Hello guys my TZ is missing the bracket that goes under the mini playfield. It is this two-part assembly in the attached pics, do anyone has a spare that could sell to me? Or can you suggest a website that sells it?? Thanks!!

20190415_101154 (resized).jpg

20190415_101213 (resized).jpg

20190415_191827 (resized).jpg

20190415_193315 (resized).jpg

20190415_193322 (resized).jpg

That makes sense, but keep in mind that sometimes the issue is that they just need cleaning, and you can also swap them around to left or right, or with another pin and see if anything changes.

PINBALL TECH : TWILIGHT ZONE RIGHT UPPER FLIPPER FLASHER LOCKED ON : VIDEO REPAIR

While playing my Twilight Zone pinball machine the other day, I noticed some smoke starting to come from the playfield. I quickly turned off the machine and removed the glass. First thing I can notice is that the plastic right above the right upper flipper looked melted. Looking more closely at that area, I was able to see a burn mark in the plastic and figured a bulb had locked on underneath causing the damage.

Blog Post :
https://pinballsupernova.wordpress.com/2019/05/21/pinball-tech-twilight-zone-right-upper-flipper-flasher-locked-on-video-repair/

YouTube Video :

2 (resized).jpg

3 (resized).jpg

Title (resized).jpg

Did anybody chime in on this? I need the smaller of the two parts also. Had to fabricate my own but would love an original.

Does anyone here who has completed a restoration or a teardown of TZ still have their reference photos from that process? I usually take hundreds of pictures as I'm taking things apart, but the one I am restoring was damaged/incomplete in many ways. I'm close to the point where I need to start putting things back together, but I know I'm going to hit an informational wall especially when I'm reconstructing the playfield.

My restoration is being documented here if anyone is interested:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/twilight-zone-restoration-2

I'm currently in the process of a full resto as well -
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/twilight-zone-restoration-1

I'm happy to help if u need some extra pics

Thanks a ton! ill definitely need some. My game is likely missing parts I dont even know exist. So putting it back together is going to be a challenge.

I'll be following along with your work. Good luck to us both!

Same to you! Ive been enjoying your thread so far! Your playfield looks great now. Hit me up when u get to that point

Having issues with the powerball not being detected in the trough. What opt or board needs to be replaced?

There’s a eddy sensor right by the trough with a wire that goes to a little board. Try reseating that wire in the board, that usually fixes the issue for me.

The board and sensor solder joints at the connectors are also prone to breaking away. You should inspect the solder joints. Most
People end up soldering the wires directly to the boards and bypassing the connectors.

You also need to make sure the sensor is close enough to the trough
To detect the metal balls. I just replaced my sensor and it took a bit of testing to make sure the sensor was tripped. It's VERY close to the trough and I was worried a ball would smash into it, but it seems fine

Here's an irritating issue I've had for awhile: When a ball gets sent from the ball trough outhole kicker to the shooter, the ball (more often than not) strikes the little post and bounces back into the trough instead of going to the shooter. This happens sometimes 3-4 times before it finally gets to where it needs to go. Is this a leveling issue (the table seems level), something screwy with the kicker/trough itself, or just another quirk of this game? Looking for some ideas on where to start.

Thanks in advance!

Could your wire gate that keeps it from rolling back into the trough be broken? Ive had that happen a few times

Hmm. What is this wire gate you speak of? A cursory examination of my trough does not show one. Perhaps this is the issue...

Pic below. I also scanned Marco real quick: am I possibly missing this part, or another one?

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/12-6542

IMG_8660 (resized).JPG

Yep, thats the one. If u take off the apron its pretty easy to access. It just keeps the ball from rolling back. Just a thought, may be it

20190522_095611 (resized).jpg

Actually, sorry .. After rereading, it may not be ur issue. The gate just keeps it from falling back out of the trough when its kicked into the trough after a drain. Worth taking off the apron to see if anytging else could be adjusted though

I’ve had the same issue of the ball eject and then go back in the trough. It’s happened on my Pinbot as well. I bent the top angle of the eject trough just a hair and VOILA! Perfect eject every time. Just a little tweak with some pliers to make it eject more at an angle towards the plunger. Try that. Just did it to my TZ yesterday. At the same time, make sure to tighten up the small hex screw to the lane diverter. Mine was not tight and wobbly

I suppose so. The ball basically is striking the white rubber in the pic and going right back into the trough, then rinsing and repeating until it finds the correct angle. Some sort of gate WOULD make sense but I don't see a spot for one. Guess I'll go through the adventure of removing the apron and seeing what might be loose or off-kilter. Thanks for the help!

Here is your pic showing the piece to bend just slightly.

21703874-61D7-4FE3-8251-6F80EF886114.jpeg

Try removing that rubber.

When i got mine, the rubber was removed. I assumed this is why.

I've considered that. I am also wondering if using black rubber there might accomplish the same thing with less bounce back.

It is a common issue on TZ that the ball guide sometimes needs to be bent a little like shown above to resolve kickout issues. (It has been documented many times in this tread.)

Thanks. I tried this and indeed it seems to work! I did try and do a search of the thread earlier, but it is possible I was using the wrong keywords.

Thanks guys I made sure the connection was tight on the eddy board and everything is working good now.

As someone may have mentioned before, that might not be sufficient. It will work perhaps in the short term, but as time goes on, with vibration and all, it might work its way loose again. See how it goes, but the only true solution is to solder the wires directly to the pins on one end, twisting the wires, and then soldering the other end.

