STAGE 2 : Cleaning the playfield.

Now, forget about all of the parts that we have removed from the playfield. This stage focus on the playfield only, not the parts. We'll focus on the parts during the re-assembly phase.

-Clean the top of the playfield. Clean everything you can without raising the playfield up. This includes the wood edging and wood playfield backing. Since 'playfield cleaner' is expensive, I usually spend most of my cleaning with 409, then once it is cleaned with 409, I use Novus #2 and #1 plastic polishes. (the 'blue stuff' is also a good final polish (Gemeni)). Also clean the pop bumper housings and actuator disks, the flipper bats. (I clean ALL rubber remnants from the flipper bats so they are shiny), clean the idol exit plastic part and shooter coil. It looks like there is a tight spot by the mini-playfield motor area, I used q-tips to clean the corners here. Clean the slingshot kickers also. Just clean everything!!

While cleaning the top of the playfield I decided to unscrew the ball trough. It's 5 screws from above the playfield and two on the underside. I just let it dangle while cleaning the playfield.

I used a moist q-tip and cleaned under the pop-bumper actuator ring. Wipe the insides of the machine's cabinet that you can get to while the playfield is in its current position.

Take your time and examine the playfield at all angles with the light reflecting from the playfield to be sure you didn't miss any areas.

-Clean the dangling ball trough. Wipe the optos with a q-tip. It not easy to clean but, at least clean up the area where the ball sits in. Also clean up the blue rubber part on top. If you break a wire off the coil, re-solder it back on.

-Raise the playfield

-Clean inside of the cabinet sides that can be reached with playfield in this position.

-Clean the wood under the playfield which was hidden by the 'under playfield tunnel' from lock to idol.

-Clean under the 'super jackpot' lamp, red plastic (just because it's easy to get to).

-Clean the four slingshot blade switches as they dangle under the playfield. Theres probably some white playfield cleaner on them. They may be tarnished as well, at least get the gunk off them.

-Screw these blade switches back to the playfield. Two hex wood screws per switch. Four switches. 8 screws total.

-NOTE, when screwing wood screws back into the playfield, if they just turn and strip the wood without tightening, take the screw out, shove a couple toothpicks into the hole and break the toothpicks so they are flush with the wood, re-screw the screw into the hole. The toothpicks fill the stripped hole with more wood for the screw to grab onto.

-Unscrew the three screws for the left two 'Indy's friends' lights about 1/4 inch. The litle circuit board should be able to come off without taking the screws all the way out. Clean the three lights, and clean the underside of the lights (the friends lights).

-Rescrew this circuit board back to playfield.

-Unscrew the three screws for the right two 'Indy's friends' and repeat cleaning process as above.

-Unplug the three connectors to the large center circuit board for lights. Unscrew the 7 screws holding this circuit board to the playfield. Remove the circuit board and clean the light bulbs. Clean the underside of the lamp graphics under the playfield. Re-install this circuit board, screw it in and plug in the 3 connectors back in.

-Unscrew and clean the circuit board for the INDY lane lights like above.

-I'm not specifically cleaning the remaining lamps, because, in my experience just the circuit board style lamps collect lots of dust and last longer than the other. (#555 last longer than #47 & #44), lasting longer, they collect more dust.

-Standup targets: 6 round ones and 1 narrow one. While they are dangling under the playfield, clean each one individually and install it. Clean both sides of the plastic. If the foam is crappy, or gone, clean off the remaining adhesive on the metal and cut a narrow piece of weather stripping and stick it there. (I'm replacing bad foam backing), Hardware stores carry wide weather stripping that works just right for cutting and using as standup target backing. I use Dennis brand #263. It is 1/4" thick, 3/4" wide (and 10' long) with sponge rubber (Not the 'UV' rubber stuff). Clean the contacts on each target also. The most common way is to use a slightly rough paper like that found on business cards. Put the paper between the two contacts and apply pressure to close the contacts against the paper and rub the paper back and forth. This usually does a good job of cleaning contact switches.

-Clean as much of the ball popper from under the playfield to idol as you can. Re-screw it back to the underside of the playfield. 6 hex 1/4 inch wood screws. Be sure to clean the opto switch.

-Rebuilding the 3-bank drop target assy. I always rebuild the drop target assemblies when I shop out a pinball machine. Unplug the connector to the opto circuit board. Unscrew the 6 screws holding the assembly to the playfield. Slide the assembly out from under the ENT light bulbs.

--Unscrew bracket closest to top of solenoid and remove the bracket.

--Loosen nuts on other solenoid bracket. Angle the solenoid and it should come out, make sure the drop target reset plate is all the way down so the solenoid can come out. Once the coil is out, let it dangle, take the assembly to a table for cleaning.

--Clean the solenoid bracket we removed

--Remove and Clean the reset plate/solenoid shaft part, make sure it's nut is firmly screwed in.

--Turn the assembly over, circuit board up.

--Remove the three E clips, two clips have a washer under them, the third one doesn't.

--Lift the circuit board off, clean it up. Be sure to clean the inside of the U shaped opto switches.

--Remove the drop targets for cleaning. For each target there is : A pull-down spring, an E clip on the bottom. On the top post is: E clip, washer, spring, washer, drop target, and another washer.

--Clean up the metal assembly.

--Clean the three drop target plastics.

--Set the assembly down, posts pointing up.

--Place a washer on each upper post (may want to clean washers too).

--Place the three drop targets on place.

