Sure...

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Nice one mate - good to see you're enjoying it!!

Just joined the club with a pro! Not even out of the box yet.

I was a little resistant to buy a JP but only because we have so many available to play on location nearby. But I decided heck it, JP is awesome and I want one in my small collection to love and care for!

Seems like a good game for a shaker and
maybe pinstadiums?

Shaker for Trex is really good

Shaker is a must have. Look at PBL for their Stern Rev C for about $90

Alright looks like my suspicion is confirmed and I'll order a shaker immediately!

Keep in mind while troubleshooting this that if any other switch is hit while you are going for the skillshot, your skillshot opportunity goes away. It could very well be that you have a jammed/stuck-ish switch that gets triggered the moment you launch the ball or very soon thereafter. That happens to me from time to time and I think it's some standup target to blame on my machine, but it doesn't happen often enough for me to where I've dug in to figure it out. Just something to keep in mind I guess!

Correct but for me it also didn't trigger other modes when shooting the trex ramp (rampage, missions...) So it's not only a skillshot issue.

Someone tell me why this game is so hard. It feels like there is magnets drawing the ball to the out lanes. It also seems like the ball will not stay still on the flippers, meaning it seems to bounce off and go wild more than my other games. The game is fun but damn it seems hard to me. Since I have had it I haven't gotten past three paddocks. But I still love playing it.

Could your pitch on the game might be too floaty? Download pinball leveler and try to set the game to 7 degrees. with the phone on the playfield and lower the legs until perfect.

What he said. You can also move the outlane posts as well to make the outlanes narrower. Are the rubbers original? The fancy colorful silicone stuff tends to be very bouncy and changes the way a game plays. You should dial down the slingshot power as well. There's no magic setting. Just try it and see what feels right.

I agree. I’m not a strong player and sold a few games early on before trying a few adjustments to help me enjoy them.

When I get a game now, I routinely narrow the outlanes, add titan flipper rubbers (better grip), and set them a little steep. If that doesn’t work, I try and adjust.

I can’t change narrow shots, but much of the rest can be modified.

I already adjusted the outlines to their most narrow point. I did put silicone rubbers on it, I hated those black rubbers

Well you may hate them but they are the best at preventing bounce.

Use the low bounce variety of the silicone flippers. Turning down the sling power is a must: my machine was like watching a tennis match at first.

Can you tell me where I can order these?
Thanks!

If anyone is interested in the tilt topper for your JP, then please PM me. Given the current topper market, I figured I might as well part ways with it. They only made a certain number and I don't believe they will be made again. It's pretty damn cool and looks great lit up!

I know this is an old post, but this helped me tremendously. Just put my Cliffy carbon fiber on and first game noticed a huge difference. The helipad and tower shots are like butter now. I always just figured I wasn’t hitting them square on.

I just received my Cliffy set and installed everything except these ramp carbon fiber protectors. Not sure how to install them. Can you share what you need to do to install them?
Thanks
Ed

You take out the 2 screws on the metal ramp protectors and remove the metal pieces. Then put down the carbon fiber protectors in their place. For the small screws, I had to use one of those bendy attachments for the screwdriver so I didn’t have to remove anything else.

Your game will play better with real rubber on the flippers. Like MrMikeman said, silicone rubbers are bouncy and introduce more spin.

Melbourne is back in lockdown due rising cases of COVID, so my son and I had a JP comp. Skills were a little off, but the competition was fierce

Please subscribe and make my sons day.

Flipper Kid Pinball
6th Episode
18th July 2021

Melbourne Lockdown 5.0 Competition
Jurassic Park LE

The prices for some of these simple plastic sign mods are really insane. I own a 3D printer and would like to print some of these mods by myself. Is there any website where you can download some ready to print 3D models other than thingiverse.com?
I created two signs by myself, if someone is interested leave me a PM.

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For the life of me I cannot get the shooter lane fixed. Have issues with both manual and auto plunge.

For manual plunge, I just can’t get plunger tip centered on ball. Any adjustment I make instantly reverts when I tighten screws and it’s quite off to right. Only fix I see is to move the inner plate (two red screws) since there’s really no adjustment I can find with the three shooter rod screws; those always tighten back the same. To move plate, I’d have to drill new holes for the screws, which doesn’t seem right when one is continually guestimating and adjusting… I’d have one chance before making too many new holes.

For auto plunger, the two washer trick unfortunately did not help.

Most concerned with manual plunger though… what am I missing here for adjustability?

