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Part 2: 1985 Bally Cybernaut Pinball Project. Dealing with flipper wiring!

Pinball Shenanigans·video·30m 40s·analyzed·Nov 22, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.025

TL;DR

Cybernaut flipper restoration: diagnosis, rewiring, and successful repair of broken upper flipper.

Summary

Mike Duss continues restoration of a 1985 Bally Cybernaut pinball machine, focusing on diagnosing and repairing a non-functional upper flipper. After discovering widespread wiring issues, corroded solder joints, and missing hardware, he systematically resolders flipper coil connections, replaces end-of-stroke switch wiring, tightens bracket hardware, and fills stripped screw holes with wood glue and toothpicks. The upper flipper is successfully restored to working condition by episode's end.

Key Claims

  • Bally games from this era used 555 plastic sockets that are incompatible with standard LEDs due to socket base thickness

    high confidence · Mike notes his experience with Electra where LED base was too thick for 555 sockets, preventing LED conversion

  • The upper flipper issue was traced to a disconnected secondary switch stack wire feeding power to the upper flipper

    high confidence · Mike identifies the wire was 'popped off' the secondary switch stack after studying schematics and comparing against his own Frontier flipper wiring documentation

  • Flipper power windings ohm readings were very close between coils (3.8 ohms vs 3.6 ohms), indicating coil replacement may not be necessary

    high confidence · Mike measured coil resistance and deemed the difference acceptable for flipper feel consistency

  • End-of-stroke switch solder joints on this machine were poorly done and required complete reresolution

    high confidence · Mike demonstrates a switch blade breaking when touched, indicating weak solder; he resolders all flipper end-of-stroke switches

  • The machine's ramp has a vinyl floor coating rather than stainless steel, which Mike notes as unusual

    medium confidence · Observation stated as 'every ramp like this I've ever seen in the past has been stainless, but this it's like a vinyl floor to it'

Notable Quotes

  • “The soldering job is not ideal. I think I need to basically resolder all of the flipper end of stroke switches and lugs for power and whatnot.”

    Mike Duss @ ~12:30 — Key diagnostic moment identifying the root cause of wiring failure—poor solder joints across multiple connections

  • “This is where I was replacing the linear flippers on my Frontier with the good old standard flippers. And this is an exact the exact photo I need to show the wiring.”

    Mike Duss @ ~16:00 — Mike using his own prior restoration documentation as a reference guide, demonstrating experience and knowledge retention

  • “I just wanted to get damn flipper to flip and I went on a 2 hour tangent trying to do that.”

    Mike Duss @ ~25:00 — Meta-commentary on restoration time commitment and problem-solving approach; reflects tendency to fully resolve issues rather than quick fixes

  • “I don't really feel like removing the flipper bat so that I can remove the entire bracket so that I can do the toothpick thing. But I found a new strategy.”

    Mike Duss @ ~22:30 — Demonstrates practical problem-solving and improvisation in restoration work, adapting technique to avoid disassembly

  • “I really hope I can LED this machine without great difficulty fighting with those sockets cuz I think some LEDs would really do this machine some wonders.”

    Mike Duss @ ~28:30 — Expresses intent to perform LED conversion despite earlier challenges with 555 socket compatibility on similar-era machines

Entities

Mike DusspersonCybernautgameBallycompanyJay the NeighborpersonJCpersonKevinpersonElliepersonCorey CookpersonFrontiergame

Signals

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Mike notes the upper flipper placement seems 'pretty pointless' with limited shot opportunities, suggesting weak game design for that playfield element

    medium · Quote: 'That upper flipper seems pretty uh kind of pointless. What is there? Two switches over there that you can hit the A and the S.'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Poor solder joints and corroded electrical connections were systemic across flipper assemblies on this 1985 machine, indicating age-related degradation

    high · Mike discovers and resolders multiple failing solder joints: 'The soldering job is not ideal... I think I need to basically resolder all of the flipper end of stroke switches'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Bally machines from mid-1980s era used 555 plastic sockets with thick LED base incompatibility, limiting LED conversion options without specialized adapters

    high · Mike states from prior Electra experience: 'the LEDs I had, the base was just too thick to fit in these style sockets. And I tried and I fought and I fought hard'

  • ?

