Bringing home my grail pin while up in Atlanta for SFGE, and I am psyched to be joining the club.

I spent '92 living in Japan, doing a year of factory training in my companies expatriate program. (at our electron microscope factory)

In those days, arcades were everywhere. However, the only pin on location in my prefecture was a mesmerizing new TAF. (Obviously new, since that was '92.) I would visit that arcade once a week and TAF was always the first and last thing I would play each visit.

It is one my most vivid and enjoyable pinball memories, and now I can visualize mine being brighter, louder, AND FREE TO PLAY ANY TIME!!

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No, this was a modded out TAF that I picked up in Marietta from a guy that was flipping it. Now that I have it home under the bright shop lights, I can see I have some work to do, but that's half the fun and makes it my very own.

Judging by the second transformer installed, a previous owner was planning to add some more mods?

Nothing currently connected to the output, and I will need to fabricate a safety cover and ground it. I wonder what the intention was... Maybe planned to add 100 yards of 24volt LED strip???

Gonna need a new and better speaker too. Notice anything wrong with that one?

IMG_1035_(resized).JPG

The gold ROM display 'Special Edition' under the Addams Family logo on the DMD, so it appears those are standard ROMs.

I'm slowly getting my new TAF cleaned up and tuned up. The two back leg plates on my game both had the lower bolts stripped. What a pain it is to get to the back leg plates with the cheapo playfield hinges on TAF, that don't slide forward like every other DMD pin I own.

I figured out a trick to get to them without removing the pf. I noticed if I propped the pf up fairly high, like 45 degrees, I could get my arm down in behind. I didn't have a long board handy to prop it up, but I did have some twine which I secured to the pf and over the backbox to the hinge in the back to hold it up. Maybe that tip will help someone in the future.

Yup, the box is only held in by the two upper screws. Had to give mine a good bang to free the tab from the slot and get it loose.

You will notice, that with the playfield at about 45 degrees you can get your arm down behind the playfield. I tied a rope around the back of the backbox and over the top, to hold the playfield up at an optimum angle. That was the easiest way I had to prop it up safely.

Reaching behind and reaching under the playfield, it can be done if your patient. The larger Williams type plates work fine.

When they eventually fail, the pin will reset to 'no free play', and give a probably give an error.

nm

Top one. It frames it better.

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.

Those work fine in my TZ and LOTR, which have magnets. (still shopping out my TAF project so I can't speak for that)

You would know if they are magnetized by setting them next to each other. Do they stick together at all?

It has a lot of pieces, but it's not too hard to work on. The clock is the weak link, but there is a solid replacement board available. Mine has been reliable since I shopped it a year and a half ago.

You should be able to hit a trapped ball up the ramp from the right flipper. Seems like it needs looking at.

I'm removing some wack mods from my project that a previous owner installed.

TAF looks cool with minimal toys. IMHO

Fester, rocks decals for bookcase base, and book for bookcase shot are nice.

BAM will sell you one for $10:

https://bayareaamusements.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=FLY-0254

EDIT -- oops that says out of stock.

The missing apron card would drive me nuts.

It goes to J134 on the power driver board.

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The operations manual page 1-23 says that just changes settings to be appropriate with a 5 balls/game. I assume that changes some of the other default settings that make it harder to get to multiball, etc. (a quick way to change a bunch of difficulty settings at once)

Yup, definitely reversed. You are spotted 3 thing letters in a 3 ball game. You may have noticed how "T H I" are always lit under the DMD at the start of a game?

Rumor is CC is next. It would take a lot of work and cash to get the license for TAF. They have so far only done remakes without license hurdles.

Does the box open and close freely if you take the glass off and open it by hand?

I have been thinking about this and searching since reading your post. Many vendors have pink/purple rings, but not the color shown in your photo.

I noticed at the FPF show that TNA has the exact same raspberry colored rings as shown in your photo. I was told Pinball Life sells silicon flipper rubber in that color. Follow up with them and let us know. They supply the parts for TNA.

