Game Resetting - Posting as an FYI. Last night my game reset multiple times while my cousin was playing. When I took a look the first thing I noticed was he was scoring points without even playing. Quickly I diagnosis the issue was a stuck switch. The target next to the Walter ramp needed to be adjusted. Once corrected the reset issue resolved itself.

Thanks for the info. Added it to my overview.

It are the wires, for 99% sure. They should be more tight to the bottom of the MPF.

However, I have to agree with Tim there is room for improvement to avoid 100% wires hanging in the Jesus lane. DP started working on a bigger 'cover' above the Jesus ramp which covers also this part and so preventing the wires to do this. So a metal plate (most likely it will be become a plastic cover) as you see in the enclosed picture but more extending also to the back

IMG_7956 (resized).JPG

My car door started swinging open by itself during gameplay. I haven't investigated but I know the stepper motor works.
Does anyone know if it's related to the door post itself? Figured I would ask before trying to fix it. Has anyone else had this same issue?

Bumping this post about the right speaker, intermittent audio hiss: https://beta.pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/a-lotta-ins-a-lotta-outs-tbl-maintenance-thread/page/11#post-6273335

I'm now certain it's the audio board and likely a capacitor or component within which is the root cause. After the machine is on for about an hour it occurs. I know it's not the speakers or a connection because literally it occurs after the machine has been on and not played at all. Aka I can just try going to sound test and any sound I test has the hiss. If I power down and wait a min then back up it's gone. Also, when it occurs I can route the right output from the board to an external speaker and I hear the hiss from it. Therefore I have requested a new audio board from DP.

Post a picture of your audio board so we can take a look.

Thanks cpr9999 ! Here's a photo for ya.

TBL audio board (resized).jpg

Your 4 right side speakers are plugged in backwards.

Should be red, black, red, black for wire plugs.

Crap that was an old photo taken after troubleshooting the issue originally and I obviously put them back in the wrong place. They are correct currently yet the issue persists. Sorry for the misinformation. Also that's the subwoofer out so why would that have any affect on an intermittent hiss in only the right speaker?

Hooray, every day a new issue. Here's the one that started tonight: When the ball comes out of the scoop and I try to catch/calm it with the right flipper, the flipper drops. This only happens when the ball is being ejected from the scoop thus far. Other times the right flipper holds just fine. What do I need to check to resolve this?

Your dipswitch settings are wrong. The should be this - see picture.
(Looks like yours are still audio manufacturers settings).

5BB23787-83E4-4B40-B670-5C6D041BF8CC (resized).jpeg

I think those are for bass-boost control and not likely causing a hissing sound but attached a picture of my dipswitch settings and they are different indeed.

Let me check on exact meaning of the dipswitch, think its on the backside of the board ....

IMG_8117 (resized).JPG

Here the meaning of the dipswitches.

Don’t think this is the cause of your issue but always worth to try it out.

267C6D0B-5DC3-4143-B747-22CA8B32657F (resized).jpeg

Any ideas on this Rensh ?

Ok

I am assuming you are running rel 055 Abe didn’t change anything in the flipper coil settings? Eg it reads Strong ? This means hold coil gets full power and is as strong as it can be. Can you pls check this setting is set.

I must admit though that doesn’t explain why only when ball comes from scoop. Also ball is not coming fast out of the scoop and hitting the flipper extra fast.

Also, did you manage to get stepper motor fuse replaced and it is holding?

Yes 0.55 and yes I tried both hold settings. In solenoid test it does not drop if I push it when up but also I doesn't look like you can test the flipper hold as the test just pops it up then back down doesn't do a hold.

The issue only happens when the ball is being popped out of the scoop. During other times even when the ball is coming incredibly fast down to the flipper, the issue does not occur. Only from the scoop eject 100% of the time.

