Quoted from NonStopSwagger:
Anybody know what goes in this spot in roadshow? Post of some sort? Mine is missing and my blade is off center.
Quoted from dsuperbee:Nothing is supposed to be there, but you are missing the clear plastic that should be mounted to the dozed blade.
A single metal mini rubber post mounts at that location with a washer and locknut on the underside of the playfield, if you are missing a T-nut with the hex post version.
It was added due to balls getting wedged in that area of the bulldozer blade, or at least that was the reported reason.
I have seen balls on other games that this did occur and caused jamming of the blade motor and cracked blade.
Some games simply were missing the part from factory.
My game actually has two, one on each side, but were factory drilled and T-nutted at the factory, but I own a sample game.
This is unnecessary due to the post on the left side before the entrance to Ted, I have not seen many others with two posts.
Most later playfields still had at least the right hole based on playfield production, but I cannot speak for how many actually got the post installed before the game shipped out to distributors and ultimately to operators because the game was in production when the problem was reported.
I don't remember it being reported on service bulletins either, as it was operator feedback direct to tech support at Williams.
It was considered a "quick fix".
Other variations on this game included extended clear plastic flanges at the top of the blade during prototyping, but were removed in favor of the standard rubber pads that were ultimately used to reduce ball momentum, avoid a broken blade, the fact aesthetically the plastic shield looked uglier than hell, it was an unnecessary requirement as balls jumping over the blade was rare, and the ball search including lifting the blade in the software.
This is now the traditional way most people know what the "bulldozer" blade looks like.
There are bit of history in every game turn in pinball.
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