This repair is on a Nip-It pinball machine made by Bally in 1972. This game is a bit harder to shop out than most. It has the fixed hinge design on the playfield that does not allow you to pull it out for service. We had to use rope to hold it up far enough to get to the lower half of the playfield, bottom side. You really have no choice but to pull the mech panel out of the machine to work on the relays. This was a real problem in the 1970's when working on-location. The playfield glass is in a metal frame that is heavy and bulky. Bally made very good playfields on this series, this one held up well. This game has the Bally "Flipper Zipper" design that pulls the flippers together, point to point, to save the ball from draining, very cool. We installed all new pop bumper caps, bodies, rings and skirts, plus new posts. Thank heaven for
The Pinball Resource for these hard to find parts. The service notes follow:
12/01/2014 12:53:25 Clean and wax playfield. Minor touch-up on backglass. Disassemble all
16 reel units, clean lube and fix 2 units. Clean/lube and adjust all
relays and steppers in the head. Remove entire mech panel from cabinet,
clean/lube and adjust every contact on every relay, stepper and motor
unit, found several problems including missing screws bent contacts and
bad connections. Replaced flipper paddles and found the left bearing
broken, replaced this hard to find part with a good pull. Clean and
lube "Flipper Zipper" assembly, was missing screws and bad connections.
12/01/2014 15:43:59 Repaired Chime/Bell assembly - center coil smoked, chime bar broken,
bell armature missing (the plunger). The rubber was falling apart on
the chime also, replaced with 5/16" rubber rings. Install blocking
plate in center coin entry, install left and right coin entry plastic
inserts with identical "1 COIN 1 PLAY". Replaced the legs, pads and leg
bolts.
12/01/2014 17:42:18
Install back door lock. Replace 2 prong power cord plug with 3 prong. Make new instruction cards. Tested.