I've tried:
a. Swapping the L & R flipper connections to the board the issue still occurs with the right flipper (but being controlled by the left flipper button of course).
b. Swapping the L & R Coils completely. The issue still happens with the right flipper (even though now its using the previous Left flipper's coil). So it's not a coil issue. While swapping the coils I also used contact cleaner to clean the insides and even put in brand new coil sleeves.
c. Checking all connections, fuses, physical signs of any bad components.
d. Changing different solenoid and hold strengths with the flippers and the scoop.
e. Looked for any test errors, stuck switches, and there are none.
f. Disconnecting any mods (the only one that has been connected is the speaker lights to the recommended backbox connector that is shared with the translite).
g. Running any solenoid tests I can think of -- all are functioning as expected.
h. Replacing the F03 5A Solenoids fuse.
i. Reverting to 0.53 and back to 0.55.

What else controls the hold in this specific scenario that I can check? Is it possible that the scoop eject could somehow be causing the flipper coil/hold to lose voltage temporarily or something? Is there a switch or opto or anything else that could be in play? I've read something about similar hold issues on other machines (not TBL) like bad diodes or bad EOS switches but there is no EOS here right?

Also I guess worth mentioning is when the machine gets powered on I almost always here "ding da ding da ding da ding" coming from the backbox somewhere. It then goes away once I start the game. Is this normal?

So far yes the fuse has been holding and the stepper motors have been working again. Checked just now and all fuses are showing their red led indicator = ok. As a test I tried replacing the F03 5A Solenoids fuse but that didn't change anything for the flipper hold issue.

Wasn’t there something with wiring being swapped and it affecting hold strength of flippers?

Found this:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-big-lebowski-official-club-thread/page/22#post-5547279

Right but that's about the upper flipper and like I said the hold is just fine in every scenario except right after the ball is ejected from the scoop. Wouldn't I experience weak holds in all other scenarios from day one if I had a similar wiring issue? This only started occuring last night.

Here's how mine look. When I compare my upper flipper wiring it's definitely different vs. both of my L&R flippers.. Although my wire colors on the upper are different from the photos in that post, they are in the recommended positions. Should it be the same for the L&R flippers?

While trying to find the latest photos anyone has taken of the L&R wiring, I found this from and EA owner who only posted 62 days ago: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-big-lebowski-official-club-thread/page/37#post-6185086
His post was not about any issues and his wiring is the same as mine. So the question is -- should the L&R flipper wiring match that of the Upper flipper? I'm not going to go soldering the connections differently unless it's recommended that I do so. I still don't think this is a wiring issue anyway.

My L&R
PXL_20210515_035641221 (resized).jpg

My upper
PXL_20210515_225802028 (resized).jpg
PXL_20210515_225756092 (resized).jpg

Changed the one and only difference Dip switch 5 and not only did it make the game more boomy sounding, the hiss happened again. I need a new audio board.

Can anyone actually help me with this right flipper issue? I've provided tons of information in both of these posts about it:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/a-lotta-ins-a-lotta-outs-tbl-maintenance-thread/page/12#post-6282941

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/a-lotta-ins-a-lotta-outs-tbl-maintenance-thread/page/12#post-6283278

New issue that came out of nowhere tonight: Now the bowling arm's little pin / coil that holds at first, then drops the ball when you bowl appears to not be dropping enough to let the ball go. Upon hitting the launch button it seems to drop a tiny bit but the ball stays in the arm. Then the all the pins "fall" as if I got a strike and one second after, the ball actually drops out of the arm. Just like the right flipper issue, I have not touched that area nor this bowling area of the machine whatsoever before either issue arose.

In all the test bowling options in the menu, it looks like things are working right, the arm's little pin seems to drop just fine. Then just like the flipper issue, during gameplay this is what happens 100% of the time. This just started happening an hour ago. The above posts regarding the flipper issue started out of nowhere last night. This one started an hour ago.:

This issue after issue scenario from my NIB less than a month ago has gotten completely out of hand. I really hope someone can help me.

Maybe you should report this to your dealer and ask for a replacement or a visit of a technician.
This with the bowling area looks like a mechanical problem to me.

On the flipperfingers, switch the coil, check the mechanic, play around with the settings (for me setting to "STRONG" solved my problem).
I would ask the seller for help ! He is responsible, not only making some money on pushing boxes trough the states.

EDIT: On the video it seems like the ball is stuck in the mechanismen. The ball will not be pushed out, it just fells out when the little hook diapperas. Check mechanic !!