NOTE: Lately, at work, I've been dabbing a tiny bit of lubricant grease on the part of the drop target that slides against the drop target plastic. Also a dab of grease on the front of the target that rubs against the front of the assembly. I'm not going to do it during this particular cleaning (mainly because I don't have any of the grease with me right now, it was a white, thick grease). It's your own choice here, I'd try it without grease first, if the targets seem to drop fine when we get it together, then don't worry about it.

--Put a washer on the top post again, this washer and the previous washer should sandwich the plastic drop target on the upper post.

--Place a small spring on the upper post of each drop target.

--Place the last washer on each of the three posts. This washer and the previous one will sandwich the spring on the upper post.

--Clip an E clip onto each post (all six)

--Hook up the 'pull down' spring to the side of each target to the little tooth on the metal assembly.

--Now, manual pull up each target and flick it with your finger, If they don't drop quick, then you can either shorten it's pull down spring to make it pull harder or try adding a dab of grease as mentioned above. Mine worked super without any grease or modification of the pull down spring!

I'm not sure, maybe instead of grease, if you're having slow targets, try a dry lubricant like graphite powder. Just an afterthought. I've never tried it myself.

--Put the opto circuit board back on. Make sure the optos are facing the drop targets (not facing out!), and the connector pins are facing down.

--Put two washers on the bottom two shafts.

--Put the three E clips on the shafts securing the opto board in place.

--place the reset plate/solenoid shaft in the assembly, Make sure the reset 'fingers' are under each plastic target. (pull the targets up)

--Go to the machine and cleanup the solenoid and its sleeve. The sleeve goes in so that the part of the sleeve that protrudes out of the coil, protrudes out of the side of the coil where the wire lugs are.

--Take the drop target assembly to the machine and put the coil back into the assembly, taking care that the reset plate fingers are always under the drop targets and not in the little oval part of the drop target. (pull the targets up)

--Sandwich the coil into the assembly with the coil bracket and put the nuts back on and tighten them up! Make sure the coil lugs are on the bottom side and facing out (not to the side). Test your work by simulating a coil energizing. Pull up on the reset plate and flick the targets down with your finger. Should work smoothly.

-Slide the drop target assembly back under the ENT targets and screw it back into the playfield. Plug the connector back into the opto circuit board.

-I've found it necessary for IJ to put a rubber band or loosly zipped zip-tie around the drop target adjustment screws and around the opto board connector. This places a little pressure on the optos so they are closer to the drop target plastics. I've had problems such that the optos were just not close enough to the drop targets and a little vibration in the game would triger the switch (when the target was down, the vibration would cause the opto to trigger because it wasn't close enough to the plastic drop target).

-Clean the pop bumper contact switches. Put a rough piece of paper (like a slice of a business card) in between the contacts and squeeze the switch closed and rub the paper a few times (at least until the paper stops picking up dirt). There is one switch under each pop bumper (3 switches total).

-Remove the three screws that hold the single drop target under the playfield. There's too many wires holding this sucker in, we'll have to clean it up while it's in the pinball cabinet.

--Remove the pull-down spring.

--Remove the two E clips.

--Under the upper E clip is a washer, spring, and washer.

--Take care not to bend the microswitch actuator arm.

--Remove the drop target plastic.

--My IJ has a washer under BOTH shafts under the drop target, remove them. (where I'm used to seeing only one washer under the upper shaft of drop targets)

--Clean up the washers and springs and drop target plastic.

--Clean up the metal assembly. Take care that your towel doesn't catch on the switch armature and bend it or break it off. Clean up that armature, the metal, the moving shaft into the solenoid. Clean it up as much as you can.

--Put the a washer on each shaft.

--Place the drop target plastic back onto the assembly.

--Place a washer on the top shaft. This will sandwich the drop target plastic between two washers.

--Put the small spring on the top shaft.

--Put the last washer on the top shaft, this will sandwich the small spring between two washers.

--Put an E clip on each shaft.

--Install the pull down spring.

--Test the unit out by pulling up on the reset plate and tapping the 'drop target down' coil magnet. The magnet pulls on a little arm that taps the target down.

--Reinstall the assembly back to the playfield.

-The flippers: For Each flipper:

-I like to work on the flippers with the playfield angled with the side arm propping the playfield in a 45 degree angle.

-Remove the two allen nuts holding on the coil stop bracket. There should be a lock washer on each nut.

-Remove the coil stop bracket and clean it.

-Slide the coil off and clean it up. Put a moist towel through it and clean out the middle (I don't bother removing the sleeve, I just clean it up).

-Here you have several options. Examine the flipper shaft. The tip of it should be beveled in. Over time this bevel flattens out and the shaft starts mushrooming which cause the flipper to go weak. You may want to remove the link and regrind or file a bevel into the shaft (or replace the enire shaft and plastic piece as one part). When removing this part, note the order of nuts and bolts. There is a nut on the inside which you hold on to while unscrewing the allen bolt. The order of parts would be: Allen bolt, washer, One side of the metal bracket, the flipper plastic piece, theres a small round bearing inside this, the other side of the metal bracket, a washer, a lock-washer, and the nut. My flipper shafts looked good so I'm just cleaning it without removing it.

-Clean up the metal plate and flipper parts.

-Slide the coil back on.

-Put the coil stop bracket back on.

-Tighten it down with the two allen nuts and lock washers.

-Tighten down the 8 hex wood screws that hold the flipper plate to the playfield.

-Manually flip the flipper up and make sure it closes the EOS switch. When doing this push on the metal shaft only, if you push on the plastic part it won't properly simulate a 'flip', this is because of any looseness in the pivot points, when the coil energizes it pulls in on the metal shaft...and well its physics, just push on the end of the metal shaft to properly simulate a 'flip'.

-Repeat above for other flipper.

This concludes the second stage