    product_concern: Previous owner of Cybernaut performed quality restoration work including new apron cards with color printing and protective plastics, reducing current restoration difficulty

    high · Mike observes: 'these look like brand new printed apron cards, even with color. And uh it looks like there's actually plastic protectors under the slingshots'

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Wood glue and toothpick method used to restore stripped screw holes in flipper brackets is standard restoration technique

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:02
Ellie, what do you think? Should we uh get back to Cybernot? Checking out all my little pinball trinkets. Got a taxi topper thanks [snorts] to JC. I've got a whirlwind topper thanks to KG. And I've got these NBA Fast Break dudes. Also, thanks to Kevin. I'm gonna mount these guys at some point. and you can help Ellie. But before we get to all that, it is time to get back to Cybernaut. I'm [music] Mike Dus and this is Pinball Shenanigans.
0:48
[music] I hope you enjoyed the last episode with Jay the Neighbor and I. for uh the brief 20 minutes we fiddled around with the thing, we were able to actually get it to boot up and play and get the sound working. So, that was a success. Ellie's going to go hang out in her perch. And that's where she usually supervises the operation from. I'm not opening up the window cuz it is cold outside. So, sorry, not going to do it, Ellie. you just hang out there. Okay. So, I'm not exactly sure what my plans are for tonight. Uh, at the very least, this flipper is not working, so I want to get that going. And I'd kind of just been like snooping around briefly here for a minute or two. And someone has given this machine a fair amount of love in the past. Like, these look like brand new printed apron cards, even with color. And uh it looks like there's actually plastic protectors under the slingshots. So that's kind of cool. And I think this custom plastic here that someone maybe made under this plastic here, which had a chip out of the one side. Uh so you can see things are a little loose. You know, it's probably going to require uh I'm probably going to tear it down. Uh replace whatever rubbers need to be replaced. Tighten everything up. Just button everything down. This ramp is kind of interesting cuz every ramp like this I've ever seen in the past has been stainless, but this it's like a vinyl floor to it, which is different. I'm assuming that's factory, but just an observation. And this tube looks to be in pretty darn good shape, too. I wonder if that was replaced. But yeah, I don't know who owned this before, but they uh gave it some love, so I can appreciate that, which means my job is going to be a little bit easier. One other thing Jay and I noticed is that [clears throat] [clears throat] Two of the screws of the whole Look at Two of the screws of the whole Look at this. Two of the four screws to that flipper bracket are missing completely. So, going to have to remedy that. The holes are just stripped. So, nothing. A little wood glue and toothpicks can't fix. I've got one rogue green super band rubber here. Oh, I hate super bands. probably get rid of that cuz they don't match and it needs to match. I do like the blue flipper rubbers, but you know what? These feel pretty tight. These might also be super bands, but I can live with those in this case. I don't love putting them putting them on, that's for sure. They are pain in your thumb. Okay. So, the other thing is uh the ballet games of this era used all 555 plastic sockets. Last time I dealt with uh this era machine, it was Electra and I literally could not LED it because the LEDs I had, the base was just too thick to fit in these style sockets. And I tried and I fought and I fought hard and I just was not having any success. So eventually I just gave up and left it uh incandescent. I also noticed most of this is incandescent like all the inserts there. Couple LEDs here and here and here and here. There might literally be four LEDs in the whole machine. But, uh, let's slide this back glass out a bit. Oh, where's my display cover [snorts] and see what's going on back here. Oh, there are old school LEDs in here. See, that base is fairly thin.
Electra
game
Internet Pinball Databaseorganization
pinballrebel.comorganization

high · Mike applies method: 'little game of operation here. Jam that in the hole. Then the wood glue just kind of holds it in place. Then you push it in a little further.'