Dear Timlah,

Sorry to read about your continuing new issues , you are one unlucky dude .

As follows:

Bowling up-down post

I am guessing the post is rubbing against the playfield causing friction causing it to only go down slowly. Would be good to see a video without a ball as the ball is blocking the view on this post. You can test it in the coil menu. You can 'bent' the coilmechanisme a little to 'free' this post. See attached picture circled to show what I mean. Move it manually by hand up-down to see if it runs freely. See also FAQ attached

Right flipper

Its correct that in solenoid test the hold coil is not activated. Programmer made a note to correct this bug in a next release. You can test it in regular gameplay. Just remove the glass, press flipperbutton and see if you can push down the flipper. Try this left and right to see if there is any difference.

Also its correct that the upper flipper is wired different. Your bottom flippers are wired correctly.

Normally I would say something is wrong in the hold part of the coil, eg coil needs to be replaced (a standard Pinball Life purchased part). What we just dont understand is your comment that it ONLY happens when a ball comes from the scoop. This makes it really puzzling.

Tomorrow an express shipment will come your way and a complete right flipper assy will be included. For now my advise would be to let it rest a few days till you get the shipment. Take a short TBL holiday, otherwise you will get only to much frustrated and loose the joy in playing.
01085686-293c-497c-b2d6-d8a28fdd9c78 (resized).JPG

Bowling Alleys operations FAQ.pdf

@cpr9999, kudos to you for attempting to help Tim out with all these TBL issues he is having. Hope he gets to enjoy his game soon!

Thank you for your continued help, TomDK , Rensh and cpr9999 .

I have now requested a technician specially because I can't even lift the playfield anymore (EDIT- Not reliably but was able to finally get it to lock today). I've asked my dealer to schedule an appointment with someone soon after I receive the parts from DP. I believe the visit will be covered. A new machine doesn't appear to be a viable option. I'm told I would have to wait at the back of the pre-order line if I went that route and it took me almost 1.5 years since pre-ordering to receive the one I have. So I'm very apprehensive to do so.

I've consulted the FAQ but like I mentioned in test I see the coil pin moving up and down freely with or without the ball and always dropping to the same position. It is not rubbing or getting caught on the playfield whatsoever. I will also say that the coil pin has quite an amount of "give" though. It doesn't always go up in a perfectly straight direction but also I *never* see it get stuck or rubbing the PF. Also bending the bracket doesn't help.

EDIT: I was able to get the playfield up thankfully and took a closer look in test. I can get the issue to occur in test now. After close inspection to pictures in the FAQ vs my alley, it appears that the real cause is the level at which the bowling arm is mounted. It's mounted too low or has somehow "sunken" since I got the game. I can clearly tell that the plastic of the arm is below the threshold of the alley's circular cutout. Therefore, regardless if the coil pin is all the way down, the ball will rest within that circular cutout. I must have been getting lucky while it was working before, maybe the pin was going down just ever so low enough to encourage/lift the ball out of the hole. Maybe now it goes too far down. The stepper motor/arm bracket is tight and not sinking at all BTW.

How do I adjust the height of the arm plastic? I see mention of using a 2.5mm alan wrench to adjust the arm's inner screw but no matter what size I tried I could not get in there to loosen it. I also don't know if that screw will even allow the plastic to be lifted up/down at all or if it only allows L/R adjustment.

Here's a new video from a different angle:

Thank you for confirming the wiring is correct. As I mentioned in my post, I already tried manually making the flipper fail in this manner. It does not. ONLY when the ball is ejected from the scoop. If I hold the R flipper as the ball ejects, the hold is lost. During the loss of hold power I can manually move the flipper up and down with ease as I hold the flipper button. Release and press the button again and the flipper is back to life without any hold issue. Also only the right flipper has the issue. I can eject the ball from the scoop, hold the left flipper and try to push it down and it holds just fine. Also as I mentioned I have completely swapped the L&R coils, aka the L coil is now on the R flipper and the issue persists. So if it is something about the assembly, what else could it be besides the coil? I've already ruled out the coils themselves by swapping it out with the L one (specifically -- putting the L flipper's coil and coil stop on the R flipper and vice versa). I'm doubtful a new assembly is going to resolve the issue but I will try that when it arrives.

