Just bought my first two pins, IJ and TAF. Love them both, bought them both from great insiders. Question on Indy. I just cleaned the play field to get ready to wax, and noticed the play field around the three drop targets is pretty worn, moreso behind them, but also some wear in the front.

Not wanting this to get worse, is there a simple to install protector that someone can recommend?

Thanks!

Carl

Canea - thanks!

Also, the high scores on the machine seem to be fake. There is someone with exactly 500,000,000, someone at 450,000,000 (exactly), etc... I reset the high scores via "reset H.S.T.D), and it only removed the 4th best score, which was like 317,862.350. The other numbers remain (550k, 400k, 350k.... This seems to me to be an original factory setting that I would love to reset and have my family's actual scores be the high scores on display.

First, Canea - thanks so much for the tips and help!

Couple of other questions for the club -

1) The game has a button below the start button on the front, labeled "Super Ball", that allows someone to add a ball to a game that is finished. Does anyone know how to disable this? I have read the manual end to end and scoured the internet, struck out.

2) When the ball drops down from the left loop (which is common after hitting the pop numbers and exiting left) the ball drops down and 19 out of 20 times it hits and activates the left slingshot bumper). The other 1 out of 20 it skims the slingshot number and makes it's way to the left flipper. Is this typical or normal for others?

Thanks in advance!

Beautiful, and a Metallica to boot. 2 of my top five right there.

Mind if I ask where you got the IJ topper from, it is really nice as well.

Bear with me, total newbie questions here....

I love my IJ! I have a newer switch error, 45 Center Enter UP. It is an Opto switch. I cannot get it to fire. I am also noticing some odd behavior around occasionally two balls on play field, or two balls in shooter, etc...

I would love to know any advice....

I have a friend coming over to help. He said it could be the receiver, a solder joint, or a bad switch. We are going to work on getting switch 45 functional. I have read in several places that the vibrations caused by that ball trough can cause several different types of issues.

Questions - is my plan sound? Would you do anything else while I am troubleshooting and potentially replacing switch 45?

Thanks!

Thanks, I will do that when I am in the machine with my friend for sure, and try that first.

I am hoping that getting this switch functioning properly solves the things we are seeing with the idol getting confused and sending a second ball into he playfield at times.

I have also read about a vibration reducer that can be put in the trough, contemplating that.

Carl

Hi All - I have been having an odd gameplay issue with my IJ, and I did some troubleshooting this morning, and I have a question for anyone who can help.

The odd gameplay thing I am seeing is that sometimes there are two balls in play, but the machine thinks there should only be one. Thus, when one drains, the game moves on to the next player (if play 2-4 player), while there is still a ball in play.

I really studied the game play and noticed something interesting, that I am hoping to get some feedback on. Here is what I observed today:

If there is a ball locked in the idol from the previous game, it stays in the IDOL after I press start for the next game. Then when the idol releases a ball into play during the game (with that elephant sound prior) it actually releases two balls into play, and again thinks there is only one.

If there is a ball locked in the idol from the previous game, and I reboot the machine prior the next game, the machine releases all locked balls out of the idol before I can hit start for a new game.

My theory here is that the idol is supposed to release all the balls at the end of a game, thereby having ZERO balls in the idol at the start of each game.

Can you anyone let me know how their machine works, or any other things to check, but this seems like a smoking gun to me.

Thank you!!!

Thanks for the idea! It took me a long time to find this feature on/off in the menu, but I did, and we will see if this prevents the issue from occurring. This being said, I also think others are correct that I have some opto issues in the path from the center enter through the idol release and everything in between.

Hi All, if anyone struggling with Mode Start hole "holding" the ball when shot, I just posted a cheap low risk fix that I hope continues to work: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/potential-easy-repair-for-ij-mode-hole-issue

Hi, I am having an issue where after I lock three balls in Indy, and Start Multiball, only two of the balls exit the idol. Even though I still hear the "elephant trumpet" noise, the third ball does not come out during multiball.

I captured this in a very crappy video:

If anyone has an idea on where/what to troubleshoot, please let me know.

Thanks!!!!

Alright - so did some more work this morning - you are spot on with the Gate being the issue. Now, it gets weird.

First, there is not mechanic issue with the gate. I can manually move it up and down, no problem.

During solenoid test in repeat mode, I noticed when the play field was down, the test would fire once, maybe twice, and then the gate would get stuck in the down position. Here is a video of this:

Then, when I lift the play field up to a vertical position, the thing works just fine:

Any ideas? really appreciate the help!!!

