We're just starting to shop our PM...nice copy with very little wear, play counter says about 2500...
The one weird thing is the floating ball is missing. It looks like it broke off of the support wire.
I've seen a couple other people mention this, but have never found where to buy one. I thought
about trying to spot weld a real pinball to the wire, or drilling a hole and gluing it.
Anyone have one for sale, or have an idea how to make one?

Thanks, Chris...I'll PM you for details.
DCP

Has anyone installed the Mantis stage ramp and had trouble getting it to fit? I bought one from Kerry a couple of years ago, and now I'm finally getting around to installing it.
Super quality part, and I have no issues with Mantis, especially since it's been years since I bought it. My problem is that a couple of the mounting tabs don't line up to the holes, especially the tab to the left of the ramp entrance that holds the plastic above it. That one is too close to the front of the ramp and hits the wand driveshaft. Picture shows new ramp on the right. You can see the tab on the new ramp is closer to the ramp entrance.
The rearmost mounting tab on the ramp doesn't line up with the hole in the plastic that screws to it.
My solution is going to be to grind off the tab on the left of the entrance, and drill a new hole in the plastic for the rearmost screw, unless one of you has a better idea!!!

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I'm celebrating getting our Pinball Magic working again after a couple of years. It never worked 100%, and now it does.
I just fixed several opto problems the way several Pinsiders have described by taking the opto boards off, sucking all the old solder off of the LEDS, and resoldering them. That fixed my genie trough optos and stage opto. Definitely try that first before buying parts. All the optos have handy connectors that unplug, nothing to unsolder to get them out of the game.
If you need to get at the stage opto boards, they aren't too bad to get out if you take out the 4 wood screws that hold the stage under the playfield and pull it down an inch or two. I also took out the 2 screws holding the stage door solenoid to the stage bracket and lowered the stage door assembly out of the way. Then, the optos were accessible and almost easy to remove.
I used the "Diagnostics" menu item under "Feature Tests" (I think) that says "Show Hidden Balls". That will show you the status of all of the ball-detecting optos on one live map. As you trigger the optos, they will show up on the map if they are working, or they won't react if they are "dead" (or need resoldering).
I tested the optos before reinstalling them by plugging them back in and pointing the LEDs at the receivers while looking at the "Show Hidden Balls" screen. Made it very easy.
Glad to reactivate my Pinball Magic club membership! Floating ball is now working thanks to SilverUnicorn !

The Pinball Magic manual shows that there should be a post with a black rubber sleeve. Mine's missing the sleeve and I'll put it on right after I write this!
Here are the parts with the Capcom part numbers:

Post, bumper 1.125", M-F, 8-32 (7/8x1/2) SM00145-04
Nut, 8-32 Stop Nylon Zinc NT00104-08
Washer, flat #8 .375 "OD .032" WS-00105-05
Bumper rubber (post sleeve) 1/4" ID, 1/2" OD, 7/8" L Black RB00105

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Rensh Yours looks like it only needs the nylock nut on top. Check the post and make sure it is 1.125" tall.
I'll look at mine in a few minutes to see if looks like yours.

Chris, yours isn't a bad hack - they were careful to protect the ball from damage! Should be pretty easy to find that post and sleeve, or cut the head off of that 8-32 screw and screw it in until there's 1-1/8" sticking out. Put a sleeve, washer and nut on it and it's good.
Our Pinball Magic is working almost perfectly now. The only problem is once in a while one of the Genie optos acts up and thinks it has a ball in there. Once I fix that, our PM will be 100% working and mechanically correct!
Thanks to Chris SilverUnicorn for sending me a floating ball. I can't believe that was almost 4-1/2 years ago!!! That's how long our Pinball Magic has been down. I finally replaced the stage ramp, resoldered optos, debugged the floating ball mech, replaced a few flaky microswitches, and rerubbered everything. It is up there with some of the best Pinball Magic machines I have ever seen, which isn't that many. A lot of the Capcoms seem to still be in really good condition - they are high-quality machines.

I was thinking of building a little cable that would bypass the two unused optos in the Genie Trough. It's annoying that all 3 have to be working for the Genie to work properly. Only the innermost one needs to be really operating. The other 2 could be bypassed with a special cable adapter.
I would be a really simple "mod" that anyone who can repin a connector could do. The other 2 optos would remain unpowered and could be kept as spares.
I'll give it a try and post my results!

Also, bobukcat , don't forget to try reflowing the solder joints on the optos and receivers. That fixed most of my problems on the stage and the genie.

Hmmm, my post doesn't have threads on the top portion. Mine looks like the one Marco sells for Capcom SM00145-05. Theirs is 2" long which would be too long. <edit: they might mean 2" overall length>
Mine makes the plastic bend upwards but not as much as Rensh 's.
Either the manual is wrong and the post uses no washer or nut, or the aftermarket part is incorrect. It looks like my post should be a little shorter. I may grind it down.
Also, left orbit shots now hit the sleeve and bounce off the post. Don't know if it's supposed to be that way. I'll see if I have a skinnier post sleeve to try.
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I put a standard 1-1/16 sleeve on that post below the hat and it fits perfectly. Balls rolling down the right side don't bounce off of the post now.

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I'm sure this isn't new, but it was new to me. I just noticed that Pfutz put his mark on the Pinball Magic CPU board.

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No clicking noise from my speakers...could be a capacitor going bad, or some machinery or electrical equipment that's on the same circuit as your pinball machine.

I don't think it's cheating to plunge for the first trick. Sometimes I can defeat the first 3 magicians in two flips - full plunge around left loop, flip on the fly and hit the captive ball, then catch the ball and shoot it into the stage.

No need to be embarrassed - you got the Deal of the Century on TOM!