5:25
The ones I have might be a little thicker. So, I will try to update the LEDs cuz these are just not bright at all. Oh, and it's part incandescent, too. Oh, they didn't do the controlled lights because they would flicker. So, if I'm going to go LEDs on all the controlled lamps, then I'm going to need some LED adapters, [snorts] which I can get from my buddy Corey Cook at London Pinball for a reasonable price. That sounded amazing. All right, so like I said, I think the first thing I want to do is see if we can't get this flipper working. So, let's start with that. Okay, let's have a look at this flipper here. Something going on a little bit weird with the end of stroke switch. It looks like it was intentionally bent out of the way to make room for the actuator. Although, it does open and close fine. All the screws seem to be intact, unlike this guy here.
6:39
But something weird going on with the wiring. What does this say?
6:47
Uh, it's just a little drawing of some boobs, right? Boobies. Or is it a B for boobies?
7:01
Well, let's get rid of that. And yeah, so this wire goes up here over to this end of stroke switch. What does that make any sense?
7:35
And where does it go from there to here, I guess. And then look at this. We got a busted wire off this solenoid.
7:53
And then what is this? A big giant mess. What is going on here? Okay. Yeah, this is a disaster. So, obviously I got to sort out some wiring. Is there more bare wire here or am I just seeing things? No, I think that's okay. [snorts] All right. So, obviously I got to just sort out what's going on with all this wiring and then that should do the trick. But, uh, now I guess I got to go looking for some photos and or schematics. Okay. Hey, I was just looking at this end of stroke switch here and I like just kind of touched the little end of the um switch here. I wanted to bend it apart just so that they're not touching each other and that happened. So, the soldering job is not ideal. Look at this. I think I need to basically resolder all of the flipper end of stroke switches and lugs for power and whatnot. So, I think that's where uh I'm going to start. Okay, first things first, I got the schematic from the internet pinball database. And this is the flipper section here. here. And then I remembered um there's this really cool uh tech chart. It's on pinballrebel.com. Let's go back and see there's an entire list of games.
9:35
And this is kind of my new thing. [clears throat] Anytime I go to um do a machine, I got to remember to go to the tech chart because it basically is just a nice summary, some of the most important information uh when working on a machine. We got coil information, switch matrix, [snorts] and then a lamp chart. So, this is all really good stuff. And you can see down here it's got information about the flippers. This is so 60 is the code for brown. So you got a brown wire going to each of these guys. And then you've got green going to one, white, orange going to another, gray going to another. It's got the uh flipper coils that you're supposed to have. So, it's all very useful information. I'm just kind of studying this schematic here. [clears throat] I'm not amazing at them, but I'm learning. So, this here is the uh 1 amp slowblow fuse that is located right there. I'm going to double check and make sure that is correct. But you can see this number 60 brown wire. It says it goes from the slowb blow fuse. And then this is um the three lugs of the coil right here. This guy, this guy, and this guy. Then there's a diode here, diode here, and a stroke switch. And I believe that is the uh flipper like cabinet flipper switch. So, you got brown wire going to this lug and then brown wire going to this lug. Brown wire going to this lug. I'm going to call that the right lug. And I checked and that is actually the case. And then the uh 40 wire, which I think is green. Let's see. Let's check that uh chart again. 40 is green. Yes. Now, the wire colors may vary, and it does in this case because my uh where is it? White orange wire is actually orange white, but close enough, right? So, this green wire goes to the left flipper lug. Third lug, outside lug. Oh, and then there's a switch here. Oh, that is the secondary switch on the um switch tack that gives power to the upper flipper. And then that um green wire goes here to the third lug, outside lug of that flipper. And then 57, that's your uh orange white white orange wire. That one goes to the right flipper. So, you know, it's all helpful. Oh, and you know what else is also very helpful? After I like checked all that out and then kind of just like traced all this out. So, like if you follow, you can see here's this brown wire coming in. It comes around. It goes to the fuse. Comes back around here and then back out and through and down here and then back out and then it kind of ends here. We lose our brown there, but someone extended that and that goes to here. So, it's all kind of checking out. And I think in the grand scheme of things, it was just this. This is the secondary switch stack that feeds power to this guy here. I think one of these wires was popped off. And I think if I just added that back on, we would have got our upper flipper. But I started pulling out all these loose wires. And now I have to like resort out how they all go back again. But there's this uh dude on YouTube has anformational video uh that pertains exactly to the uh issue I'm having. And that guy is me. Look at this. This is