One other interesting thing I noticed is it seems like the strength setting for the scoop eject has no effect. I can put it all the way to the lowest or highest setting and to me the ball ejects at the same velocity. I'm mentioning this because back to my suspicion about voltage going to the scoop vs. the flipper when the issue occurs. I am apprehensive to use my multimeter with the machine on, especially with 48V enabled otherwise I may be able to get some readings. This will have to be done by the technician.

Rensh Can you please work with your technician to see about a possible voltage drop in this scoop eject vs. right flipper hold scenario? I wonder if this could be another PCB issue.

Here's an in depth, general all things flipper troubleshooting guide I found. Any of these issues ring a bell? https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/jurassic-park-flipper-hold-issue#post-2150726

Thanks again for all your guys' help. I'm trying to remain as positive as possible it's just getting more difficult day to day.

Tim, one last piece of troubleshooting that may help: Have you tried loading it up with the older software. (you can do this from the test menu) I'd be curious is this fixes the flipper issue. It shouldn't, but because this is so closely tied to the scoop use, It may be worth seeing if there was a possible software glitch on the .55 update. It's a long shot but easy enough to try.

As for the bowling issue, maybe bolts holding the assembly up have just loosened and is the cause of the drop in level. This would be a super easy fix so fingers crossed.

Agree with this.
Good next steps.

Thank you. Yes I already tried reverting the software. Last item in the what I tried list from my earlier post. Here's the entire list again.

I've tried:
a. Swapping the L & R flipper connections to the board the issue still occurs with the right flipper (but being controlled by the left flipper button of course).
b. Swapping the L & R Coils completely. The issue still happens with the right flipper (even though now its using the previous Left flipper's coil). So it's not a coil issue. While swapping the coils I also used contact cleaner to clean the insides and even put in brand new coil sleeves.
c. Checking all connections, fuses, physical signs of any bad components.
d. Changing different solenoid and hold strengths with the flippers and the scoop.
e. Looked for any test errors, stuck switches, and there are none.
f. Disconnecting any mods (the only one that has been connected is the speaker lights to the recommended backbox connector that is shared with the translite).
g. Running any solenoid tests I can think of -- all are functioning as expected.
h. Replacing the F03 5A Solenoids fuse.
i. Reverting to 0.53 and back to 0.55

For the bowling issue, already checked that and tried messing with it. Mounts are / were completely tight. And I don't see a way to lift the mount bracket. It's set in the position it wants to be. It can kind of go forward/backwards a bit so I tried forward to decrease the gap which didn't help. That's why I asked if the screw/pin in the arm assembly itself would allow the arm to be raised or not? I've tried multiple size Alan wrenches and cannot get a hold of it to even try. Also I don't know how to get the arm up and out of the stepper motor to even remove the bracket to perhaps try slightly bending the bracket arms to give it just a little more lift. I also tried increasing the forward pitch of the machine to see if more gravity would allow the ball to overcome this hurdle. Didn't help either.

In regard to your bowling launcher, if you loosen the screw you can move the bowling launcher (a little) up or downwards.

What I learned is also the following. Up to feb-start March 2021 DP used a M2.5 Allen screw but than changed to TX10 torx. Your TBL built is around that period so could be it’s already a TX10 screw.

7B4669D8-E4F2-4F75-A201-1F9E106BBBB4 (resized).jpeg

Ugh... thank you for correcting that Rensh . No wonder what I've tried wasn't working. I have T10 bits (I'm still unclear what the difference is b/t TX10 and T10) but given the bracket, even my tiniest bit driver will not fit in that gap. The driver I have is too large in diameter to fit. What is the exact name of the tool you are using in the FAQ photo?
The best I have been able to find as far as getting a new kit goes are these three listings on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZB7FMLB
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B081R3Y9PL
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TNS3D4X

The same bit driver width is a problem with trying to remove the MPF by the way. The hole in the plastic ramp is incredibly small. I've been able to get it unscrewed with one of my tiny allen wrenches. This screw in the bowling arm is unimaginably more difficult than that. I'm at least glad to now know that it will allow me to lift the arm since that is definitely the issue here.

