Oh really? I think I saw that in Scott’s video not sure. Isn’t it necessary in order to get to the plastics on the side?

I think you're right. The screw to remove the metal "man overboard" should be able to be reached under the end of the ramp.

Too late for me. I pulled the other nut and the tiny screw. This nut just win’t budge and the whole post keeps turning. Can’t just pull the ramp up since there is a plastic that prevents that.

I do still wanna remove it since I plan on installing titan rings all over this thing and there are 2 right there

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So it’s pretty much impossible to remove the nut without loosening the darn post. What a nightmare! Now I can’t put the t-nut back in since the post is still in there.

Of course it's your machine and you should do whatever you like with it, but I haven't replaced those rings and they're still in good condition after a lot of play on mine. It's not a spot that takes a big beating so they haven't worn down. It's up to you of course for what you want to do, but I just thought I'd offer that the existing rings have worked pretty well on mine so I've avoided the hassle of trying to replace them. Good luck!

Take off the plastic with the post. Remove all the other nuts and screws holding that plastic on and pull out the ramp and the plastic at the same time. Then you can put two washers on the bottom of that post, snugged together, hold them with pliers and remove the nut off the top.

Thanks both EaglePin and Scott, you guys rock! I’ll settle down and take things step by step. I put the wire form back on for now and was able to get the VUK and BP out! I used foam blocks to avoid any damage to it
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I opened a ticket with JJP a week ago, no response. Also emailed my distro, also no response.

Is this nut even necessary to secure the wire form? With the hex spacer there I’m thinking not?

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shitty thing Just randomly started on mine.

My BP barely rocks anymore during gameplay. Only played one game on it tonight. Same issue as last night. This just started.

I went into menu and ran the BP though its tests.

In test mode it works fine. Recaliburated it in test mode. But when i start the game it barely moves.

I do not have that on mine.

Under game settings there are ship movement controls which can be set to increase based on stages completed with minimum settings. Maybe those got changed?

Just a shout out to say how much I Enjoy this game! I just finished tweaking my Chest Mod Open/Close and everything on the PF is working flawlessly.
When this game is hitting on all cylinders and everything is dialed in - it is the greatest Pinball of this century IMHO. Lovin' on my Pirates today!

Just a word of warning. I've seen too many people "accidentally" break a solder connection by sitting the BP down like you have. I would reccomend standing it up on the BACK exposed wood on top of a towel (I leaned mine into the back of a plush chair). There's nothing on the backside to come undone. When someone sat her on the front exposed wood they broke off a lantern. Just trying to help. Be patient. Don't get flustered. If I can remove the BP and put her back on without incident - ANYONE can. LOL - Murphy

.

Thanks! I did place a block of foam on the cannon metal and another block of foam on the flipper coil metal assemblies. I do plan on reflowing solder to any suspect areas just to be on the safe side. I placed bubble wrap all around the ship and sealed the box. I thought about your idea but I don't have a big enough box rest it on the rear exposed wood and I have a 5 and a 4 year old at the house....You figure out the rest

okay, i (finally) responded to the massive amounts of requests for the printed manuals. I will get shipping quotes and let everyone know as soon as i can.

Greetings fellow POTC owners. I received my LE #683 on July 29. I was so worried about all the technical problems I made an arrangement with my distributor to have the chief tech at JJ himself dial in my entire machine. I paid $400 extra for this but I feel it was worth it. I’ve had no major problems at all except my ball gets stuck at the top of the Black Pearl ramp. I’ve tried all the fixes no solution yet. Working with JJ tech support to fix.

My playfield did have bubbling under the sling posts and on some other posts but not terrible. I installed the repair kit they provided but didn’t like the washers and used the neoprene ones from Lowe’s people have posted about. The good news is that I totally love this pin as my favorite of all time. I want to keep her working and lasting in as good as shape as possible.

So I installed Cliffy’s with all the parts Cliff had already developed, the Map Hole (2 pieces), the mystery hole, the Depths and the shooter lane. However he did not have any protectors developed for the Bayou hole or the edge of the Black Pearl where the ball goes rocketing up. So I felt we needed protectors there. I worked with Cliff (what an awesome guy) and we developed new protectors for the ship and the Bayou hole. The Bayou hole protector is made of the carbon fiber so it is expensive. He says he will not make any more of those unless he gets enough orders, but the Black Pearl protector is ready for ordering. I posted some photos of the new pieces. They work great. At first I didn’t like the look of the carbon, but now I like it. Want to protect the playfield as best I can. Installing the Map Hole is a PITA. You have to remove the ramp and the ship. I didn’t realize the T nut issue so didn’t file that down while I had all the parts off. Now I have to deal with that. Loving the game and glad I joined this club!
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Ordered a set of full Cliffy's as well.

My Pirates LE will be going out on location soon.
I have a replacement playfield coming anyway.
Figured I would let the public try it out for a bit.

I'll switch it out when Elvira 3 gets here.

Wow, glad you got a new PF; and awesome for Calagary to get to play one of these, even if it is only for a few months.

I think ZERO POTC made it on location in western Canada so far; none in BC anyways... and I really don't know about back east.

