Hello Everybody.

I finally got my first pinball machine earlier this week...Yeah. I did some research (could have done more, admitted), but I found a decent priced LAH in my area, and I do recall playing this game quite a bit when it launched back in the days. I thought I actually got a steal on a machine that seems to be in pretty good shape on the actual play board, but the cabinet is completely busted (supposedly was on exterior patio of a bar for a couple years, so the decals are faded to almost not visible and the wood is completely busted, swollen, chipping, etc.). I figured I can work on the cabinet as a nice project with my older son (after we enjoy the game for a while). Seeing what some of you guys paid for this....well, this is LA, everything is more expensive over here. But I am happy, love the game.
So a couple things did come up during the first couple days already and since I am a complete newbie, I figured I join the forum and ask a couple questions. I did read through all the pages and did find some similar issues as I have encountered, unfortunately, being that newbie, I need a bit more explanation for dummies, so apologies for that.
1. The ball seems to get stuck in the hole for the lift on the upper right corner once in a while. It's the one that leads up to the ramp that also serves the crane when in the right position. It just drops into the hole and nothing happens. After 20 seconds or so, the machine goes through it's missing ball routine, releases the ball and resets the game. This only happens occasionally, and not all the time, so the general function seems to be there.
2. My crane drops the ball over the play-field rather than taking it to the left to the intended position. Any idea? The actual movement of the crane seems to be fine. Just won't hold onto the ball.
3. I have read about the play field magnets in the game, which sounds like a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have that feature. Newbie warning....I don't even know where to start looking. Don't know if I even have magnets installed, where do I start looking? Anybody any images of the underside of the play board?
4. I have been looking for a replacement trans-lite. Mine is really faded, but I can't seem to find any anywhere. I know there used to be a guy who sold them on ebay a couple months/years back, but he seems to have gone MIA. Plus, and I know I am weird, I actually like the originally one a lot, so I would love to get that one back.
5. Cabinet. The underside of my cabinet is completely busted based on the machine spending it's lifetime on the outside. The partical board is all swollen up and I am afraid the shaker motor will rip out soon (the guy I bought it from actually had the the motor disconnected for that reason). Any suggestions? I have heard of some wood strengthening paints somewhere, but though I am pretty good once it comes to wood work, I have never seen any. Eventually, the plan is to replace it completely, but for now, I just need some quick temp fix.
6. Decals, any good sources for full exterior cabinet decals?
7. Diagnostic mode. Newbie stupid, I don't even know how to get into it.
8. More play related. How do you get your initials into the highscore when you play? And on top of that, how do you reset the high score.
9. Opening the headboard. I found the cam lock on the top and the bottom piece (with display and speaker can be lifted up a bit), but do you just have to use brutal force to get the trans-lite out? Want to make sure that there aren't any connections or pins I could break off.

Apologies for some questions if they seem to be obvious answers. Again, total newbie here. Love the game though. I have to fight my 5 year old to play it though, he is already mastering most of the shots.

Me again. Cleaned up the gun assembly today. Missile button is working now, but won't light up anymore. Before it was lit, but did not work
Anyhow, today when my kiddo was playing, this piece suddenly popped out somewhere. Looks like some sort of switch trigger, but I can't figure out where it us coming from. Anybody any idea? See attached images.

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Oh, and my drop targets simply stay down, they aren't coming up anymore. Any help would be appreciated.

100% correct about the spinner assembly. That's where it was. THANK YOU
Found the issue with the drop down as well. Nothing on cable or anything. Actually even measured the Voltage, all good. So in the end I checked the actual drop down assembly and how it connects to the coil. There is a blue plastic connector. It got pushed to far and the coil was simply stuck. A bit messing with that connection and it all works again.
A lot smarted by now .
My magnets do work, they are just very weak ;-(
Found out why the crane dropped. The entire machine wasn't level enough and that caused the ball to role around the pin in the crane (crazy). Expert on diagnostic mode by now as well (got an original manual, pretty sweet).
Still trying to find some help on cabinet work and decals.
As for the highscore, those initials that show up seem to be the factory default?

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Ha, that bottom looks like mine.
Do they ship to the US? I am not sure how to fund a donor, might be easier to simply get a new one from scratch.

