Appreciate it. I'll do both of these to be safe. Don't want to take any chances.

Disabling the door interlock makes sense for tournaments. That will allow stuck balls to be set on the flipper, and play can resume.

I wasn't aware of issues with sparky. Apparently it is the coil that makes him jump in his chair, not the magnet.

Correct. Their is a small coil that makes him move. Their is an issue that can happen to where if you open the coin door with power on it locks the coil on. If you don't hear it and recognize it the coil will get hot and potentially smoke and damage the jumper board.

More info here - https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/metallica-sparky-short-warning

Agree the new board fixes the issue. You actually wire in the flashers for sparky. I think the basic idea is that the coil cant fire unless the flashers are working too. Since the flashers arent on when you open the coin door you are good.

I'm pretty certain this was fixed in the previous code update. Are you running the latest code?
I've had zero issues since then, having previously had the coil lock on and burn out

100% positive I'm on the latest code. Ironically enough I never had it happen (that I was aware of) until the newest version.

I was simply going to say "just don't open the door" but in tourney play, there seems to be more to it. What makes tourney play different from hou or location play?

Two big things- In tournaments, all extra balls are turned off, and if they can't be turned off, you must just plunge them.

Second, you turn on the tournament setting, which makes all random awards occur in the same order for all players, such as the mystery award.

During tournament play at times you may need to remove the glass during a game, for thing such as freeing a stuck ball as no competitor wants to tilt trying to free it.

+1 That is going to be the main reason. Doesn't happen to often but in the 300 to 400 or so games it will most likely get I'm assuming their will be a dozen or so times the glass may need to come off.

Great, thanks for the responses!!

Read one tip - Use an old flipper rubber to put around the door switch to hold it in.

i think i have installed the best mod ever made for my Met pro led...Playfield holders! what a great add-on for working on the playfield...if Stern can read me!

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Looking for a Metallica Pro or LED pro if anyone is interested in selling.

What is the name of the setting in the menus that allows you to start a whole new game if you are in the middle of one by pushing start?

I believe it's "game restart" or something similar.

Help! Ball won't eject into shooter lane to start game. Says to load pinballs,but all 4 were in. Game goes into ball search with everything going off. I reseated the plug by trough and removed pinballs and put back in. It worked for a game, then has started it again. Not sure what else to check. It's a premium edition, and have owned since 2014 original owner.

Try testing the eject coil to see if it always ejects each time. If not, then you know it's the coil. If it does, then the problem is probably with a switch in the trough not detecting the balls -- not sure how to test that as I'm still learning a lot of this myself.

Go into switch test and test the trough switches. Could be just one switch acting up. You can also test the coils. When testing coils make sure to press in door lock switches to enable high voltage.

I test that one by turning on the test, closing the door, then pressing the start button to activate. Works well.

It's called "Ball 2". Comon Man, play it out. With IM you are never out of it until the last ball drains, and the comeback is a thrill.

There are 2 trough connections. On easy to see, one on the other side of the trough that's not so easy to see.

Ugh. I just walked into my gameroom and noticed that the head decals on my MET LED have peeled off half way. Is there some better glue for that, or do I need to get in touch with Stern and buy new ones?

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Sounds like yours is from 2015 or 2016 when stern had decal issues. Contact your district or stern and they should take care of ya.

oh man...that's when my game was made and my right decal was peeling out of the box. They replaced it, but now I'm thinking I should have asked for both sides

June of 2016. Thanks for the advice. I contacted support on their website. Hopefully that's quick and easy.

Let us know how it goes...

Same issue on mine...

It went about as I expected. I contacted Stern and they said the game is out of warranty, so they are not covered and that I should contact a distributor to buy them... So I contacted my distributor to buy a set. Hopefully they fixed their glue issue on the new ones because I'm obviously going to clean that mess up.

is it just me or the photo angle, but it looks like you have 2 sets of decals that are both peeling away

I thought that, too, at first. It curled under itself.

Having issues with my coffin hammer, and started a thread here to troubleshoot. Appreciate any assistance!
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/metallica-hammer-magnet-troubleshooting-question-multimeter

Correct, it curled under. It looks like two because it had peeled from the back a while ago. Then it started peeling from the top, and then the weight of the decal seems to have pulled it half way down the side. As soon as I know how much it will cost, I'll probably just peel it off the rest of the way and clean the sides with alcohol to get it prepped for new stickers.

