I'd rank em:

1. JM
2. Godzilla
3. SP

For the price, get the Godzilla. It's hard to find. JM's come up quite a lot more often. JP's grow on trees, it seems.

I've owned JM and SP and have a friend with a Godzilla in his living room. Go with the Godzilla. No telling when you will find another, especially at that price. JM is a bit better for gameplay but you can get one at any time. SP will get old fast. I had to have one until I had one. I got over it fairly quickly.

Def not the South Park.

Anything but South Park. JM is a LOT of fun and at $2K the price is about right, maybe a tad high (though, without knowing condition it's hard to say). However, it is very linear, there is one way to play it and one strategy. Unless you're in a tourney and want to nail the spinner over and over. Power down is cool, JM is a great game in a collection of 5+ IMO.

You won't be sorry with that choice. JM is a fantastic game.

Good choice!

you made it home - I am going up to play the newer games now after getting my ass kicked by you on 8 ball deluxe. thanks ed

Excellent choice. I'm sure you'll be lovin' it.

I Just picked up a JM, it's a pretty cool game and can play really fast. I can't wait til I get it all shopped.

Good job, man. JM is a great game. Godzilla is decent. South Park is bottom of the barrel in the DMD era.

Might not have to. While its wise to replace these, a lot of the squealing is from the motors and gears. 4 screw and clean the existing grease out regrease with lithium grease and oil at the small gear. There is a tutorial here. I believe its in the JM clup posts.

JM is definitely the best of the bunch. I'd go Godzilla second as it has a really interesting playfield and is pretty rare it seems. South Park would have to be essentially free for me to take it. Horrendous pin and some of the most repetitive call outs I've ever heard.

Yep.

http://quinndunki.com/blondihacks/?p=1615

Nobody should fear this job- if I can do it, anyone can. I agree that the gearboxes are more likely the cause of squealing noises. However, I think it's easiest to pull the whole assembly to address that, and since you have it out anyway, change the nuts and re-lube everything.

JM
Zilla
SP

Sorry for the late reply- didn't see this until now.

Others have said white lithium grease works fine in the gearboxes and on the threaded rods. The white doesn't show, actually, because it turns gray/black right away from the mechanism doing its thing, and from mixing with the tiny bits of old grease in the threads that you can't quite remove. Any light duty grease with decent holding power should work. Go easy on the threaded rods- excess grease is just going to collect grime, and probably end up on the playfield. A little grease usually goes a long way. A tiny drop of oil (TINY) in the brass bushings at the ends of the rods is also a good idea. They're doing most of the work of holding the carriage, and could easily be a source of squeal. Especially if the squeal is only in one direction- the rod shifts slightly depending on direction, and loads up one bushing more than the other. I wouldn't attempt to oil these bushings with the assembly in the game, though. That's a guaranteed recipe for getting oil on the playfield.

As for whether to touch it, I guess that depends on how bad the squeal is. If it's bad, it's indicative of metal chafing, and a small problem will turn into a big one before long. If it's mild, it might be nothing.

I'm with you- stuck around 3 to 3.5 billion. My skills have a long way to go.