Hi all, Just joined the LW3 club. She aint' pritty. A non-running, beaten up, busted up, robbed for parts, on the scrap heap, left for dead pin i bought but I am determined to get her running again.

Has anyone had any experience with repairing the uzi bullets? Paint is just starting to lift. I have never clear coated before and hesitant to hit the playfield with novus and risk damaging other areas further. Not sure what the best course of action is.

There are also some fine cracks in some areas.

This isnt a collectors pin (obviously ) but somthing i would like to keep for myself and the kids for years to come.

Any suggestions welcome.

Thanks

Steve

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Chad, in the new update do you think adding a shaker motor to LW3 is possible?

Sounds promising! I haven't played LW3 yet, still refurbishing but imagine there would be plenty of explosions and modes that would benifit with a shaker.

Haha sorry i didnt think it through that far. Since i am stuck in Australia the best i could do is chip in some money to help buy one locally. I think it would be a nice addition to the game but i have no idea how difficult the process might be to code.

It was just a thought i can imagine it would be hard to program without a motor in there. The shaking in TFTC is perfect when you trigger multiball.. adds a cool dimension to the game. I am sure a good number of people who are into LW3 would consider it. There would be a few pinball collectors who wouldnt want to mod the cabinet to install a shaker motor. Either way you doing work on the code is awesome and appreciated. Fixing bugs that have been there since the beginning and making the gameplay and sound better.

Does that help?

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Does anyone know much about the power supply to the topper? It has a 1amp slow blow fuse. I have come across a code3 rotator light with leds drawing around 1.6 to 2amps. Wondering what sort of load DE can handle on the 12v supply. Thanks for any info. Steve.

Hi all, does anyone know what the supply voltage is to the original topper. Looks like 18v? Maybe 32v? It has a 1 amp slo blow in the circuit. Appreciate the help. Would test with a multimeter myself but still weeks away from getting the mpu installed. I have a nice 12v setup ready but think it may draw too many amps.

Thankyou.

If you are able to tell me, i am trying to figure out if it is better to use an 18v relay to trigger the 12v topper on a seperate PS or step down the 18v to 12v. It will probably be drawing about 2amps.

Thankyou for the advice and replies. I am looking to run a code3 mini lightbar. Its 12v and drawing up to 1.6amps with both rotator motors and front led flashers running. Waiting to install two H1 LEDs for the rotators and test again. Expecting it to draw about 3amp. I was going to use the spare service outlet to run a dedicated 12v supply and let the 18v line run a relay for activating the rotor. If the 18v is closer to 20 i am less concerned about running a 24v relay.

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Finally got the topper done. Ended up using a bridge rectifier and 12v relay.

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Thanks. Mirror blades were sourced locally. Generic data east blades will fit.

Hi all, If anyone has a copy of apron cards they could email it would be appreciated. I finished the refurb but doesn't look finished without them! Cheers. Steve.

Thanks Alex that helps. Now just hunting for any artwork for the other side.

Only if EVERY orbit shot was met with a "Yippee Ki Yay" or "welcome to the party pal"

I asked Chad if it was possible to add but he didn't have a shaker handy during the new code rewrite and didn't think there was a big demand for it. Personally i would put one in. Still possible to add one that's triggered by switches but it gets pricey and a bit limited.

Impossibly hard to guess how costly or simple a problem might be to fix until it can be diagnosed first hand. If you really want a LW3, willing to spend to fix it and the price is good then buy it.. sounds like it might already be going cheap!

Your doing better than me!! Last two pins have been bought by looking at a few pics and getting it shipped.. not that many in in Australia.. half the fun for me is getting it running again..

All depends on the condition. I paid $1200 USD for mine non working because it had a good playfield and turned it into this by spending... alot... it's all relative

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Thankyou for this.. sorry I only just saw it! I ended up getting it working the way I needed.

Cheers

I chromed mine since it gets so much use. Can get the replacement spring from Marcos.

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I got an awesome repro from Arcadeoverlays. Not sure if there still doing these but the translite quality was perfect and great colors. Was a bit of a pain to buy as they originally wouldn't ship to Australia but managed to order to it via Florida.

Old translite in far away pic. New translite in close-ups.