TNA_playfield (resized).jpg

My switch looks old enough to vote. Opps. This is right ramp top. Where is RR exit??

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Found it!

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That looks to be in great shape. Apparently the G-R-E-E-D book in front of the bookcase was yellow on the prototypes as well according to this pinsider that is searching for a prototype -

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/wtb-addams-family-prototype#post-2989617

Beetle goes on the book case, like this -

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/bally-the-addams-family-club-tafmembers-fans-welcome/page/37#post-4132042

One is a key fob.

The Arch parts could go here, but were not originally used -

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/bally-the-addams-family-club-tafmembers-fans-welcome/page/22#post-3312544

Pretty sure they need to be flush or the ball could stick there, or they my interfere with the skirt, etc. The holes should have a counterbore for the head to go down in.

That screw appears to next to a post, so I guess it is on the back side of the pop and the ball never goes there? In that case, it may be OK to ignore that one and make sure to get the other ones right.

Is it saying 'Open Coin Door' when you turn it on?

I know some pins normally say that to let you know the batteries are removed/dead and everything is reset.

Here is an objective based game you can play on TAF instead of just going for points, and to sharpen your skills for hitting shots while avoiding other shots. It was explained on The Pinball Players Podcast episode 26 about 10min in, and is also posted on their FB.

Here's how to play Jake Erskine and Theresa Nessel's The Addams Family Obstacle Course
Play with 2 to 4 players and play the number of games equal to or a multiple of number of players. Rotate who goes first.
The object is to complete these goals in order. Any shots made out of order do not count.
1. Skill shot. If you hit any other switch that validates the playfield besides the skill shot, your ball is over. You must complete the skill shot to advance. Doing so scores 1 point.
2. Spell GRAVE. Score 1 point for spelling grave and 1 bonus point for doing it in order.
3. Spell GREED - Score 1 point.
4. Thing Flips - Thing doesn't have to make the shot, it just must be flipped. Score 1 point.
5. Train Wreck - Score 1 Point
6. 3-Way combo - Score 1 point. May be repeated for an additional point as victory laps
If GREED multiball is started, all progress is lost and player must start back at 1 point and begin the process again starting with spelling GRAVE.
Bonus: Tour the Mansion - Score 10 points

In the test menu is a switch test that you can use to confirm if the sling switch and optos are working. Start there and confirm what is working and what does not appear normal.

From the Boston Pinball Ebay tracker:

image002 (resized).png

There have been claims that they sometimes include 'buy it now' prices that did not sell, but they claim they track successful sales. I'm not sure. One thing for sure is that Ebay pins can be expensive.

In the solenoid test, can you see the plunger move in test mode?

If you lift up the playfield, does the plunger move freely?

Everything mounted securely?

Couldn't do my job without this one:

http://www.monotaro.sg/g/00213094/

I wouldn't say that decals have no effect. Like a piece of Mylar, the edge of the decal can affect the direction of a slow rolling ball.

Nope, you get some rewards and it starts over.

I stand corrected. Now I have to go work on completing that!!

Are the pivot posts tight or perhaps drooping?

…. and yes it is necessary. The 1st contact is for the lower right flipper and 2nd contact is for the upper right flipper.

Maybe make a guard that loops around it from a thin plastic transparency sheet that may keep the plunger spring from catching it.

nothing

just guesses -

Are the switches in the shooter lane and trough all working correctly. (if it thinks the ball is there, maybe it does not look at the skill shot)

When weird things occur, I start re-seating ribbon cables in the back box, so try that.

Try using one from one of your other BW pins as a test.

In the case of TAF, I think the inserts look fine using the original incandescent bulbs. (and you don't have to worry about inserts ghosting from LEDs or upgrading to an LED OCD board) If your inserts look dark, you might need to clean the dust off the back of the inserts or adjust the bulb position.

The TAF playfield is dark so I swapped all the GI bulbs for Cool White Frosted LEDs, and the same for the backbox. Cool white LEDs behind the translite corrects the yellow hue and makes it look cleaner and not dingy yellow IMHO.

