Flipper "bounce" on Fathom and Paragon - any ideas pls?

[DRD]

I find that the flipper hold coils are relatively weak on these two Bally ss games. Initially i though it was just fathom, but i have spotted paragon does it too. So if the flipper bat is up, and the ball rolls down the centre of the playfield so it hits it at speed near the tip, the flipper does a weak "reflip" or bounce

I have cleaned the leaf switches, cabinet switches, checked coils. All seems fine. I was told that you need a good gap on the coil eos switch so that this reflipping is avoided. It may be just a limitation on these old bally games as the hold coils are just designed poorly and are too weak to hold properly ?.

My Vector does not do it (so i thought i might have a problem on paragon and fathom) but thecramped playfield means that balls do not run down and strike the flipper tips as fast as on paragon or fathom. The mini flippers on paragon and vector are too short to display this problem as the ball causes less rotational force on the flipper

I just wonder if I am low on power here, or have a power fault, so the hold coil is not getting enough volts or current ?

Checking all 4 flipper coils on paragon in turn, when the flipper button is untouched, all three coil lugs return a range between 47.1 and 47.5 volts. This seems ok to me.

With the flipper button depressed, so the flipper is being held up, the range i am getting results on each coil like

Lug 1 0.2v
Lug 2 0.9v
Lug 3 46.9v

Do i have a fault here, or is this how the games are pls ?

Thanks

 

[Spandangler]

My paragon used to do it too. I was told it was eos related but never got round to sorting or before I sold it

 

[carl lawrence]

most likely 100% wrong ,but coils become weak after time ,and the games are over 30years old ,putt a new one in and see what happens !

 

[Moonraker]

most likely 100% wrong ,but coils become weak after time ,and the games are over 30years old ,putt a new one in and see what happens !

Agreed, I'd also add new EOS leaf switches...

 

[*paulb*]

Pretty sure the 1 year old Fathom I played back in the day did this to some degree. Usually it's not fast enough to lose control of the ball, unless it bounces up and triggers a slingshot. If you see the ball heading for the flipper tip at speed you can try to re-flip as the ball hits to stop the bounce - kind of a reverse of a drop catch. I'd be interested to know if opening up the EOS gap helps with this.

 

[DAD]

This is common to Bally games of the eight ball deluxe era.
I had it on my Centaur and was told by Phil Dixon (thanks Phil) who is an expert on these games that it was due to wear on the nylon part of the flipper plunger
I got a rebuild kit with new plunger links and the problem was cured completely and the flippers were stronger than ever.

 

[stoptap]

Also make sure that you have a bit of leeway in how your EOS switch is set. If it opens right at the very last upward stroke of the flipper this can be a problem too. Adjust it so that it opens a little earlier.