I have an idea that i have not yet tried on my LW3 (with exactly the same issues, maybe by design?)
I am thinking of adjusting the metal guides leading up ti the #3 hole so that they are more like a wedge shape,
and that might slow the ball down enough to stay caught in the hole. That is just an idea, that i have not yet tried with my pin

cheers
/Micael

Make sure you've got foam tape behind all of the targets. Any additional padding you can add in trouble areas helps as well. Same thing happened on my JPs until I added some foam behind some of the targets that were missing it.

My game has a clear plastic that hangs over the center drops to prevent airballs. Perhaps your game is missing it.

Every LW3 has bounce outs on the 3 hole. I have tried some foam as well and it did not help. I think it's just a case of bad design.

Just about every LW3 I have ever seen, including mine, has broken plastics behind/above those center targets... Bad design I reckon, and a shame as replacements are near impossible to get
Paul. Editor, pavlovpinball.com

can someone send me a close up of the center drop area. I am rerubbering a game for someone and just wanted to see correct way they go.

Mike

I have LW3 but I cant recall that problem on that game, but Star Wars however, jeez....
hitting the x-wing stand-up's makes the ball flyyyyy
sometimes the ball ends up back in the shooter lane...really annoying.
But after reading some of the inputs here, it did gave me some ideas

Cheers guys!

will this image do? tmp_13713-DSC_0039-206271938.JPG

I have a couple of repro plastics for sale of the clear air-ball protection type for the center drop down target (as seen on the image above)

My game has double posts behind drops

Why not use two bands? Won't that help air balls

Pm sent on plastic

Air balls are normal on D.E. unfortunately, I read that Williams did some serious research when picking coils for the game to make sure the shots were smooth. Data East's clunky moniker is mostly due to the mismatch coil strength on their games that makes the games bounce all over the pf.

I'm ordering two new flipper coils for the LW3 I am shopping. These are pretty rough and each of them have 2 diodes on them. Would it make sense to go 1 down in coil strength? Have read several times that the LW3 coils, like other DE, are too strong. What would be next coil down if I did this.

I can't answer that for sure, I've never tried it, do you have a coil from another machine you can try to see if it will work?

Here is a chart showing the strength of each flipper coil for DE and Sega games. LW3 should have 23-1100 org-org coils from factory. you could install 23-1500, 24-1570, or 25-1800 for weaker coils.
http://www.betson.com/images/cms/amusement/10011001_CoilChart.pdf

thanks...dont see 23-1100 on pinball life site....I thought my manual showed 090-5030. same?

Here is the chart with strength and the Stern part number. 23-1100 = 090-5030.
coils.jpg