Any advice from anyone that has replaced these would be appreciated. I'm planning on the normal prep to clean it, then peel the top of the new ones, lightly line up the top, and then peel the protective part out from under as I stick it down. Working my way down the side lightly, then heavier as I'm sure it is aligned.

Line it up where you want it and use scotch/painters tape on the sides to hold it where its aligned perfectly. Then start at the top by taking a 3-4 inch portion or the protective backing and folding it over to expose the sticky side. Use your laminating roller to firmly press this area into position, once firmly secured you can remove the scotch/painters tape and begin peeling back the protective backing as you seat the decal with your laminating roller.

And then it didn’t go as expected... Stern stepped back in and is going to send me a set of backbox decals. It was a very pleasant surprise. But I guess not a huge surprise. They have taken care of me a couple of times over the years.

So while this started with me saying “Ugh”, it will all be fine. I’ll show a picture once I get them and install them.

Well done Stern, and thanks.

I joined the club! A new Premium is on its way to me right now. I’ve been VERY excited counting the minutes until the expected delivery date of this Friday. However today I got some bad news when I checked the online FedEx tracking and saw that it has been delayed due to weather in Salt Lake. What a let down! I don’t see why it’s delayed considering each time I look at the weather app it doesn’t show any big storms in Utah at all. What the hell fedex??!!
On a good note, I’ve purchased a number or mods ahead of time

Welcome to the club! It's a great game!

My opinion on mods in mine so far... Love the ColorDMD in it. I really like the florescent plastic protectors. The snake mouth decal (though I have a Pro, so it fits). The "skull thingy" (again, Pro). The green under Fuel, and the colors under the main inserts (cross, sparky, coffin, snake).

The only one I'm a little unsure about is the LED OCD. I just put one in a couple days ago. I have it in other games, and it is perfect. But I'm not sure if I miss the attack of the LEDs in MET. I put one into IMVE the same day and thought it rocked right away. So it might take a couple weeks for me to adjust. And if I don't, I might try adjusting the settings for it.

Hopefully one of those mods is a sub woofer.

Added them to mine also. Makes things soooo much easier.

Thanks guys! I'm stoked!
Here's what I've ordered/received so far...

ColorDMD (my favorite mod on my TWD)
Big subwoofer (love bass!)
Shaker (red tremor, I hope it's not TOO much)
Powerbladez (these look bad ass)
3D/2D snake mod
Pinbits clear plastic protector kit (with sparky)
Snake teeth & tongue
Orange sling/outlane protectors
Skulls flipper bat stickers
Blue under hammer LED
2 wire LED sparky mod
Full Cliffy set (of course!)

I still want but haven't bought yet...
Spinny Vinny's traditional hammer
LED speaker rings
Cemetery LED arch
A topper??

I love this crazy but expensive hobby!

Junky

Man, you are going full tilt. Nice list. You got all the important stuff plus more. You are going to love that colordmd and subwoofer. Best things for MET imo. Post pics when you get everything on.

Don't forget a custom sparky from spinny-vinny! He also has a snake mod for the right ramp! It's deadly too!

Yup, my right went, then my left 6-12 months later. My distributor has sent both now, thankfully.

Question for the group: I'm getting back into some Metallica mod ideas, and one thing I might do while tinkering for my personal game at least is design a topper around my spare Sparky. He's just sitting on top of my game right now, I'd like to make it cooler.

How many people have extra Sparkys, and would anyone else want something that integrated theirs into a topper? Just not sure how common it is, I know when I painted mine I got it extra, and so I have the stock one still.

Didn’t you have a hammer idea for the pro models??

When my playfield was replaced it came with one, and I had pulled my custom one from the original playfield...so I have an extra stock Sparky. I think using him as a topper would cool. What do you have in mind?

Question: does The snake register every time the ball goes into it? I can hit a couple shots to the snake but it won’t score any points until I hit something else then go back to the snake. Is this a failing switch or is that susposed to happen?

No, people asked me to think of one, but to be honest I didn’t see the point.

I’m trying to finish an idea I put on hold for Alien that will work on all models though.

Could be a dumb question but does the premium version of this game feel heavier/built better than the pro? Like the pro is lighter? Might just be in my head....

The green light above the snake must be lit for the snake to register S-N-A-K-E. You light it by shooting a shot with one of the orange snake inserts lit. I noticed that if no snake inserts are lit, hitting the snake will light one.