# Curtain Servo Removal - AP Houdini **Source:** American Pinball **Type:** video **Published:** 2023-05-05 **Duration:** 3m 55s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGvejeQJbwA --- ## Analysis Dave Brennan, Tech Service Manager for American Pinball, provides a detailed technical tutorial on removing and replacing the curtain servo mechanism in Houdini Master of Mystery. The video walks through step-by-step removal procedures including unscrewing fasteners, disconnecting the monitor and lighting, and accessing the servo and its shaft adapter to diagnose or replace it. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Dave Brennan is the Tech Service Manager for American Pinball — _Dave Brennan self-identifies in the video opening_ - [HIGH] The servo shaft adapter is a plastic piece with internal gears that can become stripped — _Dave Brennan describes the servo shaft adapter component during the tutorial_ - [HIGH] A nut driver (11/32 size) is required to loosen nuts on the servo bracket — _Dave Brennan specifies tool requirements during the removal process_ ### Notable Quotes > "I'm Dave Brennan, the Tech Service Manager for American Pinball." > — **Dave Brennan**, 00:00 > _Establishes speaker authority and role; Dave Brennan is confirmed as American Pinball tech service leadership_ > "This is a plastic piece that fits on the servo that has internal gears on the inside. So that's the important piece. If those gears are stripped, then that's going to slip." > — **Dave Brennan**, ~02:30 > _Identifies the critical component that commonly fails and diagnostic approach for servo malfunction_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Dave Brennan | person | Tech Service Manager for American Pinball, host of this technical tutorial series | | American Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer producing Houdini Master of Mystery and this technical support content | | Houdini Master of Mystery | game | American Pinball game featured in this servo maintenance tutorial | | Tee'd Off American Pinball Pinball Tech Tips | event | Video series providing technical service guidance for American Pinball machines | ### Topics - **Primary:** Servo mechanism maintenance, Houdini Master of Mystery repair, American Pinball technical support - **Secondary:** Curtain toy mechanism, Hardware removal procedures ### Sentiment **Neutral** (0) — Educational and technical in tone; no emotional content or controversy. Straightforward instructional video without opinion or commentary ### Signals - **[community_signal]** American Pinball producing technical service video content demonstrating commitment to operator and owner support/education (confidence: high) — Dedicated 'Tee'd Off American Pinball Pinball Tech Tips' video series with detailed maintenance procedures hosted by Tech Service Manager - **[product_concern]** Servo shaft adapter gears can become stripped, necessitating replacement; issue common enough to warrant formal tutorial (confidence: medium) — Dave Brennan emphasizes checking for stripped gears and notes slippage as failure symptom, suggesting known reliability issue --- ## Transcript Hello and welcome to American Pinball Tech Tips. I'm Dave Jeff Brenner, the Tech Service Manager for American Pinball. Today I'm looking at the servo mechanism for Houdini's curtain. In order to get that I'm going to show you how to get to the servo and remove it. First you got to do is remove the two Phillips screws at the back of the stage and then remove the cover. Next is remove these hex screws at the back. This is where the two Phillips screws were just attached to and you set those off to the side. Next step is unplug the monitor. So you're going to pull this left connector out and then the top one. Now Now you can remove the 5 16ths machine screws on the sides. Loosen these. After you get these two off, the whole screen will come loose. Now you can set that off to the side. The next step is there a connector here to be a little bit easier So disconnect this light just pull up on this connector and kind of get that out of the way There four 1132 nuts on either side that you'll need to loosen. It helps to have a nut driver for this. I'm going to get these pre-loosen so you can see them. Alright now that those are loose, the whole bracket comes up. You can see there's a servo shaft adapter on the servo itself. This is a plastic piece that fits on the servo that has small gears on the inside. So that's the important piece. If those gears are stripped, then that's going to slip. So it's important to check that. And then also the hex, this is what's attached directly to your curtain mechanism that moves your curtain back and forth. So when you're swapping out that, all you have to do now to swap out your servo is just hold the nut with the wrench here and a screwdriver, and you can swap out this servo, and then plug it in on the in the same position the board underneath you have to feed the cord through the play field in the back of the stage. So hopefully that was helpful. Thanks for watching. _(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: b6aa91e7-4fda-45d9-ac89-e62b2286b2af*