Gator pinball working 90%

So I finished replacing the left flipper coil, much better (doesn't get stuck), though both flippers still seem weak.  Not sure if that's just how pinball was in that era, or maybe the main Transformer is getting weak (and thereby supplying less voltage), or maybe that's just how small flippers are?  Anyway, it starts up everytime (4 player mode, free play).  Still going to replace all the bulbs, give the playfield a waxing, and try to replace the backglass by taking a photo and fixing it in photoshop, and getting a translite version.

slowly but surely, getting there

Ok so today I talked to a former co-worker (since I'm unemployed), and was talking about how I'm working on my pinball still. He suggested I try to keep it dark and look for sparks on the cylinder on the base of the pinball case. I did see one towards the top momentarily, so I decided to take all the switches in that area off one by one, and file the contacts. Sure enough, after I did that, it starts up EVERYTIME. The only annoying thing is that it ALWAYS starts a 4 player game, and the credits don't work (stuck on freeplay). Of course being a homegame this isn't the worst thing in the world (so long as it works), but I'm thinking I might just need to change some setting.

Anyway, I also took apart the coil on the left side, and nearly got it soldered back in, but phonecalls interrupted (and I don't want to spend an entire day on it because I have other stuff to do). The bad side is that the coil I got to replace it is wired differently (3 contacts all in a row, as apposed to the old one which has the contacts seperated on different layers of the bobbin). The good part is that it seems that the previous owner replaced the right one somewhat recently, because the contacts matches the coils I have (hence why the right flipper works better), so I should be able to trace wires and duplicate it on the left side.

If all goes well, I could seriously have a working pinball soon. I still want to go through and replace all the dead bulbs. Have been seeing a lot of guys replace their incandescent bulbs with LED's. Granted I can buy incandescent replacement bulbs for about 40 cents a piece, it's a hassle to replace some of them when they burn out (and I don't think they give off great light). A lot of purists will argue that point, but this is my pin and if don't like it too bad. Anyway, lowest price I could find is $1.50 each, and they have white and colors, so I got mostly white and a few green (to try out since my theme is gator):
http://www.centsibleamusements.com/pinball-led-44-47.aspx

EM pinball if nothing else.. it's a learning tool

So my pinball still isn't working. I can get it to start a 3 player game if I manually kick the relay over behind the backglass (pretty much everytime), but of course this isn't the way it's meant to be played. The flippers are still weak (and the left one keeps dying), so I went ahead and purchased some replacement coils for the flipper solenoids (along with a new lock key and rubbers for the flippers). It doesn't feel like there's anything obstructing the flippers, so I figure spending $8 replacing each coil (which probably should be done anyway) is a good place to start.

I did take a good look at how the flipper mechanism worked. Here I was going to invent my own way of controlling the flippers when it's already been designed so well. There's a little arm that has a build in collet with a set screw that attaches to the pinball flipper rod. There's no reason I could connect my car actuator to something like that. Also on the old ones (perhaps the new ones too), they use a spring to pull the flipper back into position. To my earlier revelation, this is how I also plan on getting mine back into position rather than trying to flip the voltage to kick it back.

pinball wiper

video speaks for itself