Packers are awesome. They won’t compress. They come in different thicknesses from 1mm up to 10mm (and greater). They snap into smaller pieces. They won’t biodegrade and you can drill them. They’re inert, won’t react with other surfaces or conduct. The perfect shim. I love them.

Ahhh. It’s a shim. lol just wasn’t sure as I personally have never seen these in the states and I have installed countless doors and windows. May have to take a look. Learn something every day. Thanks.

I might be wrong, but I think you just described a McDonald's hamburger.

Boom. Thanks for the fix. Great having I lane gate working!

I have a red block top-right of my Pirates screen, it moves up and down like a 'toggle', do other folks this this?

Maybe its a status thing....

Any ideas?

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It indicates there is an error report available. When you open your coin door is there a error report? Most likely the target ship switch?

You can turn that off in settings.

LTG : )

HAAAALP. My POTC was just sitting idle and I heard the speakers blip and it powered off by itself. Just blips for half a second and stays dark when power cycling it. Any ideas where to start?

Board in the back box has all red lights on by several of the fuses. Maybe one in the circuit is blown. I’ll have to do some research.

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Strongly suggest starting with the Simple stuff first even if you think all is good. As it seems like something is cutting system power focus on that. Start with the power plug at wall and to the back of the game. A loose connection there can cause interrupts. Then reseat each power connection cable in the game and all computer plugs. If a fuse was blown it wouldn't shut down the entire game and it certainly wouldn't reboot it. Keep it simple as they say from the start and record what you did so you know where to go. Good luck.

Pull out the high power interlock switch on the coin door to get more to light up.

This.

LTG : )

That is a sign those fuses are good.

LTG : )

After Yelobird's advice. Consider this.

LTG : )

They all lit up after I power cycled again without disconnecting the switch. I’m tracing power now

Thanks for the suggestions. I can’t even jump cpu the board. I think the power supply is shot in the PC. power is going to the supply but the green wire is not getting power to the board. It’s still under warranty, so I’ll let JJP send me a new one if they agree with my diagnosis.

My first thought was power supply. My pirates was rebooting randomly and got progressively worse. Changed the supply for a new one from Best Buy, now it's perfect.

Had a simple nagging problem. The ball catch at the end of the chest wasn't completely stopping the balls upon loading. Most of the time the first one would hang out halfway and not register as being loaded. You had to shake the cabinet to get it to roll back up into the chest and trigger the opto. Simply shortening the retention spring by 2 winds to increase tension allowed the catch to stop the ball firmly and register all load attempts without the need to nudge.

Yes, it was the power supply. My dad had one he let me borrow to test and it fired right up. I told JJP so hopefully they will still send me one as it is still under warranty. Mine did reboot during game play two weeks ago as well. It was probably ready to go then.

Is it difficult to swap power supplies?

It doesn't seem too bad. I haven't installed the new one yet. I just bypassed the old one to test. Looks like i'll need a socket set to the get small bolts out of the old power supply on the side of the box. Other than that it's just a few connectors. No worse than replacing one in a PC.

Yeah it’s not bad at all. The most difficult part for me was trying to loom up the wiring on the new supply (which was flat ribbon cables) to make it look as nice as the original.

Is this a common problem with POTC? Are all defective?

Well, it’s impossible to tell.

In the case of my machine it was a Corsair supply and they’ve had some problems in the PC world. In fact it was a helpful PC repair video from a guy called “HealMyTech” that pointed me in the direction of the fix.

Thank you for the helpful info

I have an issue with my inner loop not registering many shots (especially fast ones). It's impossible to beat the Kraken like that.

I just tested the switches in the test menue. The inner loop enter switch does work but only if I press my finger onto the playfield. If I lift my finger straight up just a tiny tiny bit it doesn't register anymore.

I saw that the switches are on one solid contrustction so I don't think that I can change their directons to get better "reception".

Really appreciate any suggestions.

The arm of the switch needs adjusting. Be careful you don't effect the flat part that pushes the tiny knob into the switch body.

Turn the game off. Lift the playfield up and lean back. Remove the two screws holding the bracket the switch is on to lower it. Then you can bend it up a tiny bit. Reassemble and try again. It might take a try or two to get it so the ball registers a hit yet doesn't trap the ball.

