What does this look like?

No action on my previous post so I'll simplify...

How the heck do you get the newton ball separated from the post so I can remove the sarcophagus mech? Manual diagram looks like it comes off the post, but I can't grip the ball firm enough to twist the post off.

it probably does not come apart, at least not on purpose. I took my mech apart to install a roller switch and it was mostly straight forward, although a little awkward. Just start unscrewing stuff from the bottom-up and eventually the ball and post will come off in one piece out of the top of the mech. The other newton ball is a good reference for putting it back together in the right order.

Out the top... of course... I'll try that, thanks.

read the thread about the roller switches and no the post isn't meant to come off I'm pretty sure.

The ball came off the post (lower completely, upper just rode up the post about 3/4") on both newton balls on the Premium we have on route and Stern sent replacements, so that's not normal.

I can’t get to the switches in the sarcophagus... I need to remove the mech... but I can’t get the mech out because the newton ball has a plate over top of the mech and I can’t get the Newton ball out because... well because it won’t fit up or down with a collar in the way. I’m feeling like I’m missing something simple here.
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That extension on the bottom unscrews. Here's the illustration from the manual:

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And that’s exactly where I’m stuck, I can’t get it to unscrew, the whole thing spins and I can’t hold the Newton ball on top firm enough, it just spins in my hands.

robogrip with a microfiber cloth to hold the ball while you turn the bottom part with a deep socket? I know in some of the later ones they may have used loctite, so heating the post on the bottom near the collar up a little might help.

Thanks for the help, will give these a try, was considering heating it up or using some vice grips with something to protect the ball but wasn’t sure if I was just barking up the wrong tree altogether.

I had the same problem, it's really tough because of the lock-tite. I cut a flipper rubber and used it on the jaws of a vice-grip to grip the ball.

Flipper rubber to grip the ball with robo grip or vice grip is a great idea. Better than microfiber cloth.

Did you have to warm yours to loosen the loc-tite?

ah yeah, I used a gas soldering iron to heat up the long metal actuator and the ball came off.

If its blue loctite it should come apart easily with no heating. Hopefully nobody used the red loctite on it.

Looking for help with my auto plunger issue (manual plunger working fine). I would say around 1 in 6 auto plunges are getting either slightly airborne where it "rattles" coming out which causes a limp plunge, or much more to the point of hitting the right ramp and deflecting back to the auto plunger. I replaced the coil a month ago with the stronger one (power set to 200 in settings, multiple power settings tried as well) and it was working great until very recently. The metal prongs on the auto plunger have been adjusted and line up great with the ball. When the ball stays grounded in the shooter lane, it's a beautiful plunge!

Also, my buddy has a BM66 having the same "airborne" issue.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Turn the power down. With the new coil, I had to roll it back to about 170 to stop it from going airborne occasionally.

I will try 170 to confirm, but lowering down to 180 resulted in being too weak with many missed full loop plunges.

I have the stronger coil set at 220, but I also adjusted the shooter lane guide (angled it downward a bit and added a flat washer and a star lock washer to hold the screw in place better) and my auto plunge is working about 95% now. When it does miss it seems to get a slightly weak launch and hits the corner below the left loop (above the extra ball target). Manual plunge is 100% provided I do a full pull.

Yeah, you have to adjust for your specific machine. I'm just saying on the one here we went as low as 170 and it was still working well with the larger coil.

Looking for some guidance on a issue. Start the game as usual, ball goes into shooter lane, then use flippers to pick song. After about the third flipper hit the the game picks a song and thinks the ball is in play. With the ball still sitting in the shooter lane, game thinking ball is in play I'll keep hitting the flippers (left and right) and the ramps are registering and immediately counts down ramps with each flipper button hit. The game will count down the spinners as well without being hit. Did a switch test: Spinners and ramps appear to be registering correctly. Did a audit check: The right spinner and right ramp are excessively registering. At this point I don't know where to go next. On another note, I'm very new to pinball less then 6 months so my knowledge base is what I can find on here and youtube. Thanks for the suggestions.

Common issue. Newton ball is registering from the vibration. Go into switch test mode and hit the playfield with the palm of your hand sharply. It will likely activate the newton ball. With newton ball pointer below playfield at rest, gap leaf switch below saucer newton ball pointer rests in so it's a little wider.

PinMonk went to switch test and tried hitting the playfield sharply, even tried hitting sharply by both newton balls. Nothing registered. The two newton balls only registered when hit with a pinball.

So when smacking the PF all over with your palm in switch test are any of the switches registering from vibration?

Its most likely the Newton ball on the lower part of the playfield. Before you try adjusting the switch though make sure that the pointed hex post below the playfield hasnt loosened up. If it has just tighten it back up and you will be good to go. They come loose often and it messes with the adjustment on that switch and hitting the flippers will make it register a switch hit.

