So I have finally joined the club, picked up an LE Combo #415, just before Memorial Day. Played great for a week or two, then Megatron ball trough was giving me issues. After a few weeks of trial and error troubleshooting, turned out to be a faulty opto board. Replaced both opto boards on the trough, and had previously replaced the original connectors with Molex kk .156 connectors. It’s rock solid, and plays great!

I’ll reply to some of the other Megatron issue threads, with what steps I took, before finding my issue.

Hey everyone, got some time to work on my machines, and wanted to finally install my Cliffy set for the LE. Can anyone who has personally done it on this title, help me identify where a couple of pieces go please?

Megatron, All Spark, and two of the three shooter lane protectors, I know where they go. Any tips/suggestions of what others ran into, would be greatly appreciated.

Started a separate topic, as a search didn’t bring up results covering this. Thanks in advance!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/cliffy-install-transformers-le-stern

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So cut this side out? Just verifying.

I appreciate the tips.

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I appreciate it, thank you. Hoping to carve out a few hours tomorrow to do this, clean and replace rubbers while I’m in there.

Well, managed to get Cliffys in for Megatron and All Spark areas, still working on cleaning and replacing the rubbers. I’ll have to find another day to finish, so disregard in pics below

For future reference, with the suggestions above, this is what I did for the Megatron Cliffy. I did set it in there first to examine and mark my cut points, and noticed right away, the Cliffy would be bending upward, right where the ball would want to drop in on the backside. So definitely a no go for leaving it as is.

Marked my points, got out my Dremel and workbench vise, and finished with a light filing of the cut edges, so that it wouldn’t mar the playfield once installed.

Also before installing, I placed Hard As Nails clear onto the exposed wood, to help protect from future damage.

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Alright TF experts, could be because I’m tired, just went back to work on mine, and am puzzled on a few things.

TF LE combo:

Biggest one, WTF was Stern thinking, with stacking plastics, with 2-3 loose spacers in between, held together by one screw/bolt, and no easy way to get/grab any of it for removal or installing? Right ramp feed out of the mini playfield for example. I wanted to get further on this tonight, but realizing I’m not in the mind set to deal with that sh*t storm.

So main questions, what are the best ways to remove the ramp, mini playfield, and plastics on the right side?

Also, best way to remove or get under Starscream, top left corner?

Any other hurdles to worry about, when trying to clean and re-rubber?

Out of the list of machines I’ve worked on, this one has become the biggest pain in the ass to figure out. I have to be missing something, just not seeing it right now.

Thank you to any and all for advice and suggestions. Just not finding much info, of others dealing with these headaches on this machine.

Any good method for propping up the rear playfield? Doesn’t look like there’s good spots to place a 2x4, either standing up or laying across the cabinet edges. Unfortunately, I don’t have a table or workbench to put this on at the moment, or I’d look at removing it from the cabinet.

All depending on what you want to do, if you want to install mirror blades or art blades, Pinwoofer speaker kit, Cliffy protectors, ect...lots of things to look at for options.

Are any of them really needed? Maybe the Cliffys, anything else is dealer’s choice.

With help of others in this thread, I modified the Cliffy for the Megatron hole, pics and walkthrough posted on this page or previous.

Here’s my thread regarding mirror blades, had to replace the set that was previously in there.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pbl-mirror-blades-without-mounting-screws#post-7284012

It’s a Matt McKee topper, you’ll have to Google for more info.

OK, going back to removing Starscream from playfield, please tell me there’s a different lock screw to undo vs the one just below him. Possibly the two below the playfield?

I snapped my bit off in the screw, trying to loosen it up. I went on to other things, figured I’d revisit it later, and see what I can do to remove it. The dang thing was so freaking tight.

Side note: Those playfield jacks being sold, are awesome for getting the back playfield up and out. Much easier to work in the back areas now.

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Thank you, I saw there was some locktite on it, went real slow adding some pressure as I turned, didn’t think it was the bit giving away, lol. I didn’t even think about heating it up first. I’ll have to go back and refresh myself on that part of the thread.

When I revisit this, I’ll have my iron handy, then figure out what I’ll use to remove the screw. Bad part, there’s not even a nub to grab on that broken bit, so probably have to search out a new lock screw, as I’m sure the outer threads will get mangled during removal.

Good news is, it’s fixable, no major loss, just pain from my face palm....and ego.

From Kevin
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/new-product-announcement-playfield-jacks-by-performance-pinball#post-7417876

lol, got plenty of those, that’s what I tried first, then decided to go with something that had a handle, thinking I wouldn’t break that....

Set screw ordered, iron on standby for my next attempt down the road.

For the Megs part, make sure to clean to optos(Qtip w/rubbing alcohol), check other adjustments and make sure scoop and connectors are secure. Run your switch tests.

I went through all of this, even resoldering the pins on the opto boards and all other solder points. Repinned the connectors, ect...still didn’t fix my issue. I had to swap in a new set of optos, and worked perfectly since.

Never did figure out the issue on the old optos, still have them here to go through and track down the issue. It’s a failed component I’m sure.

Long story short, you can go through all of the trouble I did, or get a new set of optos, they’re not overly expensive. I learned a lot about this scoop and workings of it, by doing my above example.

Well, revisiting this once again. Got my iron hot, tried placing it on the screw, next to the screw at the mount, not getting it to budge at all. Tried heating and using vise grips, heating and using my pliers that get under screw heads.....notta, except mangling the outside of the screw that’s exposed.

I’m open to any ideas of help, sucks not having much room to work in that area. Got replacement screws on standby.

No need to remove playfield, if installing mirror blades, just did it not too long ago.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pbl-mirror-blades-without-mounting-screws#post-7284012