Yeah will see how long it goes for.. I used a tiny regular screw driver and push the wires back into the connectors which seemed loose.

I totally agree with this. The problem will return until the wires have been soldered in place. I soldered to the backside of the boards. It seemed a little less offensive visually.

Actually there is another fix that I used and have not had a problem since. Twist the wire 8-10 times and then connect it again. Mine has stayed on nice and snug ever since. No need to solder.

I ran into a little drama with my TZ recently. During play, (mainly with multiball) all of a sudden I loose my flippers, display, and credit dot city. I'm thinking hmmm I find F116 blown. Replace it and we are playing again. Then randomly boom it blows again. This was going on and off for maybe 2 weeks. So now I get to a point where I put the fuse in, start a game and boom pops the fuse. I noticed the clock on start up was freaking out a little so I inspect around that and sure enough, some clown at one point maybe replaced the motor and just spun the wires and a touch of electrical tape. Well over time the wire slowly moved near the wireform and sure enough the damn thing is barely touching the wireform! Nothing like sending 12 volts to ground!!! Some solder, heatshrink, and we are back in business! If I didn't hear that clock make a funky sound on start up I would have never looked there! I started pulling mods, thinking the main board needs a rebuild, reset circuit, and it seemed to happen around when I was going in the gumball machine so I thought that was my issue as well... NOPE! all I can say is take your time and fix the games properly! I know who worked on this pin at several times over the years before I bought it and I'm kinda surprised to find this kinda repair. Well I can look back and laugh now and sure enough TZ was so happy I fixed it, I had my highest game ever on it! Everybody happy happy happy again!

47946382432_5949fec132_k (resized).jpg

47946391218_f18c9a747b_z (resized).jpg

47946412756_1e1b02b9fe_k (resized).jpg

Maybe try using 9.4H instead and your problems might go away?

If I recall correctly "Camera + Extra Ball" is a setting that adjusts itself based on how well players have been playing the game? I seem to recall the lock shot being Camera only when I first started playing, but changed to Camera + Extra Ball when the game realised how bad I was at the game

In other news...

On my TZ I installed some yellow plastic protectors for the outlanes, slingshots, rocket and slot machine that were made by a guy in the UK (very cost effective compared to most places). Very happy with how it came out..

UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_955 (resized).jpg

UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_95b (resized).jpg

UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_95a (resized).jpg

His name is Colywobbles if anyone is interested in getting some I don't benefit in any way from the recommendation, just thought I'd pass it along.

Remove 9.4CH, and install 9.4H.
The idiot that made 9.4CH (or BH, depending on when you got it) introduced an error in the Spot Panel adjustment setting because they didn't know what they were doing. You are seeing this bug.

Concur. 9.4CH is bad news

EB works fine on CH. is there a particular EB that you are not getting or in general?

Hey, nice protectors ! Love them. Will try to buy them, thanks.

do you get extra ball for getting enough robots? I know I get EBs on my game. take the glass of to test things. see if you get the EB to light by following the rule sheet on IPDB.

does anyone know who makes a custom lockdown bar that's engraved (robot and sprial as I recall)? I saw one posted on facebook the other day and can't find it now and was curious who made them and if available.

Does anyone know if you can buy the bracket for the proximity trough sensor for TZ? I have failed to find it anywhere.

Does anyone know if you can take a eprom 9.4H from one TZ and switch with another TZs eprom L-4? Is it as easy as unplugging them and swapping?

It is, but you really need to be careful removing the rom without a rom tool. Lift each side 1mm (1/16 inch?? ) at a time. Be careful toward the end as it will start to come out easier. If you lift one side to much compared to the other, you'll bend all the pins. You'll likely bend them a little, but it's easy to bend them back. Too much pressure on one side, and you can bend them so much that they'll break as you try to bend them back. Patience is key.

I use a small flathead screwdriver to lift either side, but I've heard others argue against that method. I've swapped many roms without an issue.

Thank you very much! I will give it go.

By any chance did you have info on purchasing a bracket for proximity trough sensor?

Echoing this. I changed the ROMs in my TAF, and am generally careful, but I still managed to bend the pins on 2 of the 3 chips I removed, and one pin actually came off in my hand as I put the chip down.

Definitely go with the chip puller.

Thanks! Where can I buy a chip puller?

Something like this would be safer:

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/77-ICE

I should say that I haven't bought or used a chip puller myself, I'm just relaying my experiences of trying to do it carefully with a mini screwdriver - as others suggested I should do.

The chips will probably be quite stiff in their sockets, particularly if they've never previously been removed. It would be easy to apply too much twisting force on a screwdriver and bend some pins. As said, I did it on two chips - which fortunately I did not need to keep, and I consider myself to be very careful.

This was my actual chip afterwards...

IMG_2432 (resized).jpeg

NOTE: When you remove the chip, pay attention to the notch on one end of the chip. INSERT THE NEW CHIP IN THE SAME EXACT WAY.

Since the chip is concentric, you can easily put it in backwards, which will result in smoking the chip and permanent damage.

Always note where that notch is, and insert the new chip with the notch on the same side. Normally, the silk screening on the PC board shows the direction of that notch. Also, the socket that the chip is inserted into will have its own notch on one end only. And usually all other socketed chips lie on the PC board in the same direction with notches all on the same ends.

Read the above twice so you understand that doing it wrong will destroy the new chip.

Thanks ramegoon And Durzel! You guys rock!