The bubble perfect center should be 6.5 degrees (per Stern) so setting the bubble high touching the top-line should be close to 7 degrees. The best option is a precision digital level. Long but less than the width of the open playfield so you can check for perfect level left to right and set between 6.5 & 7 degrees top-bottom. -- Using your basic hand size level near the middle of the playfield aligning it with something vertical (row of inserts) and then horizontal.
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So then why is my pf reading .6 degree different from top to bottom ? Is the pf warped from the factory?

No its not warped. My games do the same thing and I wonder why also lol. It doesn't sound possible does it?

So what incline number do I go off of? Top or bottom of pf?

I think people get too hung up on the playfield having to be at exactly 6.5 degrees. Having it level from side to side is much more important.

I really don't know but it only makes sense that it would be at the bottom where the level indicator is on the side of the playfield. I just put mine in between the two lines on the. Bubble level that came with the game and it seems to play fine. I agree with gweempose that leveling the playfield left to right is the biggest thing.

NO kidding, I just jack the back legs all of the way up and the front all of the way down

Guys Sinestro is right, its DEFINITELY 100% the strip of mylar that is in there. I like my game a million times better now, thank you Sinestro!! I am not worried about any damage in this are either for two reasons. #1 you cant see the area even if it did have some playfield wear and #2 my GOT is designed exactly the same way and it doesnt have a mylar piece on the playfield and ive got about 1000 plays on my GOT. This is the fix 100 percent. The mylar also peels up easily. I got it started with my fingernail and then grabbed it with a pair of needle nose pliers and slowly pulled it up. It left a little glue residue and I soaked a rag with Novus 1 and the glue cleaned off easily with just a little bit of scrubbing. Thanks again Sinestro, you da man dude!

I was waiting for a couple more people to chime in, but it sounds like removing the mylar is indeed the solution. Can't wait to give it a try.

It works, I promise you.

So once the mylar is removed, the ball never rattles around back there on an orbit shot? It always whips right around?

No you will still get that but the shots that weren't registering were the really hard fast smooth shots through the ecto goggles. Now that shot will register no matter how fast and smooth of a shot that you send up through there.

Got it. So we're just talking about the switch registering consistently. That still sounds like a nice improvement to me. I hate it when I nail that shot and I don't get credit for it.

Yes exactly and it definitely makes the game far more enjoyable when all of your shots count. Mine was so bad that I was afraid to send a shot up through there with the left flipper. I would always backhand that shot with the right flipper. My game is much more enjoyable now and I am happy as a pig in poop! Big scores here I come!

Glad it worked for you too!

A nice gal over on Tilt named Redhop gave me the solution, and boy am I thankful!

I am too because that changes everything for people having this problem. I still don't see how that was causing the problem but it damn sure was the culprit.

I took the mylar off in the right orbit before the switch also. It fixed my problem with the switch not registering as well!

That's great. Definitely going to try this. Does anyone have a similar issue with the right ramp and/or ideas how to resolve? Mine does not register consistently, though it works fine in the switch test.

I sent an email in to Stern detailing this problem, and the fix.

They emailed me just now saying they would pass the info along.

Did you have an issue with the ball hitting the corner of the gate on orbit shots and plunges? Was that also resolved? Is this for premium/le only?

Thanks.

I have a Premium. I guess it could also be an issue on the pro models also, not sure? If your talking about when the ball auto plunges and rattles around up top and falls back down through the ecto goggles lane then yes I've had that happen before occasionally. I haven't played enough games since removing the mylar to know if it will help that issue or not but my guess is no it won't probably.

All I can tell you for sure is that the switch up top of the ecto goggles lane registers every single time now and I've hit some rockets up through there........ 100% registers now.

Best bet for rough plunges is to replace the springs for both the manual plunger and auto plunger.

Easy and cheap. Did this the first week I had it.

I did switch the orange to green. Full plunge with green spring makes orbit about 50% of the time and falls in 'P' the other 50%. I do need to confirm the plunger is lined up in the middle of the ball.

I always soft plunge anyway and let the ball drop back down from the ecto lane to the flippers and then shoot the blue arrow for the big points.

I feel like the plunger itself feels kind of sluggish on my manual plunges. Whats the part number for each spring?

So just inboxed a ghostbusters premium, plugged it in and turned on and it's stuck on the stern logo? Nothing else seems to be operational? Never encountered this before... set up a got last year without problems. It's a recent build from march.

Nevermind I figured it out... just had to reseat the 2 rj45 connectors from the control board to the play field and there's another board in the front...

So came back to the game today, installed a cliffy to the shooter lane and it's doing the same thing. Just displays stern logo. Was thinking maybe wires came loose with lifting the play field. I repeated the same steps from last night with reseating the connectors, but it's still stuck.

I'm sorry to keep saying this, but Call Stern's tech line, talk to Chas. You want to get it on record.
Its possible Chas has seen this before and can tell you what to check.
I would also go back and make sure the RJ45 cable you reseated last time is in good shape.
It may be a partially damaged wire inside the cable.