That is a ramp flap which is made of spring steel and riveted to the end of the ramp, so it is kind of a pain to swap. You can search the forum for threads on replacing ramp flaps. They frequently have a bit a of rust, even on new pins. I would try polishing it first to see if that does the job.

My TAF has the flower pot - thick side up and white spacer on top of it like the photo above posted by @arcade.

Remember TAF does not have slide out latch/hinges like TZ and other B/W pins. It just has a simple pivots. That makes it quite hard to install parts at the top of the playfield, so I would try to finish everything at the top before putting it in the cab.

I have not used either but I always see folks commenting that the stencils and decals sold on ebay are subpar.

Welcome to the club. Yes, that's a flasher above the train. Maybe you can pull the socket out from the underside if that is blown, not sure.

On TAF, I like cool white frosted LED in the backbox so it does not have a yellow hue, and on the playfield GI to brighten everything up. Some add a GI-OCD board so the GI LED can dim during the lightshow a the start of multiball, but I think the LED flicker around the flippers looks cool for that moment. I keep the playfield inserts incandescent and they look great to me.

Not bad. Just a few screws as I recall and slide it away from the diverter so you can reach under while keeping the switch wiring connected.

Test the diverter in the coil test menu. Sounds like yours is not working. See if the wires are secure to the coil and see if the diverter moves freely.

I always ask myself, if/when I go to sell it in a year, would I ask that same price when selling. Generally 4500 is not bad for a TAF with some wear issues and needing cleaning and minor repairs. How bad is that one?

I'm not aware that humidity affects the insides much. Mainly it causes planking on the cabinet art and playfield art first. The mechs and bulb sockets can get some surface rust. If those items are OK, the price sounds good.

Just a guess - It sounds like the 5v is not coming on for the CPU to boot.

Easy first test: If you look at the power driver board in back box, do you see All, Some or None of the LEDs on the board coming on when it does not start?

I think they use the trimmed cap there because it would look odd and unprofessional for Bally to have a cap intrude in to the ramp area.

In your case, I would install a standard (non trimmed) cap over the LED ring to protect the LEDs. You can always replace the inexpensive cap if/when it get chipped.

https://littleshopofgames.com/shop/metal-parts/addams-family-chair-bracket-01-10593/

Your TAF looks OK.

TZ is weird - it has 3 holes in the front and rear and causes some confusion. You use the lower 2 holes on the back legs and upper 2 holes on front legs on TZ to get the playfield close to the correct angle. (maybe they were planning to mount the playfield differently in that cab or were thinking of another use for it.)

Had to open the coin door and check. Your right.

I guess the point of the extra holes is to lower the whole pin.

If you want to measure it, the center of the lower hole is about 52mm from the bottom of the cab on mine.

The tip of the shooter rod is probably misaligned left/right/up/down. Check that and adjust the mounting position of the shooter rod assembly.

Your on the right track. Debris in thing box or subway, coil issue due to loose wire or something, or switch issue due to a loose wire or something.

You mentioned it fails after things warm up, which is typically an indication of a sticky coil sleeve. Replace the coil sleeve on the solenoid you saw sticking, and confirm it feels free.

You can also test it by taking the glass off and giving balls to thing over and over to see and hear were they are hanging with the volume down.

Overall power is easy enough to check. You should have 120vac at the wall. Try with them all on and all off and see what you measure.

If you have multiball ready by spelling "GREED" or staring quick MB, the green lamp over the Thing ramp lights, and Thing will lock the ball.

Another note - If you watch the letters under the DMD that spell THING, you will notice that when Thing picks up the ball, they will cycle if Thing is not keeping it and will stay solid when Thing is going to keep it.

Makes sense, the ramp lights the mode start and swamp/chair start a mode, so you should get 2.

The big nut simply adjusts the height of the bookcase. Use thin shims where the 3 bookcase feet attach under the playfield to level it, then fine tune the height with the nut.

Generally you want things like the book case or magnet cores to be slightly above the edge of the playfield when leveling them. That protects the edge of the playfield wood from wear.

