The intent of the diverter is to OPEN to direct right orbit shots into the elevator, and to the upper playfield or the throne. When the diverter is closed (normal position), it is supposed to let the ball pass on by - from the left or right - unobstructed.

The shape of the stock diverter arm seems to be the issue; it interferes with smooth ball travel from the left (right orbits seem to be fine). The issue was compounded by the rubbers on the inlane bumpers - the alleyway is just too narrow to let anything but a perfect shot thru from the left.

If you haven't seen it yet, here is a slo-mo video of the stock diverter arm issue:

The designer thought that orbits would be playable from both sides. Due to a bad design STERN did not send out new diverter arms ... nooo, way easier ... they changed the sofftware. First you got a test menu point to ckeck the orbit gates. Later on they made out of the bug a great feature due we are all dump lemmings.

Here on pinside some guys found out that
- screws in plastics are too long
- rubbers are too bright
- the diverter is shit

With this hints you can get good success. A new diverterarm would be **THE** solution customers want ... okay, we want it from STERN but we spend so much money for our pin collections and have to affort our one fixes.

On my machine I have changed rubbers with colisleeves, washers under the screws from the plastics and will install this days the little metal plate on the diverter/lane.

I am sure that all machines have this issue. Played some weeks ago an other GoT LE with a playfieldprotectors and no fixes installed ... NOT ONE BALL went the left orbit ! The owner is a collector , not a player .. he did not raalize it , so I am sure many owners dont do.

Indeed.

I'd be interested in one. If you ship to Austria.

Thanks for the update!

Looking forward to seeing this made!

I'd buy one

I'm also interested in this.

Would love another update. Is there hope of this fix being released?

I am still hoping this thing will be made.

Hope bump!

+1

I am also interested.

Bump. Any news?

Another bump. What's the word?

I'd be a reluctant buyer if you made the fix (because we shouldn't need to buy it in the first place!)

Thanks

Stop your bitchin and moaning. Some of us want him to make the fix.

I'm interested in the fix when it's available...

Calm down, I said I would be interested to buy one, hence supporting the interest level

I'm in if it's made

I'm in if it's made. Turning off the diverter in the code is not a solution.

I'm in also please

It would be nice to let us know if this thing is dead or still in development?

An update would be nice, even if it was "I'm on summer holidays till labor day and will review everything when i'm back".

I PMd the OP about 10 days ago. His response:

No problem - I've been very busy with other things, so no news yet - sorry

Update from OP:

Nothing yet, but I might have more info in a couple weeks. Sorry.

I am thinking you guys have tried the divertor arm move adj with poor results,I found moving or enlarging the holes on the divertor so you can move it worked very well for myself and many others along with removing the top lane rubbers or even better doing the lane guide mod with shrink,I feel bad for anybody that still has orbit problems and I hope you get these arms made for you.

Did Stern ever fix this issue with newer produced premium games? I only ask because I have a premium on order. I also played a premium at Pinball Wizard and I had no trouble making the left orb???

The "fix" was to disable the left orbits by default. Sarah may have flipped the setting back to permit the left orbits, but I'd bet more she has yet to install the latest SW update that applies the new default

I think newer games were being shipped without the in-lane rubbers installed, which would provide a bit more room for the left orbit shot to glide by unobstructed.

Good luck with your Premium. You are gonna love it!

Yup, fix was just to make the default code to not let it make a loop. Some games work while others don't. Just enlarge the mounting holes a bit and mount the bracket closer to the front of the game and all will be good. Tried all the other fixes and that was what did it for me.

Steve meant for the left orbit to flow all the way round - it's obvious by the pro design, IMHO. Also seems easy to see how the engineering of the Vuk on the prem/le upkick to the upper pf slipped by testing the left orbit loop, until there had already been a bunch shipped. The software 'fix' avoided fix kits for the hardware issue. I think the fix would be really tough to do and costly to do, so just say it was not designed that way. Steve can't say anything about his true intent of the design because the official fix was to just disable it. T7 fix seems to work best from the videos early in this thread. the drilling/moving of the bracket seems to works for some too.

It sucks that stern and Richie failed to come out with a fix after both confirmed it was a hardware design problem.

Instead of coming out with a fix for the LE owners, they continued to manufacture more LEs and then premiums with the same hardware problem.

Stern and Richie were simply too cheap to fix their known hardware design defect and masked it with s simple software update.

It is clear and apparent that stern and Richie are more concerned about their bottom line than they are about quality.

This is glaringly obvious with all their cost cutting on new machines..

They are manufacturing pinball machines now cheaper than ever yet charging their customer base more than ever.

This is true. Although the known hardware design defect was a 1/16" adjustment to the mounting plate of the diverter arm.

their solution would be either send out new mounting plates at a cost, or disable the feature.

To fix this issue for free you simply need to drill out the holes on the mounting plate to allow for a sixteenth of an inch slide toward the front of the Playfield, and remove the rubber rings on the top of the lanes under the throne. That's it. No cost to anyone.

I think if that's to complicated of a fix, then pinball ownership might not be for you. But if you insist on owning a game with such a huge design flaw and can't figure out how fix it then having that feature disabled might be the best solution.

I really don't this should be a point of contention, it's a simple fix on the scale of pinball machine problems.

