Hi there!

I've 99.9% finished restoring my Haunted House. It's gorgeous (if I do say so myself) and I'm very proud of it. I did give it a bit more of an incline as I like a bit faster play, but I think it's causing me a bit of an issue.

When you first shoot the ball, it pushes up a little wireframe gate and enters the main playfield. However it seems that the gate does not span the width of the lane completely. If the ball doesn't get shot with enough oomph by the player, it hits the bottom of the gate and gets stuck. the only way I can get it out is if I physically stand on the left side of the machine (as viewed from the front) and tilt it on the 2 legs that are on the right of the machine.

I'm thinking that I could create a new gate that spans the width of the lane, it probably would not be too hard, but I'm wondering if someone else has seen this type of thing before?

Attached is a picture.

ballgate.JPG

Hi Steve,

See the below picture, I circled where the ball just lay against. It seems that the bend in the gate really should be closer to the large metal rail (the one that's screwed into the playfield, the screw is visible).

I don't think it's the wrong part, I bought replacements from PBR and when I disassembled, I verified what came out originally.

ballgate hangup.jpg

haha - You were editing yours while I was editing mine to show the hangup. Too funny!

Hmmm, I don't think so as the attic (upstairs) is a perfect fit. The main playfield ball gate (the one in question) is too wide for the upstairs playfield.

Typically the ball travels along the cylindrical rail (which is visible in the left hand side of my picture) but I suppose since I tilted the machine more, it just lacks the force to stay traveling on that rail and falls down, and collides and gets stuck.

I originally had the gate reversed, and 99% of the time it never got out of the gate since it would be traveling against the upper rail and slam into the side of the gate. Reversing the gate fixed that.

I still think the gate should be as wide as the lane

I just found a picture pre-restore as I was taking the playfield apart. Yeah it's the right one. You can really see it great here - looks like it would definitely hit, so I do have the right part.

Outside of making a custom gate, I don't think there's a great solution.

Top Ball Gate.jpg

Actually what's really interesting is that my gate is installed backwards from what Sharon posted (though both have the wireframe in the right direction; otherwise the ball could never get out).

In hers, the longer portion of the gate (with the 2 holes for mounts) is mounted against the cylindrical guide. In mine the opposite (even on my pre-restore)

OK, and where it gets strange is that when I put the new gate in, I put it in *backwards* from my original pic - i.e. it was like Sharon's. The reason I reversed it was that the ball when shooting travels against the cylindrical rail and smacks right into the side and can't exit.

Sharon, I don't see how on yours, when you shoot the ball, it doesn't slam right into the side of the gate!

(+ I think it's hysterical that I've come this far and everything is working great, but I'm thwarted by a silly gate... hah!)

That's interesting, radium- the flat metal guide on yours looks like it was installed slightly further back (based on the dirt lines!) on mine it's but up against the edge of the playfield where the attic cutout is.

Yep yours is the same as mine. I just don't quite get how it's not banging into that side (near the knight's head, under the WELCOME) for anyone.

Well, it's not the wire it's hitting - it's the bracket itself.

It seems that mine is installed right, at least based on a lot of pictures I've seen from others. I think it's just that mine is at more of a tilt, increasing the chance the ball will fall back before it gets out the gate.

I'm going to just make myself a custom slightly wider gate

Thank you everyone - it's really helpful everyone posting up pictures, I appreciate it a lot... great community here at pinside!

Hi all,

Here's what I'm doing so far. This is the new gate I'm making (wider new one in the foreground, older in the back). I still need to do the wire, but that's for tomorrow.

New Ball Shooter Gate.JPG

Mayyyyybeee....

Unfortunately that was too long, by about 5mm... I had to shorten it up. Here's the final product in phases. I used a paperclip to test the wireform just so I could make sure I had it bent right (wanted to make sure the gate would prevent the ball from going backwards.) In that 2nd picture, the new one is in the front (bottom of the picture) and the original one from the machine is in the back. The middle one is the one I made that was too long.

Final result works great!

New Shooter Gate - metal layed out comparing with old and previous.jpg
New Shooter Gate - formed and comparing with old and previous.JPG
New Shooter Gate - paperclip test wireform.JPG
New Shooter Gate - real wireform.JPG
New Shooter Gate - installed and working.JPG

Sharon: If I were to make another I'd just give it to you. I wouldn't even know what to ask for it. That said, I initially dry sanded the aluminum for the 1st one (the one that was too long) and wore a blister in my finger (I wet-sanded the 2nd one), and I'm currently out of wire (I pulled the piece for the gate from my workshop rafters, who says being a scavenger isn't worth it).

So... it may be a while before I decide to make another

The only thing that is left is the fact that the battery backup for the scores isn't working. I made another tech post about it, this one is a little more baffling to me. That won't prevent playing it though!

I bought 2 really sweet laughing skulls at Target, I want to make them a topper. When you press a button on them, they actually open their mouths and move them up and down and laugh and the eyes light up. I want to power them from the game (instead of batteries), have their laugh come out of the game's speakers, and have the game trigger them. I was thinking I could wire switches from the game into their trigger - maybe the "special" on the lower playfield... something that doesn't happen all the time. Or maybe if the trap door is open... or maybe the "secrete passage" target on the main playfield... so many choices

Luck?

Actually when I took the game apart, I used an Xacto knife to scratch into the plastic the orientation of the tubes as they appear on their respective collars/mounts. So when I put it back together it was identical. When I put the playfields back in, and dropped the ball down into the lower - it popped back out just fine. I didn't have to actually do anything special.

BTW, I assume we can private message here on pinside? Drop me a message - I can tell you how to find me on Facebook if you're on it. I have a ton of pictures of the restore if you'd like to see them.

Have you adjusted the bracket on the lower playfield that sits around the kicker hole? Maybe it's too far fwd? (I marked those screws too before I took it off - yep, I'm totally paranoid...)