flipper performance

[pinball god]

I don't know if this has been covered before or in any detailed list of things that can effect flipper performance. The first one I am listing solved a problem of a weakish flipper on my RFM. You had to hit the ball just at the right moment to have a chance of making the middle flap ramp. I tried lots of things.

The solution was the spacing between the flipper bat and flipper bushing. The gap was non existent and I'm guessing caused too much drag on the flipper bat. I undid the flipper shaft raised it a little so that I could slide that flipper gauge tool between the bat and bushing and problem solved. making the ramp shot has a much larger sweet spot on the flipper.

Obviously there are other causes like the wrong coil installed, EOS spacing not right, mechanical binding, but the above eluded me.

Are there other causes worth listing for myself and others to make note of?

[Crashramp]

Great topic, I've just done 5 rebuilds and while there easy to to, they can be a little tricky to get right. As you say the nylon on the pawl need to have a slight gap so that it doesn't bind. The plunger also needs to be correctly aligned with in the brackets. 1mm makes all the difference here. Another thing that can slow responsiveness is dirty contacts on the flipper button switches.

[pinnies4me]

Yes, very worthwhile topic. One thing when doing a playfield swap (especially repros), and maybe even when changing the base plate. Often these are dimpled for the screw holes on repros. My advice is to ignore the dimples, and instal the bush/flipper base and make your own marks for holes because if the placement is off, the bush can end up forced along one side, and slightly warped. This was enough to give me problems with a Funhouse swap a few years back, took a while to diagnose.

[pinball god]

Yes, very worthwhile topic. One thing when doing a playfield swap (especially repros), and maybe even when changing the base plate. Often these are dimpled for the screw holes on repros. My advice is to ignore the dimples, and instal the bush/flipper base and make your own marks for holes because if the placement is off, the bush can end up forced along one side, and slightly warped. This was enough to give me problems with a Funhouse swap a few years back, took a while to diagnose.

Good point i dunno if i have the same problem with my fh swap but will look out for this in the future. I may have ignored the dimples because my flippers seem ok i think

[beaky]

8 out of 10 flipper rebuilds i do need new bushes, if the hole in the bushes are oval due to wear then even with a flipper rebuild kit won't get your flippers running %100 (some kits don't include bushes)
Also your flipper optos must be %100. I have come across many flipper coils running hot and week due to weak or faulty optos.
last make sure all the pins on the flipper board connectors are clean and not pitted.

[pinball god]

8 out of 10 flipper rebuilds i do need new bushes, if the hole in the bushes are oval due to wear then even with a flipper rebuild kit won't get your flippers running %100 (some kits don't include bushes)
Also your flipper optos must be %100. I have come across many flipper coils running hot and week due to weak or faulty optos.
last make sure all the pins on the flipper board connectors are clean and not pitted.

Now theres somewhere i've never considered

[robm]

Yep agree with beaky. I reckon its very dodgy that rebuild kits dont include bushes. These are far more important than new eos switches in a kit!

[goodolddays]

Yep agree with beaky. I reckon its very dodgy that rebuild kits dont include bushes. These are far more important than new eos switches in a kit!

Complete agree . I always replace bushes when rebuilding flippers .

[TUF-427]

Here's one from left of field the BSD I picked up recently had poorly performing flipper so I put a kit thru them both including bushes.
All good now and unfortunatly too good!
Ball will rim ride the left ramp and falls off the wire when diverted.
This is even with the genuine shorter flipper bats.
Would effectively smash the game to pieces if played in this state..
A quick check of the manual revealed the problem,

Coils are 11629s the strongest parallel coil I think,

Should be 15411s  orange label...

[pinball god]

Here's one from left of field the BSD I picked up recently had poorly performing flipper so I put a kit thru them both including bushes.
All good now and unfortunatly too good!
Ball will rim ride the left ramp and falls off the wire when diverted.
This is even with the genuine shorter flipper bats.
Would effectively smash the game to pieces if played in this state..
A quick check of the manual revealed the problem,

Coils are 11629s the strongest parallel coil I think,

Should be 15411s  orange label...

yep have seen stuff like this before. I guess ops figure to make a weak flipper stronger is to up the coil