I have a 1979 Stern Electronics “Meteor” pinball machine that I upgraded to the new Bally/SternOS code. I love this game so when I found a beat-up project Meteor, I snatched it up with the goal of bring it back to it’s former glory.
The playfield on Meteor 1 wasn’t too bad. I put a playfield protector on it and it looks nice and glossy. Meteor 2 had a rather beat playfield, the backglass was shot and the plastics are all cracked.
So I ordered new playfield, new backglass and new plastics from CPR – https://classicplayfields.com/
The playfield looks gorgeous as my pinball friend John likes to say, the backglass is digitally printed and lacks some of the contrast you’d get on the silkscreened version but it’s fine, the plastics are good. One of the best things about CPR is their fast shipping. Days instead of months from some other vendors.
I also had ordered a playfield protector from Beehive before I thought about getting a new playfield – so this new playfield will be protected.
By the way, I built my rotisserie out of one of these chop saw stands and some metal bits from Home Depot.
NOTE: I have found out that https://nvram.weebly.com/ MPU board is not compatible with the Bally/Stern OS upgrade. Use the original boards or get the Alltek MPU – https://allteksystems.com/products/ultimate-mpu-universal-bally-stern-replacement-board
Your original MPU boards that might have been flaky before, might work find with Bally/Stern OS as the Arduino takes over a lot of functions from the MPU.
Next, I had to do some work on the beat-up coin door. Installed a new wiring harness and new switches.
The credit button (start button) on the coin door didn’t do anything. The problem was traced to a bad connector on J3.
Next problem – 5A Solinoid fuse blowing and third flipper not working. The problem was traced to the wiring on the third flipper. It was backward and one of the diodes was fried. Replaced the diode with a new one and fixed the wiring. The right flipper button was also missing a switch for the third flipper. So a new one was fashioned.
Post Restoration – Troubleshooting
Problem: Credit button nothing. Flippers nothing. Looked at power supply in the cabinet – fuse on F4 (5A) blown. Replaced. Blows.
Note: I first grabbed the wrong fuse – fast blow 5A. It needs the slow blow 5A.
Tried a circuit breaker with FA. Credit worked and flippers worked yet right flipper seemed to dim the led light on the Xpin powersupply. Looked around for some issue and noticed the power supply was smoking! Quickly shut it off. Note to self – don’t use the circuit breaker!
Going to replace the diodes on the right flipper coils. Same issue after replacing diodes on upper and lower right flipper coils.
Definetly the right flipper or upper flipper is causing the fuse to blow.
Tested coils with my cheap multimeter and they seem ok. (They might not test properly in the machine though).
Disconnected power to the upper flipper coils and put in a new fuse. Game starts up, credit button starts game, If upper flipper has power disconnected, everything is fine. When connected, the upper flipper plunger only moves a tiny bit and then the fuse blows after two flipper button presses.
J-25-600/34-4500 is the coil number – $17 from Pinball Life.