You won’t be able to adjust the shooter tip center position unless you adjust the underlying plate - the shooter housing itself will always go back to the original position as you mentioned (since the plate underneath is what determines that) - I like to just ever so slightly loosen the screws on the plate so you can move it around with the playfield bars resting on the cabinet - check center, and the tighten them down. Not sure about the washer thing, I haven’t run into that problem on my game yet.

I might be late on this, but my manual plunger was fixed by adding the orange spring. Also, my auto plunger was fixed by adjusting the power in settings. It worked a lot better after decreasing the power of the auto plunge. Now 14 out of 15 plunges work as it should.

Figured, shoot. I don’t really find any play though when loosening the plate screws out; there’s barely any back and forth.

I’ve always had the problem, but it all got a lot worse when I modded out the shooter housing… not sure how since the no-play in plate with screws out anyhow… so should have just gone back together all the same.

Side question, would anyone have or snap a pick of washer/spring order on rod. Is there a washer on outer cushion spring as well as one on each side of main power spring?

Think I fixed manual plunger!

Ended up putting an extra washer in upper left screw (looking from front) inside housing, so that it would center the assembly ever so to the left. Also put two washers on base of main spring, one on top, for more spring power. 10/10 shots made!

I have a jeep wrangler I can use to mod out the original jeep. I'm just wondering if the mod changes the mech in any way like the jeep may be slightly heavier and rotating is more difficult etc etc

Ah, I should check out auto plunger power, good call. Might also try one washer under fork and not two. What sucks is that auto plunger always worked, 100%, and out of ignorance I did the washer trick thinking it was for manual plunger… and then that ended up slightly throwing off auto plunger 3/10 balls. If I remove washers, manual plunger goes to total shit, 0/10… go figure lmao

Unless it's something unusually dense at the ends, and larger than the original, no. Many, including myself, within the group have changed out the generic 4-wheeled truck for something that actually looks like the movie Jeep. There are plenty of posts about how to mount the Jada Jeep.

I tried the washer trick and it didn’t help at all. Then I raised the auto plunger, which helped. However, lowering the power was even better.

Also, try not shooting the ball so hard with the manual plunger. Seems softer plunges are better. At least on mine.

I don’t know… manual and auto plunger we’re working so well for hours and now it’s all back to shit. Going to try a single washer under fork instead of double, stronger/weaker auto plunge, etc. one at a time, maybe a stronger spring or extra washer on main spring to get it into a tighter coil (not sure that’s how it works but sounds reasonable) and then move onto a Stern ticket as I’m running out of options.

Every 7000 games your machine is due to replace the bushings in the plunger assemble. There should be 2 small white bushings that stabilize the plunger

thanks I purchased the same toy. Don't recall anyone saying it works the same or its slightly different, so thought I'd ask. Good to hear yours is working perfectly well. I'll have to do mine once I stop playing the game like hell. I've only had it for a week lol. Thanks again for your reply

Does anyone have the link to Sterns instructions on adjusting t-rex, or anything in this thread? I did a search but not finding much, but I know it’s here.

Pin is 30 days old and trex worked flawlessly oob and for weeks, then over the past week I’ve had the trex sometimes not take the ball but still register, but over the last day, now the trex is often not taking ball or registering. I played a quick game early am and hit the trex 7 times before it finally took the ball, and it would only take via backhand from left flipper. It’s almost as of trex is slightly looking to left when mouth down on ramp, which makes sense why left backhand took.

There's no need to add additional washers. Pinball Life has a good assembly picture showing where the two flat washers should go:

Stern ball shooter assembly picture from Pinball Life

There is also the e-clip just behind the plunger tip rubber that retains the inner spring and sort of acts like a washer.

Some general tips in case you haven't tried them yet:

JP seems to be really picky about level. Use a level with a digital readout and make sure the table is level side to side, measuring off the playfield and not the cabinet or glass. Ignore the bubble level on the playfield and measure the playfield pitch near the flippers and closer to the truck assembly. You'll likely get different readings, you can average them or lean more toward the flipper area pitch, your call. Keith Elwin recommended a seven degree pitch, I prefer a six and a half to make the ball exits out of the pop area gate near the truck a little easier to save.

For the shooting lane ramp, do you have a slow motion video record option on your phone? A slow motion video of a ball launch will show if the ramp forks need adjusting. The premise behind using the washers is that the routed cutout for the ramp is too deep on the left fork on some (Maybe all) playfields, so the ball doesn't travel up the middle of the launch ramp and drifts left. This misalignment makes manual plunges and auto-launches of the ball hit the Helicopter half-pipe off-center and reject, or brick entirely in extreme cases. Lifting the left fork with washers makes sure the ball travels up the ramp channel each time, although it shouldn't be raised so high the ball catches the front edge of the fork.

