I had the same issue on my machine and I have the impression after installing a cliffy slot protector (had a spare) the situation improved for me.
https://www.passionforpinball.com/switchslot.htm
You could give it a try

JP pro and TZ would be an awesome combo. TZ has a reputation for being a maintenance nightmare but it's no different than any other game from that time imo. Original clock boards can be problematic but you can buy an improved board that fixes all issues. Since TZ is such a popular game there are plenty of parts and lots of support for the game. When looking for a TZ, just look for the things you normally look for in a used game - condition of pf and if everything works. Only specific thing to look out for on TZ that I can think of is mods. Some mods are great but TZ seems to have a magnet for them. You can easily spend thousands on mods and that often reflects in the inflated selling price. I would educate yourself on TZ prices so you will know what to look for. Prices can be from around $5000 to over $8000.

Just a minor note about the 2 posts in the pop bumper area - (theres's a thread elsewhere on the site) - apparently this was not exclusive to early games. Some Later production games have the posts as well; I imagine they tested the game at the factory and only installed if necessary

I actually had forgot my game once must have had those posts. A previous owner removed them and put in plugs.

Would be interesting to know if my game was early or not.
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Just curious, does anyone else have an issue with the skill shot where if the ball is launched hard, it hits one of the walls of the skill shot scoop, bounces around from hitting it, and then doesn't go down the scoop (which the game then registers as a yellow skill shot). Mine has done it, well, all 20 years that I've had it.

It's never bothered me as I always try for yellow, and soft misses go into the scoop. In college, a girl that I was swooning loved to pull the plunger as far back as it'd go so she could cheat and get yellow. It drove me up a wall, which she got much pleasure out of. I don't date cheaters, even if it's at pinball. Glad that relationship didn't get off the first floor.

I requested, and was issued, a refund about a week ago. Not sure what the issue is, but I felt uneasy about the lack of communication. I'd be happy to order again when they are ready to ship.

Yeah, I have gotten no response to three emails a week apart just a reassuring message would work for me to stick with it

At the moment, it is a problem shipping from germany to US. Normally, we can ship for 9€ or 20€ with DHL or Deutsche Post. Now with corona, only a "premium" service for 60€ is available.
I have the same problem with shipping at my mini switch kits.

Btw, when shipping is possible, next switch kits come with a custom 3d printed box

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Ahh. Thank you! Good to know.

I added new sound and cpu Roms today but my display slowly get squiggly after about 30 seconds of leaving it on. Any idea why this is happening and what to check?

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That’s kind of on the weird side. I take it the sound and game play fine after the chip swap? If that is the case, you probably just need to reset the ribbon cable that goes to your display. It probably shifted a bit went you did the chip swap.

Yep, everything works great and when I turn it on the color lcd display looks perfect but over time it starts to get squiggly. I’ll mess with the ribbon cable

I remembered reading the story of Pat Lawlor adding the posts early in production and then later on removing them, but it seems that the PF holes were left there to allow op's to decide whether they wanted them or not.

This is Ted Estes account of what happened:
"The history of these posts is a story of frustration for the design team. In designing Twilight Zone, Pat Lawlor wanted to try something a bit radical, and placed the jet bumpers very close to the bottom of the playfield. After experimenting with the jet bumper placement on the whitewoods, Pat decided that they weren’t too bad down there. Something changed (slight positioning differences of posts and jet bumpers, perhaps?) between the whitewoods and prototypes, however. The ball kept flying down the left drain any time it went into the bumpers. After a few weeks of listening to complaints, Pat came into work one morning, grabbed a drill, some T-nuts, posts, and rubbers, and installed the posts. The complaints died down until several thousand games into the production run. Now, people were complaining that the ball would fly out of the bumpers and straight between the flippers! Something else had changed (slight warp of the playfield, perhaps?). Pat decided to take out the posts, but leave the holes, and put the posts in the coin box for the operator to decide to use. Which setup should you use? Which ever makes your game play the best."

If you are interested The Gameroom Blog has Ted Estes article "A Peek at the Game Design Process" which details TZ prototype, sample and production differences https://gameroomblog.com/guides/twilight-zone-pinball-prototype-vs-production

Pretty much the same on my game

Sorry for the cheating girl back then

Anyone out there have pix from a TZ playfield swap? I thought I took enough pictures....NOT! Of course I thought I would remember how to put this bugger back together with my awesome memory? NOT! I feel like Borat atm

Any extra pix would be appreciated. Especially around the piano/clock area.

Thanks in advance...

Dave

Do some of these online galleries of teardowns help

https://s1291.photobucket.com/user/potterlu/library/Twilight%20Zone%20Teardown%20Pictures?sort=3&page=1
http://chrix.thefnet.co.uk/index.php/Twilight_Zone_pinball_machine_teardown_gallery
https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/twilight-zone/gallery/shopout
https://imgur.com/a/ukM08vY

Does anyone have a set of switch covers they would be willing to sell? I’d love to get a set of the low profile power switches, but I think shipping them for Europe is not going to happen for a while.

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The covers are just as ugly, if not uglier, than the switches, so you're good as-is! Nobody looks at them, either way.

I don’t mind the original covers. But I’m not a mod guy either, my machine is relatively stock. Any other stockers out there? I have an ingo board, leds, and gumballs in the gumball machine. Otherwise, stock. I’m not a fan of a bunch of mods...

Here here for the no (noticable!) mod crew.

You can get them here:
http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=SW-9672

Planetary are out of stock but Marco has them

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/20-9672

I thought they were the large covers. I guess I was mistaken.

Looks like TZ had 2 of the small and 4 of the medium... so guessing the Mini-PF used the medium given the qtys.