If that's what it is and it keeps coming loose just put a drop of "blue" (not red) loctite on the threads and your problem will be solved.

Couldn't find anything out of adjustment on the newton ball to make it register falsely. Just to verify, I put a piece of paper between the two newton ball switches so it wouldn't register. With the piece of paper installed I tested the switches just to verify they would not register. All good no registered hits while in switch test. Turned the game back on and started a game. Was still doing the same thing as before.

Also tried hitting the playfield while in switch test mode again. Hit in several places all over the playfield and nothing triggered.

I've uploaded a video of the switch test while hitting the right flipper showing the right ramp opto triggering. The odd thing I never saw the right spinner register during all the switch tests and the audit showed this switch registering excessively.

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So did you check where the right ramp optos plugs in to make sure neither is loose and also make sure the right ramp optos (both sides) are not loose, causing them to lose alignment and cause a fake switch trigger?

So sick of being punished for making a great right ramp shot only to have the ball fly off the ramp and end up in the trough. Ended up putting three flipper rubbers over ramp where the ball gets air at high speed. Works great. Looks.. so so.

IM right ramp fix (resized).jpg

Check that your welds dont need to be filed down. May be causing your ball hop.

Check your coil stop they have a habit of loosing the tip of the top off the bracket. The circular tip then rides inside the coil causing weird behavior. Just swapped my coil stops on my Iron Maiden look for gold dust in the cab from the coil stops wearing out. Pinball life seems to have a better quality replacement than the original sterns.
Regards,
Al

Yeah, I'd fix your ball guide before I did that. Film it in slo-mo with a phone and it should show where the problem it. You can also manually roll the ball and see if it jumps at any point even a little and file that part down.

I'm guessing that you've just cleaned the pf and/or changed the flipper rubbers.
I had exactly the same issue develop after my machine had returned from a show and thought something had been damaged in transit.
It turns out it was purely because the playfield was so fast, and the flippers had just been rebuilt and were super powerful.

If you've only just started having this problem, I'd suggest that would be the issue. Try turning the left flipper power down and see how that manages the situation.

After that follow the other advice checking to see where exactly the ball is getting air using a slowmo video

I finally got off my butt and ordered the switches to swap on my sarcophagus... and holy smokes that lock-tite did not want to let go of the stem or little saucer from the ball. It was a lot of effort to get that mech out. Even with the mech out a couple of more pieces had to come off to reach the switches but the swap was pretty straight forward after the battle was over. Didn’t play test much but was 6 for 6 without the ball hanging up on the sarcophagus. More play testing on the weekend.

This is what I would look at. Make sure nothing is obstructing this opto and it’s free from dust.

Did you check your post settings? There is a setting to disable posts. Maybe it was accidentally switch to on?

Little help here. Just picked up a maiden pro. I hit the right ramp from a fast combo and the ball rocketed off into the drain....damn. Is there a fix for that? Looks like the previous owner already raised the mounting point up a bit. Hurts to get punished for a good shot.

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No, that washer is factory installed to protect the plastic.

Film on your camera in slo-mo mode to help diagnose where the ball is being launched. If you post it, I'll see if I can slow it further and narrow it down for you.

I'm not sure that this matters much or at all but that ramp is not secured correctly. The washer should be between the nut and ramp and not below. I have attached a picture of how my ramps were attached from the factory. There should also be a larger washer below the plastic sling part to help protect it from being broken. I can't tell if you have one installed from your picture.

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He's got plastic protectors on below the sling, so the large washer isn't necessary.

I think he meant the smaller metal washer above the the plastic should be above the wireform, not below.

Ok thanks for the tips guys. I'll try to get a slow mo video of it happening.

Another quick question. Should all these pop bumpers be lit up? That one that isn’t on in this pic is a flasher and will flash just fine.

Should it also be on with the GI?

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Nope, the left pop is a flasher only!

I've always wondered this too. Guess now i know.

Flasher might be slightly incorrect as i've not had the plastic off to check the LED underneath, could be just a controlled LED to be more precise but it sure doesn't stay on all the time like the other 2

I took it off yesterday. It's a little 2 LED board in there.

Yeah, I realized that later, but it's not going to help his ball issue to move it on top, it will make the ramp a smidge lower, which would make it worse.

So am I understanding this correctly. To correct the auto launch some of you are essentially bending the balk guide toward the flippers (slightly)? This seems counterintuitive. I would think you bend it away from the flippers to get the ball to travel in the left loop.
I get the coil replacement but I just started having problems with autolaunch and haven’t done that yet.

Thanks