Changed springs as well - used the medium tension spring that was listed for Use in TAF

Make sure the shooter rod is aligned squarely with the center of the ball when it’s resting in the shooter lane. While you’re at it, might as well make sure the plunger sleeve is clean. A full plunge should take the ball all the way around into the pops.

Nice job.

Hello TAF members. Brand new member here.

My wife gave me the Addams Family Pinball game for christmas and in a very convoluted scheme to keep it hidden had it delivered to our neighbors house. We now need to move it across the street. Question. It looks like the back box can fold down but after undoing the latch I could not get it to fold. Does it fold? If so, is there another latch hidden that I missed? Merry Xmas and happy Boxing day.

There are bolts in the head (back box) that hold the head in place. You need to remove the front glass to get to the bolts. You will need to remove those then it will fold down.

I sent you a PM. If you’re in the US call me tomorrow after 10am EST and I’ll make sure you’re good to go

Do you have the key to open the back box? If so, remove the translite and lift/pull out the speaker panel. At the base of the back box, on both sides of the opening into the cabinet, there is a hole for a bolt than can be screwed in to hold the back box to the cabinet, preventing it from falling forward if the back box is unlatched. If there is one or if both of these bolts are in place, simply unscrew them and you will be able to lower the back box. You should put foam or a blanket on the side rails before you lower the back box to prevent damage to the rails.

Watch this

On our game, the ramp coming out of the shooter lane is slightly misaligned or bent. This basically causes the ball to come out of the shooter lane and hit the area near the post by the VUK, leading to a skill shot every time. Not sure how to fix it, tho'.

You can see the misalignment in the first image, and a correctly-aligned game in the second image.

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Awesome response in so little time. Thank you. Thank you. MeNaCeFiRe I'm west coast and will likely give you a call tomorrow.

Cheers all.

On the end of that ramp is a slotted mounting tab. It allows you to move the ramp left and right. It's underneath the phone plastic.

You may be able to push the plastic over enough to get to the screw. Otherwise, it's a pain to remove the plastic. You'll need a long skinny screwdriver or nut driver.

I plan to put a Cliffy on the chair hole - what other areas to you recommend for Cliffy's (or but the whole set?)

This was the problem - the shooter rod was way right of the ball center (how does that happen?). I took apart the shooter assembly and see it has some play in the mount to align it - moved to the far left to get aligned on center but then was hitting ball too high. I had to shim a washer under the bottom of the shooter plate to bring the shooter rod down some (and keep the far left alignment). Works great now (my scores will be lower - ugh).

Should I replace the shooter assembly ?

Max gave great advice! You don’t need a new shooter but it’s easy to take apart and see if it needs a new sleeve.

Usually when you have to shim the shooter there may be other things wrong like the playfield isn’t sitting on the hangers right or the “fingers” of the apron where the ball rests may need tweaked forward or back. Takes some experimenting to get things just right.

I put the whole set on. The edges were starting to show wear. The Cliffy's fit perfectly.

Mine came with a really stiff spring (probably too much I’m guessing) that on full bore will shoot the ball up and around, through the pops, and down the chute in a second it seems, sometimes getting some serious pop action. Skill shot is fairly difficult but I can hit about 60-70% of the time.

What size are these bolts, same as for the legs? I don’t have them and makes me a bit nervous it’s being held up by just the latch. Would love to add these!

There are special "wing nut" type bolts made for this but you can certainly use a leg bolt as the thread size is the same. I would suggest using a large washer as well if you decide to use a leg bolt. Pics of bolts commonly used below.
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They are 3/8x16 thread by whatever length you need

Leg bolts are not exactly the same but close enough in a pinch.

3/8 x 16 x 2 1/4" to make room for washers. Longer that that, the shank may be too long and not tighten properly. 2 1/2" length would also work, the leg bolts are 2 1/2" long but with a big 5/8" acorn head on them.

Special bally wing bolts are 2" long. Add 1/4" for adding a fender washer if you use regular bolts.

So, a 2 1/4" length would be ideal with an added fender washer.

https://www.pinballlife.com/williamsbally-2-backbox-wing-bolt.html

Im using a lot of 2 3/4" extended leg bolts right now to make up for added leg protector width. Especially with the mantis leg protectors.

The wing bolts you can get at Home Depot for less money.

Here you go: one pic of some of the mansion wear, mansion stripped and then with sticker on pre-touchup and after touchup with playfield protector on.

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Slingshot mod i made for my Addams pinball.
If interested, check my pinside shop.
thanks

insieme (resized).jpg

That’s pretty cool!

