Repair & Maintenance Log
09/16/22: Acquired game. Installed one of my standard-keyed (751) locks on the coin door.
09/30/22: Turned off free play. The game's previous owner replaced the beat-up old coin door skin with a straight, great-looking example. But the internal bracketry was still bent and misaligned. Some persuasion was needed to get good coin flow. Also, the right acceptor wouldn't line up because the upper mounting stud was broken away. But I was able to epoxy in a metal replacement stud screw. I'm still missing one of the Coinco "pork chop" Coin Return Levers 904583, which are apparently unobtainium. Otherwise, the coin door is now fully functional. If for no other reason, turning off free play is worth it just to hear the cow moo with every coin drop.
No free games for you!
Coin Return Lever 904583.
Coin Return Lever Update 5/21/23: I picked up a junk coin door at the Allentown show which included two coin return levers. Apparently these were not intended to be replaceable because I had to destroy the mounting lug to get the return lever off the old coin door. Using the above parts diagram as inspiration, I cut a V-notch in the return lever. Then I slowly widened the notch until it was willing to snap into place on my Fire!
Coin return lever and what's left of the old mounting lug.
Initial V-notch.
Done.
10/02/22: Printed new instruction and price cards to replace the custom cards that were in the game.
New instruction and price cards.
10/08/22: The game's previous owner installed a connector and a remote battery pack in the backbox. As per my usual practice, I extended the battery pack leads and placed the pack inside the coin door. Opening the coin door is easier than opening the head. The idea is that I'll be better motivated to replace the batteries more often.
Battery pack connector near the CPU board.
Remote battery pack inside the coin door.
10/09/22: The game came to me with black and orange flippers. That had to go. Promotional photographs show Fire! having white flippers and little hose nozzle "toppers". The nozzles were not applied to production games, but have been made available as reproduction parts. I passed on the nozzle concept because they remind me of all the idiotic mods I see peddled on eBay and Pinside. The Parts Catalog specifies yellow flipper bats. That's what I went with including conventional red rings.
Before; promotional; after.
10/12/22: Bell fix. The bell was working intermittently. It seemed to be more a mechanical issue than electrical. After looking at pictures of other Fire! games I realized I was missing the nylon screw. I'm guessing that the plunger was dropping so low that the coil wasn't reliably grabbing it. The Fire! Instruction Manual provided specs, but no diagram. The Williams Parts Catalog provided a diagram, but no specs. I found a suitable ¼"-20 x 1½" bolt and flange nuts at the hardware store. There was no information as to how this should be adjusted. Duplicating the diagram was too high and didn't work. About half way as shown below did the trick. I suppose it's something of a mechanical volume control.
Instruction Manual specs.
Parts Catalog diagram.
New ¼"-20 x 1½" nylon bolt and flange nuts.
11/15/22: Acquired the CPR reproduction plastics set. The existing plastics are in good shape and I have no immediate plans to replace them. However, the reproduction set includes some important spare parts such as the rescue ramps and targets. Plus I enjoy having the promotional trinkets that come with the set.
11/17/22: I've been getting an occasional U10 PIA FAILURE error. However, the game continues to boot and seems to play fine. Since this is a non-socketed chip, I'm not inclined to do anything until the problem becomes more acute. Nevertheless, I'm keeping some spare PIA chips on hand.
11/27/22: Display board swapping. I have to admit I'm a bit obsessive about trying to keep these games going on their original electronics. That includes the old plasma display boards. This game came to me with a Wolfpac LED replacement board. I've been collecting plasma boards in varying conditions of not working. I thought I might have enough parts to build a working example. First I put the high voltage fuses back in the game and made sure that all still worked. It did.
I have plenty of good alphanumeric displays. It's the numerics I have no luck with. I decided to repair a Big Guns board. It had two good alphanumerics and two bad numerics, but no obvious hacks or previous repairs. I had a beat-up F-14 board in my junk pile that looked to have two good numerics which I moved to the Big Guns board. It worked. Sort of. Player three ended up being dimmer than the others. Oh well. If player three dies I may dig into my coveted stash of NOS numerics.
