They didn't use good enough screws, so they often broke off. They actually used the lane guide screws!

Mine got turned sideways and rescrewed down. Haven't gotten around to getting the nice new Mantis ones yet.

OMG. Where did my money go? Just placed a couple orders for everything I'll need to make my JP minty. Well, as close as I can get it without doing a full out HEP tear down and rotisserie restore.

Will have Full LEDs. All three flipper rebuilds. Slingshot rebuilds with new switches and arms. VUK rebuild. Raptor kickback entire unit replaced. Shooter rebuild. Pop-bumper rebuild with new spoon switches and skirts and bodies. Cliffy Protectors. Latest USA CPU and Display. New rubber with Super Band flippers and posts. A couple new targets. And AnyPin Nvram.

Those are the main things. A lot of it probably doesn't need replacing. But since I plan on having this machine for a while, I figured I might as well make most of it new while I'm tearing it down.

Excited to start this project. Also having fun playing the machine as is.

Also bought a mini butane torch to polish up the ramps.

Think you're broke now, wait til you buy all the sweet mods!

Already planned. Figured blow my money now. Take a month or so restoring it. Then when I'm done, blow it all again.

Planning on the Flipper Fidelity speakers. Which, don't really know if I need. The stock ones sound pretty good already. But also came from a 1987 machine. Also planning on the scoop mods, and the gate mod. And maybe next year the TRex.

Is there anything else I'm forgetting?

Lit back panel, lit t-rex saucer, dinos, trees, etc

Thats abit it for mods at this stage right? I mean apart from the anticipated rom update code from CHADH. Oh wait you could paint the legs, side rails and lock down yellow or red!

Naw. That's the one thing I love about this game. That all the cabinet hardware is black. Not over the top with colors. The artwork is simple, and love the feel of the textured black as well. I like minimal design. And I think that's part of the reason why I love the JP machine. The Lost World machine never had the same feeling for me, and it's because the cabinet is a lighter color, and has a lot more going on.

What about a dark textured red? Never played lost world. Heard its no comparison to the original.

3 Chips in the mail today. CPU, Display, and NVRam. Thanks John Wart Jr. and Rob Anthony! Both work flawlessly. Glad to have USA on the display instead of Japan.

Also maybe he did some sleuthing before sending it to me, but I was all ready to do the jumper myself on the AnyPin DMD. But I didn't have to, it came already jumped to the correct chip. Thanks Rob!

*edit. And yes, batteries were taken out. But a good thing too. One was starting to leak.

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It's alive!

After over a year of only playing mine maybe 20 times because of issues, we finally got it running. A second new power supply, new MPU, and new correct fuses and it is running like a champ. I finally got to install my loop mods, Jeep, and fix my light strips. (Look under the ptera wing for the LED strip.) I already had the dinos installed but think they still look pretty good.
Here's some updated shots of it.

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went with plan B, had hoped it would fit over the dock ramp....actually worked out well where I mounted it, I had a vision of Dennis crashing into the game.... I installed a frosted green led in the jeep under the dash and tied into the lighting at the t tex lighting....its supported on wire stands , install looks factory. I have more detailed pictures of the mod and install if anyone wants them.

peace, B.

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Blindetall, really liked the led strip under the pterodactyls wing! Very smart and adding some light to the rather dark playfield

Would I be correct in saying that if the game says something like "Those raptors are clever." there might be a switch not working?

I noticed that the exit ramp switch wasn't getting triggered, and the ball was never diverted to the left return lane. But also noticed that when it would continue down the wire ramp to the right return lane and hit the right return lane switch, it would say that phrase about the raptors being clever.

I realized that the ball would hit the initial ramp switch, and then continue around to the wire ramp without triggering the exit switch, and then continue to the right return lane. The game never saw the ball come back down from the ramp. So I thought that was a "clever" thing they added, because it should have been impossible to make that shot if all switches were working.

But now I'm getting that dialog when the ball hits the left return lane it seems. But haven't spotted anything yet that would make it think that the ball shouldn't be in that spot. Or is that phrase commonly used in a regular game?

Mine says those raptors are clever.