Ok, so I took a closer look at my cabinet bottom. It's definitely beyond repair, sagging below the sides. Reading through some threads it appears like I'll have to cut some of the coin door to replace it. The bottom part of the groove is broken out over 1/3 as well. Looks like a bigger project that I probably won't tackle before the summer....might be able to find a donor cabinet ny then. Turned off the shaker for now.
Anyhow, looked into the printed decals from the UK, and they seem really glossy. I actually much prefer the original which seems to be either silk screen printed or stenciled. I am thinking about crating a stencil. Does anybody have a decent scan of the original art work? Mine is too faded to be able to pick up on the details.
I am thinking about resetting them in Autocad or Illustrator. Couple good highres photos would probably do as well.
Thanks,

LOL, just found out that the light bulb schedule in the original maintenance manual are pretty much incorrect. I had found a couple light bulbs out and thinking I would be smart I looked in the manual and ordered a bunch of #44 since they were listed as such. Came in the mail, and I was eager to replace them....should have looked first. They are #555, no I have to wait another 2 days for new lights ;-(.

Will shoot some pictures tomorrow night. You need it from the backside I assume?

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I might have to take another one in daylight tomorrow.

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So what do you do if the bottom if your cabinet is falling apart and you really want to use the shaker motor again, but don't feel like tackling the complete cabinet rebuilt yet.....
Not pretty but it works.

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This is the best I can do. Sorry. Mine is not the best anymore

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I thought I had read this here somewhere, but after rereading the entire thread and 772 post, I can't seem to find it anymore.
Here is my issue. The ball sometimes gets stuck at the VUK on the top right. The one that shoots it onto the ramp or crane if in place.
The coil works, tests fine and probably 2-3 times fires fine, but 1 out of 3 times it simply sits there and does nothing. This seems to happen more often in multi ball mode. I have to wait an easy 20 seconds for the ball to go into missing ball mode and fire all the coils for it to be ejected. This is particular bothersome in multi ball mode, since the VUK gets blocked.
Any help is appreciated.

Thanks. Will check tomorrow. That sounds logical. Found a couple bad solder joint before, just did not venture that far back under the playfield. Makes sense though, now that my shaker is running again.

Ha. Seems to solve my problem as well. My loop seems to be bend up, so the ball gets around it and gets stuck under it, which is why the coil won't for. Access to this one sucks. Tough to get to without having to unsolder wires.

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Do you know if I need the diode on the replacement as well?

If nobody gets you one by Saturday I will. Can't get to it right now.

I don't have any soundtrack playing. Am I missing some sort of sound chip?

Turn down? I would assume i have to turn it up, don't I?

Ok here is the not so great attempt. My scanner is only letter size, and has a pretty thick border. I'll give it another shot at the office tomorrow where I have a ledger size copy scanner.
Both scans and my attempt to stitch on halfway useful version.

EDIT. Deleted the old bad ones. Here is the complete scan. Much better

LAH Ripper Scan.jpg

ebay.com link: Pinball Machine LAST ACTION HERO

Sounds like a great price. I paid 2k for one that had a busted cabinet.

Just realized that I am actually missing one of the red flasher dome lights completely. It's the one under the blue ramp on the left. Tough to see it is missing if you don't know it needs to be there. At this point in time I can only say, stay away from the ebay user pinsidetraiding. It's a local guy in LA, but if you are a newbie like me, he will exploit your ignorance.
Anyhow, I know these diamond shaped domes are nowhere to be found in the US. I had looked for the blue one before as well, but I found a source in Germany and one Australia that have at least the red one. Shipping is a bit pricy. Anybody wants to jump in and order more to save on crazy shipping cost?

Added over 7 years ago: Need a quick update. Miscommunication was the cause. The ebayer came through after all and fixed everything up. Goes from stay away to highly recommended. Apologies for the confusion.

LOL. Just watched the movie with my kiddo. He wanted to see it, since I had told him that I actually liked the movie. Guess 23 years blurred my memories a bit. Didn't remember it being that bad . Fun to see and hear all the lines that they used on the pinball again though.

https://sites.google.com/site/lahpinballmod/

Don't forget to donate, the guy put tons of work into it.