where I was uh replacing the uh linear flippers on my Frontier with uh the good old standard flippers. And this is an exact the exact photo I need to show the wiring. So, we got the brown wire coming in down here back out. And then for my end of stroke switch, use also that outside lug and then the middle lug. Those go to your end of stroke switch. And then this is the other wire. I don't know if it feeds back or whatever. That's the the white orange right there. Oops. Which is actually orange white on my front here. And same here on Cyber Knot. It's more like orange gray, but you know, like I said, we'll let we'll let it slide there, B. That's just fine and dandy. So that's uh not all that difficult to sort out. And we know that this is the end of stroke switch cuz at the end of the stroke it opens and then that kills the power to this flipper. And then this other switch engages the power to the lower flipper. So I just need to figure out which wire goes where. And then we should have our upper flipper. Hey fellow shenaniganders, if you are enjoying what you are seeing, why don't you click on these three dots at the bottom of any video and then find this heart. Click on that and hey, look at this. You can buy me a beer. You can use the slider to buy me 500 beers if you really like. But this is a way you can uh send thanks and I very much appreciate your support. If you do so, your comment will be highlighted and also I will give you a shout out. So, thank you for all your support. Okay, here's how this is going. I've got the two brown wires. Uh, I twisted them to a new end of stroke switch wire and I got them all soldered on nicely. Another end of stroke switch wire soldered on. And then this guy's got to go here. I've cleaned up these two lugs here for the end of stroke switch. They'll go like that. And I was able to spin the um wrapper on this coil around to unveil that it is the proper coil. And I compared its ohms to the ohms on this one. They're both very similar cuz this one is just a tiny bit different. 34 3600. But this is a 24570 A25500.
17:06
So the power winding is about 3 8 ohms I think on this one and about 3.6 ohms on this one. The hold windings, which is the higher number, don't really care about that so much. It's just, you know, when your flipper's up and you're holding it up, that strength doesn't need to be necessarily the same on both, but you want the power strength to feel the same. And it's pretty darn close. What is this? 3600 versus 4500 winding. So, definitely a bit of a difference there. Not sure that I deem that necessary to change this coil out, though. But, uh, I'll clean up the end of stroke switch. And oh, look at that. We're missing a screw, too. Okay. Well, I'll have to find me a screw and uh clean up this switch. And then that should be somewhat sufficient. Someone did put in these honking screws here in the coil stop along with some washers, which they had to like snip [snorts] down because the washers were too big. I don't even know why they put the washers in, but yeah, they had to modify the washers. And I don't even know how you get a tool. Well, you certainly can't get a nut driver on these. You have to use the uh the flathead portion because a uh a nut driver wouldn't fit being so close to the coil stop. So, anyway, that is a bit of a a mess, but I'm not going to fudge with that if I don't have to. Okay, this flipper is done. The wiring is all tidied up. I added a screw. I cleaned and adjusted the end of stroke switch, tightened up all of the bracket screws and coil stop screws and hopefully that is all this really needs. So going to move on to this mess next. Okay, here's how things are going in flipper land. These are all the old crappy end stroke switch wires.
19:21
And like this side, I replaced these two and well, three wires on this side. One is going to be power, but everything is just way nicer and tidier and more secure. And this is the only solder joint I didn't feel the instant need to redo cuz this one is pretty good. I think that'll suffice. I did have to move the little wire clip a little bit to give me some extra slack, especially for these brown wires coming out of the harness here. So, that's the old hole there. And I did clean up the switch contact points with my Dremel. [clears throat] Those are looking pretty good. And it is actually adjusted. I didn't have to do anything.
20:18
That should be fine. I kind of had to realign the switches a little bit because this blade here is broken a bit. So, just a bit of this nylon is making contact with this switch here, but these guys were a little a skew, so I had to straighten them out to give it the most amount of contact point possible. That should be fine. And I think the only thing left is to um do the wood glue and toothpick thing to secure this bracket. All right. Uh I don't really feel like removing the flipper bat so that I can remove the entire bracket so that I can do the toothpick thing. But I found a new strategy. I got my little sutures here. Little piece of toothpick. A little piece of Is that hair? Could be Jamie's hair. Who knows? Certainly ain't mine. But let's just Oh, yeah. By the way, so I already did these two guys and they're in there solid. And then I noticed that I am missing a third one. So little game of operation here. jam that in the hole. Then the wood glue just kind of holds it in place. Then you push it in a little further. And you know what? This one's a little bit long. So anyway, that's