Yup, it's a standard callout as far as I know. I'm pretty sure it happens when you hit the right inlane or outlane, but I'm not positive as I've barely played mine in awhile and I don't know what ultimately triggers it.

Those raptors ARE clever!

Blondetall and Smoke, where did you get your trees?

RussM

Going to rebuild my lower flippers this weekend. Got the parts from Pinball Life real quick (as usual). Might need some help since I've never had to rebuild any before, so this is just a heads up.

I got mine at Michaels craft store, train/miniature department. They always have a 40% off coupon on their phone app. You can also find lots on Amazon, but be careful of the bases since some are made to stick into things and impossible to secure in a pin.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2

Fairly easy. Just take notes on how you took it apart, then put together in reverse order. One thing I learned was to not tighten anything down until everything is in place. Also just a very small dab of threadlocker on the screws.

Check out Vid's Guide to rebuilding flippers and PM me with any questions, and I'll walk you through it.

I am very familiar with DE flippers and theory of operation.

RussM

Excited for this weekend. Will be tearing mine apart. I think I've played it enough to get the feel for what needs fixing, what's not working properly, and what just needs cleaning.

Question I have though, this is only my second machine, but I never saw this issue with my Laser War. I had two coils that stopped working. One of the slingshots and one of the pop bumpers. Actually, I don't recall if they stopped working, or if its been like that. But after a very easy visual find, I found that the wire snapped off on both of them. Solder still intact. They broke at the base of the solder.

Two coils. I'll have to check the rest of them, and maybe restrip the wire and resolder it to prevent it.

But has anyone run across this with their JP? Wires that just break, and not due to a cold solder joint? I was really glad it was an easy fix. Worried that the coil went bad, or was going to be much harder to track down.

The stranded wire will bend and fatigue at the joint right where the solder stops, and the wire eventually breaks off.

Very common.

I would strip back to fresh wire, tin it, remove the solder and wire stub from the coil lug with a swipe of the hot iron tip, and solder the fresh wire to the clean lug.

RussM

Wel, to not fuck up the way I did; make sure you have the threads in the link the correct way else you can tighten and tighten until the world ends, without getting it tight enough

its been a couple years, mine were in a toy kit a member here had easy access to them if I recall right, he sold them and I think something else as a kit for the pin , sorry been awhile cant recall the exact details.

B.

Here's what I got so far on the left flipper.IMG_20150703_215949040.jpgIMG_20150703_221715450.jpg
As you can see, when I attach the spring it pulls the link assy into the switch and opens it. It shouldn't open it like that should it?

I believe you have your switch on backwards. Turn it around so that it doesn't touch it when the spring pulls it back.

Does this post serve a purpose? I've seen photos of others having this same post in the same spot. I thought it was a hack, because they lost a nut and had one of these laying around.
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Hmm, I was afraid of that. I'll try it again tomorrow. Thanks.

Also, I have no idea if that post is supposed to be there. My plastic is broken and my light post is in a different spot.

Thats there to stop the ball from getting stuck in case of an "airball"

Yep, just helps prevent a rare ball trap.

You often see posts like that, or metal posts, or oddly shaped clear plastics, sometimes in weird places, because during game tests in production that's where balls got stuck, and that's their fix.

RussM

Makes sense. Thanks guys. So I'll make sure I return it where it was after my teardown.

Kinda like these puzzles. Tearing it down, you learn a lot more about the machine. And you find errors in how others put it back together wrong. My gate lights power cables were routed in a weird way. Left a lot exposed. Then I found the notch where they were supposed to be routed through. This machine will look so much better after I get done.

So my T-Rex has decided to periodically stop moving left and right. I have it set to just go up and down (you know, to eat the ball, which is the coolest feature in any pinball machine IMO).

I feel like the game just isn't 100%, though. The T-Rex is the first thing people see and talk about when they see my machine. I want him (her?) working like he (she?) should.

Any advice on where I should look first? Do you think I need a new left/right motor? Loose wiring?

Thanks for any/all info!

Success! I now have a working left flipper thanks to Russ and woody! Thanks for the help guys, I appreciate it!

Tech question for the group...my right VUK and launcher coil stopped working...all other coils and switches appear to be working...all fuses in tact...any idea what could cause just those 2 coils to fail?