Also speaking of tiny places. If I need to remove or adjust the bowling post coil bracket, I cannot. Two of the nuts are so close to the bend in the bracket that it's nearly impossible to remove them with standard tools. The one pictured here seems completely torqued and cannot be removed. Unsure what I would need to buy to loosen it. I am most definitely not trying to remove the entire bowling alley assembly in order to make minor tweaks like this.

TBL bowling post coil bracket (resized).jpg

Small open end wrench. Or small thin nosed vice grips. A little at a time.

LTG : )

I use a set similar to the one you mention

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B081R3Y9PL

I Use it also for the screw below the mpf ramp. Bit drivers are indeed often to big for this kind of work.

The one in the picture you ask about is a M2.5 version like you can see here https://a.aliexpress.com/_uRjP3f

This ignorant fool (aka me) needs links if you don't mind pulling some up.

https://www.acehardware.com/departments/tools/hand-tools/wrenches/2296440?x429=true&gclid=CjwKCAjwy42FBhB2EiwAJY0yQnBKPe2yYxVfFGvApdW3qZs2YrfIcEqT2u5edV_SEIj9_UczVK1xKBoCrV8QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

You aren't ignorant if you are willing to learn. Shop locally, see what you might find if hardware stores, auto part stores, tool stores.

LTG : )

Rensh I am utterly dumfounded at this point. I was able to obtain the right T10 screwdriver and start adjusting the height of the plastic arm.

I have:
- Gone higher, lower, somewhere in between with the arm.
- Gone slightly forward, slightly backward with its bracket.
- Bent the release post coil bracket forward, backwards, somewhere in between.
- Watched the release post coil in test over and over again. I will say that it does have some forward/backward give in its arm itself (that should be normal right?) but again it always drops and raises to the same heights and never gets stuck on the PF.
- Tried every L/R position of the arm and its inconsistent. I can have it centered in test, ball slowly gets encouraged to drop, try again and it sticks. I will say that it most consistently fails when the arm is in a far L or R position though.
- Increased pitch, decreased pitch of the machine at every step.
- Tried all 6 balls in case it's a ball size issue.
- Wiped off the balls and the plastic arm to make sure there's no gunk or residue.
- Tested to make sure none of the balls are magnetized (perhaps getting stuck to the release post).

I cannot get consistent results no matter what. I am now starting to think that the real issue is the molding of the arm plastic. When I had the arm up above the threshold of the PF cutout and the bracket in the most forward position (mitigating it getting stuck between the arm plastic and the PF cutout), I realized that the ball appears to need to somehow get "lifted up" from its resting place in order for it to meet the arm leads just enough to get it to roll forward through the downside of them. Is this normal? If so, how in the heck is that supposed to happen with any matter of consistency with all the moving parts here? Does the release post have to be at an incredibly precise position both up/down and forwards/backwards to create some tiny ramp to push the ball up and into the arms while it is completely down? Or is the post supposed to lift just a bit after you push the button to then push it up and over the arm? If its the latter mine doesn't during gameplay. The post goes down the ball doesn't move then the post goes up and by then the game code has assumed its stuck so the pins just fall before the ball even drops. I thought it was as simple as the post goes down then the ball has enough clearance to roll through the arm via gravity. However that does not appear to be the case at all.

I will reiterate that from day one this was working just fine. The issue only began a few days ago. I had never touched this area of the machine before nor even gone into test because it was working 100% of the time. I even had the game at a super slow pitch at first and it was fine. I since increased the pitch and it was fine all before the other day.

So if it is the mold of the arm or the position of the post coil, then you would think I'd always have had this issue. I am also now concerned because the parts shipment sent to me this week does not include any of these parts. I have a technician scheduled for this weekend. I seriously think he'll be as clueless as I am at the moment. Here are some videos after I tried my best to match the position of everything I can see in the FAQ photos. Please read through the above bullets, see the videos and let me know if anything stands out. I have 2 videos during Test, 2 during gameplay. I turned the volume down for the latter. Is the grinding of the arm and beeeeeep expected?

It would also help to see a video of someone doing the same tests on their machine that is working 100%. If anyone is willing to do so I'd be very grateful. There's got to be something obvious going on that I haven't realized.

