is it lose or sticky dirt. Can you get it off somehow?
haven't seen this before.

Joined the club with a NIB LE a few weeks ago. First time pin owner here but been lurking on the forums quite a bit. Haven’t had much time to play the game due to work and other personal issues but I’ve been having some issues with the game. I was hoping to get some advice.

So it looks like the diverter caused some damage on the ramp from testing, but when I play it now it doesn’t look like it hits anymore. So I’m guessing something was fixed prior to shipping. However, I am still having the issue where balls start to stack up behind the turtle van once Turtle Power Multiball begins. The van fills up but the diverter doesn’t shut, and the balls stack up. Then when the last ball on the field drains, the game thinks I still have balls in play so the game becomes unplayable. Suffice it to say, this has been super frustrating since I have to remove the glass top to get the balls to come down. Even though it doesn’t appear that the diverter is hitting the ramp anymore, is it still the most likely culprit and that something somehow is still loose? I’ve contacted my distributor but unfortunately they are being very slow on responding on all this.

That sounds frustrating especially considering the $ of a LE. What I understand from your post is that the diverter is remaining open. It may be getting stuck in the dent created in the ramp from when it swings open. I think this bro on YouTube came up with a pretty easy fix for that.

Black rubber and dust from the stainless lane guides make a mess over time.

I initially thought that was the case, but it is not the culprit. Every time the balls stack up, I’ve removed the glass and looked since I needed to dislodge the stuck balls. The diverter is not lodged in the ramp. Any other thoughts?

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That is so weird... is it that the diverter is remaining slightly open to allow the first ball to get stuck?

Looks like you need to unscrew and flip it over to me by the way it has the curve.

I’m not home right now but that will be the next thing I look at. Every time I’ve watched the diverter, it opens and closes normally. During the multiball, I’m not sure if it remains open to refill the van and then stays open thus trapping the other balls on the ramp, or if it opens and closes with each ball including after the van is full.

Unscrew and flip over what exactly?

I just did this same thing to my TMNT. Thanks for the tip.

It just looks like it's not opening fully. There's a set screw underneath you can loosen and then adjust so when it's open, it's touching the opposite wall. Looks like right now it's only about 7/8th open or less. Might also need to bend the guide a little so it's curved the right way. Looks like they riveted it on upside down.

I did notice that the diverter is not flush when it is shut. And now that I have compared the diverter to other images, my diverter definitely has a noticeable curve that is not present on other units. So maybe the ball is catching the lip of the diverter, forcing it open, and getting a string of balls stuck? I’m out of town until tomorrow, but I will have to take a look and see if this is the culprit when I get back.

In terms of that screw, is the only way to get under the ramp to access it by removing the solenoid in the back?

That’s not dirt, it’s rubber dust/bits from the particles that fall off the black rubber rings and flippers found all over your playfield. That is precisely why I replace all of them with Titan silicon bands before playing my first ball.

According to one of Vid's tutorials on cleaning a playfield. most of the 'dust' is metal from the coils firing if I remember correctly. 1st vaccuum it, then wipe clean. Hope that's right!

In an effort to eliminate (most) airballs from the Dimension X targets, I have angled the targets forward about 5 degrees using a simple method which requires no bending or modification.

I placed a shim washer under one edge of the target bracket as shown below. It's not a big change, but I hope it helps. If it doesn't, then I'll either need to add a bit more angle or come up with something else.
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Anyone else having to wait over 1 minute before the tmnt logo appears upon powering on the machine? I unplug my machines as a habit. Not sure if that makes a difference. There's been a couple times where the game didn't power up (after waiting 1 minute) until I flipped the power switch a second time. As long as it's powering up, I'm good. Just thought it was odd.

Ummmm.... isn’t having a keyless lock combined with disabled interlock a little bit dangerous. Hope you don’t have kids.

I had this happen once, but the logo was showing on the screen for over a minute. Then the game seemed to reboot and was fine after that. You could try reloading the SD card with a new image downloaded from the Stern site. Or even try a new SD card.

Rob

For the price of these pins whats another 50.00, I just use both. Would have taken a picture of turtles but someone at Stern decided to put the lock on to tight and I have to cut it off.

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Xaqery any chance you could have the lock bar button light the same color as the turtle you pick? I feel it is odd it is always blue. Thanks for an amazing game!

That’s a great idea. The changing ramp light from mezel is pretty cool too.

Anyone working on some sort of plate for the lock down button? I know of the shell mod but not a fan of it.

metal dust on the PF? I have never seen this before. The dust from the coils fall down from the mechs under the PF.

Coil dust ends up everywhere if you do not vacuum and clean it out. Even in the backbox

Vid is sorely missed. Extremely knowledgable in anything pinball

Where is Vid? Something happened to him?

My LE gilder motor quit working, every time I hit the center button it would do a mode board test and the lights would flicker. If you have this move the glider to the middle and unhook it from the playfield. My motor ended up shorting out and was dragging my node boards down. Just a heads up if you see it. Contacting stern to see what the replacement options are

After years of using it yes, But a month or two not going to be coil dust. Coil dust is black anyway.

Interesting, because once I’ve changed out the original rubbers to Titans, I’ve never seen any dirt or dust of any kind on the PF. Coil or otherwise and have always thought if there was coil dust, it would be on the underside of the PF, where the coils are actually located.

After playing this game for quite a time now I am interested how you think about the modes and hurry ups.

