Thanks. I did know that both kits have two switches. My question really was how you're supposed to wire a star post LED to one of them. Does the switch kit "power" the LED? Or does the black wire go to a different location or something? Stupid question I know.

So when you manually trigger the wire lever in and out, you MUST hear the "click" of the button I circled below BOTH ways. On bad/flaky switches I've replaced in the past, you may hear it depressing, but not returning and vice versa. It must be an audible "click" both ways. On rare occasion you may hear clicks both ways, but something inside the switch body is not making final contact.
button (resized).JPG

EDIT: ALSO- Make sure when you are soldering the new Diode onto the new switch (unless you buy a new switch with one already attached) you make sure to:

1. Solder the legs to the proper lugs
2. Make sure the silver band on the diode is facing the correct direction. This matters

After tinkering with a switch on another game I finally took 15 minute to solder a new 1 in and low and behold, scores went up cuz the switch as always working. The stockpile of switches is definitely a must for these older games.

In series. Black wire to GI input (let's call A). Red wire to switch contact 1. Contact 2 to other GI input (B).

Can someone tell me which direction the batteries go in the TZ holder? I don't see any positive or negative marking on the holder.

Thanks!

All 3 are positive pointing up.

Thanks. Pulled the board and added a remote battery holder.

Shop job completed. Need to add up the time spent, but somewhere around 24 hours. A few things left to tweak, but man....it plays great! Hard to believe how much snappier the flippers feel. Happy!

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Looks Great!
TZ is an awesome pin. Now enjoy it as much as you can.

Sure looks good Jim. Are those purple star posts or is that just the lighting?

Thanks, it’s just the lighting. LEDs always look bad in pics, imho. But I had to do it, TZ was looking dated vs my other games. Well, except surf champ, which is still incandescent...

At times the ball gets stuck on the left magnet after getting kicked out of the ramp/diverter. Once ball search starts it eventually releases. Other times the machine says power ball, does a search, then sends out a regular ball.

I'm thinking this isn't right but have never seen the two upper magnets in action so I'm not sure what to check.

Suggestions please

Maybe 2 different issues? First, reseat the ribbon cables in the backbox and see if things improve.

Physically stuck? Or electrically? (magnet energised)

The magnet can be raised and lowered using the big nut underneath the playfield. If the ball is dropping off the diverter and getting sucked up by the magnet, then you have a different problem

It is due to the magnet. The magnet is flush with the play field. After the ball search the magnet releases the ball. Magnet must be energized. Have never seen this happen on the right magnet. Only the left.

All cables in the backbox have been reseated. Still have the issue.

Test the game with the glass off and a ball on the miniplayfield and see if it's energized the whole time. It makes no sense that it would only be energized during gameplay, but then never shuts off. It's either on all the time, or you've got a slightly different issue

Anyone know the type of led Ingo uses on his clock board and matching socket...another modder may be interested in using that type of socketed led...pic if you have too would be great to give him a visual

Every once in a while on my TZ the ball will stay resting on the left magnet after the magnet releases. A slight bump of the machine will always free it.

I don't think he means the mini playfield magnets, I think he means the left spiral magnet.

aha! You must be right. Reading comprehension fail

This happens to me as well. Balls are magnetized; replace them

Read on another thread about demagnetized pinballs. Boil them in water for 15-20 minutes. This will get rid of most. To entirely demag, put them in an oven at 350-400 for an hour, then let them cool slowly. The water is quick and easy, the oven not so much.
My TZ was doing the same thing and this corrected the problem.

OUCH, balls in the oven or boiling water, LOL !

Yes, it is the spiral magnets and not the mini PF that I am having issues with. I don't believe the balls are magnetized and causing the issue based on the fact that the ball stays on the magnet and then clearly releases on its own during the "ball search". It just disrupts ball play and is annoying.

I guess I should start by understanding when the spiral magnets actually come in to play. Under what circumstances are the balls supposed to get stopped on the magnets in the spiral loop?

Why am I getting "powerball" when the powerball is actually in the gumball and not in play?

Thanks to all

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1038-german-pinball-modular/00429-twilight-zone-clock-board-pre-installed-warm-white-leds

///thanks I just heard from him...they're regular 6pin dip sockets cut down...

Likely there are small tiny little divots in the magnet's core, and if the ball sits just right, when the magnet lets go, there isn't enough gravity to break it free. Then the ball search comes, and the magnet pulses, and causes the ball to jerk free.

First, get new balls.
Then, take your magnet cores out, sand them flat, and re-assemble.
Also, check your game's pitch. You likely have it a little too light - i.e. not steep.