Video 1 (During Test) - Noticed how the first try, the ball releases. Any subsequent tries it does not, even when I later put the arm back into that initial position:

Video 2 (During Test):

Video 4 (During Gameplay - hear the grinding of the arm and the whirling/beeeeeep when the button is clicked):

Video 5 (During Gameplay - hear the grinding of the arm and the whirling/beeeeeep when the button is clicked):

Is there any way of getting to the switch that registers rig hits easily without having to dismantle half the game? The rug is only currently registering 1/3 of hits so I need to adjust it somehow. Thanks!

My guess is the metal post holds the ball in place in the upper position and then to release the ball the coil engages and drops the metal post.

It looks like it is not dropping deep enough.

OR

How is the overall pitch of the game? If to great maybe that has an effect.

Thank you but ugh. It IS dropping deep enough. I already mentioned that and that the post itself when dropped to it's lowest position is not a factor. Also I mentioned that the overall pitch makes no difference. They key in my post is that, given the mold of the plastic arm, the ball HAS to be somewhat lifted once the button is pressed in order to get it into the position where it can drop from the rest of the arm. I thought my last reply and multiple videos made that clear. At this point I need someone to take a video of their working machine, during gameplay and test just as I did in those videos I posted. I don't see any other way to figure this out since DP support seems to have no clue either.

Again I'll copy and paste the details that I've tried and noted, just like I did with the flipper issue which is still an issue. I feel like people who are responding aren't actually reading carefully into each step I'm meticulously noting:

I have:
- Gone higher, lower, somewhere in between with the arm.
- Gone slightly forward, slightly backward with its bracket.
- Bent the release post coil bracket forward, backwards, somewhere in between.
- Watched the release post coil in test over and over again. I will say that it does have some forward/backward give in its arm itself (that should be normal right?) but again it always drops and raises to the same heights and never gets stuck on the PF.
- Tried every L/R position of the arm and its inconsistent. I can have it centered in test, ball slowly gets encouraged to drop, try again and it sticks. I will say that it most consistently fails when the arm is in a far L or R position though.
- Increased pitch, decreased pitch of the machine at every step.
- Tried all 6 balls in case it's a ball size issue.
- Wiped off the balls and the plastic arm to make sure there's no gunk or residue.
- Tested to make sure none of the balls are magnetized (perhaps getting stuck to the release post).

That’s an easy one to get to, just raise the playfield

See my faq where it is at https://www.dropbox.com/s/ufx5p11cp62vl1s/Rug%20Toy%20FAQ.pdf?dl=0

That really sucks. Just wondering if DP can just send you a new bowling alley assy. Send that one back to them as it clearly is not operating as designed. Wishing you the best on this I am pulling my hair out and I won’t even get mine for a couple more weeks.

Tim, from the video it seems the ball is hanging up the forward point of the release post. Seeing as this is the only moving part effecting the release, I'd focus on this. Looks like the ball is catching on that front point and sitting there till the release coil kicks back up and knocks the ball the rest of the way down the ramp. From what I'm seeing the relationship of the rotating arm to the post needs to be higher and/or the point on the front of the post needs to be lower/rounded off a bit. You say that lowering the post further does not fix the issue but is that because the ball now gets stuck on the edge of the playfield with the pin being that low? I think you want that rotating arm up a hair, the pin down as low as you can get it, and if possible, change the angle of the pin so it is lower on the ball side and higher on the playfield side (if that makes sense to you) so the ball will roll off the pin without catching on the playfield. Sorry, not the easiest thing to explain. I'd keep testing with the pf up and run balls through by hand while you change the pin angle/height. Lastly, the closer the pin can be to the rotating arm, the better. It's the gap in between the two that seems to be catching the ball.

That was my exact thought and what I was trying to convey in fewer words. You can definitely see the ball hang up in the video.

Either lower the metal pin/post OR raise the orange piece.

The other thought I had was on the coil mechanism under the playfield. Is the coil pulling the pin deep enough? Did the screws come loose?

Note - my guess here is you gaining knowledge on how these lock mechanism work.

You should lift the playfield out - straight towards you and rest it on the wood edge where the player stands. Next, Remove balls from machine.

