Omaha, NE
When I got my LOTR, it had some flipper issues - at the worst, the flippers did not respond to button presses. It seemed to start when a ball would hit the flipper bat, it would return to normal position/down, and progress to returning to normal position just when holding the button and nothing else happening.
I cleaned the contacts on the flipper leafs with alcohol. The left flipper, the contacts seemed pretty far away, so I bent them a bit closer together. That seemed to clear up any issues, but I have noticed very rarely that sometimes I'll press the button and the flipper won't respond.
Right flipper was still acting up, so I cleaned again and bent closer together. This seemed to help quite a bit, but I did notice that occasionally, when you have the flipper up and a ball hits it, now it will either return to the normal/down position, or sometimes it will make a quick "bat" and return up, swatting the ball weakly.
In the dedicated switch test, it shows the right flipper EOS switch until I move the flipper bat up. Left flipper, it never shows EOS. Both switches mirror the below. Is this common with Sterns? It seems the same on my RBION. I want to say from what I've read, EOS is usually closed until the flipper is engaged, then it opens, and this seems opposite. The first attachment is with the flipper down, second up.
I realize this might be two separate "issues". I've read some people have replaced the flipper button leaf switches with better contacts - does that seem to match my first issue? Should I replace the EOS switches as well? If replaced with Stern parts, would I be back in the same boat / are there optimal replacements for these on Sterns?