the strategy. I'm just going to shorten this up a bit, jam it in there, let it set, and then add that screw. And then uh I'll show you what's going on with this flipper. Just kind of put that in there. The glue will kind of hold it in place when we push that in. And then just let that set up for a bit. And then uh use one of these beefy screws. And then that plate ain't going to go anywhere. But someone did add these like super size screws to the bracket. So that also helps keep everything in place. But look at the bottom now. That ain't going anywhere. Uh, I think the top one, top middle one is this yellow. Oh, yep. That was loose. Crank that up. So, once I get that last screw in there, these flipper brackets are going to be rock solid. Okay, I got that last screw in there. Also did check that is in fact a 1 amp slowblow fuse. So, that is good. And then I went ahead and replaced these two wires. This one could have been a little longer, but oh well. I didn't bother resoldering this guy. This one's pretty just fine and dandy. But I did these guys and these guys. So that is all good. Now I have to clean this end of stroke switch. Tighten up these screws. Then we can test the flipper. All right. In quick summary, I replaced all of the crappy wiring, pretty much resoldered all the coils and all the end of stroke switches, and tightened everything up, cleaned up all the contacts, adjusted the end of stroke switches. um is not a flipper rebuild by any means, but remember the whole goal here was just to get the upper flipper working. And um hopefully that is the case. I got the machine turned on. We're going to find out shortly. And if I deem necessary after playing some games that I need to do a flipper rebuild or, you know, even switch out these linear flippers like I did on Frontier, then, you know, I can do that. But I just wanted to get damn flipper to flip and I went on a 2hour tangent trying to do that. So, let's hit the start button.
24:47
And here is the big test. Either a fuse is going to blow or the flipper is going to work. So, let's pan out here. Can you see my my flipping finger? All right, focus right here and let's see if that plunger pulls in. Yes, it does. All right. Sweet. That is awesome. Okay, let's lower the playfield and kind of play a quick little game here and then I got to wrap it up. Okay, now that we got the sound working, I just love how this machine sounds when you turn it on. Check this out.
25:34
That's pretty cool. All right. So, I uh went ahead and changed the dip switch settings. Uh 30 one and 32 need to go off in order to set the machine to three ball play. We can't be having any of that fiveball play crap. So, let's just uh give it a little play test with the flipper working and also maybe see if we can learn a thing or two about uh what it is we're actually trying to do here. I know we want to uh we want to hit the rollover buttons at the top, which is our ion generator.
26:27
Generation two for ions. Can we uh shat yourself here? Kind of say that would qualify as shatzhating myself.
26:40
Oh, that is also shatzing myself. I think I'm going to put this game back on to five balls. Just kidding. Oh my god.
26:57
What? Oh, how am I back on ball three? Didn't I not score any points? Maybe that's what happened to Jay last uh night
27:14
cuz we're like, how are you still on ball too? So maybe there's a way that you can drain without scoring and uh save your ball.
27:29
Hey, first upper flipper. Whoa. Come on, man. No, that's not happening. Okay, let's stop messing around and uh let's actually uh play for more than 2 seconds. Well, that doesn't sound like that switch is registering.
27:54
That upper flipper seems pretty uh kind of pointless. What is there? Two switches over there that you can hit the A and the S. It's the ass flipper.
28:16
Here we go. Here we go. Okay, you can hit the upper targets. Oh, gate is open. Sweet. Got to learn how to do that. Oh, gate open when lit on the left right here. Failed. It's a pretty dangerous upper flipper. There we go. Gate are you going to open? Look at that. Oh, the other gate opened. Back in the shooter lane. You can get it back up top. I didn't even really realize what happened there. Hit the tube with the gate up there closed,
28:54
thereby sending it back into the shooter lane. It is clearly not working. that uh those red switches up there or at least one on the left. And I think that's going to be a simple solution. Uh probably need to replace the capacitor on the switch. See, I hit it nice and soft and it registered.
29:20
And I hit the middle one nice and hard and it did not register. Let's try the very far right one. No, that was the middle one again.
29:33
I really hope I can LED this machine without great difficulty fighting with those sockets cuz I think some LEDs would really uh do this machine some wonders. You know, incandescent isn't so bad. Definitely will help with the general illumination. It's pretty dark game. Like if I don't have my uh camera light on, look how dark this is. Eh, guess it's not the worst thing in the world, but okay. Well, wasn't really planning on spending the whole night just getting one flipper working, but that's how it goes. You know, you go off on a tangent and you want to make things right as you go along. So, I'd say uh that was a success. So, stay tuned for some more Cybernut action on the next episode. Okay, this flipper is done. The wiring is Okay, this flipper is done. The wiring is Wiring. Wiring. Wiring.