to much money and to use Williams whenever possible. Good guy! I have to phone him tomorrow for some stuff, I always enjoy talking to both Steve and Gloria.

http://pbresource.com

Dave