As for the plunger inner spring, the green spring that ships with tables will be generally too weak to make launches up the half-pipe unless you rip the plunger, orange is ideal (And reportedly what should be included), and blue works but a bit too strong and hits the half-pipe pretty hard with longer pulls. Other than the spring strength or the shooter rod not moving smoothly through the shaft, the other big item is checking the plunger rod tip is vertically and horizontally aligned with the center of the ball in the plunger lane. That might mean removing the assembly and cutting out bigger openings for the plate screw shafts if it's really bad. I'd strongly recommend trying an orange spring to see if it resolves manual plunger issues before carving on the cabinet, though.

For the auto plunger, the ball should make even contact with both forks on the auto-plunger kicker arm. Another assembly picture from Marco Specialties in the lower left shows the rounded forks I'm talking about that sit behind and strike the ball:

Auto-plunger assembly picture from Marco Specialties

If only one fork touches the ball, or the ball has to shift sideways in the lane to rest on both forks when you pull the plunger rod back, bend one or both forks with a pair of pliers as needed. Ideally, the ball should only move forward or backward in the lane switching between resting on the shooter rod tip and kicker arm forks. It might be worth a try to bend the tips of the forks a little closer together to contact more toward the center of the pinball (Maybe 5/8"-3/4" apart?) making sure the forks can't clip the shooter rod assembly.

If aligning or adjusting the forks doesn't fix the auto-plunge issue, try dropping the auto-plunger power value by five or ten from default and see what happens. It seems counter-intuitive to lower the strength to start, but if the plunge strength is too hard, the ball can bounce off the back of the half-pipe more that it will roll up the half pipe. If the auto-plunges are rolling partway up the half-pipe and back down or rolling up the half-pipe and dropping straight down before getting to the rail, then you can start incrementing the plunger power by fives until you find a value that consistently makes it up the half-pipe.

Very-very cool stuff. Definitely level, as I use digital Klein level on pf, and is at 7 deg on the nat’s ass and 0 at the flippers side to side. Going to work through the rest of these tips - cheers!

That's been my experience. No matter what I try, the plunger works great for a short bit and then not so great.

Alright, took the two-washer trick out and slo-mo’d it failing; what a great idea. I’m still not experienced or insightful enough to know what this means, but it definitely wobbles up the lane after hitting the fork, but honestly, it’s doing better now than with the two washers. Maybe someone will see something I’m not. In the meantime I’m going to try a single washer.

https://streamable.com/7obaig

I'd say you need the washer lift, it looks like the ball is pushing to the left after passing the forks.

Work and wife might have something to say if I had 7000 games in a 30-day old NIB

Here's a clip from mine, you can see how the forks sort of realign the auto-plunger shot.

https://imgur.com/a/3eKi9eQ

Mine is a recent build (April 2021) that I just got and it also had problems with the ball exiting the right ramp and bouncing around along the way down to the upper flipper. I took a slow motion video and the ball was definitely exiting at an angle and not flowing smoothly into the lane. I bent the long wire on the left a little further to the left and the long wire on the right just a little bit upward. I only bent them about 1/8th inch each; it didn't take much. Now the ball exits smoothly rather than a quick right then left turn while exiting. Your mileage may vary but those two longer wires are what controls the exit.

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thanks I purchased the same toy. Don't recall anyone saying it works the same or its slightly different, so thought I'd ask. Good to hear yours is working perfectly well. I'll have to do mine once I stop playing the game like hell. I've only had it for a week lol. Thanks again for your reply

What’s tough is it’s all so inconsistent. After the one washer trick, auto plunger worked 10/10. Decided to try one more time, fail, one more time, fail, another fail, then success. How can there be this much non-distributed variance? I just don’t get it.

Shit thing is dealing with both manual and auto plunge issues. Tried to readjust shooter rod again and now I’m back to worse on the manual plunger. Thing is, I’m not really changing anything cause there’s nothing to charge. There’s two pre-drilled holes for red screws for back plate, that has to go back in the same way every time and is what adjusts alignment for manual plunger. Just check the picture and look how non-center it is; without drilling new holes, there’s just no way to get this centered.

I almost give up (outside of doing new holes, and there’s only enough wood/space for one shot at this).
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