Measure the voltage at the coil while in diagnostics coil test. If you can measure the voltage you got a dead coil, if there is non, your cable is broken somewhere (I would not assume that there is any board damage yet, with the old machines, cable rip, solders loosen, etc. - I am resoldering a different connection about every 2-4 weeks ).
I'll be up in your area in July....but I don't think you want to wait that long. Get a cheap multi meter from harbor freight or fry's if you don't have one already. You'll need one when you own a pin

If there is no power at the coil, you'll have to trace the cable, tedious work, but the only way.

Are you referring to the ramp from the VUK on the top right, or the blue ramp on the left?
I had to do some serious bending of the VUK assembly to not have my ball constantly just fall back onto the pf rather than into the wire ramp.

Well, that depends on if it was bend all out of shape before . Seriously, my cab tilt was all good, but tye VUK would simply not stay horizontal and looked like the leaning tower of Pisa. It's all good now, but it did require a little bending.

1. Go back to post #779-782 and you'll find info on the switch (it's the same for the VUK). Part number listed there.
2. Looks suspicious to me, I can check my cabling tomorrow if nobody else has a clue. But I see some electrical tape at your cn10 connector, so there might be some bad cable patch under that tape.
3. I have seen all sorts of colors, don't know what's original. Capn, any idea?
4. Do you mean shaker motor?
5. I run 1.13. Really fun. There is a couple guys out here who would probably burn it for you if you ask. I unfortunately don't have the capability.
6. Are you looking for better sound? The old DEs have some issues on the speaker buzzing. New speakers won't solve that. There has been multiple post about this. I have heard pinsound would solve it (but that is pricy), and just recently somebody discovered that a dedicated power supply helps (I am going to try that one actually)
7. Yeah, I probably need to rebuild my right one sooner than later as well.

Welcome to the club by the way. LAH us probably the most underrated game ever. Tons of fun for very reasonable price.

Deleted.....sorry, had the wrong info.

Sorry about that. Somebody in this forum pointed me to this one previously when I was looking for the VUK switch and mentioned it would be the same as the chicken scoop....sorry for the confusion and thanks for correcting me capn.

Had some broken clear plastics.
Thanks to jasonpaulbauer, nice new clear shiny cover.

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I guess I was talking about the multiball switch . Same as the VUK

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A day of tears and joy. Got a nice package from Germany. Look what all was in there. Happy camper. Warauki, your blue naked ramp is already packed for its way up north.
So happy for the first two parts, till I pulled the third out of the package. The blue ramp assembly did not make it. Broken badly in two areas ☹ . Postal service is of little help. The German postal service says you have to file a claim here, USPS says, you have to give us the package and we can file a damage report, but payment will have to come through a claim made in Germany.

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Yes, they would probably sell like hot cakes. That tarpit ramp seems to be one of those that it is not a question if it will break but when it will break.
Love the idea of translucent. Could be really cool.

I guess despite the broken ramps I am lucky

Define blown out .
Mine has some wear, and I have seen one once without any, but usually you have other issues in such case. There aren't too many out there

That's Kevin.... the German one. I got a nice NOS main ramp from him.

That board is falling on most machines. There is a link to a very good repair guide for it somewhere in this thread.
....
Found it.
http://www.techdose.com/repairlog/Repairing-a-Data-East-Last-Action-Hero-Magnet-Controller-Board/306/page1.html

6 ball is limited time after you hit Last Action Hero. Totally normal.

I'll take a copy of that file if you find one

https://sites.google.com/site/lahpinballmod/

Sorry, just to clarify, when you seen on test mode, the crane does go all the way to the left till it touches the switch at the blue ramp, but it stops short in play with a ball in it? Does it simply stop, or turn back?

Sounds like something is giving a signal to stop the power to the motor. Test mode is a bit different since you decide by pressing a button how long current flows. Did you ever test the motor without the full crane assembly on top?
I would probably even try a hard reset on the game. I know, sounds stupid but it can sometimes solve the weirdest issues.
Just another guess....what happens if you disconnect the switch at the end? Maybe it is somehow faulty and the vibration of the shaker is causing a short.

Yes, there is a set screw. I'll check on the weekend if I can take a pic of it.

Had a couple busy days. Will try to get onto it this weekend.

Had the same problem, and simply bend down the loop a bit more. Has been working perfectly fine for the last 9 months now.

Not really, but it comes off rather easy compared to some other games out there.