My junk pile of D-11610 display boards.
Not great, but at least it's back to plasma.
12/18/22: More display board swapping. The guy who sold me this game still had the plasma board that was in the game when he bought it. He subsequently repaired the board. I subsequently traded him back his Wolfpac LED board. Interestingly, the serial number of this plasma board matches the serial number of the game's CPU board (556 116246). Both are from a regular Fire! The serial number of all the other boards in the game match the game (556-SE 117251). I'll keep my repaired Big Guns board as a spare.
Better!
12/18/22: Backbox camouflage. The left-side joints on the game's backbox had been broke and put back together with some glue, a few nails and a drywall screw. Actually, it doesn't look terrible except for the torn up veneer at the corners. I don't know that it would be possible to convincingly repair this and have the repair match the original grain, finish and patina. My goal was to just add a bit of camouflage.
I bought a small can of wood stain called "Golden Oak". The match was pretty good. In a dimly lit gameroom, no one will ever notice. The stain was also effective with minor cabinet scratches. The original finish doesn't readily absorb the stain. So the stain can be wiped on and quickly wiped off such that only the scratch is darkened.
Golden Oak wood stain.
Missing veneer before and after.
01/01/23: Mini shop out. Overall the game was clean and well working. But the game had LEDs in the backbox and on the top side of the playfield. And there was some sort of silicon ring kit with orange accents. I fully restored the game to incandescent lighting using #47 lamps. And I installed a conventional white ring kit. The backbox was easy enough. And I was able to trash all the playfield LEDs with a just superficial top-side teardown. While I was at it I wiped down the playfield and added another coat of wax. Lamp 49 had an open diode which I replaced.
Backbox restored to incandescent lighting.
Lamp 49 fixed and restored incandescent lighting.
Before reassembling the playfield I wanted to address some shot inconsistencies. Shots to the ladder ramp were erratic and too difficult. On the other hand, shots to the upper ramp flaps seemed overpowered and often went astray. I didn't want to reduce flipper power because it takes some oomph to hit the ladder and rescue ramps.
The biggest problem with the ladder ramp was that the top of the ramp didn't quite meet the leading edge of the awning assembly. The most significant adjustment I made was to adjust the motor cam's upper limit switch arm such that the motor cam would better high point the ramp thus raising the ladder a bit further. This took quite a bit of trial and error because the motor coasts a bit after it's turned OFF and because it behaves a bit differently with the playfield down or raised.
Motor cam's upper limit switch.
The leading edge of the awning assembly had been peened from ball hits. I filed the leading top edge back flat. The awning assembly is held to the window housing subassembly with four screws. I loosened the screws, angled the awing assembly a bit further down toward the ladder ramp and retightened the screws. Finally, I felt that the swinging windows were providing too much resistance. So I slightly stretched the swinging window return springs. All of these tweaks combined to make the window shot more doable.
Raised ladder ramp lined up with the awning assembly.
A strong, clean shot toward the right upper ramp flap would occasionally launch off into the upper-right skill shot area. I made a transparent ball shield from a piece of 0.060" PETG material. First I made a cardboard template. Then I cut the PETG on a band saw using a scrap of plywood as a primitive zero-clearance insert. Next I used various grades of sanding sticks to smooth the edges. Then I use a single-sided razor blade like a card scraper to further smooth and round the edges. Finally, I flame polish the edges.
I didn't add a shield mounting screw near the ramp entrance because I didn't want to add any additional stress to the ramp itself. Shield impacts are absorbed by the ramp mounting post (green arrow). One addition screw at the far end of the shield simply holds the shield in alignment. With the game reassembled, the transparent ball shield pretty much disappears.
Upper ramp ball shield.
Player's view after playfiled reassembly.
Here's my ball shield template. It was scanned at 300 dpi under 1" graph paper. The shield may be larger than it needs to be. Perhaps I'll make a smaller one after I get a feel for ball interaction. Errant ball launches have never been an issue with the left upper ramp flap.
