I bought my game early last month and love it! It plays fast after cleaning all of the mechs, and a good topside cleaning. The flippers were weak - ramp shots were difficult - but I rebuilt them and now they're nice and strong. I also noticed the left shooter lane was kind of lame and found that the wrong coil was there. According to the manual it should be an AE 23-800, but there was a AE 25-1000 there instead. Rather than buy a new coil, I swapped it with the knocker coil that is also a AE 23-800. Much better now. Another issue I'm addressing is that the machine will do a ball search once and a while during game play for no reason. It turns out that the ball trough is worn. I ordered an anti-mag shim so that ball travel is smoother.

For safecracker mode the coil will keep firing until the opto switch sees the center target drop. If you can't locate the part, you might be able to fabricate one out of piano wire. You can get an idea of the wire guage needed by the hooks on the plastic target stop that hold it in place. Make sure the plastic piece is completely intact - Marco's sells them if you need a new one. I had to replace mine and it was only a few dollars.

Is there a selection in the menu somewhere to empty the pinballs from the ball trough before raising the playfield? I see there’s a selection for unloading the globe, but that’s about it. It’s a pain trying to get them out manually.

Great ideas for blocking the balls. I can see using the towel trick on other games also when the playfield needs to be lifted for something minor, like a quick bulb change. I did find a way to empty the balls when needed thru the menu. Go to coil test and the balls will load into the shooter lane and launch one by one - just be sure to depress the coin door switch to activate the coils.