An extremely unusual flipper issue on AFM

[MadMonzer]

I was opening up the machine to troubleshoot a flipper issue, and as I raised the playfield I heard the soft thump of something fallling in the cab. Thinking I had removed one too few pinballs, I blithely carried on looking at the flipper, which looked like it had a weak spring. Then I realised the full horror of the situation. The flipper coil was not in the right place, because the coil stop (which supports the weight of the coil when the playfield is up) was missing.

Looking down into the cabinet, I saw:

Yes - the flipper base plate had cracked (presumably due to metal fatigue) and the bit holding on the coil stop had fallen off the playfield.

Has anyone else seen anything like this?

 

[kevlar]

This had happened to the Shadow I bought years ago to the ramp diverter coil base plates. Coils held on with cable ties!

 

[Sgt GrizZ]

Yeah. Fatigue - probably been on there for decades.

 

[drhex]

Yes, not very often but happens. Fatigue as you suspected. Did this machine live in an arcade?

 

[VeeMonroe]

Yes, not very often but happens. Fatigue as you suspected. Did this machine live in an arcade?

No idea about the history. It's got a very faded cab, but a relatively good playfield - so, not played much but kept somewhere sunny.

 

[Pick Holder]

You do not moan (well you do a little) when you replace a clutch in a car.
This is a similair thing.
They do go - not often but they do fail.
AFM is a great game!

 

[VeeMonroe]

You do not moan (well you do a little) when you replace a clutch in a car.
This is a similair thing.
They do go - not often but they do fail.
AFM is a great game!

It wasn't a moan. More of a boggle reaction. @MadMonzer found it a bit of a surprise.

Unfortunately, we don't know enough about car maintenance to make a good comparison, but certainly not the clutch (which I think is a common thing to go in relatively unsurprising ways).

 

[drhex]

Have seen this twice in the couple hundred machines I have sold/serviced over the years. Pretty rare as far as I can say. Screws do fail more often and a lot of the welded assemblies go bust relatively quickly. Remember, these machines were built to last two years in an arcade environment and then trashed - surprisingly robust all in all.

 

[VeeMonroe]

Have seen this twice in the couple hundred machines I have sold/serviced over the years. Pretty rare as far as I can say. Screws do fail more often and a lot of the welded assemblies go bust relatively quickly. Remember, these machines were built to last two years in an arcade environment and then trashed - surprisingly robust all in all.

Yeah, that's basically it. We weren't exactly surprised by a Bally-Williams-era pinball machine breaking down - this isn't an uncommon occurrence in our house. The surprise was the whole assembly snapped from metal fatigue. That's like the first thing going in a car being the cylinder head!

 

[AlanJ]

If you think about it logically, the weakest link failed. the coil stop and it’s screws were stronger than the base plate. maybe that’s why stern fit soft as butter coil stops to their new games

 

[carl lawrence]

Not seen a flipper bracket brake before ,but not really surprised. I have lost count how many pop bumper brackets I have seen broke and also been welded back together again !

 

[broomstick]

I had exactly same on a shadow flipper

 

[Jay Walker]

I saw a few failures like that, and caught a few more while they were still hairline cracks (these were sometimes refitted when games were sold on, it depended on my mood and the buyer).

One that may have been a special case was the upper left flipper on an F-14. Placed above a powerful eject kicker, if the flipper was raised when the kicker fired, the ball could've hit the underside of the flipper, putting more load on it.

Similarly with jet bumpers, Riverboat Gambler seemed to be a game where cheaper brackets may have been used. A service call needed all three brackets replaced; one had broken, and the others would've followed very soon. Okay, it had them hemmed in by rubber bands, and I'd tweaked them for sensitivity, but the older brackets I put on (possibly from a Firepower) held up alright.