To me it feels like there is always a minimode/hurry up running and overwriting the episodes with music.
This totally kicks me out of the feeling of the episodes. Mainly its 123 or weapon interrupting the episodes.
I love the music of episode 8, but i was never able to hear it becaus 123 or weapon ALWAYS starts in between.
This feels wrong, i can not dive into the game and everything is generic to me.
Now take the randomness of the modes and its even more caotic and has no feeling of progression.

The story/progression is missing over all.

Anyone come up with a mod to put in place where the glider is located on the LE/Premium for the Pro Owners? I saw the one Mezel Mods has and though they have great products and I have bought plenty from them, it’s not for me.

Marco Pinball has a Stern TMNT topper listed for $499, shooter rod for $139, and side armor set for $249. No pictures of them though. Must be coming soon?

Getting some meaningful problems post code update. Two balls will occasionally automatically load into the launcher. The game occasionally freezes due to "glider diverter servo malfunction." And the glider no longer moves. One or two balls (instead of the standard 3) will come out for turtle pizza multiball. Anyone having similar issues? Not sure where I should even start or if it's somehow related to the LE code update or other electronic issues with the game itself.

Unfortunately since I updated to code 1.11 LE,I too have had issues. We had no problems at all going into this code update. Now we have issues with multiple balls being ejected into the shooter lane, balls collecting up in the van and worst of all now is how it cycles on and off every 30 to 45 seconds. Lights all flicker go out and you hear a thump from the speaker.

at this point I just want to go back to 1.10 but I'm having trouble doing so. Can anybody please assist me on how to do so. I have it downloaded on my USB but when I place it into the machine it's not recognizing it. I think it's due to the so, do to the fact that I have the most updated code in there. Is there a way to bring it back to earlier code? Any help would be much appreciated. My girlfriend has turned into a pinball wizard since his game came into the house and I don't want her to lose that interest. She also is the grand champion at 25 million!!!

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have we come up with a consensus yet on ideal pitch for the game? Where the bubble should be? Ive tried all over the place and cant seem to find an ideal setup so I can hit each ramp(including center) with consistency. Also the left and right ramps seem to be sdtm drain monsters if you dont get all the way up...

Whats everyone have theirs setup as?

My pro is set at 6.6 according to my phone between the flippers. I can hit all ramps without issue, as long as I time the center ramp correctly of course.

measured on playfield or the glass? Is your bubble pretty dead center?

Playfield, never measure on the glass

With a digital level mine is about 6.6 also and I can backhand the left ramp. The game still plays crazy fast and I'm going to leave it because every time I change it even a little I can't hit the center ramp anymore.

On the top of the playfield it's most likely to be steel dust from the lane guides. Still looks black like coil dust because the coil dust is from the steel parts of them, too. Both kinds of dust are ground steel.

If you re-do a machine and polish out the lane guides to a mirror finish, they shed a lot less dust - like almost none. I've never understood people putting grain back on stainless when they refurb a machine. Grain is there because that steel is cheaper at manufacture, not because it's a good finish.

Set to 6.6 and feels pretty good after a game. I always measure on PF as well with a digital level, just wanted to be sure. I definitely can not backhand the left ramp though.

Biggest frustration is the random bounces to the outlanes off posts and rubbers. I know some Refer to them as borg bounces. My first borg game! Almost reminds me of the SW left outlane, just gets there in different ways. Theres no option on tmnt to move the post to make easier. I usually move to the middle setting on my games.

So far best game is 45m with raph. But second best 30m. So not blowing this game up just yet. Need to get better at training.

I wish I knew the sweet spot for the lair shot, I've spent many games only shooting for it and maybe hit 1 of 25.

See my post #2390 - it really helped with the left outlane drains.

Very tip of right flipper works for me!

Saw that. Also could add a thicker rubber to that post but Ive never really altered games in that way even with star wars. I feel like mentally i have to get over the hump the default way before i start changing things!

This hardly works for me. Its usually a lucky backhand or just random. Maybe i need to watch deadflip play this game some more

So the LE is my first pinball. I noticed when I got it the right ramp sign had been in contact with the glass during shipping and rubbed scratches into the glass coating. Not a huge deal but also thought the sign looked a little bent. I have played it a few hundred games now and it has been fine but just had the ball kick back from what seemed like the right ramp gate wire. I started looking at and noticed the ramp plastic is cracked where it mounts. I don't know if I just never noticed it or it happened while playing but I don't remember seeing it last week when I cleaned things of ball crud. Maybe it was overtightened and the ball hitting it made it crack? Is this something that would be covered under warranty? I have no problems working on and fixing pins but just curious what the best thing for me to do would be...

I feel the left drain problem and like 60% of the time the lair drop does a double bounce to drain o cant stop. Other times it is like the balls a re magnetic to the left drain wall but can't sense any residual magnetism in the stock balls that came with it.

I have had one ball get hard stuck behind the van twice now and have to remove the glass the get it. I will look at the diverted etc as others have mentioned if I have to replace the ramp.

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How do you relight the multiballs? Also, is the lair shot supposed to be makeable with the upper flipper down?

This being my first LE was my first Stern HD glass pin. I guess Im a believer now and just ordered 2 more sheets of invisiglass for my deadpool and Star Wars Comic. Just makes it look so much nicer and had to have it..

All my keeper pins have voodoo glass (Invisiglass). It’s awesome