Ghostbuster Issue Thread

Yes, I just adjusted and tweaked slings further.....found my sweet spot!
Coils at soft did cut down airballs, and I think the last piece, the target and ramp cover plastic, will fix all,
or close enough.

I believe the excess air balls have been tamed with solutions!

I'll order one immediately and pay too much and report back with details on the "test" on my LE!
Name the amount via PM!

What setting are your slings at? Mine are at 45 and they work great.

I had the coils on soft, but I think thats what caused the ball to stay in the poppers for almost 2 minutes the other day. Now they are on normal and things seem to be working fine now. Way too much popper activity with the Soft coil setting.

I need something to calm down the airballs off the left ramp though- its insane! Airballs over everything, and even right over the flippers! HUGE airballs.. way more then any other pinball machine I have ever played.

Wow - someone please make a plastic like this and sell to me! I will exchange cash for your efforts LOL

Set mine at 40-45 as well for Sling Power, Ive had no issues with the Pops.

Im so sorry issues are occurring for others......

Are they from the standup target next to the ramp entrance? Because you could bend it downward and then put in a shim behind it to keep it pointed down. You won't see the shim and this has made a huge difference on some of my older machines that had the same problem.

If you look 12 posts up (last picture) then you see the piece of metal right of the G H O S T targets. That piece is bending for some owners, locking in the loose ball that is behind the captive ball so the target cannot be shot anymore.

I made this as a one off by hand, but seeing that it works so well and People want to purchase ill look into getting a small batch laser cut, feel free to drop me line.

Art " oldpinguy" reached out and offered to hook up a Stateside manufacturer and help get some of these produced. First though a Digital file needs to be made for cutting.

Keep busting for now !

Joe at Laserrific would be a great choice to manufacturer these Stateside: Joe@Laseriffic.com

You misunderstood me. I was asking for you to post a picture of your wire rail so i can compare if its thicker.

I'm going to see if I can replace the left ramp's switch with a gate switch. It might not be as pretty, but I think it would be more reliable.

A week into owning the game and I honestly have gotten so much better at it. My one big "issue" is the Scolari Bros are driving me nuts. Tonight I shot one DEAD on and the ball bounced back and hit the glass. Really?

Just read flipper setting suggestion and will give that a shot.

Has anyone tried bending the ramp targets downward to try and help with airballs?

Yes- I tried that first and it barely helped. Putting a plastic above the ramp is the only solution for those crazy airballs.

How do you adjust the slimer on the le so it hangs higher. mine is wearing the paint off the black metal piece above the captive ball.

I just went through the the butt lift,remove the grub screw from the top of the shaft and if it is still tight like mine was grab the main shaft with a padded grip and just carefully move twist the arm and it will free up very easily and slide up just enough to to stop the dragging and re-install the grub screw

Doesn't your game have a piece of mylar where slimer hits the captive ball roof plate? If you have an LE it is as simple as loosening the grub screw on the top cap of slimer and raising that cap a little. The cap has a straight edge where the grub screw tightens onto so you can't miss align it rotation wise. Good luck.

What's a grub screw?
It hits right beside the factory mylar.

Bending them on my pro worked for me, maybe you didn't bend them enough. Remove from below playfield, bend the top part forward using a pair of spanners and refit.

So I took my slimer mech apart as it was damaging the black metal above the captive ball. Can't figure out a way to adjust him higher but on the bottom of slimer the cable end was sticking out and dragging. the new mech set up is very different. it holds the cable grounded on the circuit board so it is normally closed. when the ball hits slimer it moves the wire off the circuit board ground and opens the connection.

20160803_183255_(resized).jpg

20160803_183224_(resized).jpg

20160803_183242_(resized).jpg

20160803_183204_(resized).jpg

20160803_183129_(resized).jpg

fixed

1470264383748566614597_(resized).jpg

im getting two balls in the shooter lane a bunch of times. I think the ball is getting launched back into the trough, then shooting two out, or its not going all the way out then putting two the lane. Also, when the ball auto launches, it launches it too fast and it smashes against the back of the game or off stay puft, and even shoots it back down the shooter lane again. I set the coils to soft, which seems to help a bit, but still getting the two balls and time to time too hard of auto launches.

Double check the plug that goes to the ball "trow" make sure it is all the way seated.

Also check the optos and make sure they are tightened down and aimed correctly. I've had an issue it thought a ball wasn't ejected properly and it ejected a second time, because opto didn't properly see the eject.

So exactly one week into owning my LE and it has been playing fine. Tonight I go to turn it on and all that happens is the display says Stern Pinball and nothing happens. There are a couple of red lights on inside the cabinet when I open the coin door but beyond that zippo. Anyone have thoughts on how to troubleshoot this or should I just get the local dealer to come out and repair it for me under warranty? Any help would be appreciated.

Question regarding the GB Pro Left Ramp Diverter - I'm trying to dial in the adjustment so that it 1) always engages when triggered and 2) doesn't make the ball bounce off the ramp's plastic corner above the storage factory when disengaged. My concern is that it will start to eventually cause cracking in the plastic after repeated impacts. Does anyone else find the ball "nicks" the plastic on the way down to the flippers, or is it always a nice smooth run? Looking at the diverter silver metal plate that runs parallel with the ramp side I can see its not completely flush when disengaged.

