Frosted warm retro bulbs. Comet has them. Also good practice to aquire some neutral density ND theatrical lighting gels. If any bulb is bright, cut little square over bulb. Can also take gels and cone a bulb to add direction of beam.

Having a problem that if I shoot the bear kick ramp cleanly the ball will come off of the wire form every single time. I just shopped the game out and when I got the game the diverter was not working so I am not sure if it has always done this. I see no way to adjust it either. Anyone have any tips here? I have tried everything I can think of including adjusting the mounts for the wire form above the sling/swamp to putting a piece of double sided tape to act as a spacer behind the diverter plunger so that when it is at rest it is not too far into the ramp.

I would try adjusting the flap. It may be bent a little and throwing the ball off. Can you post a pic of the flap while at rest?

Took a while to get my JP to quit doing that. I doubled up the spring on the diverter, adjusted it further closed where a slow roller would just make it past the diverter, and turned down the flipper strength. I retrospect, I could have bent the diverter and made it more curved as well.

Sure

Yeah I thought something may be off with the diverter but did not want to just start bending it.

Here are the pictures https://goo.gl/photos/SN82LYuxf26ZpFJY8.

For now I put some double stick tape at the top of the ramp to hit the ball slow it down a bit. Seems to be working but would rather have it fixed correctly...

Checked your pictures and it looks like the flap is allowing the ball to hit the corner of the ramp and not allowing a nice flow for the ball. I would try to adjust the flap a little towards the right and see how that works.

I can say if I move the ball slowly it will get stuck between the diverter and the ramp. I was not sure how this was supposed to flow but I know that cannot be it. It has gotten stuck once during game play even.

Just installed and I hope it works like a charm!

Well, accomplished it yesterday... Not sure yet how or why it triggers... I didn't have any balls locked, but had just completed the THING lights on the speaker panel..

You hit the ramp twice when it was lite. You have to accomplish a mode, go through pops around clockwise than get the ramp when stars are lite, very hard, light is only on for maybe 2 seconds. Ive only done it a couple times in a 1000 plus games.

I need to get one of these.

I just got this pin a couple weeks ago as my first from a fellow pinsider (thanks Mat!); and, my god, I couldn't be happier. I love getting up really early before my wife and son are up to play this.

Those callouts will last longer than any of us this thread.

"Who says you cant take it with you!"
Gomez

Light all the "THING" letter in the back. To do that, shoot the left ramp with the top right flipper. Every time you hit that ramp, you'll get a letter. Complete THING, and once they are all flashing together, shoot the "mini ramp" right up the middle. You'll get "no no no" everytime. Everyone once in a while the alternate call out is "no time for that now!"

Congrats! I did the same, bought it as my first pin from a pinsider and I love it as well. Unfortunately have a couple things to fix on mine, but yeah, its awesome huh?

Help! Has anyone had this issue?

When the game is turned on both the hand and bookcase continue to cycle back and forth non-stop.

What could cause this?

I sincerely hope for your sake that someone far more knowledgeable than me will chime in, but I wonder if its an opto issue?

Sounds like a short somewhere. You should check the switch matrix; probably the bookcase and thing switches are on the same row.

the bookcase is tracked by two physical switches underneath; the bookcase arm mechanism alternates between the two switches to know which direction to turn. I believe Thing is also tracked with a physical switch or two.

Go into switch edge test and make sure no switches are showing as closed that shouldn't be. Then test the switches that Rdoyle mentioned above.

Does anyone one have a spare thing motor and gearbox assembly they might want to sell? (part 14-7966). I can't seem to find any online except for one on ebay that doesn't ship outside of the US. The major parts dealers are either out of stock on their website, or out of stock when you ask.

I am looking for some help. My TAF went from working great one game and than the next game it started resetting,the DMD is all garbled up,and the sound is messed up. Sitting alone it keeps going on and off by itself. I have a Khar daughter board in my tool box so I tried that but it does nothing to help.Also before it went out the flippers got real weak. Any thoughts would be great.I have had this game for over 15 years with no problems.

Thanks in advance.

Unplug machine from wall, a must for this one. Now open powerbox, ie, what your on off switch is connected to. You will have to pull glass and open her up.
Inside power box ia a thermistor and a varistor. Replace both, there 25 plus years old.
Problem fixed, been there done that, exact symptoms you described.
Not to be a now it all, but if there is a pin i own that i know every square centimeter of, ots Addams.
Dont let my time on pinside judge me, ive been around the block on this craft.

The red wire with grey disk red wire on left side is the thermistor, the green disk is varistor. Originally i found this on pinwiki.
Marcos has both, 5 bucks for both.