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Arcade overlays shipped that translite flat between cardboard. I have also received a translite rolled in a postage tube. Both came through fine but in my opinion the tube felt like a safer option to avoid damage in the post.

Looks like inside the building.

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If it helps on the artwork side of things I have put up a photo of the Retrorefurbs black lethal weapon. Just like repro plastic sets the artwork is a little off from the screen printed original but this seems seems be standard across all decals I have seen and once the whole cabinet is done you will not notice it. I can understand color matching the blue is not going to be easy. I had this problem on a Tales from the crypt and part of the reason I went black for the Lethal refurb.

In regards to quality I can only compare Retro-refurbs with pinball.centre out of Germany. I was happy with the artwork provided by both. Twister detailing was very good and the colors vibrant. Same can be said for retro refurbs. The only difference was in the thickness of the decal itself. Retro refurbs was thicker and felt more expensive but I have noticed some minor shrinking. Maybe 1.5mm around the edges after about 6 months. Having said that the thinner material provided by pinball centre looks great, very smooth (as long as you do all the required prep) and hasn't shrunk at all. Potentially retrorefurbs will take more punishment in the long run.

Hopefully this helps.

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If it's an original part it's worth keeping even if it doesn't work. The original reflector arrangement is hard to find these days. The blue dome even harder. Seemed to be the first thing to break.

Welcome to the club!

There is no protective tip for the "striker". It is a coil arrangement and not a traditional spring loaded rod you might be thinking of.

As you are new to pinball it is always a great idea to download the manual. It's free. There are a lot of drawings and parts lists in there to help you understand what might be missing from your playfield and the basics of how they work.

Looking good I did the same with a chromed gun and found a mode3 light bar for a topper. Black looks great for this game in my opinion and saves the headache of colormatching!

Nice color matching between the cabinet and the decal looks good.

Nice looking job you did there It could be Retro Refurbs vinyl. I did mine in black, the decal was super thick. Potentially look out for some "shrink" in the first few months. Might not happen to you but it happened to me. I applied without detergent and may have been too tensioned.

Are you talking AC or DC?

Wondering if anyone has an electric copy of some apron cards for LW3? Cheers..

Thankyou for that. Appreciate it.

Thanks for the link.

Code3 running of a 12v relay

In general, if your new to electronics/circuits, my advice is to be very careful tinkering around in the back box of a pinball, especially near the power supply if you have no idea what's potentially carrying a lethal voltage.

Without seeing the wiring of that light it's hard to say, most likely the yellow and orange are both 12v+ and black is the common ground. Is it rotating beacons? One may be to power the motor and the other for the lights.

A soldering iron, 18awg wire and heat shrink would have it looking neater than adding sockets and leaving the existing cords.

I can't recall offhand if the LW topper was originally an AC or DC motor/supply?

The 12v male plug you have in your machine is just used to allow a postive and negative connection. I doubt it has any special circuit inside. Just open it up away from the machine. Most likely you have 2 x + lines and 1 common ground. If that's the case you can just run new wires from the molex connector you pictured earlier and do away with the pigs tail cord and plug.

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Ok I'm out.. I tried!

Hope this helps.

The trigger can be a bit wobbly.. mine is before and after chrome job with a new spring.

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Hi all,

If possible I would appreciate an under playfield pic of the centre and right side drop bank targets coil to make sure i have the right orientation. For some reason my 3 banks won't reset 90% of the time. Feels like somthing is amiss. I have completely rebuilt both. Very little slack and zero wear on the pivot. Can't figure it out.

Very helpfull thanks! I'll check tomorrow but I think my coils are upside down...

Cheers. Are those the washers that also help determine the final drop height?

Thanks for the advice. I'll give it a go. I do know that 2 washers are used behind the retaining bracket and they adjust the final dropped position.

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I have noticed on a few of Data East's, they have pre drilled an indication mark for the outlane posts but it appears they were never installed. My JP, Simpsons, TFTC have these indication marks). Maybe it was up to the owner/operator if they wanted them installed or not? More drains may mean more plays back when these were made to make money.

Bang on with the advice. Cheers!

I remember the response to Chad's code when it first came out was very polarised. People either loved it with the scoring improved and bugs gone or didn't as they felt some of the changes took away the speed, craziness and randomness of the game.. Personally , I havnt played the new code yet.