Turns out I've already got the Ingo board in there. I took the front plastic off and found that the arms axle has a lot of play front to back. Maybe 1/8" or so. Is that normal? I wasn't up for tearing it down more, so instead I wiggled the optos "out" a little way so they're closer to the arm. After that, all the minutes register properly with the clock in the normal position.

And for the first time since I've had the machine, no credit dot!

Good suggestion, I'll try applying some percussive motivation while in edge test to see if any switches or optos register.

Another thing that's been happening is occasional airballs when the ball hits the target right next to the slot machine scoop. Sometimes really bad airballs, like off the glass, over the sling and landing in the left outlane. I already tried bending the target forward but that didn't help. Do I need to replace the foam stuff behind it?

Nowhere in that thread is Loyd actually commenting on that. Just some guy saying that he "thinks" Loyd confirmed it... same guy says the 15411 coil is the strongest, and 11629 is second strongest....

Ah the pinball community, where everyone's opinion is fact.

Hmmm... you are right; interesting..

Again, I think the light blue 11629 coils are fine, but you put your game at risk for damaging parts.

Best thing is to get a reinforced target like the following. They seem to be out of stock often, though.
http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-18530-6R

I had the same problem with a few targets on my Shadow and those fixed the problem. For now, you can shove some more padding behind the targets.

PBR has the reinforced target too...

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First of all, I appreciate the responses and suggestions. To be clear, I just rebuilt the bottom main flippers but did not replace the flipper coils. The right flipper coil is 15411, and the left is 11629. I didn't observe a noticeable difference in flipper strength between these two flippers before rebuilding them, but after the right flipper which apparently has the weaker of the two coils is definitely stronger. Does anyone have an explanation as to why this would be considering the left flipper with the stronger coil (11629) should be the stronger of the two?

When you say "re-built" what do you mean? new coil sleeves, plungers, EOS switches and coil stops?

Is there ANY slop or play in the coil between the front stop and coil stop? (see image)
Does the coil still wiggle? If so, then it's possible the tab on the flipper bracket where the 2 socket head screws attach the coil stop is bent down, not allowing for a tight fit. This was the case on both my TZ and Indy. I had to take a crescent wrench and bend the tab back to straight.

ANY slight movement in the coil will cause it to act weak

were the coil sleeves free moving when you replaced them?

This photo is from my Dirty Harry

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Anyone use the mantis scoop? I can't quite get my (stock) 5 million target to fit in in front of the little backer tap they put on it.

Be careful on setting the coil stop too tight. If it has zero play, you will create problems later. As the coil heats up, it expands, creating shear tension on the mounts. Eventually, the mounts crack and fail.

Always allow a slight amount of clearance.

I tried it and had the same problem. You have to bend that tab up to make it work. The Mantis scoop is pretty terrible; tolerances are worse and the metal is too strong so landing the ball in it is much harder as it tends to have no give. If you can get the original weldment fixed it’s much better.

I replaced the coil stop, the coil sleeves, the springs, the plungers and the flipper bushings. There's a little play with the coil, just a little, but it's the same for both flippers. The plunger is moving freely through the sleeve on both.

IMG_20180217_112901 (resized).jpg

Something I am noticing, which is probably the culprit, is when I have the playfield down and just move each flipper up and down with my hand. The right one is looser (less resistance) than the left. How do I adjust that?

loosen the crank paw that clamps onto the flipper bat shaft. usually need an Allen and a regular wrench. It can be snug on some pins (like data east) so some elbow grease to back off. Once loose you can pull up on the entire flipper a smidge but make sure you tighten with the flippers still aligned

Did you use th PBL rebuilt kit for your flippers? Those are a major upgrade in terms of being able to adjust. You don’t need the Allen key, which is really helpful. Make sure you have the flipper bar shaft clearing the neck of the plastic bushing, you should have 1/16” inch or so, so the flipper doesnt bind. There’s an official tool for this, or you can use a cut up credit card

Is there a TZ owner here that lives in Indiana? If so, can you shoot me a PM?

Left flipper always felt weak or sluggish on mine. Inconsistent, too. Cleaning the opto helped but replacing the opto board finally seemed to fix it.

I'll swap the two flipper opto boards and clean the opto and see if I feel any difference.

I do have the original still but its quite dirty. I'll try bending it up for now.

What are the diagnostic steps to address an erratic slot machine kickout? I don't think my TZ has ever consistently kicked it to the right flipper for a left flipper trap, like you see on some machines & Pinball Arcade, etc, and that seems to be a vital part of the game.

My machine has been waxed recently so it is already quick, but as it is right now I get a mixture of bullets that go SDTM (rare) that are impossible to save, balls that don't even manage to get out of the slot machine hole and drop back in (also rare), and everything in between. There doesn't seem to be an issue with power (other than with the balls that don't make it out) - quite the opposite - but there is almost no consistency. You basically have to treat it like a tennis serve whenever it fires it out.

I've checked the obvious things like welds - all appear fine - and levelling, which is bang on, but haven't yet taken the scoop off to inspect the kicker assembly. Not having much experience of diagnostics (I've never resleeved a coil or checked a spring, wouldn't even know if the spring was good or not, I'm very much an end user with negligible electronics experience) I don't really know what I should be looking for to tweak.

Since the slot machine is so pivotal to gameplay, I feel like I need to sort this out before I do anything else with the machine.... any help gratefully received.

Ideally if possible if someone could tell me what a bad plunger, sleeve or spring actually looks like - that would help immensely.