Could someone do me a favor and take a pic straight down at the gap between your BP and the ramp?

It's an. 1/8" straight across the entire gap on mine.

I can't right now, but I know my gap isn't entirely symmetrical.

Heh, well, lucky you!

Yeah, that's what I'm seeing. I think it's related to the ramp screws to the playfield. I just don't remember what mine looked like before, months ago, when I had it all together.

Here’s mine. Ball sometimes gets hung up on it but not very often.

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Here's mine, day one.

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Your second photo looks like it's angled, but not the first one. I can't get the front left side to have enough gap, it looks a lot like your second photo. I even re-drilled my front left ramp screw to pull the ramp that way. I don't know if everyone has their ramp screws drilled in the same place, but mine were really weirdly positioned... way in the back and the screws angled backwards.

Weird, going to mess with it some more. I wish there was more room at the bottom of the ramp to adjust it, that would give a lot more control over the top.

Thanks!

When you think about it, there's always going to be a chance that the ball hangs up on the gap between the BP and the ramp. The BP rocks left/right, so one side or the other will be slightly higher or lower.

that's a lot tighter than mine

Here’s my little “extended” screwdriver I made to get the VUK out. Hey, whatever works eh?

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My gap is double as big as the pics you guys are posting.

Have you every had your Black Pearl Out? If so, you need to readjust the position. Simply loosen the 1/8" allen nut in the back on the BP shaft... pull the BP as far forward as it will go... .then tighten the allen nut on the shaft. Should be good to go.

Many people forget you're supposed to pull the BP forward before tightening that allen nut back down.

Have you every had your Black Pearl Out? If so, you need to readjust the position. Simply loosen the 1/8" allen nut in the back on the BP shaft... pull the BP as far forward as it will go... .then tighten the allen nut on the shaft. Should be good to go.
Many people forget you're supposed to pull the BP forward before tightening that allen nut back down.

Yeah, the shoulder bolt needs to go all the way down. But even then the BP has about, I don't know... 3-4mm of travel front to back, at least. I am going to work on some fixes for the BP ramp which will hopefully let us align the top better (left to right leveling) and adjust the angle of attack, as it were. The restriction seems to be where the ramp hits the playfield, there are obstacles on each side which prevent the ramp from being able to be rotated.

I made this to help keep the BP forward. Just added on to the kit to provide a few different bushings to allow for some even finer adjustments. In case your BP can't be all the way forward you can space it out from the front as well.

https://pinballmods.co/potc-black-pearl-actuating-protection-amp-alignment-kit

A few people have reported issues with one of the sling post screws under the BP ramp pushing in to the ramp causing a bump in the ramp and messing up the bottom. Looking to provide a fix for this at the same time.

Not really. The ball hanging up only happened when the BP was NOT moving. The rocking would release it.

Hum i think mine is always moving ingame

Ive never had the BP out. It scares me to touch the thing. lol

But i will check the screw you mentioned. Hopefully its simple. Thank you all.

It's easy! There's nothing to it! As long as you disconnect the cables and remove the VUK, it's rather simple to remove the ship. People make it sound a lot harder than it really is

Yeah, I was stupid. It's the slow rocking that would catch the ball for me. It hardly seems like it was rocking when it's slow compared to other times when it rocks more preventing the ball to catch.

Is the speed based on certain modes or shots?

There are settings in the game which let you define intensity and effect based on goals.

Since you don't have to move the ramp, it's not a big deal to remove the BP, like others said.

Thank you for reaching out to me via PM. I wanted to say that for me personally, with retinal problems and having a tough time viewing a computer screen, having a printed manual is a godsend. My PayPal is happily sent. : )
Murphy

Neither have I. I've had the game since April and have yet to open the backbox or lift the playfield.

That's actually amazing - the odds of having a pin (particularly one as complex as POTC) that was 100% dialed in from day one and hasn't had a single issue in five months, you really lucked out!

I haven't had any issues with mine either. I have only opened it to install mods and I have had mine now for about 10 months.

I've only recently warmed up to this game. I haven't been a big fan of JJP games, but that is changing. Wondering what your thoughts are regarding more standard editions of this one getting made in the future. I have no desire to pay for CE or LE. My fear is JJP will make a new LE with another thousand or whatever instead of making more standards, like they did with the recent WOZ YBR LE.

Sorry if it has been discussed, but I haven't read the whole thread here.

Thanks,
RC

Short answer is nobody knows. If they are remade at some point, most assume, like you, that JJP will focus on LE's, possibly at a premium $.

They pulled the plug so early, the SE might be the most limited of all models. LOL

Interesting too that they are doing a new run of the Ruby red WOZ, with the monkey installed. I don’t know pricing but if they can do that, they can probably do another run of POTC at 15K(!)

The latest from Jack in a stream a few weeks back is the same as what they said back at the Texas show - They have no plans to make anymore Pirate pins, but those plans could change further on down the road. They have 3 new pins in line that they want to get out and the production schedule is full with those. Lloyd and Steve at JJP pretty much say that it's not going to happen. There's 10 pages of posts about it in this thread:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/will-jjp-make-more-potc