# SDTM Cary Hardy: Saving Swords Of Fury Pinball PART 4 **Source:** Straight Down the Middle **Type:** video **Published:** 2020-05-07 **Duration:** 12m 10s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mom7QY7oko4 --- ## Analysis Cary Hardy continues restoring a Swords of Fury pinball machine, focusing on diagnosing and fixing electrical connection issues. He identifies and resolves cold solder joints on a lamp driver board, repairs a loose connector causing pulsating playfield lighting, and reconnects a severed switch wire for the letter E. After resolving these issues, the machine is now nearly fully functional with working flippers, tilts, and game modes. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] The connector on the lamp driver board had cold solder joints causing intermittent playfield lighting issues. — _Cary Hardy, visually inspecting the board and demonstrating the problem with the connector_ - [HIGH] A disconnected yellow wire from the letter E switch needed to be resoldered to complete the switch circuit. — _Cary Hardy identifying and fixing the severed wire connection_ - [HIGH] The game is now approximately 95-100% functional after these repairs, with only minor flasher bulb burnout potentially remaining. — _Cary Hardy's assessment at end of restoration work_ - [HIGH] Someone had previously installed an unauthorized post blocking flipper extension, causing ball routing issues and playfield wear. — _Cary Hardy identifying and pointing out the misplaced post on the playfield_ - [HIGH] The WSS (Wiggle) method can help diagnose intermittent connector issues by physically moving connectors to isolate bad connections. — _Cary Hardy demonstrating the diagnostic technique on the lamp driver connector_ ### Notable Quotes > "If you can give it a nice tug, then it's not going to go anywhere. If you can tug on it and that thing comes off, then it's not soldered on very well." > — **Cary Hardy**, approx. 8:30 > _Technical soldering best practice advice for pinball restoration_ > "I want to say this game is damn close to 100% functional. The only thing that I'm not 100% sure on is all my flasher bulbs. But that's a minor issue." > — **Cary Hardy**, approx. 12:00 > _Summary assessment of restoration progress_ > "Look at this s***. Damn it. Never fails. The connector itself." > — **Cary Hardy**, approx. 3:00 > _Reaction to discovering cold solder joint issue_ > "I'm hearing coils lock on and I don't like the sound of that." > — **Cary Hardy**, approx. 9:45 > _Identifying potential electrical issue during initial startup test_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Cary Hardy | person | Pinball restoration technician performing hands-on repairs and diagnostics on Swords of Fury machine | | Swords of Fury | game | Pinball machine being restored; subject of multi-part restoration video series | | Straight Down the Middle | organization | YouTube channel producing the restoration video content | ### Topics - **Primary:** Lamp driver board repair and solder joint diagnostics, Connector troubleshooting using wiggle testing method, Switch wire repair and resoldering techniques, Playfield electrical diagnostics and troubleshooting - **Secondary:** Pinball soldering best practices ### Sentiment **Positive** (0.78) — Generally satisfied with repair progress and successful problem resolution; occasional frustration at discovering issues is normal for restoration work; ends on optimistic note about machine functionality ### Signals - **[community_signal]** Straight Down the Middle video series provides detailed educational content on pinball restoration techniques, including proper soldering methods and diagnostic procedures (confidence: high) — Video demonstrates step-by-step troubleshooting methodology and includes best practice recommendations for solder joint quality and wire attachment strength - **[product_concern]** Swords of Fury showing signs of prior neglect and poor repairs, including cold solder joints on lamp driver and severed switch connections indicating inadequate original maintenance or prior amateur repairs (confidence: high) — Multiple solder joint failures and disconnected wiring discovered during diagnosis phase --- ## Transcript Thank you very much. I don't like how already these connectors are not really all the way in. Ah, see? Got half of my GI figured out already. Do I have anything on the play field? No. I've already got a GI bulb right there. Let me see if I... Good old WSS method here. I'm just going to push this stuff in. Wiggle... Oh! Yep, see? Look at this. If I wiggle this connector around... Right there. Oh! Okay. I've got it in the position where the GI on the playfield is on Look at that It's like It's got a pulsating thing going on That connection is very Very iffy right here So I'm going to pull this board Check this connector and see what we've got going on Yep. Look at it. Look at this s***. Damn it. Never fails. The connector itself. I don't know if we got any cold solder on that or not. Those pins are moving a little bit. Alright, let's pull that board. Alright, board has been pulled and as expected, we've got a cold slash a little bit of cookness on the solder joint right there. so yeah let's see if the rest of them look okay I mean that since that's the only problem I've got I don't think I have any concerns about any other solder joints on here rest of them look pretty good just that GI right there Let get this cleaned up I like that much better. Nice solid connection. Well, I kind of have to get a better connection on these pins. I got some high grit sandpaper. When I say high grit, I want to say this is 1000. This is 1000 grit and I'm just going to go over these pins to make sure they're nice and shiny especially the one that was burnt try to get both sides if you can Looks good. Alright, so let's see if getting that resoldered and messing with that connector and all that stuff I just did to that fixes the GI issue. plug it in and see if that fixes the powering on and off issue. Well as I can see all of my GI is going. It's not pulsating. The GI on the plate field is going. Same ordeal on my scoring reel, didn't change. All right. Let's put this back up because I think the only issue we've got to resolve now is that switch. Alright, time to let this plate fill up. I don think I have to worry about the pinballs falling out of this one I think they all in there pretty good So the issue was the letter E, which is up here. And I'm missing a... there it is. so this is what we got going on here we got this wire connecting from this letter to this letter and then this frayed wire is supposed to go over here to that switch that currently has nothing on it so we're going to be connecting this yellow wire to this switch right here and then that should make it to where all my switches are going let's do it Mmm, mmm. Nice and snug. Whenever you're soldering wire onto a coil, a switch, a bulb, you need to be able to give it a nice tug. If you can give it a nice tug, then it's not going to go anywhere. If you can tug on it and that thing comes off, then it's not soldered on very well. Don't need to like rip on it, but a nice good little tug. So as far as I can remember, I think that was the only switch that was in question. So let's lower it back down and see what we got. And I need to check my tilts to see if they work. I haven't checked those yet. Ugh, damn it. Load it back in. I'm hearing coils lock on and I don't like the sound of that. There we go. Let me just make sure that wasn't a fluke. You turn your game on and you hear some coils lock on? That's not good. Alright no coils locked on We start up the game Alright let try Avenger A, V, E works now. N, G, E. Lion Man! Lion Man! took on the line man let's try out uh let's see here so all my flippers work now this is something i wanted to point out that i didn't get a good view of earlier remember i was telling you about how someone put a damn post right here this does not belong here some guy didn't want to lose his ball down here so he put this post right here keeping this flipper from extending all the way down allowing the ball to drop down here and cause a big wear spot which is very common on this game. Let's tell the crowd. We'll see if the tilt works. Slam tilt works. Let's try another game. I need to try the other tilt. Alright, let's try the bobber. Looks like it works. Two dangers. And alright. So my tilt bobber works. Slam tilt works as well. Yeah, this thing is dirty. My goodness gracious. Alright. I want to say this game is damn close to 100% functional. The only thing that I'm not 100% sure on is all my flasher bulbs. But that's a minor issue. I'm sure it's all burnout. and if it's not then I can always deal with that later on. Alright I guess the next thing to do is start disassembling this thing. Outro Music _(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: eff98ad7-85f0-485e-9e8c-e2c75973a100*