Funhouse steps shooter spring strength

[paddythegreek]

The l/hand shooter spring that was on this FH when i got it wouldn't shoot the ball into the top step, let alone all the way round to trigger the steps opto. Replaced it with a red spring and this is way too strong. Half the time it also tends to jump about instead of going up the ramp
Any ideas on what colour spring it should be?

 

[MartinY]

Mine is black - not sure that helps. Feels the same as the Right Hand plunger.

 

[Jay Walker]

I've always thought that Red (10-148-2) was Williams most powerful plunger spring, the parts listing for High Speed shows it specifically on the page for playfield parts, even though it's in the cabinet.

I think the standard rating was Blue, the next down was Green, for games with a short entry shot, such as Cyclone

The two weakest ones I'm aware of are Brown (Twilight Zone?) and White (Roadshow- right side?), two of Pat's later games

For FunHouse, the manual states that both springs are 10-148-1, but ipdb has a text file 'Parts list' which details two different ball shooter assemblies, one using 10-148-1 Silver and the other -4 Green. Looking again at the manual, the drawing of the cabinet on page 1-4 shows the left shooter as B-7592-2, the one listed in the parts list as having the '148-1' (Silver, .035) spring.

 

[paddythegreek]

Update.
Having bought a few different springs off Andy, it was just the same. Finally sussed that for some reason the new playfield sits differently in situ. Filed the inverted triangle that the shooter assy sits in and it now works perfect.

 

[Grotton is red]

As I understand it, there is a design flaw on the left shooter lane in the earlier produced machines.
The centre line of the shooter is off the centre-line of the playfield groove by at least an 1/8" (3mm), and the gap just before the ball enters the left ramp is tight, (if its fitted with the correct diameter rubber bumper), which means the shooter has to be set up accurately.
The issue with springs is a delicate matter, because if the spring is too powerful you will eventually end up wrecking the top of the ramp where the ball triggers the "Super Dog" feature. Pretty sure mine are fitted with red springs on the right and green springs on the left.
I've had mine since 1989-1990 so it was pretty newish when we bought it and I'd like to think all the parts were original at the time.

 

[Durzel]

Off topic but another minor flaw with the game in that area is that if you don't fire the ball around the top for Super Dog, which you wouldn't normally do when you've got either Frenzy or Extra Ball available (or both), is that eventually the game thinks the opto is broken because it hasn't seen a ball in a long time and complains about it. A very minor gripe but credit dots give me OCD.

 

[Kenny Taylor]

Off topic but another minor flaw with the game in that area is that if you don't fire the ball around the top for Super Dog, which you wouldn't normally do when you've got either Frenzy or Extra Ball available (or both), is that eventually the game thinks the opto is broken because it hasn't seen a ball in a long time and complains about it. A very minor gripe but credit dots give me OCD.

Funnily enough. Had the same issue. Played Funhouse last nite for the first time in ages. It had a credit dot for the super dog. So cleared it by the hard plunge up the ramp.

 

[Jay Walker]

Sorry to go further off-topic, but Pat's earlier game Earthshaker is similar. A ball failing to reach the spiral entry ramp from the plunger comes through a side lane, with a switch named "On-ramp Bypass". I've never noticed any incentive whatsoever to achieve this, other than to clear the resulting Test Report/dot (which strangely only appears with the text 'Credits 0')