Pinball Cleaning Tips
by Johnathan Deitch
e-mail: litz@bellsouth.net

This is a set of tips for making your pinball clean, fast, and healthy. First, you need to clean the machine ... here's how:

1. Remove the glass and as many ramps and habitrails as possible. If you are going to do a major cleaning, also remove any mini-playfields (ala powerfield on TZ or Path of Adventure on IJ) or other plastics / playfield parts that may get in your way. Make sure you unplug the miniplayfield or any other lights and switches from their wiring harnesses (turn the power off first!) before removing any restraining screws.

2. Remove all the pinballs from the game. Make sure you check for balls in various lock mechanisms or traps (Swamp on TAF, Lock on TZ, Idol on IJ). Cycling the power or switching into then out of test mode will usually clear the playfield of missing pinballs.

3. Check the entire playfield surface for burned out bulbs (use the Test mode to activate all the lamps or cycle through them one at a time) and replace any burned out bulbs. Also remember to check the flashlamps. Now check for hidden G.I. lights that may be burned out. These will usually lurk under some hard to get to piece of playfield plastic. Replace as needed. Remember to make a note of any lamps burned out that reside under the playfield as you will need to replace them when you raise the playfield.

4. Double check that you got all the burnt out light bulbs -- some may have been just 'loose'. Raising and lowering the playfield will reseat the sockets. Replace any suspect bulbs (so you don't have to come back after them later).

5. Raise the playfield and check for any loose screws. Any nut or screw laying in the cabinet body has to have come from somewhere ... loose screws and bolts mean loose game pieces. Loose solenoids will bind and burn out. Tighten all the solenoids. If you can't find where a screw comes from, check for loose things above the playfield ... it is not unheard of for screws or nuts to work loose from playfield features (Indy's Path of Adventure, for instance) and fall through playfield wiring holes or switch cutouts to the cabinet floor. If a tunnel isn't working it is likely a screw, nut, or something else has fallen into the tunnel. As an example, broken electric chair light bulbs on The Addam's Family tend to fall into the swamp tunnel.

6. Lower the playfield and remove all rubbers (including flipper rubbers) and clean with Wildcat RC-88. If they do not clean well or are worn, then replace them. Clean the flipper paddles themselves with rubber cleaner (this will get the rubber gunk off). If the game has a manual plunger, be sure to check the plunger tip for wear. Don't forget to rotate the flipper rubber when you reinstall it so the worn spot at the tip is on the backside of the flipper, providing fresh rubber for the tip.

7. If the playfield is Mylared or Diamondplated (ie: virtually any game within the last five years), use Novus #2 plastic polish. If the playfield is bare paint, use Wildcat 125 or Mills Wax. Use a soft cotton rag or towel to spread the polish thinly and evenly over the whole playfield. Novus may be used on plastic ramps, but not Wildcat 125 -- Wildcat will damage ramp plastics!. After it dries, buff it off. Make sure you get it all as the liquid will seep under metal rails, into screwholes, etc. Be sure to get down the inlanes, outlanes and into the drain area. Take extra care around any jet bumpers as these are high traffic areas. This is like car wax -- the more you buff, the slicker the surface. Don't skimp here ... this will be your polished playing surface.

8. On Diamonplate playfields, an optional final coating of Novus #1 may be applied at this point -- this will cover any fine scratches the #2 may have missed.

9. On other playfields, an optional final coating of Mills Wax may be applied at this point -- this will cover the playfield with a protective wax coating.

10. Use diluted glass cleaner to clean each ball. Check each ball for damage and wear. Damaged or worn balls should be replaced as they will damage the playfield. Note that special balls such as Twilight Zone's power ball will almost always look dirty -- the trick here is to check the surface to see if it looks smooth and polished. Any scratches, pits, gouges, or scrapes indicate a damaged and worn ball that needs replacing. Don't gamble on your playfield's life -- if the ball looks scratched, dull, or is damaged, then replace it. New pinballs are only $1.25 or thereabouts ...