I've tried moving the adjustment screw, but it seems to always be a sacrifice between the two above issues. Alternately I'm thinking I could try to bend the silver metal plate or some other piece to make it more flush but that makes me nervous as I don't want to cause anything to get worse. In reality its not really that bad, but I'm just concerned over the lifetime of the pin it could cause cracking which may be easily preventable. If I should bend something, which is the best part to bend as it's a tricky part to gain access to.

Thanks!

IMG_20160729_134730830_(resized).jpg

Does anyone believe in mylar on the area the ball drains? Is it necessary?

Depends. It seems with these newer run playfields from stern the clear around the drain hole will chip. If not covered with Mylar or something comparable I've seen them worn down to the wood in that spot. Outta sight, but some people care about it.

After a few mentions here, I checked and did find a bit of chipped mylar on my GoT (500 plays) on the edge of the drain hole. I added a mylar patch to the exposed edges and called it good.

Yes, out of sight, but for $0.04 worth of mylar and 3 minutes of your time, such a simple bit of insurance.

So I am wondering if additional curing would solve the issue or if they playfields inserts are just going to ghost if they are going to ghost. Someone stated that before there insert ghosted they noticed them being darker in the spots that did ghost. If you have a NIB could you inspect the darkness of the inserts and then take pics if you notice any dark spots? maybe this is a obvious sign of adhesion problems or the insert not being cured in the darker spots.
Sounds maybe that it is the process rather then curing time though from the walkout of the employees from their supplier. Guess the supplier should have cross trained more to not lose all that knowledge.

Stern and their suppliers have been making p/f's for years and years.

Clearly, a cost saving, new product has been used and it ain't any good!

Their playfield supplier had a walkout. Could be loss of technique not product change. Skills take time and knowledge to develop.

Hopefully they'll fix this "flipper gap" issue too.

Oh wait...

carrots_(resized).jpg

That is not a Ghostbuster issue that is a Player issue LOL

I beg to differ, the gap kind of hurts the fun aspect of the game to non-professional players. My wife, kids, and friends didn't like the ridiculous center drains and initial impressions weren't good. Put the PBL center post kit and it made everyone happy. To each their own.

I did the same. You can "brick" shots in some pins like LOTR and it behaves "clunky", but GB bricked shots become laser beams STDM.

laser_(resized).jpg

so, does anyone have any fixes for all the outlane drains from simply the ball just hitting the metal inlane guides? I cant stand hitting a good shot only to have the ball come down, hit that little metal guide then bounce instantly to drain. To me, its the most frustrating thing about the game, and am loving my LE, but draining when its not your fault is not good design. I can see if it I clanked a shot and it results in it, but the fact that they even have a ball save from the subway kickout tells me this thing drains too much! I dont mind nudging, but alot of the times its just to fast to do anything about. I have the outlanes closed on one side as well, still seems to not make a difference, its like the machine funnels everything to there!

Also, sometimes the ball comes from the subway ramp, will spin from dropping to the playfield, then bounce off the metal guide and drain!

Nudge when it's on the middle guide, don't wait for the outer guide or it's already too late. I don't drain out the outlanes that often, and I have mine open. I just started treating the outer inlane as a drain and I quickly started improving on saves.

I think someone said you could add a rubber to it the slightly increase outlane to keep factory size.

First, pretend you are playing Atlantis. If you play such that letting the ball past the sling is a failure, you will be playing safer.

If the ball is hitting the center divide on the lanes, you should be nudging to make sure it is deflecting how you want. Always Be Closing, I mean nudging.

As for moonwalking, I have never seen this on mine.

I personally don't have an issue with the flipper gap but I think it was a bad choice for this theme. I bought a GB Pro primarily because my kids really love the theme and wanted it. My wife hated my STTNG and never played it so I figured it was time to get something different. She hates the game. For my wife and my kids, longer ball times would be much better. I just can't understand the thinking of taking a timeless theme like Ghostbusters and make the game miserable for the casual player. I just wish they had thought out their design decisions a little more because I just don't see it lasting too long in my small collection. If I am the only (out of 4 of us) playing it regularly then I need to find something else.

The Pinball Universe Kit is a MUST. I makes it a much better pin. Has both outlane help and SDTM if you want. Best $42 you can spend!

Seriously man. It's crazy to see people force themselves to struggle with the gap and crazy lightning speed SDTM's and not use the center post kit. It's as if they are afraid to be made fun on here on pinside. It makes the machine more fun and it's still hard as hell. Why sit here and talk about getting rid of the pin when this $42 kit makes it much better for the casual player? My wife and kids play it no problem and have fun with it now that the kit is installed.

I have the kit, I just don't have the center post installed. I like the game without it. So I can install it to maybe make them like it but I really don't want the post myself. I only have 2 games in my collection, only 4 ever so there are lots of games to try.

Mine keeps saying Subway malfunction device looked up. It comes and goes, So I guess a phone call will need to take place Monday to Stern.

I'll break into CrazyLevi mode here a little despite being in "the Honeymoom period" of GBLE.

Without that kit, I'd want to smash the glass.

The brutal outlanes and larger flipper gap do not mesh AT ALL with the speed and air balls from this game.

Boy it could've been brilliant, but without that kit, it's a really crappy experience compared to what they could have done.

I mean, we're talking TFLE carelessness, here, with airballs, and stuck balls.

IMG_3997_(resized).JPG

I have the PBL kit.

I'm going without at first to see how bad it really is!

I got my ass kicked regularly on TWDLE at first and after a long time I conquered it.

I like the center post on SM.

Either way, I'm excited to get this pin and play it.