http://mirror2.ipdb.org/files/2528/Manual_Bally_1994_The_Shadow.pdf

Manual is here for download

It might be the white set of gears underneath that the shooter travels on. Check to see if those are worn.

I have a loose shooter...its because the square section shaft has been worn by the guide metal into almost an hourglass shape. The thing is, i cant find that square section shaft to remedy it!

image-26_(resized).jpg

Same here! Teeny bit wobbly. Mine also leans a bit at rest a few millimeters to the right. I've studied the mechanism & there isn't a lot to the parts that hold the kicker in place. Basically a shaft that sits in a guide. My shaft is perfectly square; but I noticed that the guide that the shaft rests in is a bit rounded in each "corner" of the square & has a notch in the top for the kicker at rest. The shaft can move around in the guide due to these rounded corners from what I can tell. However, the replacement part I've found for these have the "rounded corners" built into the square guide bracket already. In the end I wonder how tight the shaft is really supposed to be within the guide anyway. If the guide were any tighter, the shaft might not move properly inside it to kick the ball. I wonder if there is any tension on the spring on the shaft itself that holds the guide upright? I've seen pictures of Shadow guides at rest & there's def a mix of leaning vs upright. Very interesting stuff!

I, for one, would like to get it sorted, I'm sure it would play better. Interesting that yours is still square, have you tried a bit of force to clamp the guide together a bit and see how it goes?

Mines no too bad bot just a little wobbly.if there was a new shaft Assy available I would be up for that

So I said my shaft was square (ha!); but if I run my fingernail down the side I can feel a teeny ridge. We're talking fractions of a mil here. That may be contributing as you said. Is this the guide part we're talking about?:

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/01-12449.1

I'm wondering if over time both the guide & the shaft lose a fractional amount of material that causes the looseness? I checked the spring behind & it just floats. It doesn't seem to provide any rotational tension (which might resolve the issue actually.) I haven't tried clamping the guide together or disassembling for that matter. Seems like we'd simply want to replace the guide + the shaft to reset the pieces to their original sizes. But like you said, where does one get that square shaft & what's the part number?

bend the retaing piece forward slightly this will decrease the size of the square hole the shaft travels thru. don't bend it too far as to impede movement of the coil shaft just enough to minimize left to right movement when paddle is in resting position. hope this helps.

Ah yes, i can see that this would certainly help, I'll try it. So there is no replacement assembly about in N America I'm assuming? Certainly nothing here in the UK

Yes that's the guide....no shaft?

A replacement guide would solve your problem as i can see the guide wearing before the shaft. As long as the shaft has four flat sides it should be good. if bending does not help then get a new replacement guide or make one your self. You only need to reduce the tolerance between the shaft and guide plate.You could add pc. of metal to your guide plate (left and right) for shaft to ride against. GL.

My shaft has had a hammering! Ha ha. It's concaved quite significantly on the two outer sides. I may have to tailor the guide to the shaft as I think you're alluding to?

dam sure a local machine shop could make a new shaft in quick order!

That's my thinking also....

you may even make a new friend!

I'll let you know how it pans out!

So I just finished screwing around with mine a bit. Came back here to see you guys had basically solved the problem! Freddy is right on; it's all about that guide hole. My big hangup wasn't the play in the kicker during a game; there's a bit, but not too much. My OCD issue was the kicker leaning to the right at rest. I started by actually twisting the entire guide a bit to the left to compensate; no dice. This actually impeded the kicker from "kicking" properly, too much friction in the guide now & I could see that it was going to hangup + wear badly. Put it back. Then I slightly bent the right "tooth" at the top of the guide so the kicker arm actually rested on it when it was in the resting position. Fixed! Straight up & down + the kicker still kicks smoothly. So it really is all about the guide/guide hole & a little adjustment changes a lot on the kicker itself. So gwynners, thanks for bringing this issue forward again, didn't realize how much it was irritating me until you said something.

Hey, no problem, I'll do the same to mine tomorrow and hopefully get the same outcome!
Ps... can I ask a question as you're at the machine?

When we hit the outer left loop, and it comes around the back towards the upper right flipper, we can control the ball by having the right upper flipper out fully, the ball jumps across to the post near the saucer and bounces back to the right to the loop side wall, allowing us to hit a controllable shot to the shadow loop.... I'd like to know if this is the way the table should play or if it needs a different angle maybe...

shadow_pf_(resized).jpg

So, I've def made that shot just like your diagram shows (just did it to make sure..in fact got 2 shadow loops in a row ). However, most of the time it will ricochet between 1 and 2 a couple of times and head on down. I'm sure there's some skill involved (of which I have none.) Let us know how the adjustment goes!

Great, thanks for trialling it for me! I may post up a vid in the main thread to ask the owners' opinions of the shot and if it is something that is correct to the game or not.

don't hold the upper right flipper out! Use it to hit the ball around the shadow loop as may time as you can!

Holding it out though brings the ball back to the flipper as shown on the diagram and gives an easy, controlled shadow loop shot....6 is our record with this method, 4 without. My question is this, is it right that it behaves like this?
I'll do a video tomorrow and put in the correct thread to explain.
Cheers

Did anyone end up replacing their bracket with 01-12449.1 from Marcos?

I ended up fixing mine by slightly adjusting the opening, but I bought one from Marcos to have as a backup. However the Marcos part does not match the original OEM part.

coil bracket (resized).png