11. Reassemble the playfield making certain that playfield parts with solenoid shafts sticking through them (ie: the back ramp on IJ with the ball stopper shaft sticking through it and ball diverter shafts) don't bind. Use a dry cloth to wipe down any fingerprints you may leave on the playfield as the oil from your fingers will attract grime. Be sure to make sure each and every post, nut, and screw is tight and secure. Loose things will come loose and mess things up.

12. Reinstall the balls and play a test game. After checking ball travel, grab the ball and try each ramp, specialty item, and tunnel for proper operation. If you rack up too many points in doing so, be sure to slam tilt prior to the third ball to avoid messing up game statistics.

13. Clean both sides of the playfield glass, reinstall the glass and lockdown bar and you're done !!

Preventative Maintenance :
any of the following should be performed as needed depending on machine use.

* Remove the flipper solenoids and wipe down the flipper shafts and check the shafts and sleeves for wear. Replace as needed. Wipe the solenoid down and reinstall. Check the E.O.S. switch and rubber for wear and replace as needed. The flipper should move smoothly without any kind of resistance other than the spring. Any resistance felt should be investigated and corrected as it indicates something is binding somewhere. Fix it before you have to replace it.

* Check near the flippers for things coated in flipper dust. This includes playfield inlays, light bulbs, and just about anything else within 10 inches or so of the flipper solenoids. Make sure you check near every flipper. Wipedown anything badly coated. Use a Q-TIP and Windex on the inlays to prevent scratching the plastic. Note that a coating of flipper dust on bulbs and inlays will make them very dim ... just wiping the bulbs and inlays will often restore an impressive amount of brightness to a dark, dim game. Replace any blackened/burnt out light bulbs and flashlamps. Flipper dust creates heat, is conductive (ie: short circuit) and is generally not good.

Hints :
* Use a small plastic bucket to keep loose hardware or (even better) reinstall nuts and screws back in their holes/posts after removing whatever they were fastening. This will help you avoid the "where'd this screw go?" syndrome.

* Use soft cloth -- standard industrial paper towels will scratch most playfields. Rag on a Roll (or ROAR) or chamois cloth work fine.

* Be sure to rotate flipper rubbers to keep the flipper tips from wearing thin.
* Check the leveling on your game often -- well used games will wear down carpet and shift on floors causing changes in the leveling. Even a slight slant left- right can cause big problems, especially on modern games like No Fear and Theatre of Magic.

* Flaky Opto switches are often caused by one of two things : dirty optics and loose wires. For the former, use glass cleaner and a Q-TIP to clean the emitter and detector. For the latter, heat the solder joints to correct any small cracks and reattach any broken wires. If in doubt as to where a wire goes, do not attempt to figure it out unless you know what you are doing -- hooking up a 12 volt detector source to a 5 volt emitter supply will blow the emitter and you will have to replace it.

* Never use cleaning spray or compressed air on an opto-switch. These blow cold air (frigid air if the can uses freon) that can and will damage sensitive opto switches.

* Keep any eye out for delicate playfield parts. For an example, it is really easy to damage the Powerfield switches on Twilight Zone's mini playfield while removing the rubbers for cleaning.

* Make sure you reattach anything you remove from the playfield exactlyas like you removed it -- some games, like Twilight Zone, have idential plugs on some of their parts (ie: TZ's powerfield coil and opto plugs) ! Reversing these when reinstalling can cause MAJOR damage !

* Make sure you don't bend slingshot switches when removing slingshot rubbers for cleaning or replacement.

* Never use anything other than a leaf switch adjustment tool to adjust a switch. Bending it with your fingers is just asking to have to replace the switch down the road.

* Pay close attention to your game's diagnostics -- Williams/Bally games especially are very good about reporting game malfunctions and bad switches. Watch for a "." after the credits number as this indicates a problem the game wants you to check out. Note that some recent games have permanent problems -- prototype TZ and Judge Dredd machines had a nonexistant switch marked as bad. This is generally not the case, however, with production machines (or even prototypes with production ROMs). Note also that sometimes a switch can be marked as bad but is still good if nobody has hit the switch recently. A perfect example is BigFoot Bluff on White Water.

* Finally, play your game often ... a sudden difference in gameplay will alert you that something has gone wrong -- this is often the best way to find a problem with your game. Your game sense is usually sharper than the game's diagnostics.

Edited by Jonathan Deitch