Marco lists:
20-9672 (small) as 0.5 x 0.74 x 1.0 inches
20-9820 (medium) as 1 wide x 1 tall x 1/2 inch deep

Can't find anyone with the medium in stock.

Interestingly Action Pinball indicates that 20-9672 replaces 20-9860, but what they are selling is listed as 1-inch long x 1-inch tall x 1/2-inch wide. So sound like this is a medium size and not the original small (20-9672) as listed. Ref. http://www.actionpinball.com/parts.php?item=20-9672

Yup, I recall measuring those before and the mini pf uses medium.

I agree they are not optimum, but they are original.

Replacing switch 87 Optos...how big of a pain in the ass is this gonna be?

Keep getting switch 87 (Gumball entry) error and I’m able to fix it short term, but eventually It fails again.

Among other attempted fixes, I cleaned Optos w Qtip and alcohol; Reflowed solder and that helped some but still fear failure.

I’ve ordered new optos in their plastic mounts to replace the two mounted to the wire form Upkicker into the gumball machine.

Access is beyond tight to try and swap these out without removing the wire form upkicker and/or the entire gumball machine.

Main concern is being able to solder on the new optos in such a tight space.

Anyone replace these before and if so is it advisable to remove the gumball machine to get proper access?

I finally made it into the club!

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I'm nearing the end of my 11 year rebuild of my TZ. Any pointers on the best (safest?) way to bring this thing back up. Any references on this would be great. I'm assuming there is a better way than just having everything plugged in, cross fingers, and hit the switch.

It has been taken down to just the playfield and rebuilt. No significant issues when taken apart and went back with no major issues. Soon it will be time to tell how good I am at doing my first full tear down.

Remaining to do list:
back box cables to connect (from playfield)
update the ROM chips
nvram install
solder in connections for gumball sparkle kit
jam the piano in place. (royal PITA expected)
Add the spotlights I got in the LED kit
close out 2 missing screws and a missing nut.
install new lamp over mini playfield (but will be a bit as lamp sockets are out of stock)

Does anyone know what kind of screws are used to connect the wire frame that goes over the slot machine to left inlane from the large plastic ramp. (left side exit). I think they are 8-32 machine screws 1/2" length with a lock washer. (I couldn't find reference to them in the manual) They connect to the hex posts on the wire frame.

Extras I have:
Two extra nuts (the smallest of the 3 used on the machine)
one extra screw 5/8" with lock washer (appears to be used for plastic (wood screw type threads). philips head)
1 washer (not worried about this one)
Still curious about where they are missing from.

Looking forward to my first game again.

I'm leaning towards doing a Rockstar Sparle on all the legs, the lockdown bar, side rails, and backbox hinges. Thoughts?

I think it would look pretty slick. I’d do it if I had the means.

Looks like it would be awesome. If you do it, share pics. I’m def getting all my armor powdered black, I just can’t decide what kind yet.

I definitely want to see this!

While I've never gotten that color before, I have gotten a lot of Prismatic Poweder done before, and their stuff is high quality, if the shop that applies it does it right.

This is true of any powdercoat. I have a large company near me that does powder coating but they told me they don't use Prismatic Powders not even if I provide the powder ... not sure what to make of that as I have no idea about the process. They did say that they can match it and apply a similar sparkle clear coat but it will be from their supplier. Not sure what to make of that.

They just have an exclusivity deal, NBD. It's probably very similar.

I'm sure they do. I still plan on having them do the work as I like to support the local business folks not to mention its a lot more convenient to drive 15 minutes to their establishment and speak to them in person about the project then it is to ship this stuff out and never have a chance to see it before you pay.

The biggest problem I have is actually getting stuff to them as their powder coat guy only works 8AM-4PM M-F, and these are my exact work hours

I actually purchased all new raw legs, side rails, and hinges for this project from pinballlife.com, if I like how it comes out I may do a turn around on the stuff removed from TZ to do the same job on my STTNG

Having an issue with ball getting hung up leaving mini playfield ... Dropping down getting hung up on top of the metal flange . Seems like it’s not moving back to its original position. I bent it back and was working for a few days .. now it’s hanging up again . Looks like the metal gate is hanging up . Maybe needs lubrication ? Just wanna see if anyone has have the same problem

Ditto! That is a strange thing to happen!

There’s a metal diverter at the entrance where the ball will drop down to the subway . Ball enters there 3 ways , one when ball is discharged from gumball machine , one when dropping down from mini playfield , and one from the camera shot . Balls aren’t magnetized... looks like the metal diverter at the entrance of this hole leading down to the subway is not moving freely . Hope I explained it better . I’ll post a pic later if not

Are you talking about the piece pointed to with the red arrow??

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Yep that’s it

That vertical metal plate is a deflector to stop the ball when you've used the upper right flipper for the camera shot. That deflector is welded into the bottom of the subway metal box and should not move. You mentioned bending it back and lubrication, so I'm guessing your welds are cracked/broken and that plate is being bent /moved from the force of the ball hitting it from the camera shot.

You need to lift the PF and remove the metal box (see the red arrow) and inspect the welds of the deflector

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Ok , thanks a lot

Just moved mine out into some open space to add some Chrome.

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@ Manny65

That’s exactly what happened , one weld was faulty , so there was movement on the deflector , causing the ball to hang up . I bent it some more , so if it does move , it won’t affect the ball dropping down into the subway .
I tested it over and over and so far it’s ok . Thanks again for the help

I suggest you re-weld that bracket, otherwise over time it'll fatigue the remaining weld and break that deflector off. This part would be hard to replace and better & easier to repair now when there is minimal damage

Yep I will definitely look to do that as that deflector takes a beating from the upper flipper camera shot , thanks again

My buddy Enzo helping me with a little work on my TZ!

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