Then when ready lift playfield off of the wood edge and pull straight back toward you until you hear the “click” and then raise the playfield vertical.

Works everytime. This mechanism is not like current Stern machines. It is similar to older Bally/Williams machines.

Not sure if you knew that - hoping operator error here.

The more I think about this the more I think the issue is the gap between the rotating arm and the release pin. The pin seems to be going down enough, if you can get it closer to the arm, there will be nowhere for the ball to hang up and it should roll nicely down the slope on the top of the pin to the playfield. The post needs to move closer to the rotating arm.

Glad you are getting a tech to come.

I thought this too but in Rens picture above seems far away / but worth a check.

I'm just judging by the videos above in Tim's post. There is no photo of the mech with no ball and the arm turned to near its travel limit to see the clearance but on the straight on views shown, looks like this gap could be closed up a fair bit.

Worth a shot

Looking at this again and freezing the photos from video - see pictures below it is getting hung up on the metal post/pin. This is from 2 different times.

So either the pin is to high or the orange piece is not level/high enough.

Maybe the pin’s coil is not strong enough pulling it all the way down, maybe coil mechanism is loose, maybe the position.

Or the orange shooter piece is not level front to back?

Get the tech involved he probably has some good mechanical skills to fix this right away (especially since it worked at 1 time).

3DF64917-F264-4722-A1C8-5D494F3E70C4 (resized).png86E3A212-37BA-4E21-93D3-FDD5618FEB40 (resized).png

Yes it appears that way and may be the case in certain parts of those videos but most of the time it's either stuck in the gap or literally nothing is holding it but the "up-angle" of the arm plastic.

Yes I believe so. If the pin/post is not supposed to go past the threshold of the PF hole, it most definitely is 100% of the time. And in that case, yes ball is stuck on the edge.

Yes this makes sense. In order to get the pin/post in the position describe, the coil bracket must be bent as far back (toward the back of the game) as possible. This I have tried to no avail. I've also tried as far as possible the other direction and somewhere in between without success.

See this photo (before I was able to get to the arm screw to change the height) where I had the arm bracket moved toward the back of the PF as much as possible and the coil bracket bent as far back as possible to decrease the gap (Note my earlier post where I still cannot get one of the nuts loose from the coil bracket in order to shift it like I can with the arm bracket, so bending is my only option at the moment). This was almost to the point where the arm circle was rubbing against the PF hole cutout. Issue persisted. (Disregard the "greasiness" on the plastic, that's from my fingers (or my tears LOL) and I have wiped down the plastic many times with a dry paper towel).

TBL Bowling Arm and Pin as close to each other as possible (resized).jpg

Now here's a photo where I had the arm lifted up as high as possible giving plenty of clearance from the PF hole. It was so high that it wasn't triggering the switches so not a viable height anyway. In this scenario is when I noticed the ball literally getting stuck in the "up-slope" of the arm itself. It just doesn't have enough forward momentum when the pin/post drops to roll forward and clear that tiny slope in the arm plastic.

I think the arm needs to somehow be angled forward enough to a) not make that up-slope an issue but also b) not so angled that it creates a "wedged" area for the ball to get stuck on the PF hole. No clue how to accomplish that.

TBL Bowling Arm and Pin - arm as high as possible (resized).jpg

I like the look of the gap in that top photo, this should negate any issue with it hanging up in the gap. Try placing balls in the arm with this setup and pulling the release coil slowly down by hand and see if the ball is still sitting in the arm with that post as far down as you can get it. If it's still sitting there with the post totally out of the way then you are right, it must be the angle of the arm. This seems super odd though as you say the machine had been working fine previously and the arm shape has obviously not changed.

If you get to this point and are sure the arm is at fault, I'd talk to DP about a replacement but in the meantime, how about a couple thin washers or shims, under the pf between the pf and the arm assembly on the side closest to the release pin. This should slope the entire mech a little, hopefully enough to keep the ball rolling out of the arm with a little more force.

Is there a crack in your orange piece widening it or is this just an illusion?

A0C4241C-2561-4CE1-BAFF-57E9AEA8AD7A (resized).jpeg