IMAG0376 (resized).jpg

The grey disk wears out and wont hold power flow properly. Since your in the box, not always easy to unscrew and get out and off, might as well replace both.

Thank you Ericpinballfan. I will get parts and reply back when complete. Thanks again.

Salute to Eric! What a diagnosis!

Very well done sir!

Whats not working?
Feeling lucky today?

Thanks man. I am pretty confidant on this one. Happened to me on a Gilligans Island first, then an Addams, then a Fish Tales. On the third time in say 2 years, I knew then the target time on this part was about 25 years. I keep several varistors and thermistors in the tool kit now. There all going to need it eventually.

The thing motor rarely goes bad. Its moving right? So you dont need a motor unless its frozen or smoking. Do you smell a burn smell?
Its a switch, not opto. Has the problem gone away since last reporting?
Trick is in testing modes. Switch test and motor test, in motor test if the speakers make a ding noise when its going back and forth, its not the switch, the ding noise is the switch.

Welp, the latest is that the thing started making an unholy noise when operating. I immediately shut it off. Started taking stuff apart, disconnected the motor from the gearbox and hand tested whether the gears turn smoothly. In one direction they do in the other they stick. Didn't feel confident drilling out the rivets and monkeying around in the gearbox so planned on just replacing the part which pfinny was kind enough to order for me (seller wouldn't ship outside US).

Awesome

Well there you have it Thing!
Sounds like tbe motor now based on your info. Ive been super busy this week or i would have responded sooner. I almost pm you to offer same solution on getting you a motor.
Let us know once shes back together. If you have the gold roms you can turn off thing and still play the game till ypu get it.

thank you! will do

Got the parts today,installed and the game works like a champ. Thanks Eric that saved me a lot of headaches.

Good news. Whenever I buy a pin, its the first thing I check, these are old mechanical devices. Start from wall and work your way to boards. Easy fix with basic solder knowledge.

A big thank you to pfinny for ordering a part that only shipped to the US for me. It was very kind of him to offer and helped me get the part so so much faster than I could have otherwise as it was sold out everywhere else.

I now have a functioning thing hand, it moves forward, picks up balls, retracts, the whole deal My dad and I managed to get the first boot up in ages without an error diagnostic coming up!

High fives all around. And then... the next thing started of course. Basically, the thing fuctions, it moves, it picks up balls. However, when it gets to its resting position, it drops the ball into the bottom of the cabinet every fucking time.

It seems like the power to the thing cuts off when the thing reaches rest. Or at least, that's how I interpret it. Does anyone have an idea what might cause that? I'm starting to feel like this thing will never work right again, gah!!

It’s supposed to drop it to the bottom of the thing cover, which then feeds the scoop on the back of the underside. Dumb question, but do you have the cover installed properly? If not, there’s nowhere for it to go but into the cabinet

Got any pictures?

Marc

LOLOLOL thank you!! You are 100% correct. I didnt realize the cover had a function and have been testing it with the cover off. thanks!!! Hopefully this will do it I cant wait to give it a try

Make sure the cover tucks into the metal lip at the rear playfield edge.

It works!! Thank you thank you!!

Awesome!

That's not true. You can remove the pins from the molex housing with a molex pin extractor and fish them through the bookcase. I did this and averted having to solder it!

Marc

Im having a problem with my TAF, when thing picks up the ball and drops it down into the underplay field box, the ball does not roll down into the scoop section, doesn't even make it to the switch. The box does not appear to have any dents that the ball is sitting in, surface seems smoothI had the same problem with the swamp and purchased an awesome mod, that cleared up the problem right away-

http://leesparts.com/products/addams-swamp-accelerator.html

Just wondering, does anyone have any tips for aligning the box put to the scoop, adding some kind of ball accelerator, adjusting the angle of the box, etc?

Can you see where the ball is resting/getting caught up? If you open the cover and shine a flashlight and flexible mirror around, you should be able to see what's going on down there.

I sure can see what's going on down there- the balls are resting in the bottom of the box and not traveling into the hole that leads to the scoop/solenoid switch. What Im wondering is how I can get them to move forward.

IMG_2213 2 (resized).JPG

Is the box tucked into the metal flap as well as having both screws securely fastened?

Yea, its in the metal flap at the bottom, nice and snug. The screws at the top are also in solid.Not sure why this has just developed out of the blue, its been fine up until about a week ago and Ive had the machine for 5 years.

Check the playfield level.

Maybe a wire from the mech?

Long shot but magnetized balls?

Sounds like a good guess. What balls do you guys use in your Addamses? I have been using these from Marco's but I'm not sure if there is an option that is more resistant to becoming magnetized? These are resistant but not proof according to my interpretation of the write up

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/PB116-5