I’m having a minor issue with the “insert house” string of the GI. It blows the fuse, but not immediately. If I put a new slow blow in, it’ll work for a couple of days, but it’ll inevitably fry the fuse. When the string is working though, I really can’t see any issues with it. Nothing seems out of the ordinary.

Thoughts?

Update: fuse is fine. I pulled all the bulbs on the string and measured voltage across a socket and have 7.75VAC (which seems high, no?).

But the second I put in a bulb, voltage disappears. Then after I pull the known good bulb, voltage is back, but it’s only 4VAC. I’m sorta at a loss here.

Does anyone know where to source the IDC sockets for the #555 bulbs in the back board behind the translite ?

Seems the suppliers that used to stock them no longer have any.

Been not available for quite some time.

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/24-8818

Its actually about time for them to be made again.

HEP (Chris Hutchens) is just using regular old-school early bally 70's or 80's insert sockets for now, as even he cant source them.

The ones that have the double tabs for stapling to the insert panel are fine in a pinch and work very well if you are doing a restoration or repairing a broken plasic IDC one.
You can use screws to hold them on if you dont want to staple them.

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/077-5000-00 or anything that's long enough.
Use bayonet base LEDS.

Or these for wedge base:

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/077-5030-00

Tech question ... I have an opto out on the bookcase , but when I activate flippers it spells Greed for every flip Opening the bookcase .
Only alert I have is “ck thing “ which I know the solenoid doesn’t eject the ball Immediately , takes a few times .

So why am I getting greed by flipping the flippers ?
Any input would be greatly appreciated

I had an issue where flipping the flippers would activate the “thing flipper” opto. Every time.

All it needed was a bit of cleaning. A q-tip dipped in alcohol cleared the issue right up. Start simple: make sure the optos are properly aligned and clean, see if that fixes your issue.

That was it , Thanks !

I’m ridiculously dumb. Should’ve taken my own advice and started simple.

Turns out it was a crappy IDC connection in the female connector. All is well now.

Need some help...
I was finally able to shop out my Addams, had a local guy come out and work through it with me.
We replaced the ramp with a new one from Marcos.
Now when I do the flasher test the 3 red strobes don't light.
I noticed also that when I test the train flasher the strobe at the phone flashes.
Are my wires backwards?
Any help is appreciated.

How did you cut the old decal? razor blade?

If you go to test #5, you can test each flasher and pair of flashers and it tells you which wire it uses:
number 17:
location: phone + upper right ramp flashers
wires: black w/brown dots and red w/ white dots

number 18:
location: train + upper left ramp flashers
wires: black w/ red dots and red w/ white dots

also make sure the flash bulbs are not blown.

Thanks Neal.
I found my issue.....
Once I pulled the ramp and connected the wires everything worked.

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Can someone please give me their input on quality of replacement TAF clear ramp, see photos. Didn’t know if this was the norm or not or if I just got a bad one. Where ramp turns into a Y and goes over the habitrail the thickness of the ramp is paper thin and entire side is wavy and bubbly looking.
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Careful scraping with an exacto knife, pic with the blade included. Razor blade just did not work.

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Where did you get that ramp?

Put in a new back glass. What do you think?

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I kinda like it.

Don't like the LED's though.

Sorry.

LEDs look way worse in the picture than in person. Its nowhere close to that much glare. Honestly the GI under the ramp is worse.

Just like GAP's black and white TZ, a black and white TAF is in the works

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/project-2-black-and-white-addams-family

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nm

That goofy stuff is almost always a diode on backwards. First thing I would check is the standup target next to the bear ramp. With a fresh game started hit that target and see if it causes a bookcase hit.

I put a clear ramp on mine and my ramp is not like yours. If I remember I got mine from Starship

Funny story - so I rebuilt the flippers including replacing 3 of the 4 coils since they were very old and at least one had a stuck coil sleeve. First time doing this and soldering on a pinball game so that was interesting. But it worked in the end! Flippers are now amazing and I have hope I can actually hit some scores I see people getting on the game online. Before the flippers were so weak you had to use momentum to hit the bear ramp. But, as I was testing the flippers the ball would barely get out of the shooter lane at a full plunge. What the heck!!! Flippers have nothing to do with ball plunge! I'm looking at it, even removed the gate to eliminate that as being the problem. Checked the plunger, wondering if somehow its misaligned and hitting something as it goes in. Finally, go to set up a video and realize I can see metal on the plunger tip! Turns out at the exact same time I rebuilt the flippers, the tip of the rubber plunger cover broke off during my testing. Replaced it with an old one I had laying around and problem solved! Don't you love unrelated problems that come up during a fix?

Sometimes the playfield will make contact with the tip when lifting or lowering and tear the end.