I finally convinced my mom she should let me take the IJ out of her basement and bring it to my house so somebody can actually get some enjoyment out of it. My kids are excited to play! They've never seen pinball before, and what a beautiful game they will have to learn on.

I've just been cleaning (a lot), some of the flipper wiring was bad, the flippers need to be rebuilt, lots of blown bulbs, most of the rubber is dried out, needs a couple drop targets, needs some trim, and the balls keep auto-firing after the first trigger pull, but other than that, it's in good shape!

IJ (resized).jpg

My parents purchased it in 96 or 97 from a local novelty store, where I'm not sure if it was being used or just for sale. It definitely spent some time in coin-op mode as evidenced by the holes drilled for a locking bar over the coin door.

Turned out it was the last ir receiver that was bad (#7 I think?), the one to check if a ball is ready to be loaded into the shooter lane.

For posterity, and this may be a known issue, if anyone uses the Pinball Life trough optos (at least on the receiver side, didn't install the transmitter side), you will have to trim (grind) the trough a bit so the board fits correctly. The small status LEDs on the board otherwise interfere with the trough.

Been having trouble getting sunk balls kicked up to the idol. The game can cycle through the missing ball sequence (multiple times) and the ball still won't be kicked up. I can hear the popper activate on the sequence, so I assume the ball is just getting hung up down there. I can usually get it to kick up with a little love tap (or 3).

Ya'll think the part is worn, dirty, or is it more likely I have some sort of bogey caught in there?