You can adjust them from the underside. The bracket allows them to be moved up and down.

My second one came 3 months after I got my first, which was an LAH as well. Same reason. Always need to have one up and running .

Per factory there is no post in that hole. I guess somebody decided to put it onto the template and in production they decided against it.

I had a similar problem, but it turned out that I simply needed to use a different type of fuse. The one with the spiral inside rather than the thin wire.
Might not be your problem, but I figured I throw it out there.

Strange thing happened to my LAH today. Suddenly the sound level dropped and the sound is flat. Still all there, just not as full as it used to be. Speaker both test fine, but I have no idea how to test the speaker in the cabinet (sub). And that one seams to be dead. Any ideas?

found it. So it actually was all still working, just very flat mono soundish. It was my dedicated power supply that I guess is not able to produce enough voltage anymore. Plugged in the original power C2 connector and the bigger sound is back. Unfortunately the humming as well, which I installed the dedicated supply for and which did help.

Haven't seen them yet, do look quite interesting. I am debating mirror blades though.

Welcome to the club. It is a great game. Make sure to put an NVRAM in, best investment ever.

I second that. Tough to get in, take a break from work after you get it in.

I'll finally be starting a partial restore of my LAH. Overall, the playfield is in great shape, no excessive wear, but my main ramp has a broken tap and some of the plastics are broken or bleached out. I have the ramp as a spare and most of the plastics. Blue pit ramp has a crack as well, but since there is no replacement available, I'll just have to repair it.
My cab is pretty shot, with delaminating exterior and one side barely reads the graphics anymore. But, I am actually gonna try to rescue the cab with this exterior appearance, like the original silk screen print look better than a new lami on it. So restore will be concentrated on bottom of cab, corners with blended in paint work and interior of cab.
All that said, I am looking for mirror blades but not sure which ones would fit. Found some chrome mirror on here in the marketplace for $70, but was thinking black chrome might fit the game better. Anybody has any source for those?

I thought I read this in the thread here somewhere, but I cannot find it anymore. So apologies for the repeat question.
My LAH sound is not as voluminous anymore as it used to be, there is zero low or base, but it is not that the sub is not working anymore. Simply all the lows are cut. Any idea?

Will give it a shot later during the week. Doubt that this would be the cause though. As I mentioned, it is not simply lower volume, but the lower frequency that is cut out.

Wow, so far so good. It did seem to do the trick, just turning the volume control....weird. Especially since it only had cut out certain frequencies.

Anyhow...Thank You. Cheapest fix ever on this machine.

i'll take it apart and clean the contacts, but once again, it is not simply cutting the cab speaker. All speakers work, including the cab, but they cut the lower range of frequency. That's why I am thinking it might be some capacitors on the sound board that might be going bad, but I would have no idea where to start.

I'll second that.

Welcome to the club. The fork switch sometimes has issues. I simply bend the fork up a bit more and never had an issue since.

Or two? I could use one as well.

I am in for one.

For 2k I would throw my beater LAH out and pick this one up if I would be any closer.

Not sure about themulti ball, but the VUK not kicking out the ball is pretty common and a very easy fix. It is the switch that does not register. If you have an original one it is a looped metal ring, or if it has been replaced at one time it is a fork switch. Simply bend up the fork or loop a bit and the switch will register much better once the ball hits it.

what a steal!

LOL. I have seen it before. I actually think it is kind if funny and the author made some great choices on the background images. I especially like the reaper.
542 Days and Counting.....

I don't have my ticket mylared. If you wax it good enough, you should be plenty fine. Not like you are playing this thing 24/7 as on location.

I get it, this is really rare, but $425 for it is ridiculous. I am sorry if I am offending you, but this should not be more than $150 max.

If anybody has an original translite insert that they want to sell or trade against the alternate one from ministry of pinball, please let me know. Screwed up my original one and got the alternate, but not a big fan of it.

So I am finally getting to fixing a couple issues on my LAH. One thing that has been bothering me since I got it a couple years ago is how the crane drops the ball into the tar pit ramp. The crane hovers about 1/2" above the ramp, so when the ball drops in, it has a lot of velocity which causes it to jump over the stop coil and it just roles out instead of staying in the tar pit.
I checked the crane, and tried to lower it, but the shaft has a stop ring on it. I even took that off and lowered the crane, but it would be too low for the upper VUK and won't move into position on the VUK to receive the ball anymore. I looked at the tar pit ramp, but it does not seem like it could be raised?
Any idea?