These really are nice mods. I was watching the game play video you posted to show them off (two great games in a row) and noticed that your pop bumpers are a lot livelier than mine, the flippers are stronger, and was impressed that you could backhand the ramp repeatedly. Need to put some time into it to see what can be done to improve mine.

Hi,

You have some very nice JP mods. You mention that the scoop light icons mod works best with LED's installed over the scoops. I have regular incandescent bulbs in my JP so could you recommend the exact type of LED's for over the scoops and a possible source for the LED's?

I checked out Cointaker and there are many different types of LED's so I am not sure which ones would work the best with your JP light scoop mod. I am thinking the 555 YELLOW and 555 GREEN super LED's shown in the URL below would be a good fit with your YELLOW version of the icons. Can we split a set up and get two YELLOW icons and one BLUE (for the bunker)?

http://cointaker.com/products/555-super

Thanks.

Gord

Placed my order.

My recommendation is Cool White and let the natural colors of the Scoop Mod shine through. That's how I did it.

Thanks Chad. I will give that a try.

Gord

Did you get some anti-ghosting kind? I have all cheap Ablaze LEDs in mine, and the the scoop light and other lamps raised from the PF are some of the worst offenders for ghosting. I changed those back to incandescent before the expo I brought my game to a few months ago. I thought incandescent looked fine with the scoop light mod.

That is good to know. It sounds like the anti-ghosting LED's may be the way to go then.

Most of the inserts are fine with the cheap ones. There is some minor ghosting in a few. One of these days I'll make a note of which inserts need to be upgraded. Otherwise the cheap single LED Ablaze ones are great. Can't remember the exact price off hand, but filling out this game was maybe $40 from Pinball Life. I used all cool whites. Maybe LED aficionados would think mine looks like crap...

I use concave lens leds in green and warm white. Looks great, little to no light bleed.

Just installed my jeep finally. I think it looks great over the shooter lane. Once i get my bridge rectifier replaced ill have the shooter lane lit again which might be cool under it. It kind of looks like you are entering jp as you shoot the ball now, i dig that.

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Thanks for the kind words! I fully rebuilt the pop bumpers to improve them. I think having them nice and clean with new spoons, and switches adjusted to a hair-trigger, makes all the difference in the world. I highly recommend it!

As Chitownpinball suggests, I like concave lens LEDs the best because they focus the light on the icon with minimal spill light. I didn't have any ghosting issues because they were the only LEDs I used in the game. I don't actually know the brand that I had — I poached them from another game that I bought with them installed.

Good to know! I wasn't able to fit incandescents behind mine which is why I recommend LEDs but I've heard from a few buyers that were able to fit incandescents there. It has been surprising to me how much variation there is in the location and angle of the lamp stands. I guess the plastics, holes and location/angle of the lamp stand are to blame. I notice on blondtail's photo that her control room icon has to sit quite low relative to the other icons in order to be positioned in front of the lamp stand, which is a bit of a shame. I'd be inclined to try to reform, or shim up the plastic, or bend the lamp stand, to try to get it higher to match the other icons.

The control room mod looks low on mine because the bunker one is higher than normal. My posts/plastics have been broken/repaired multiple times before and after I got it, and there is a felt spacer under my bunker post to support the post against the plastic. So thats the main reason it looks wonky in the pic, but I did have to cut about 3/4ths an inch off the control room metal piece to get it to line up at all. At this point I am just glad I can turn it on and it boots up and/or doesnt blow up, so I am not too picky.

I had incandescent lights in my posts because I couldnt get LEDs to work reliably, but switched when I put in the scoop mods. I have many kinds of bulbs from many manufacturers, and just had to use what would work at the time since it is finicky. Mine still ghost, so I'll be buying non-ghosting on my next LED order, but for now have green in top and white on bottom to differentiate since it ghosts so much you cant otherwise tell easily.

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I see. What I would do is bend the bracket for the control room icon upward so that it lines up visually with the bunker icon. Then pivot the lamps upward to point at the new height of the icon. The advantage of the wire brackets is that you can bend them to suit your game/preferences