I had the first premium game in the world, I fixed this problem and have had no other problems since, January will be a year and im almost at 2000 plays on my machine.

Game of thrones kicks ass.

I disagree with your decision to trash Stern, or (especially) Steve. Comments on avoding a fix due to cost or knowing how to fix it but deliberately making owners mad by withholding it, is silly, IMO. Your feelings of Stern's policies, really doesn't offer much to the discussion of fixing the issue. Rant over, back on point....

The simple fix of 1/16 adjustment is what I'm going to try first. I think T7 in this original post, was saying there is a more elegant or reliable fix in whatever part/kit/instructions he may decide to produce.

I agree that if this minor issue brings out the "Stern is too cheap" pitchfork in you, then "If in ain't broke, it ain't pinball" may not be your thing and too much stress as a hobby.

While I do blame Stern for the "fix" I don't blame Steve for it. I only give him a pass on that judgement as he repeatedly admitted to the issue and that it was designed to go all the way around. He could have fought harder to get a fix out there but that would just be speculation as nobody knows what conversations were had between him, Gary and George. Knowing what little I know about SR my interpretation is he's just as disappointed in that issue and fix as most of us are. He just can't publicly say that for obvious reasons.

But, the fix turned out to be simple as advised above. Made the change and haven't looked back.

So please enlighten us as to WHY STERN DID AVOID coming out with a fix.

Patrick, Shawn, Chas and richie ALL said "This is a know issue our engineering team is hard at work to rectify this problem please bear with us as they resolve this. Once a fix is created we will post a service bulletin. Thank you".

They haven't done shit.

I have the last three games richie designed with two being LE's. Richie was the designer and in charge of the project. The game was designed to have a working orbit and he failed. This isn't a switch adjustment or a broken wire or a cracked plastic. This is a design flaw.

Oh, and lets not forget the ball hangups on the STLE pops where his fix was to drill a screw in the playfield. I personally would have designed the pops so there would never be a ball hangup but he gets a pass for everything. Another design flaw IMHO.

I'm also upset with richie that he never pushed for the cannon modes to be activated on acdc.

Stern should be supplying this fix and we shouldn't be obligated to spend $100 for a bracket and I was one of the first few people to confirm the diverter bracket was the problem and it couldn't get repositioned without drilling.

That's all I'm saying man. I own the games, let me bitch if I want to. LOL

Ritchie is not being "cheap". He works for Stern. He doesn't control the budget.

Gets your facts straight before you bitch.

Man, you are worked up.

Break things down individually:

Agreed!

I would argue it is not a design flaw since it works just fine when the bracket is installed at a specific position and also that it works out of the box for some people. My argument would be this would be an installation flaw. The dimpling of the PF can cause this to if things are off just a smidge. If it was a design flaw it wouldn't work on anyone's game and a simple adjustment to the bracket wouldn't fix the problem.

Owned ST for years and had this issue as well at first. A simple adjustment to the pops sensitivity fixed the issue.

Why Richie? he didn't code the game, that was Lyman. Steve builds the game in the parameters of the design limitations (Theme). It's up to the coders to make up the game code. Your anger there is misguided.

Agreed but their is no need for the $100 potential kit. Drill out and be done in 10 mins. It's easy to move. We shouldn't need to but it's not worth the stress. Also, bitch away if it makes you feel better but just bitch at the right people at least

If you dont go ahead and produce you fix can you post a "do it yourself" please? Thanks

it's not Steves fault that they have not fixed the issue, but it would be steves fault that this was not discovered and fixed in prototype stages. This should have been dialed in and played smooth from the get go. It wouldn't take that many plays to realize that the orbit isn't smooth. But I don't think stern games get the play testing that they should. LOTR right orbit is sloppy as well, but at least it makes it all the way around.

Bump. Any updates? Might have to do the drill and move the diverter fix.

That's what I finally did after a year of suffering through tweaks and mods. So sorry I didn't just do it to begin with. In literally 15 minutes you can remove the diverter, use a step drill to widen the holes, then reinstall it, pushing it towards the top (front) of the playfield as you screw it in. You might need to adjust the position slightly to get it 100%...I didn't. I did have the sleeved-coil mod from Capguntrooper on the lanes as well...that's supposedly necessary as well since the fat rubber rings will impede the ball's progress around the orbit. Good luck!

You keep saying front of the playfield, but most would consider the top the rear of the playfield. To be clear, do you move the divertor toward the player, or away from the player?

Toward the player...

Sorry for the confusion, but yes...it's toward the player. When the playfield is lifted up to remove the diverter, the "top" of the playfield is the front, or area closest to the player. That's why I keep saying top, because when the playfield is upright, the front is the top.

Thanks - i actually had the same top/player question. Is there a picture somewhere in the thread of the original position and the "towards the player position"? How far does it need to come forward? 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 of an inch?

Crazy as it seems, the adjustment is only in range of 1/16". This is the AFTER position, below. The original gap was about 1/2 this large. This makes all the difference.

You will notice you will be limited by interference with the notch in the playfield and the nylon bushing.

12-19-2016 12-30-29 PM (resized).png

This is the stepped drill bit I used to enlarge the holes, 1/32 increments:

57e382e421393829a5a8fd697cddb5170769d921.png (resized).jpg