I was only going to do it to protect the decals. Thanks for responding.

Hello fellow Black Knight fans/owners! I just picked this up last week! Hard top, Mayfair back glass, lighted flipper and magna save buttons. New cpr plastic. All playfield parts removed and polished. LED’s. Nvram. Flippers rebuilt.The cabinet could use some love but other than that the game plays like new. Going to look so good next to my Firepower!

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Curious to see how this turns out. Post pictures here once it is done. My apron is beat up and scratch and so much of the paint is missing. Looking for some inspiration on how to do it.

Yeah no worries, haven't had time to get back to it yet with work and home commitments.

Your post got me keen and I got stuck in this arvo after night shift. As you can see the yellow/lime is a few shades different although one is over 40 years old. Like a lot of things it was alot easier than I anticipated.

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One of it sitting in the machine.

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That looks pretty good. Did you print those yourself? I definitely need to do this on mine.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/235036569368?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=705-154756-20017-0&ssspo=qs-F4yG-RLO&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=IuRbVLAkTti&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

This one has the shooter lane decal as well. I just ordered this to get it as the first one I bought didn't have it

Ordered. You deserve a commission

Has anyone here installed a CPR playfield in their Black Kight?
How is it?

I’ve done three. Nothing unusual. Definitely add micro-switches to both upper and lower troughs.

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Yep, just keep in mind the marks for mechs and such are guidelines - just as with any new pf.

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Hey all -

Just picked up an original Black Knight over the weekend, and got it set up today. It was part of a group of four machines I bought when I picked it up, so I didn't test anything.

When I got it all set up today, the flippers/lights worked, but no display/sound/coils. Also, the driver board seemed to be getting really hot. I turned it off after about two minutes, and unplugged. I'm assuming their are some hacks going on, but I've never owned a machine this old. The battery terminals do have some corrosion, but the batteries themselves were just replaced this morning.

Any suggestions on where to start?

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The caps on the power board look original - check the ESR or just replace them - they're about 40 years old. Same with the sound board.

Remove the battery holder - that corrosion will continue to grow, and you need to see what the underside looks like. Install NVRAM.

Break apart the driver board and the MPU - consider replacing both sides of the 40 pin connector. At a minimum look for a lack of tension or stretched out female pins, and tarnished/burned male pins. The data lines bounce back and forth between the two boards, and this is a known problem area, especially if they are original.

Have a look at Pinwiki - some good info there.

I've been working to finish up my project Black Knight I picked up a while back:

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/archive/136031

I've got it all back together but I am having an issue where the ball wont kick out into the shooter lane. The coil fires but the ball just hops in the trough.

Everything has been cleaned, new sleeve, new diode on the coil, that solenoid connector replaced on the driver board and it just doesn't have the umph to kick it all the way up.

At first it looked like maybe the plunger wasn't going down far enough, as if the plunger was replaced with one that was too long in the past.

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I compared it to what is in my Space Shuttle, the plunger is the same, the spring seemed to be a flipper spring and the kick out arm seems to be bent in a little bit, I think this was an issue before this game was put in storage back in the day.

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I completely temporarily swapped everything over from SS and no difference. That's when I decided to repin the connector in the back box with trifurcon pins to make sure it was making good connection.

The driver board pins were already reflowed.

Any thoughts?

The weird thing is if I push the ball slightly further back in the trough it kicks it right out, but everything is mounted where it should be on the bottom of the playfield. I can see the indent through the 4th unused screw hole of the pivot bracket and I compared its location to Space Shuttle.

The only other thing I haven't checked is the backbox connection at the neck, to make sure those pins are good and clean. Everything else is working great though...

I'm considering making a crescent shaped spacer to hold the ball back in the trough but I don't think I should have to do that.

Thanks for any suggestions on where to look.

That spring is a flipper spring - shouldn't be on that mech

If it works by moving ball back a little then the issue is your alignment. Just stick a toothpick with glue in the existing screw holes. Cut flush to board and slide swinging arm up a little. You should be able to test with one screw first then put all three in when it works good. This happens often on a new playfield swap. If anything out out of alignment i just swivel and move until it works. Not sure how yours got out of alignment other than maybe the tip is a little worn. Also make sure all moving points are clean. Novus does great. If someone added grease or oil it can get sticky.

By the way, great deal on your project game. It will be rewarding to get it back to 100%. Your coin door likes like it will clean up nice. No dents. Just put it in a degreaser and shine it up. If pricing plastics have surface gouging you can sand them smooth.

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I feel like you didn't read the text because I mentioned it was a flipper spring and that I swapped everything from the SS and it made no difference.

I thought of that, but there isn't room there to move it (and the coil bracket would have to move as well)

That location works on SS so something else is up with it..

sorry, guess I misread it.

If you can’t move the armature then try to move the ball trough that holds the balls. Also, feel free to move coil bracket

Yes it cleaned up beautifully.

