Tech: BF Batman Forever cannon motor

[JJJ]

Anyone here ever have to put in a new cannon motor?

I've got this issue where the ball loads into the cannon assembly, the
batwing starts to do it's thing and rotate, seems I can shoot the ball
whenever I want (there was a recent thread about someone having to
wait till a certain point till they could fire, so they can't make VUK
shot. I make VUK shot almost always), the Batwing continues it's
rotation away from home position after I fire ball, gets to it's end
position and then starts to rotate back, but it stops before it gets
to home position.

This only happens sometimes. The cannon will work 10, 15, games with
no cannon issue, but then it will stop before it gets to home
position. I have to pull back pf glass and start cannon motor test.
I'm not sure how it ends up working again. I keep hitting the RUN test
button as I lightly push the Batwing back and forth. Seems like at
some point the motor "catches" and starts to rotate on it's own again.
Put the glass back in and have a bunch of fun games till it happens
again. Very frustrating.

I "think" it has nothing to do with switches because when it happens,
it starts the rotation fine, makes it to other side fine, but stops
dead in the middle of it's return. I see the LED flash under the
motor, if that matters.

The Batwing stopping before it makes it back to home position leads to
another issue if I keep playing. A shot that should lead to loading
the cannon will come off the ramp and just get stuck on the slingshot
plastic. Looks like the wires that come up from under the pf keep it
from falling into left return lane. There is a groove in the plastic
for those wires to be there, so it seems odd the ball should get
stuck. A tilt warning shake usually frees the ball, but I realized in
"Forever" mode that the Batwing rotates without the ball in it, and
you have to make a lucky shot and hit it while it's in home base...
Does the ball get stuck up on the plastic for anyone else when they
don't make that shot? Or does the ball somehow roll freely back into
play?

So seems like even if my cannon always rotated back and forth without
issue, I would still have an issue in Forever Mode if my shot did not
load the cannon.

I couldn't find the motor at any of the parts stores I know about. I
really don't want to disable the Batwing Cannon.

Would love to hear any and all ideas on this.
Thanks!
-Julius

[jeff]

Hey Julius,

it's Jeff, your Batman Forever friend! :) I only have guesses for you
since I haven't had this problem thankfully, but I'd say pull the
cannon apart and see what you find. Sounds like maybe a gear or
something with maybe some broken teeth perhaps (something like a
starter on a car)? Maybe it's just gunked up and needs to be
thoroughly cleaned if there's some grease that either hardened or is
causing it to stick on the return. Hard to say until you dive into
it... go for it.

Also, still yet to make it to Forever mode, so can't help you there
either. There's some others here with BM forever, I think Cliffy also
has one. Hopefully some more will chime in with more detailed
help....keep us posted!

Jeff Scott

[JJJ]

Thanks Jeff,

I found a really cool deal on a new motor (Thanks AGAIN Jim P - Gott
Lieb?), so I'll be taking that sucker apart soon as the new one
arrives. The motor has worked perfect since I posted, so I don't want
to mess around.

Hey, what color flipper rubbers do you have on your BF? I just ordered
some of the wacky colored rubbers from Terry at pinballife.com. I
ordered some Blue, orange, purple, and green. I figured I'd put blue
flipper rubbers on, but when I got the rubbers, I couldn't believe how
cool the purple rubbers went on the bottom flippers. And I put a green
rubber on the upper flipper. Goes great with all the green going on up
there. I'll send you a pic.

-Julius

[JJJ]

Well, it wasn't the motor at all. Got a new one, threw it in, and same
issue.

Problem was the shaft that starts under the pf and goes up into the
batwing. There were issues at the top and bottom of the shaft where
each end has a notch so that a screw can be tightened to it so it
holds in place.

On the top of the shaft, someone tried to force in a screw that was
too big. On the bottom, the screw was nice and tight, but neither
screw was up against the flat notch in the shaft like it should be.

Correct size screw in top now. Shaft and screws all lined up correct
and tight. Batwing works nice and smooth and no issues at all.

-Julius

[Gott Lieb?]

Thanks for the follow up. Sorry, it wasn't the motor. It really
sounded like you had one stripped gear in the motor box.

Jim