It is the original board. In searching the threads about clock issues- there is high praise for your replacement board.I have to be honest, I have been looking over the sections 1-50 and 1-51 in the manual and trying to summon the courage to remove the clock from the game to look it over.It is a little intimidating so say the least.
Do you still have boards available?

So far, everyone has managed to install a clock board; it´s no miracle and easy to do with the instructions, I have sent you via PM ...

This. Check all switches and optos. In the switch test, activate every switch one at a time and make sure no other switches trigger at the same time. I just had a problem like this on a FT I am working on. Pop bumper hit was also triggering a sling. Turned out to be a loose wire on the launch button.

I would also bang around the optos and make sure optos do not trigger on vibrations. I have seen optos work perfectly in testing but trigger randomly during gameplay due to vibrations of coils firing or ball hitting things.

Installing Ingo's board is easy. I consider myself pretty useless when it comes to pinball maintenance, and I too put off taking the clock off the playfield and apart for a few weeks - but in the end it was a lot easier than I thought.

The language of the manual is very inscrutable, things like "Insert stub end of shaft into center hole of back panel, while aligning either of the two opposite, shorter teeth on smaller diameter gear of 03-8823 with remaining shaft" basically means "line up one gear with the shaft of another".

I wrote up a mini guide here, for what it's worth.

My clock board was actually working but I wanted LEDs (rainbow specifically) ones in my clock, and taking it apart wasn't such a big deal when I realised that I would only ever have to do it once after using this board.

The first repair I did to my TZ was to install Ingo's clock board. It's not that bad, just put a towel down around it so you dont loose any pieces into the PF. Other than that, the instructions are pretty simple/straight forward.

The hardest thing about taking the clock apart is re-aligning the gears perfectly so that it stops with the minute hand exactly at 12. It doesn’t hurt anything but the perfectionist side hates it lol.

There are small alignment marks on the two gears that alignment matters for to assist. It’s kind of hard to see so I’ve seen folks put a dot on themselves with a fine sharpie if their eyes aren’t as sharp as they used to be.

It can be perfectly seen here on the site of Dr. Ed Cheung (really great site):

http://www.edcheung.com/album/album08/pinball/tz.htm

Wow, I had never seen this! I am going to go fix my clock right now; it is always 1 minute off..
.

Hello everyone I'm new to the form also new to working on Pinball machines. I grew up with this Pinball Machine a friend of my parents(I'm 33 Now) was actually a engineer that worked on several of these and it is how we ended up with it. So the machine below is actually a engineer sample.

As you can see the screen has these 2 straight lines coming down. I've read through enough posts at this point that I felt I would start reaching out for other ideas. I have checked and replaced all the ribbon cables inside the game with new ones and the same issue still occurs. Any help is appreciated I want to get this bad boy up and running. Twilight Zone is in my opinion one of the very Best pinball machines around. Appreciate any ideas.

Also don't mind the speaker cover I have that and it just needs to be glued back in.

IMG_20181211_142107 (resized).jpg

Hi everyone,

Newbie in need of some help with a TZ machine. Any thoughts?

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/twilight-zone-j133-problem#post-4738359

Pull the board and learn. Don't be afraid. Worst case, you kill the board and buy the new one you're considering anyway. I rebuilt my clock board and modded it with LEDs, which took very little time. Plus you can add some plastic grease to the cogs, which cuts down the sound of the clock by 65%. You probably just have cold solder on one of your optos, which is such an easy fix.

If you want to have pins as a hobby, board work is going to be your friend. Trust me. And it gets better with time: I love the fact that I can diagnose and fix a board problem in usually 20-30mins and have the game running perfectly again. The internet is full of info, so jump in head-first!

I note what time it is on the clock before taking apart and no need to move the gears when changing to ingo clock board.
Just installed mine a few days ago and I’m super happy with it!

RVH

F! Working on the Twilight Zone clock board! Buy the Ingo! Trust me

This is an awesome club- thanks to all, very encouraging, really built up my confidence.I did decide to get the new board from Ingo, he was exceptionally helpful. Ill post some before and after pics. Thanks Team TZ.

lots of talk about clock boards here, Im still in the parts gathering phase of my massive TZ project. Is there any reason that the original board cannot be modded and have LEDs soldered in to eliminate the heat issues? Is heat the only point of common failure on these boards? I have two original boards and Id rather save money vs buying a new board. I'm no stranger to board repair, but I want to make sure I know the whole story.

Sure, you can mod the board, replace parts yourself, etc. But after all the flakey "clock broken" error messages that would seemingly come up @ random for me I considered the Ingo board an upgrade to one that was much more reliable. (It also has built in diagnostic LED's, etc, etc) worth it IMHO but to each his/her own.

Works great when your clock is set properly to begin with, mine was not.

I'd love a guide on building a clock "from scratch" - including alternatives for the unobtainium screw lengths.

The light sockets must be replaced to put LEDs in. Unless you put in something with diffusers or light spreaders... you'll get hot spots in the lighting. Not sure if the half-wave lighting design of the board will lead to LED flicker.. possible.

Second, you'll still be stuck with optos that are NLA and replacements require ugly hacks

Third, you'll still be stuck with the compromise design of the original board that lacks switch isolation for the optos leading to high risk failures and of course the challenges of switch matrix troubleshooting if that becomes an issue.

Where as with the ingo board, all of those things are addressed... you get easily replaced parts, easy lighting options, and new features like the test features.

In the era of paying $40 for a plastic toy... the replacement clock board is the best money you can spend on your TZ fore reliable future operation.