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Here is the full restore thread if you want to see it:

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/i-do-like-basket-case-projects-williams-black-knight.506739/

Looks great. It makes sense that you are having this problem since you did a playfield swap. This is a common problem.

It's the original playfield with a Hardtop.

No biggie, just move stuff around until it works great. I run/test the game with the playfield out on a rotisserie. It is definitely harder to do sitting in the game.

Thats goofy, all the holes are existing. The ball trough is routed out of the playfield so moving the metal bottom of the trough isn't going to change where the ball sits.

Hopefully someone else has some insight...

Put a couple washers under the end nearest the shooter lane to move it down a hair. Also you can bend the arm to change the angle it hits the ball.

I would check +12v and +5v are in spec and if so, bench test with Leon's test ROMs. There are some great resources as well, like Mark's guide: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/mark-s-guide-to-sys-3-7-pinballflippersinfo-down

One thing I would NOT do is buy a rottendog board -- they are of poor quality. Might be other aftermarket boards that are ok, though. Just don't throw away your original boards if you do. Worst case I'll buy them from you

I’ve only done 40+ playfield swaps over the past 17 years, three black Knights, but what do i know? Clearly when you move the ball position it gets popped out. This tells you there is power but it’s not aligned correctly. There is a routed hole but the ball base has some play before it gets screwed down. Most likely your parts are either bent or worn. Just move your parts until it works. By adding the hardtop the ball needs to jump an extra 1/32”(plastic thickness).

Its not going to move that much with play in the screw hole.

We're trying to help you but if you're not even going to try any suggestions it for sure isn't going to work.

The arm is already bent in (as I posted above)

It had to have worked in the factory screw holes when it was built, something else is going on.

I have thought about putting a spacer under the screws of the coil bracket to get more travel in the arm, but again, it shouldn't need that.

Can someone help me out here. Trying to get the coin door switches to work, but I don’t understand how the small wire is attached/connected. I looked here on this thread through the pictures and don’t have a clear view of them.
Any help would be appreciated.

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It’s a coiled spring. The outside end of the spring goes between the two tall posts, and the inner (long) piece goes between the short posts and over to the place where the coin hits the wire.

Here’s a few pics.

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Thank you! Appreciate the pictures.

I installed a spacer under the coil bracket and that gave the plunger just extra travel to kick the ball out.

(I tried loosening the screws moving the pivot on the screw hole slack, that didn’t make a difference)

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I Live streamed a few of the test plays.

https://www.youtube.com/live/-VKX9J4BrWY?si=vHyVRSxsXY_sn4Gq

From this play test I learning that the right outlane switch needed adjusted, that is now detecting the ball.

I also adjusted the right flipper EOS switch and its working better now.

Looking for advice as to where the odd shaped wire goes. I just completed my hardtop install and rebuild but have this missing piece. I have 100+ pictures and it is not in any of them. Any advice appreciated.

Disregard 2 wires at the top of the photo those are the fast ball stops behind the flippers I won't be installing back in.

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Bottom wire form goes in the ball trough.

Perfect thank you!

I'm trying to turn off sound in attract mode, but it doesn't seem to turn off. I set option 32 to 01. Every time the machine comes on, or after a game it just continues to play that ascending sound. The game has all new boards, weebly CPU and Sound boards, and a Kohout pwr supply board.

Is there something I'm missing? It does seem to retain the setting, but just plays the sounds in attract mode regardless.

The sound in attract is voice saying the black knight will slay you hahahaah.... or similar - it's not the background sound at all. If you get that in attract there's something wrong, and if it's all new boards, maybe something in the wiring harness or something shorting out.

The occasional voice taunt would be fine, it's just that it continually plays that ascending sound effect! Not sure what I should look for... Any idea if that sounds effect is triggered by CPU or some external switch?

All of the sound triggers come from the mpu.

One of the sound board input patterns should trigger all sounds to stop. If you still have background noise after playing a game i'd check from the MPU 12pin connector to the nine pin plug on the left side of the sound board. See if any wires are ripped out of the IDC connector or something.

When I test the MPUs checking all the sound board outputs is something I do, so board should be OK, but shit can happen.

Try the Sound test via the MPU mode. Five bits are used and the manual indicates it should make a different noise all five sounds for 00 to 04 and nothing on 05 and 06 (not wired). See if you are missing a sound from 00 to 04 and then you can use that information to check a specific wire.
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This was EXACTLY the info I needed. Sound 03 was missing, so I took a closer look at connector 1J8, which was the original IDC style connector. Two of the wires had a couple strands sticking out that might have been touching. I went ahead and replaced the entire connector, but didn't solve the issue. The nine pin plug to the sound board looked new, but then I remembered that when I got this BK, I had to replace all the display plugs because whoever replaced them previously was clueless about repinning.

I pulled the pins out of the nine pin housing and sure enough, several were crimped solely on the wire insulation. Surprised it worked at all really! I completely repinned it and used a new housing. Game is now fixed, and there are sounds there I didn't realize were even missing! Best of all, it's silent when idle now.

Thanks so much for the info, really appreciate it!