Balls will get captured when:
1. In Spiral Mode: Each magnet will catch the ball once (if 3-magnets installed), or the right will catch it twice and the right once (2-magnets).
2. Any multiball with the Powerball out.
3. Multiball start, IF the game knows the Powerball is in the gumball machine, and you are starting mutiball with one or less balls in lock.
4. Anytime a Spiral Award is lit and you make a spiral shot.
5. The right one will catch the ball if Camera Award is lit, if Town Square Madness is lit, or if you need to Relight the Jackpot during normal multiball.
6. The left one will catch the ball if the Jackpot (Piano) is lit.

You have a bad eddy sensor.

FlippinJimmy this guy ^^^knows his stuff

@Coyote- thanks for the great explanation.

Admittedly I coulda given you more info on the eddy sensor - but dinner was ready.

Do a search here in this thread for the Trough proximity sensor and you should find plenty of info to help. Once I get sleep, and then get over my hangover tomorrow morning, I can help more.

that playfield shroud is badass!

Does anyone know if the coil sleeves for Williams (say Getaway) and for Bally (TZ) are the same. Trying to replace the flipper coil sleeves and had some extra for the Getaway. They are really tight to install and was about to order the Bally sleeves but then thought the coils are probably the same anyway. Hate to pay shipping for sleeves and find out they are identical.

No worries. I have looked up the eddy sensor and will work on that. Thanks

Yep they’re the same. If they’re tight it means the time is approaching for a new coil.

Just curious, has anyone added an external sub to TZ, with an l-pad, and without connecting the sub that’s in the cabinet?

I have a Polk sub hooked up to my STTNG and modified the sound board to control the ratio between the sub and the back box speakers. It works great. But when I hook TZ to the same sub, the bass from STTNG simply overpowers TZ. So I’d like to utilize the Polk sub for both games, and exclude the sub in the cabinet of TZ (which is how my STTNG is set up).

I disconnected the sub in the TZ cabinet while experimenting, and of course I lost my back box speakers too - I assume all of the speakers are wired in series.

Thanks in advance for any help!

If you use an external sub with speaker level inputs it should work fine, but with the OEM speaker arrangement in TZ you can't get rid of ( or jump out) the cabinet sub or it will screw up the total resistance to the backbox speakers since they are in series/parallel.

I added a Pinsound and then you can run true stereo.

In addition, STTNG is a DCS game with 16-bit sound which allows you to have much deeper bass. TZ doesn’t produce the lower frequencies unless you rework the sound using PinSound and use one of the enhanced mixes (and even then it may not quite have the punch of STTNG)

Which Game ROM has the best code for Twilight Zone? I thought they stopped at 9.2 but I think there is a 9.4 Home Version also? Any others I should consider that might be better? Thanks.

OVERWHELMINGLY 9.4H. No question. There is also a 9.4CH. Don't use this - there are various reasons, but the most important one is that it's a hack, and there's bugs, and that Ted Estes specifically asked people not to mess with the ROM after he released 9.4 (years after the game was off the line), andthey did anyway.

9.4 includes a bunch of cool things, including support for the 3rd magnet, if your game has it, and some other gameplay changes

Picked up a very nice TZ here in CO before Christmas. The theme never really appealed to me but after a month I can’t seem to leave this thing alone. I’m hooked; shot combos overall geometry are stellar and challenging. I finally got lost in the zone this past weekend. I’m so glad I picked this up my favorite playing machine so far.

I promised my wife early last year that we would sell TZ when we took delivery of our Wonka.

We still have TZ...........AND Wonka. Hard pin to sell. Especially since I have a really nice original condition one.

Does anyone know the proper size of these rubbers? Mine are clearly not right, too big...

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Thanks. I guess my kit from Marco was wrong. I guess I assumed they use that chart for their kit, which made me question if the chart was right. I hate the idea of ordering 2 rubbers as I’m sure I’ll pay dearly just due to shipping...

What size did they give you in the kit for those posts?

I just double checked mine to make sure the manual wasn’t a misprint. It’s correct

9A4B52E2-C125-49A7-90C2-B161D6B56F6D (resized).jpeg

I had a Marco Kit come in a couple weeks ago. There were several incorrect sizes. I sent an email to customer service and they sent them out no problem. Just be sure to specify color as I had ordered white and they sent me black for the bumpers (H) and white for the 7/16" you need.

On another note, I ordered Sopranos rubber from Marco months ago and just got around to changing the rubber. There were all sorts of screw ups in that kit.

Never had any other issues with Marco kits or orders.

Yeah, My Marco kit for Indy was wrong with a few, and missing a few. The best luck I've had is with PCX pinball off of Ebay.... Here's a TZ link for a shop kit I used

ebay.com link: 1993 Bally Midway Twilight Zone Pinball Tune up Kit Includes Rubber Ring Kit

Yeah, that was my suspicion - my kit was wrong. Unfortunately, I ordered the kit over a year ago and just now got around to shopping the game. =(

I'll have to rummage my spare rubber bag, but I'm guessing I'll have to shell out the cash for the new ones.

Wow, I never looked at my rubbers to see if the size was printed on them. Who knew?