Hey guys thanks for the great advice. So I took the plunger mechanism off the play field, and just noticed that the metal hole closest to play field and the plunger there seems to stick. I simply used steel wool on the plunger, and the hole, and now it works like a champ.

Thanks!!!

I am kind of a newbie to pinball, so I might now have this right, but i did install the ColorDMD display on my IJ about 6 months ago. My original Amber DMD went out on my FS machine. I tried to buy a decent used one for awhie, and then decided to buy a ColorDMD ,which I installed in my IJ, and moved the IJ Amber DMD to FS.

It is really a great upgrade, with all the video modes and such.

edit to add, OK, so I am really a rookie, I have the LCD version, was not aware of LED coming out when I bought it. Lots of discussion in this thread on pros and cons of each: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/colordmd-lcd-versus-led/page/3

The LCD panel is bigger by far than the DMD and so I am a little hesitant to move it between machines.... from what I understand the LED version is exact form factor of original DMD's... that would be a plus for me... maybe not others...

SO, Beezlebob is spot on correct here. I have come up with some simple to implement low cost "fixes", that are about 85% effective. Far better than the 10% I was getting before, but not what it should be.

I am not super confident with disassembly of PoA mini play field, but the next time I have to do it for another reason, I will do what beezlebob recommends. That, and I can't seem to find drop dead foam... out of stock on pinbits.com. Until then, my cheap fix is working pretty darn well, and allowing me to greatly enjoy the game again.

Point of emphasis - since you have the game pulled apart ABSOLUTELY do what beezle says, that is a no brainer.

So, I have my IJ really dialed in now, and just have to say it is such an awesome machine. Such a great integration of the Movies into the game. A mode that doesn't get much attention that I think is so well done is "Well of Souls", a six ball multiball with awards for making center shot. Sounds somewhat easy, but it seems like all six balls are swirling around and near the center shot, thereby blocking a straight shot. How in the heck the game designers ever created this is super cool and very well done.

Yep, replaced mine 9 months ago. I am a rookie, but are you certain the transmitter is dead?? If you are sure it is, then replace both transmitter and receiver.

I also ended up replacing the Trough Opto boards with the Great Lakes Modular boards.

My guess is those Optos (45 center hole and trough) take a lot of vibration.

Good luck!!!

I am starting to wonder if something is happening that is magnetizing the bracket, the solenoid, or the coil stops... i had similar type issue on my idol gate... It is working now, after I changed out the coil sleeve, and cleaned it up really nice.

Hello, I hope I can describe this well enough to get some help. I can also take some videos and share them if that would help for my Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure
My issue is related to the IJ Mode Saucer. I have shots generally sticking in the saucer, which is good. My issue is related to the kickout. From what I understand the ball should eject consistently down to the left flipper. My eject is very erratic. It sometimes kicks with a drain right down the middle. Sometimes is goes down to the left outlane area, sometimes it goes to the left flipper, and everywhere in between.
In observing the kickout mechanism, while looking INTO the mode saucer, I observed the eject kicker striking the ball on the left side of the ball, with the kicker hugging the left side of the slot in saucer plastic slot, and the ball then initially traveling dead right, hitting a side piece of metal, and then bouncing out from there, sometimes hitting post. I was hopefully I could simply bend the kickout arm to hit the ball more straight.
I went under the playfield to do this, and noticed the eject mechanism arm that strikes the ball, is VERY loose in the eject mechanism. There is a lot of play, so I think that is also contributing to the inconsistent eject.
My question is can this eject kicker arm be tightened to remove the play in the movement? I see rivets securing the arm, and I don't see a way to tighten this up. However, I see replacement parts for sale that are the whole mechanism, as well as individual parts like the eject arm.
If anyone feels I am better off just replacing the entire mechanism, please let me know. The Saucer plastic also need to be replaced, as one corner is cracked, but it does seem very secure in there for now, so I do not believe this is the issue.
Thanks!

I find it interesting the Williams Eject mechanisms relied on a single, fairly thin, metal striker that I assume would need to hit the ball fairly precisely. The Stern games have two strikers to hit the ball, one on each side of center. The stern design seems more predictable reliable.

I will keep you posted as I learn.

Going from memory, but I think the random "you cheat doctor jones" is related to an Opto switch, maybe #45? I reflowed the solder joints and problem solved.

I might have some details wrong.