Brilliantly put, particularly the last sentence.

For what it is, and what you get for the money, it's easily worth it.

Seems to be a lot of pumping up on replacing a perfectly fine board. Strange. I pulled the board, reheated it, wired the sandwich connector, pulled the sockets, wired 555 LEDs directly to the board and put it back together. It's been running with no issues whatsoever for over 3 years. My buddy did the same with his, and his is just the same. The process takes about an hour if you wire the connector, but you don't have to do this, so it could be as short as half an hour.

Sounds great if you have the skills and know what you are doing. It's nice to have the option of getting a brand new upgraded board with leds for reasonable cost for those that lack in skills.

That and the fact that the LEDs can be changed easily to suit your whims; white, blue, red, rainbows. They can be popped right out and in as many times as you might desire, rather than soldering them in.

I guess, but I could pull my clock and resolder 4 hot pink leds in 10 mins. I just don’t get not learning basic soldering skills while owning pinball machines. It’s rediculousely easy. That said, if you are happy with your new board, I’m happy that you’re happy. If anyone wants to get rid of the old board, I’ll pay shipping!

I noticed earlier that my PF only had one rear playfield guide mounted in the lower back, thus I ordered a second one from marco: https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/01-10726

When I was to add it I realized that my existing guide is "bent" 30-40 degrees while the new one is completely straight. The bend looks "factory made" and doesn't seem to be bent by wear or mistake.

Doing some searching I noticed shops sell both variants (like this http://www.mantisamusements.com/pics4/backbars.JPG), so now I'm confused.

What's the correct guide for a TZ, should they be bent or straight? The manual doesn't show the guide in any pictures, only the part number, so it's not really helpful. I would appreciate if someone could check their actual game and report back here.

Thanks

I have excellent soldering skills but still choose to buy Ingo's clock. To each his/her own.

Lhyrgoif, I’m the 3rd owner of my TZ. It was on location for only 1.5 years. 2nd owner did nothing to it. So I believe mine is original. The brackets on mine are bent and not straight

I was wondering what pitch people have on their machines? I have my leg levellers at the highest possible point at the back and lowest at the front and still the Playfield is at 6.0 degrees
Is that normal for this machine and if not is there such a thing as extra long levellers?

You could be using a bad combination of holes. The TZ cabinet has three leg holes on both ends, if you were using the top 2 at the back and bottom 2 at the front I would imagine it would be impossible to get to 6.5.

I have mine at 6.5 and there is probably a good 1/2 to 3/4 inch left on the bolt thread.

Edit: Guy above beat me to it

Aha! I’ll have to check now, didn’t even think about that option

EDIT: The back is screwed into the bottom 2 holes and it seems the front is screwed into the top 2 holes

All my pins are 6.5deg. Do you have the longer type - 3 inch leg levelers in the back?

Is your floor level

Thanks for the input.

I fastened my straight bracket in a vice and bent it to an angle very close to my old bracket. Not that I feel any difference lifting the playfield with two brackets now, but it feels good to know the game is more complete

That’s what I’m not sure about, are there different sizes? Thought leg levellers were pretty universal
The ones I have came with brand new legs

Generally speaking there are two different lengths
2 inch
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/LL2

3 inch
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/LL3

This was my plan. Glad to see someone else has done this and had no issues. I actually have 2 original sets of boards, so if I have an opto die I can harvest from the other. Light diffusing is easy, heck a piece of paper works in a pinch. And yes, its always wonderful to have the option to purchase a new board. It's actually great for everyone. People who don't want to deal with board servicing sell original boards to those who do

Hi, on (almost?) every new ball I can hear the coil of the slot machine kickout that fire twice.
Do you have an idea of the cause of this symptom?
Thanks

check that trough switch - in test mode first. Might be intermittent, so the game thinks a ball is there and tries to kick it out.

think it's switch #58

I will check this switch. But it is only at the beginning of each ball. Never during a run. If the switch was out, it will occur anytime, no?
And when a ball is really inside, it always run fine.

I confirm, this is the switch 58. I test it, and it works perfectly. No false detection, and good detection each time I press it.
Does anyone has another idea? Or already has this symptom.
Merry Christmas

New member although been visiting for a while. Recently purchased an older TZ with acid damaged CPU board from past battery leakage. Decided to replace the battery holder with new and clean the damage with vinegar, water and then IPA (91%). Allowed overnight and the morning sunlight drying before reinstall.

Now, no booting evident on DMD and get a “humming” that I didn’t notice before. One red LED is lit in the upper left side of the board and the two others are dark.

Thoughts? Recommendations/checks? Time for a new board?

Thanks all. Really appreciate any help. Was sure I had this but “pride precedeth the fall”.

Recheck all the connectors, I think it is possible to get them out of align by one pin, etc.

Check the CPU ROM is seated properly. I presume you removed this to clean it up?

Thanks. I’ll check once more.

Thanks, I will although it wasn’t removed since all cleaning was below this point below the battery holder where the alkali damage was done. ROM, CPU, etc above the batteries weren’t exposed to liquid.

I just installed the color DMD monitor on my TZ, but when I turned on the machine, none of the flippers work. I am not sure what happened or what to do. I appreciate any help. Happy Holidays!

Joe

Some easy stuff to try..
Coin door closed?
Do the flipper buttons work in the switch test menu?
Do the flippers flip in the coil test menu?
Fuses OK on the driver board and fliptronics board?
Unplug the data cable to the color DMD and test, anything improve?