LTG : )

Here's link to a post I made earlier about an idea I'm going to try on my machine for the same issue. I think the optos at the entrance to the inner orbit do not have a ball guide opening or anything else in front of them to focus the light beam, so that means light from the opto that is near the surface of the playfield where the ball is very narrow isn't blocked long enough to trigger the switch when the ball goes through it fast. The idea is to put tape across the lower 1/3 to 1/2 of the opto so the lower part of the light beam is always blocked by the tape and the upper part of the light beam (where the ball is wider) will still be blocked for a longer time when the ball crosses it fast, so the switch will register closed.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/jjpirates-of-the-caribbean-troubleshooting-tips-issues/page/56#post-5555785

every time i start a game, the character advances 1 character, when ball is put into the shooter lane. Does this happen to any one else?

Not a big deal.

One of the leaf blade switches on a flipper button too sensitive ?

LTG : )

LTG I don’t get this, is there something else I need to remove to slide the black pearl out?

Did you unhook the flat metal piece that hooks the motor to the black pearl, this is behind the rear wall of the playfield. Pull a big clip and lower it. ?

Between the rear of the black pearl and the back wall of the playfield, if you look down there is an allenhead bolt sticking up, did you remove that ?

That is it. Just two thins. Grab it with both hands and wiggle it towards the rear of the game and it should lift up and off of the two pivot points.

This is to lay it on it's side on the main playfield.. If you want to remove it entirely, under the playfield disconnect the connectors for it first.

LTG : )

it was the last part i was not getting. i finally made it. very easy!
Thanks a lot LTG !

What’s the absolute best fix for the action button getting stuck? Sorry, I just started playing this game

searching the forum for the stern button, or the action button fix. it has been posted several times. i guess the Stern button is the absolute easiest, albeit longest wait.

good luck!

Stern lockdown bar button from Pinball Life.

What I did on mine was put a blob of hot glue on the end of the button. That has worked fine in commercial use since I got the game.

LTG : )

Did you put the hot glue after the adding the stern button or did you just do the hot glue? What causes it to get stuck though?

Thanks!

This one?

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Just the hot glue.

On my game, the end would stick on the side of the blade on the switch it pushes. A dab of hot glue made it wider and end of problem. The blade of that switch has some back and forth play.

LTG : )

Got it! Ty!!!

I couldn't find a Stern lockdown bar button in Europe and didn't want to wait for shipping, so I bought some Anti Friction Dry PTFE Lubricant which has made it work perfectly.

I’ve been posting that fix for almost a year now. Personally never had another issue after putting dry lube on the button.

Hi guys, I'm putting my JJP Pirates back together after installing the MAP Cliffy and other things and I want to make sure I have the MAP scoop deflector at the correct angle on re-install. I believe the scoop deflector is at a slight angle with the left side closest to the MAP targets slightly lower on the playfield and the right side of the deflector closest to the inner orbit slightly farther back. Is that correct? I know it can make a big difference in the ability to hit that scoop so I want to make sure I get it right. Thanks for the help!

That’s how min is. Fairly certain a few have posted pics in this thread or the group thread specifically focused on this and the modification to the T nut.

I checked out Vireland's post about it that is listed as one of the main subjects in the thread, but his deflector looks like it is straight flush with the playfield opening in the pictures...

Installing two piece map cliffy:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/jjpirates-of-the-caribbean-troubleshooting-tips-issues#post-4933795

I personally believe the tilted angle (with the L bracket under the deflector) is an error. To me it looks better flush and it plays better also.

When I installed my map cliffy the metal on metal stack of the cliffy pieces and deflector was slipping and causing the deflector to rotate to an angle toward the orbit opening. I had big issues with shots not going in because they were being deflected too far that direction and going over the hole. I added some rubber washers to the stack of cliffy parts and the deflector so it all held tight. My experience has been that having the deflector pretty much parallel with the back edge of the map hole was where it needed to be. If you eye the shot from behind the upper left flipper while standing on the left side of the machine you can see how the shot lines up and visualize how it's going to bounce toward the hole when the deflector is parallel to the back edge. Since the ball does not come at the deflector from a perpendicular angle off the flipper, it's going to still bounce a bit to the right but that will put it in the hole.

Hey guys. Didn't see this fault listed so thought I would mention it here. POTC LE about 70 plays old (so basically new!). After several games the upper left flipper was turning sluggish and was virtually unusable. After inspecting the mech I noticed an above average amount of free play in the mounted coil and the flipper pawl. I also found a cracked coil sleeve, and the sleeve measured at approximately 1-7/8 inches. According to manual (if I'm reading it correctly) it should be a 2-3/16 length sleeve (the same as the lower flippers). Can anybody else confirm this?

Anyway I've rebuilt the mech with a new longer sleeve and flipper pawl (other one was also sloppy with excessive free play). The flipper now seems much more free to move by hand (it wasn't before). I'll write another update after a few test games. Cheers.