Good question. Project TAF are sought after and have good value as is.

https://www.ministryofpinball.com/en/pinballmachines/the-addams-family-ramp-decal-left-entrance.html

Only way I'm aware is installing the standard ROMs.

Yup, my plunger is also a bit too high at the lowest setting. Last time I checked, I didn't see any new hangars available for TAF.

There is ball kicker in the box under thing that puts the ball in to the subway. Maybe an issue with the switch that detects the ball there.

Once the ball reaches the end of the subway, it is held there until it is feed to the swamp scoop by another kicker, so check the switch for that kicker too.

The typical wear spots on TAF are chipping around the lower mansion inserts and wear from the ball landing in the upper right orbit on a full plunge, so start there. Paint wear around the flipper buttons occurs with many plays, so look there for touchups.

I guess some ways to identify a replaced playfield, would be to look at the end of the playfield where the 'Churchill cabinets' stamp and manufacture date and number are shown, etc. Also a pin with a new PF would still have tons of black dust in the cabinet, unless that was restored too.

Giving it some test plays will also give you an idea about condition. A fully working TAF with nice cabinet, unhacked boards, and nice PF is one of the most valuable pins around. (excluding titles that were limited production)

Buy a reinforced oblong target and swap the front blade with your blade that has the round target. Target stacks are just held together with 2 little bolts like a leaf switch.

Saw an accidental dirty pool on a friends TAF. An airball came off the upper right flipper and flew behind the right side of the closed bookcase and in to the vault scoop. This was during the finals round of a charity tournament and we could not believe the timing of this very rare occurrence as we battled for the tournament win.

Welcome. Hopefully that playfield will clean up nice. I would not bother clear coating it, which is huge big undertaking to remove everything. Just clean and wax and it should hold up fine with home use.

The scrape along the top of the thing is normal, since that is where he pushes the box open. Clean him up and add some touch up paint as necessary, and clean inside the lid of the box.

When random weird stuff happens like that, reseat the ribbon cables between the driver board and CPU board.

Yup, mine is the same without the post.

I had that issue and needed to reseat the ribbon cables in the back box.

I don't think there is any change in value for original silk screen art versus a restored cab with decals, so I would keep the nicer cab with the decals. Others may have different experience.

The door is not that heavy. It normally just makes a dirty spot on the top of the hand where it rubs. The sticky cloth should work perfect.

Is the playfield level? Is the ball kicker aligned and hitting the ball in the center?

Mine had a very strong plunger spring when I got it and my guests would pull the plunger back with both hands and send the ball rocketing around the orbit. I switched to a lighter spring, so a medium plunge would make the skill shot.

The music that plays while the ball is in the shooter lane is a bit lower than the callouts and effects for example. You can go on youtube and see some TAF gameplay to see what's typical.

Maybe a weak power supply. Maybe just a connection issue.

The green ground wires goes to the leg bolt plate, and the ground braid should attach there also. You can see the start button and door interlock both look like green/red and white/red if you look close.

IMG_7201 (resized).jpg

Leg bracket bolt holes get stripped over the years and somebody was lazy when replacing the plate.

Here are some new TAF apron cards from Coindropper

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/custom-apron-cards-printable-versions-only/page/2#post-5158707

FYI - According to the schematics J133, J134, J135 are identical, so no difference which you use, which explains why those are keyed the same. I have found several adjacent connectors on WPC power driver and CPU boards are like that. (room to grow or alternatives if the pins are bad)

Shown on the 6th page...
http://arcarc.xmission.com/Pinball/PDF%20Pinball%20Misc/Williams%20WPC%20Schematic%20manual.pdf

Same applies to J137/J138 - identical. (same page)

Once you zoom way out, it looks fine. I prefer it to the wagon posted above. One of the cool things about pinball is the uniquie mods we make for ourselves. Go for it!

Watch for magnet burn - discoloration in the center of the playfield caused by a magnet getting stuck on, heating up and burning the playfield.
Common wear spots are the mansion inserts, chair scoop, and orbit at the top where the ball lands when plunged.
Mechs to check are thing ball lock and bookcase rotation.