Back legs to high....huh....I thought my game was already playing slow....The level on the playfield is useless, according to that I would have to make it even steeper (higher in the back). Anybody a good idea of how to get the correct pitch on the playfield?

Will shoot a video on the weekend.

How do I post a video?

never mind.....googles it .
here is the video:

Ok, which one of these two. Pitch of the game can be adjusted. Crane too high....don't think so. If it would be lower (I tried), it won't make it onto the VUK bracket to receive the ball. Tar pit too low....sure, how in the world do I get it higher though. It is connected to the wire ramp below.

Yes, those all look a lot higher than mine. No idea how to make it any longer, it is all riveted together.
As for the blue ramp. I had reached out to Freeplay40, but got really busy the weekend we were supposed to discuss this further. Kind of dropped the ball on it.
Might have to reach out to him again if he would be willing to put it on his list for reproductions. I have seen used ones go for over $300 which is insane for a game that is still to be had for $2k.

I am in for one.

I'll add myslef again....yes I'll take a ramp as well. I did see that $400 price tag coming up again. It is hilarious. I recall getting one through a friend of mine in Germany for somebody on here, and I believe the price was $125 or less, which suddenly seems like the deal if the century. Would I have known then how impossible they are to find, and what the prices are now, I would have kept it for myself

yes

I have the same issue. Checked my crane and everything. I have been told my pin is too steep and I should make it more flat. Sounds weird to me.
There is no way to adjust the pin on the ramp. I have been looking into raising the entire ramp assembly, but no luck so far. You cannot lower the crane, since it would not clear the VUK wire on the right side.
If you come up with a solution, let me know.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/last-action-hero-club-come-on-in/page/39#post-4828263

I should probably post this here as well:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/free-pinball-stuff-thread/page/2#post-5663234

Sorry gone already

I just gave one away for free.....looks like I should have charged for it....lol

Thought we are in a recession.....just saw a LAH on the market place for $4,100!!! Looks like a really nice example though, but the seller even points out that the magnet board is not working, which we all know can be a huge PITA.

Good luck. Still hoping someone will reproduce these. Ultra rare.

Looks familiar

Ok, I have this weird behavior of my sound. Doesn't seem to be related to anything that is ongoing within game play.
My sound volume suddenly dropps, and cuts out all low frequency including the sub woofer in the cab. Stays like that for a while and sometimes the sound kicks back in for a bit.
Any idea where to start?

I am sorry for my ignorance, but volume is controlled digitally, no way to adjust unless the machine is on. I don't believe there is a manual pot for it. Please correct me if I am wrong and point me to where I can find it

I'll try this later this week and will report back. Thank you

Thanks guys. Been traveling for work, will check when I get back home later this week.

Thank YOU!!!! So far so good. Tried the pot moving when off....and it seems to have done the trick! Amazing.

The hole is there on every game, but no post is supposed to be in it. Somewhere in this thread it is mentioned that some other country export models might have a post in it, but it's not supposed to be.
Yes, definitely update the ROM.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/ad/123263

Just wow. Don't get me wrong. Love Evan, he actually sold me my first pin 5 years ago, which was a LAH and I paid under 2k, and he really came through when the board had some damage, so buy with confidence from him...
This is a beautiful model (he actually has another one up that is even nicer for 6k), but this tells me I am definitely being priced out of this hobby.

P.S. I shouldn't post this early...my sentence structure sucks, lol

I'll see if I can get to it tonight if nobody beats me to it. Thus said, the pic probably won't do you much good. There is a set screw on the side of the crane, loosen it and adjust the crane, while moving it in diagnostic mode. Takes a bit to get it right.

I am pretty sure this is the truck:
ebay.com link: itm

I'll second that. Chris did my LAH board that had battery leak damage...amazing work.

Same here.

This is THE BEST news of the decade! If not last couple decades.

Amazing! Let me know when the tar pit is available.

Wow, gone for 2 days and the blue tar pit ramp is sold out already. Hope more are coming soon.

Doesn't Ramp-o-Matic already offer these?