Bump for anybody else that might be experiencing this issue. Today I put it back on the factory default and it was 63 as seen in the picture.

Also, can any one confirm the extra ball should be lit every x ghosts. I can only get it to light once per game no matter how many ghosts I catch.

The one on route that I played lights at 50, 100, etc.

Thanks.

extra ball (resized).JPG

Hey all,

I just installed the SPIKE 8-way splitter and attached Mezelmods backboard light strip to it. I also installed Art's outlane protectors.

The only other electrical mod I have is the speaker lighting kit and when I installed that I had no issues.

That brings me to what I hear now. Whenever a new ball starts (during new game or ball 2,3,etc) there is the normal "thuum" sound but instead of happening once, it happens 3 times and I hear a quiet knocking sound from under playfield near flippers/trough.

I haven't uninstalled anything yet to see which is the issue but I wanted to post here and see if anyone else might know what the problem is.

You can hear at start and end.

EDIT: Ok.. not sure what happened but I had left the game on with a ball in shooter lane waiting to be played for about 15 min during dinner and now the sounds are gone. No clue what the deal here is but am gonna leave this post up in case anyone might know what that was.

It may be an energized magnet from the contacts touching on the slings, you can visually check them, or with the glass off, and you hearing the noise, see if the ball gets grabbed near a sling, if its more of a solenoid, see if the switch needs adjusting under the storage facility in the subway.

I think this might be it. The magnaslings don't seem to be "magnaslinging." The right slingshot is too tight and pressing the contact against the other. Should I bend the back contact or try to loosen the sling somehow?

It's difficult to hear for me in the video. If it's 3 drum beat noises in a row I think I know what it is. Check your switches in the triple captive balls on the left. If a switch is closed then the machine thinks there is a ball on it and the noise is played while it tries to empty. I had this problem right from the start with mine.

Junky

Just gap, the contacts....2 sec...easy...small 1-1,5mm gap.

That solved it! Thanks Art

I installed that centerpost mod from pinball life and I am disappointing. The ball never seems to hit it and bounce back up. It just ricochets off to the side and drains. Anyone else have better luck with it?

I'll keep this in mind if I come across that. Thanks for taking the time to help!

Try replacing the included superband mini post rubber with a regular 7/16" OD mini post rubber...should give it a bit more bounce.

I needed to change the screw on mine as if the center post or the whole support is loose in any way, it wont bounce back.

See if its solid, and has no wiggle or give.

No longer needed . Art solved it

The post is rock solid. I didnt even bother putting the smaller black or green silicon post rubber that came with it and instead, went straight for the 7/16" OD mini post rubber i got from PBL - PBL-700-0004-00-XX. See pic.

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Let me clarify one thing. The post is solid, the fact the the post is floating and connected to a piece of plastic that has has not support in the center are causing some flex. If I manually drop the ball on it dead center i does bounce back but from any other angle even the slightest variance it just goes off to the side,. I checked my machine and it seems level left to right. The ball never drains directly down the middle it always veers slightly to the left of right. Never one side. Any ideas?

On a positive note I just installed a lockdown lever and corresponding lockdown bar. I couldnt stand those God awful latches!

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I am on a roll and have more to tell and more to ask.

I installed the Stern Tournament Button and Switch Assembly - Cabinet Mounting part #500-6587-06-TL picked up a PBL. On SPIKE games apparently you can just plug the wires that are hanging from the node board. They hooked up same way as the start button. No Diode needed to be solider in like SAM machines. You also have to go into service mode and enable Competition mode for the button to flash.

I do have two more questions.

1) I ordered yellow flipper bats from PBL as I dont like the stock white ones. What is entailed in swapping them out? Do you have to gap them? Do I have to disassemble a lot to get to them? Any tips would help.
2) I attached a picture of my shooter rod plate. It looks way off center based on the artwork. There are three Philips screws and two hex head that hold the plate and shooter in place. It doesn't look like there is any adjustment to re position other than taking the screws out and retapping them in the wood. I am not sure if I moved the position of the shooter plate it wouldn't infact throw off the shooter alignment and geometry. It's ridiculous they let things like this leave the factory this way. Please advise what I should do.

P.S. I will be gluing and clamping the left side of the cabinet on Sunday when my dad brings over his clamps.

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recently made a very ugly discovery on my GB Premium cabinet.

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What is that piece of metal in between the wood? Looks like someone tried to repair the joint. I am wondering if that metal shim made the splits worse?

For anyone's that's removed the mylar on a premium... before I dig into this, can you advise on how much dissasembly is needed to get access and clean up the glue afterwards? Any other tips on how to do this would definitely be appreciated. - THANKS

Did you buy this NIB or a slightly used? I think it looks odd there is that metal shim in there. That's not normal.
Do you know for sure it was not like this when you bought it?

That's the edge of a cabinet staple.

I wonder if these separations are occurring by pulling or pushing the cabinet on a floor,
as opposed to lifting and moving?