Shield Update: Two minor problems: 1) I would occasionally get some vertical rattle which would kill ball momentum, and 2) the ball could theoretically wedge itself between the shield and upper smoke plastic. I looked through my system 11 scrap box and found a pair of gray ½" spacers which I used to elevate the shield. I had to slightly modify the inside curve of the shield to clear the right rescue ramp. So my above template is no longer quite accurate. Raising the shield gave the ball more freedom of movement, but still kept it contained on the ramp. Raising the shield eliminated any possibility of getting a ball stuck under the smoke plastic.
Gray spacers for the ball shield.
More clearance below (green arrow), less clearance above (red arrow).
A more pronounced problem I had was with fast balls popping up and over the building railings instead of rolling down to the lock holes. The upper ramp flaps are supported along their inside edges, but balls roll around the outside edges. It may look like the flaps are properly aligned with the building platforms, but the weight of a ball causes the ramps to sag a bit. Thus a fast ball will pop up when it hits the leading edge of the building platform. A really fast ball will pop up, hit the top edge of the railing and return to the playfield instead of rolling down to the lock hole.
Upper ramp flap sagging under the weight of a ball. Here's where a fast ball can pop up and over the railing.
I cut down some self-stick weather stripping to make a railing bumper for each side of the game. The bumpers absorb much of the ball's energy and balls tend to bounce back more than up. I beveled the up-hill bottom corner of each bumper to prevent ball hang-ups.
Right-side railing bumper.
Update: It occurred to me that the aftermarket support brackets could be part of the pop up problem since they effectively raise the height of the building platforms. I believe the brackets are a necessary reinforcement, so removing them wasn't a consideration. I decided to lower the whole assembly by shortening the support post by the rescue ramp. The post was 1.2" tall. Reducing it to about 1.14" would compensate for the thickness of the support bracket. As shown below, I didn't quite hit my mark, but it worked. For example, a ball will no longer statically rest on the flap as shown above.
I don't have a lathe. I chucked the post in a hand drill and ran it against a strip sander. The rusty post shown was from my scrap box and intended to be a proof of concept. But I had to reassemble the game to try it. The post worked so I just left it. Between the weather stripping and the shortened post, I no longer have errant balls popping up over the railing. The left side of the game wasn't as much of a problem so I only shortened the right-side post.
Shortened post.
Shortened post.
Yet Another Update: I replaced my chunky weather stripping with patches of low-profile Dead Drop foam from someone called SONIC on Pinside. It seems to work just as well and is less visually offensive.
Dead Drop foam patch.
Dead Drop foam patch.
Done!
01/15/23: Shooter spring. According to the Parts Catalog, Fire! should have the 10-148-4, green, 0.035" shooter spring, which was what was in the game. I dropped down to the lighter, white, 0.028" shooter spring. I believe the lighter spring has more "feel" and results in a more controllable ball. The lighter spring also helps mitigate the effects of non-pinball people who tend to mindlessly bash on the target at the top of the skill shot lane.
White shooter spring.
May/2023: Implementing the SOL. 14 flash lamp circuit. Most would probably pick the Champagne Edition due to the extra features. However, the Champagne Edition received only two of the three insert board flash lamp circuits. The four-lamp SOL. 14 circuit was not included. Thus, the Champagne Edition had a total of only four flash lamps on the insert board as compared to eight on the regular Fire!
I'm not a fan of modifying games. That said, I'm always intrigued to discover some residual bit of hardware or software that's left over from a deleted feature. I was certain that there were no software differences between the two versions of Fire! Therefore, I expected the SOL. 14 circuit to be active and usable. Also there was some related wiring to the insert board connectors. But the wiring was not extended into the Champagne Edition's unique insert board wire harness.
The four missing flash lamps were positioned more or less horizontally behind the burning buildings. I didn't know why the lamps weren't included on the Champagne Edition. Were they deemed unnecessary and cost-cut? Or were the lamps deleted so as to not distract from the flame tubes feature? The backbox flame tubes were one of the Champagne Edition's signature features. So I didn't want to add something obnoxious that would diminish the effect.
