Hard to Find Parts
There is an amazing selection of parts available for pinball machines of all ages, but some specialized parts are very hard or impossible to find. This section lists those parts that are extremely hard to find or thought to be unavailable. It is not intended to cover light shield (plastic) sets or backglasses as those are all mostly unavailable unless they have been reproduced. Playfield plastic inserts are also excluded as they are not designed to be replaced. They are installed in the playfield prior to sanding and finishing.
The intent is to provide owners with a reference when searching for parts. For parts listed as unavailable, the only option is to look for a used part. This information is also useful when buying a machine. If a part is unavailable you will want to make sure game play is acceptable as-is or try to make sure a substitute can be found.
Much of this information is gathered from rec.games.pinball, a valuable resource for locating used parts. There are also occassional threads addressing this exact issue, for example "Hardest Parts to Find" by silverunicorn on 4/19/2012 and "What's the Hardest Part to Find" by qfrost on 9/8/2005.
1 Hard to Find Parts
| Part Number | Machine | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A-7941 | Williams SS (e.g. Gorgar) | Horseshoe contacts for drop target | Also 01-5831-1 pressure blade Available at Flippers.com |
| UDN6118a | Williams, Gottlieb | Vacuum Flourescent Display Driver | |
| UDN7180a | Williams Sys11 (others?) | Gas-Discharge Display Segment Driver | Available from Arcade Chips Many other hard-to-find chips also availble there. |
| Various | Various EM | Backglass lift channel | Repro available from Gatecrasher on RGP |
| 01-10183 | BSD, RFM, STTNG, others | bracket switch | Available at Pinball Spare Parts Australia Part of single drop target assembly, which is unavailable |
| 6532 RIOT | Gottlieb SS | RAM, I/O, and Timer IC | Available at Big Daddy Enterprises |
| 7408 | Gottlieb SS | Quad 2-input AND | Alternatives available at Great Plains Electronics (Note 1) |
Note 1: The 74F series parts (e.g. 74F08) are generally an acceptable alternative for 74 series ICs in pinball digital logic applications, but there have been reports of them not working in Gottlieb system 80 clock generator circuits.
| Part Number | Machine | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| B-11152 | PinBot | Vortex Ramp | Will also need decals |
| SPIDER | Gottlieb Sys 1 | Controller with custom ROM | Either used from a parts machine, or Ni-Wumpf or Pascal replacement CPU |
| 13A-44 | Stern Nine Ball | Bumper Cap | Caps with different markings available |
| 20-9726 | Creature From the Black Lagoon | Hologram, part of assembly A-15950 | |
| 500-5775-00 | The Who's Tommy | Blinder Assembly | Playable without this, but with loss of game function |
| 5768-13103-00 | Various WPC | Flashlamp PCB | e.g. Addams Family Assembly A-15280 |