Hi all,

Thought i'd ask if all coils (flipper/bumper/slingshot etc) are all the SAME within the one machine?

I realise coil specs would be different between companies, but would they all be the same within the 1 brand? e.g. Could i pull a coil out of ANY williams pin and throw it into another williams pin without caution?
(same for Bally-to-Bally or Gottleib-to-Gottleib etc).


Also, assuming coils are unlabeled or label fell off, are there certain values of ohms that might indicate what the coil is used for? e.g. 20ohm=flipper, 40ohm=bumber etc.

Hopefully finding some standard info might help a lot of us clarify and burning coil problems when we buy semi-working machines (who knows if someone threw a bally coil into a williams before we got it?)

MM.

Marty ,

In addition the very informative replies already ,there are a few pointers that can help when exchanging coils between different brand machines

To Start with and this is only for the common coils used across all pinball's excluding flippers

Low First Digits EG: 23-800  , the 23 is used on 24 volt circuits  , 26-1200 is similar power but the 26 means it is a 48 / 50 volt circuit

A good way to remember is low first numbers = low voltage.

After you have handled quite a few coils you can tell just by looking at them basically what they are , remembering also that Thicker gauge wire is used for lower voltage coils. (23 gauge is thicker than 26 gauge.) so a 23-800 has thicker wire and is heavier than a 26-1200.
Both of these coils are pulse / short term power on coils , the coils with higher amount of windings are generally used where they are needed to stay energized for longer periods of time like ball diverters , gates, posts etc  , they also use less current so don't run as hot.
For example the old flipper coil mentioned 25-500 / 34-4500 the holding coil can pretty much stay energized all day as the resistance is quite high , while the power part of the coil 24-500 will read very low resistance and burn very quickly if left on.

For all the Gottlied coils there is a bally /stern / Williams coil that will replace it , all you need to know is the gauge , windings and approximate resistance.

As for coil sleeves , I have always found them to be a handy measure of whether the coil has been overheated or slightly burnt , If you can't remove the sleeve easily there is a good chance the coil has had a hard life , if you ever get a chance to unwind a coil that has a sleeve that wont come out you will usually find a couple of layers of burnt windings on the coil former., this coil will also be weaker than normal and often blow fuses., Unfortunately a lot these coils can look perfectly ok in appearance.


Not the same with EM's though , these mostly used Brass or Copper Sleeves that rarely ever wear out , which is lucky because some of these old coils can look completely burnt , impossible to remove sleeve and still work fine in an EM , If you were to put one of these in the same condition in a SS pin it would blow the solenoid driver almost instantly, so as a rule EM's are generally a lot more forgiving with out of tolerance coils.