First I connected a test lamp to the SOL. 14 circuit so I could observe its behavior. In general, the SOL. 14 circuit was pulsed between pulses to the 06C and 07C circuits. So the three circuits combined to create some rapid chase effects which kind of looked like nifty building explosions. The SOL. 14 circuit was quite active while the flame tubes were inactive. The SOL. 14 circuit was only moderately active while the flame tubes were active during Multiball. The SOL. 14 circuit was inactive while the flame tubes were active during the post-game fanfare. Thus, I didn't see much of a conflict between the two features and thought they might complement each other.
A friend of mine gave me a resistor board which was the under-playfield 01C resistor board from another parted-out Fire! I drilled the rivets and replaced the metal brackets with three nylon pcb standoffs.
Surplus 01C resistor board.
There were two connectors for the insert board's wire harness. From one connector I extended the BRN-BLU SOL. 14 control wire. From the other connector I extended the BLK ground wire which was needed for the resistor board's warming resistors. I had some scrap wire harnesses and was able to mimic the correct color codes.
Wire extensions.
Note: The warming resistors are widely regarded as unnecessary. But my goal was to create a "what if" implementation. What if Williams had implemented the SOL. 14 flash lamp circuit? Surely they would have employed the warming resistors as per their practice at that time. The warming resistors are also (apparently) incompatible with an LED conversion. But since I don't like LEDs I don't have to worry about myself doing that.
I didn't want to mess up the existing fuse label so I put the resistor board on the left. Thus my resistor board and fuse label positions are opposite to the regular Fire! I suppose that's an inefficient use of wire, but I had plenty.
Resistor board mounting location.
According to the manual, each 5 ohm resistor can accommodate two, three or four parallel flash lamps. But that does not appear to have been the practice. The four flash lamps were divided into two pairs of parallel lamps with each pair getting its own resistor. This is why a double resistor board was used for the four SOL. 14 flash lamps. Accordingly, I daisy-chained the BRN-BLU SOL. 14 control wire to each of the resistor board's two driver connections.
Regular Fire! games appear to have used WHT-BLU wire between the resistor board and lamp sockets. That wasn't going to work on the Champagne Edition because WHT-BLU was used for AC motor power. I wanted to stick with something that had a blue trace. So I found some ORN-BLU to use.
Resistor board wiring.
The RED solenoid power wire ended at the GI relay board. I extended the wire from there and daisy-chained it to the two pairs of new lamp sockets.
Solenoid power wire extension.
With the resistor board mounted and wired, it was easier to experiment with lamp positions. I wasn't much interested in drilling more lamp holes in the insert board. Plus I wanted the lamps to be about where the flame tube openings were. So I mounted the flash lamps behind the flame tube openings. I thought this would create a less concentrated, more subtle effect. I confirmed that the lamps didn't cause any weird translite reflections or shadows when the flame tubes were active. The original SOL. 14 flash lamps had no symmetry to their arrangement. So I staggered the new lamp sockets at best I could within the available space.
When it came to connecting respective pairs of flash lamps, Williams appears to have grabbed whatever wire was at hand. So that's what I did. I just made sure that my choices didn't conflict with anything else on the insert board.
Lastly, I replaced most all the wire harness zip-ties as I bundled my new wires in with the existing harness. I wasn't much concerned about making any of this reversible. If some future person doesn't like the extra flash lamp circuit, they can just pull out the lamps.
Shown below is the final wiring and lamp arrangement.
Click image for larger picture.
Projects like this are always sketchy. I despise the obviously homemade custom bullshit I see people slapping on their games. I spent a lot of time studying schematics and internal pictures of the regular Fire! I tried to closely match factory practices, parts, hardware and wire. Hopefully it would not occur to the casual observer that the added flash lamps were a post-factory modification.
Click image to view a brief YouTube video of the SOL. 14 flash lamps in action.
03/06/25: "It's probably just a fuse." I'm too pessimistic for that nonsense. But during the same social gathering I simultaneously lost Star Trek (no display power) and Fire! (no non-special solenoid power). Both appear to have been random fuse failures.
New F2 on the power supply board.