Yes, there are 4 optos in front of the book case, and each time you hit one of those it adds a GREED letter. Good chance to test each of those.

Another common issue, is the box gets dented and the ball hangs up, or there is some debris in the box that stops the ball, so take the box off and check it. The box is mounted with a tab and 2 screws, so make sure no wires are caught, and its mounted firmly.

Relays randomly click because they are getting a bad control signal to their coil. Start with reseating the ribbon cables between the CPU and driver boards.

After poking around I noticed they call it a 'cabinet switch'.

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/SW-1A-192

After so many plays, it automatically clears unless you change this setting:

Utilities #3 = Reset High Score of the Day after X plays.

I searched the ramp before and totally missed that part initially. (It is on my standard TAF.)

taf switch (resized).jpg

There is a 1 kicker that moves the ball from the thing box to the subway. 1 kicker that moves it from the subway (locked position) to the scoop. Finally the scoop kicker, shoots it out.

When the ball is stuck, you can reach way in with your phone towards the transformer and take a photo aimed up and back and it should look like this. Do you see the ball sitting by either switch labeled 1 or 2??

TAF subway and scoop (resized).jpg

Step 1 - confirm where it's not. You can just reach in the coin door and take a photo the same way I did above, so check the simple stuff first.

If you suspect the LEDs, you can turn off/on the lamps and GI in the test mode to see if is related.

Welcome (to the club) honored guest!

For sure the cool white brings out all the red and blue colors in the back box. Warm white makes the translite look yellowed and dingy.

For the playfield GI, the cool vs warm selection is tough. I like the cool white GI in my Fishtales which makes the blue and green art look nice, but my Metallica glows blue with the factory LEDs and could use a warmer tone.

Just tried shining warm and cool light on the playfield of my TAF, and the warm brings out the neon orange used in center of the playfield. It seems like sunlight tone looks nicer for the playfield GI.

Install an incandescent bulb in that one insert and be done.

I don't have experience with that issue, but it sounds like the hacks on the original opto board were to correspond with some changes on the bookcase optos. Since you have 2 of them, compare the wiring and I expect you will find some differences in the non working bookcase. (or maybe incorrect parts)

The circuit is called general illumination or GI. Are the bulbs blown?

Yup, GRAVE targets, light them solid and then the second time makes them blink. I read that and thought they were asking about the sling lamps. - I need sleep!

It is not unusual that flipper will not move during hold test and maybe just slightly wiggle. I imagine if you gave it a nudge with your finger, it would move.

In the show Gomez says Cara Mia - my darling
Morticia says Mon cher - my dear

Don't recall, but the pin is probably the same.

Any battery leakage on the CPU board?

Any connectors misaligned/offset by 1 pin? The switch and lamp connectors are at the bottom of the CPU board.

That's a pretty nice TAF!
Pros:
No magnet burn.
Minimal playfield wear. Mansion looks ok, except for the top corner of 1 insert and maybe some wear at the inlane ball drop.
No cabinet damage.
No rust under the lockdown bar.
Coindoor, topper, legs, and translite look OK.

Cons:
You have a credit dot. What does the report say when you open the coin door? Maybe a switch or coil or motor not working?
Flipper is misadjusted, and maybe some other maintenance is needed.

Do the boards and wiring look OK, any hacks?

IMHO - in a big metro area like NY, NY, you can get 7K for it fairly quickly.

No magnet damage there. The playfield underside would look burned black around the magnets if there was.

If the clock is not keeping time, the batteries are dead. Replace the 3 AA batteries ASAP before they start to leak and damage the CPU board. The time, high scores, and free play setting should be backed up then. Everything else looks fine in the pics. Looks like there are some LEDs installed in the backbox, so that is a plus.

Why is it called a bear kick? My guess... In the show, the bearskin rug growls and frightens guests when they step on it, and it lays at the bottom of the stairs (like on the playfield). I guess "kick" was just what they chose to call it. Also the bear growls when you hit the ramp and you see the bear animation.

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.