A bad plunger will typically have a tip that looks unevenly worn, worn out, or even broken off, a bad sleeve will typically look blackened, dirty or melted, and a bad spring will probably look kinda flattened, maybe rusty? Imo, you're gonna replace one, just replace all 3 and call it good.

Durzel

How's your Slot Machine scoop looking? Solid with no broken welds? Any movement or wobble when the ball flies out? Does the ball sit reliably central when struck? TAF's swamp kick-out is far worse to fettle into working

EDIT: sorry I skim read your post, ignore my weld questions.

I have an old scoop in the loft, can't say how good it is as i obviously replaced it on a previous TZ for a valid reason...

https://mantispinball.com/product/twilight-zone-slot-machine-scoop/

If you buy a new one i'm also after a Blue Clock housing & maybe a new Diverter from them!

OT:

Ingo clock board swap. Easy? Looking at a tz with bad close Clock so may do this first. I like the blue. So do I need blue leds and clear case or blue case?

It's not the hardest thing, but you gotta take care when doing it. Keeping your clock hands in the right position and taking it apart etc.

I would just go blue case.

thx...so clear leds blue case? sounds good

if anyone has a board they never installed let me know.

The scoop itself looks fine. I haven't yet taken it off to inspect fully but the welds look fine.

Guess I best take it off and get some photos..

I just did it and it's easy. There are clear instructions. Make sure hands are are at midnight at the start and keep everything straight when you take it apart. I somehow got things turned around in process but think it was not put together right before I got the pin.

I used natural white leds with the stock clock face. I wouldn't use blue leds since they are pretty dark in color. Leds are easy to swap on the board so you can always try.

Would finally buy a pinsound board if somebody would whip this up into a file...

who has best price on blue clock housing? See them at Mantis for 49

When I got my clock, i spring for both white and blue LED's, surprisingly, I like the blue's, fits in to the color scheme well for me. YMMV

https://www.greatamericanpinball.com/product-page/twilight-zone-blue-clock-housing

https://www.pinballsearch.com/

Yesterday I sent the last sample plastic I had here.

Any new order will be produced by demand. Just PM me!

Anyone have a source for a nice small magnet on the diverter to hold the ball until it dumps it? Seen this mod on several games. The last one I bought was so strong it held the ball so tight I had to pull it away

https://www.magnetenkopen.nl/blokmagneten/
Dutch website, probably also available in your area. Neodymium magnets.
Buy a few different sizes. They are very cheap. You can experiment to find the right one. It worked perfect in my TZ.

Does anyone need a translite? I got a "not perfect but somewhat nice" original, and a new repro!

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To the guys that have the LED COLORDMD installed, does it also happen with you

1) Skill shot - when you get RED, ORANGE or YELLOW awards, the respective colors are appearing when the award animation is transitioning, but by the time the game actually gives you the award, the RED, ORANGE and YELLOW lines are presented in WHITE.

2) Same thing for the JET BUMPERS ADDED award... The YELLOW color appears on the transition animation, but when it comes to stop, it's GREY and WHITE!

BTW, I'm running ROM 8.4H.

You mean 9.4H rom? I just put a colordmd in my game. Only funny thing I saw was some distoration during mb start animation when a friend was playing. It had a bunch of random lines all over the display. Only saw that once. On my other colordmd game MET, I have seen it loose color for a bit and then go back to color for a second or two during animations. Thatis pretty rare though. How often does that happen on yours?

On 9.4h mine has bugged out if you hit fast lock and get into MB really fast. It went all white and stayed white for all following animations until ball over then went back to normal. This on lcd version.

I’ll pay more attention to the bumper awards next time I’m playing.

I bought some flat round disc magnets at Home Depot. When I first installed the magnet with a single layer of double-sided foam tape I had the same problem of the magnet holding the ball too tight. I added a second layer of double-sided foam tape and that made the amount of magnetic force just right. You may want to try doing similar.

Thx. Yeah the magnet I bought is so strong it now has an inch of screws surrounding. You have to pry them off

Usually when the animations go grey it's because something happens that wasn't colored. Like on my Stern Star Trek it happens when you get a character combo... or when I set the replay to extra ball.

Color DMD basically expects you to use a certain ROM version, so if the one you are using is older, newer or custom, you'll see more non colored scenes. They had me send them a video.

Interesting, I've noticed the same thing on another game "family guy" using the latest roms- I can replicate it by 1. starting sexy party and then shooting the scoop when stewie pinball is ready. 2. having crazy chris running when tv wizard mode starts.

Mentioned it to colordmd about a month ago with no response. Maybe they just need to complete/update the coloring file?

I think that's the long and short of it. I imagine it generally comes down to how much the colorist wants to go back and complete the job I guess.

Yep, 9.4H...

Just published the videos below and sent'em the links...

I got mine from Home Depot or Lowe's. It is square with a small foam sticky. It is on the thin side. It has only dropped the ball once since installed.
I found some thicker non sticky magnets there also but think they may not let the ball go!

This works perfectly:

ebay.com link: CMS Magnetics N52 Neodymium Magnet 3 4 x 1 16 w 3M Adhesive Package of 10

Your _first_ video is not the way mine works; the color on mine stays, as you'd think it should.

Your _second_ video is exactly the way mine works. I never considered that a problem, because it _is_ colored, in grey and white, like several other effects (the "GAME OVER", for example).

thx...sucks buying 10..ill prob check home depot....great suggestions!