Tom's Sharpshooter Pinball Machine Restoration

Condition as received

  • Previous owner said ball return solenoid was inoperative and cut the wires to it in preparation for changing it, but upon investigation, all solenoids were inoperative
  • General playfield lighting was inoperative
  • Several playfield game lamps were out
  • Ball shooter rubber tip was missing.
  • Outlane Special light not working (no voltage reaching it).
  • Settings and top scores were lost during power off-on
  • Some of the loop lane rollover star contacts were not working
  • Two of the loop lane rollover stars had a broken keeper
  • Several of the S-H-O-O-T-E-R drop targets didn't work properly. The S-H-O-O-T-E-R target assembly had several plastic target pieces from another machine that weren't quite the right type so there was wire and duct tape on the pieces to allow them to be lifted to the proper height to be reset. The tape and wire had slipped or come off so the affected targets were stuck.
  • Right flipper was patched into harness with bare twisted wires.
  • Front of the left flipper plastic was cracked.
  • The top end of the slingshot arm assembly was broken off so the slingshot solenoid still worked but the ball wasn't propelled by it.
  • Right coin slot was inoperative.

Restoration activities

  • Cleaned exterior, display glass, playfield and playfield glass
  • Replaced solenoid fuse and rewired ball return solenoid
  • Installed new rubber rings everywhere
  • Installed new rubber tip on ball shooter
  • Fixed loose connection in general lighting ground by cleaning ground pins on power supply connector
  • Replaced some unlit bulbs and cleaned the bases of others and adjusted them in their sockets
  • Cleaned and lubricated flipper buttons
  • Adjusted contacts on loop lane rollover stars and used a rubber o-ring as a keeper for the broken ones
  • Removed and replaced 3.6V Ni-Cad battery on MPU board with one from a Motorola cordless phone
  • Removed tape and wire from the S-H-O-O-T-E-R target assembly plastic pieces. Super-glued small pieces of plastic in the slots on the plastic pieces and filed the slots for clearance to allow them to be lifted to the proper height when reset and still be durable.
  • Only one of the S-H-O-O-T-E-R targets had the gunman decal on it so ordered a set and applied them to the 6 targets missing them.
  • Swapped right and left flipper shoe and rubber assemblies to move the crack on the front of the left one to the back of the right one.
  • Removed old wire stubs from terminals of right flipper solenoid and soldered harness wires to them.
  • Replaced slingshot arm assembly with a spare that was in the box of parts that came with the machine. The top end now hits the rubber and propels the ball when activated.
  • Removed and re-soldered wire on right coin sensor.
  • Replaced Q18 on Lamp Driver board to fix Outlane Special light.

Enhancements

  • Installed external volume control on bottom.
  • Installed headphone jack on bottom.
  • Installed switch on bottom for switching between speaker and headphones.
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