Sorry for the lack of updates lately.  It has been busy around here.  This is a quick one, I’ve seen this quite a few times lately:  flipper coils installed incorrectly.

Above is the incorrect orientation.  The coil’s lugs are at the coil stop.  The stop gets hammered pretty hard from the plunger, and with the lugs right at the stop, they are subject to vibration and the wires can break loose.

Here’s the correct orientation on the other side:

The confusing thing is most slingshot and pop bumper coils are installed with the lugs at the stop.  I imagine this is because they are not subject to as much vibration since the coils are weaker, plus it makes assembly easier when the lugs are at the bottom.

Some older games have the flipper coils installed with the lugs back towards the coil stop from the factory.  Usually this is seen on electro-mechanical games and early solid state games.  Sometimes there isn’t enough wire to reorient the flipper coils so that the lugs are opposite the coil stops.  If that is the case, don’t worry.  These older flippers are usually lower voltage (20v) and don’t hit the stop as hard as newer (50v) flipper coils.

I repaired a Swords of Fury, a four flipper game, which had every flipper coil installed backwards.  I had to rebuild all four flippers anyway, so switching them around was no problem.