I also just recently picked up a William's IJ that had a GI-OCD in stalled. I don't like this added feature and removed it and would be willing to sell if someone is interested.

Thank you! As all you know it's a labor of love and enjoyment you can share with family and friends.

The side art blades comes from a guy on ebay judge-dreads-pinball. It is a complete set that matches the sides with the playfield back board. He sells alot of mods out on Ebay. I didn't see this pickular mod right now for sell, but look for him on other mods with this name and contact him directly. He will give you a discount if you buy multiple mods. His mods are greatly done and have many of them on my machine's other than the TZ.

Curious what you didn't like about the GI-OCD board?

I love the one I put in my TZ... didn't realize all of the dimming and other effects I was missing after I went with LED lighting.

I loved it as well, along with the insert board. A must for any pre 2012 pin imho.

I didn't have it in my TZ. It came with on my William's IJ I recently purchased. I just don't want to add additional boards for something else to go wrong. Plus I own 7 90's Bally/Williams machines and that would be alot to add to each one. I have lived without this long and not sure the effect benefits the results (for me in general). As some of you have said it does, but like LED lighting and colors it's a personal choice, so I am happy without. Someone would have to convince me differently that's all. I would rather add up graded speakers and color DMDs.

I hear you... it can definitely snowball! On my TZ it started with Invisiglass and then LEDs and then upgraded speakers and then GI-OCD and LED-OCD boards and then Color DMD (LED) and then Pinsound Plus and then mini playfield hidden switch brackets and then external subwoofer... I'm sure I'm forgetting a ton of other mods and upgrades!

I now have Invisiglass or other non glare glass and external subwoofers on all my pins. Also LED alphanumeric display, Color DMD and LED's and some type of dimming control like the Gizmo board or OCD boards on compatible games, etc...

I hear you. I have over 2k in mods on mine. It's just where do you stop?

I try very very hard here…. 2K mods is another pin - Being a tightass , I typically buy broken Pins and restore them - actually I am starting to enjoy the restoration almost as much as playing them - until I get an issue I can’t fix. (Royal Rumble took months and I love the game but hate that machine…)
I don’t try to make money, Breakeven is fine - For me - I get the have a machine for a few months at no cost and hopefully save another machine from scrap..

I have 5 pins, 3 are keepers and 2 on a kind of forced rotation - I have no more space so have to sell one if I want another or lose the Pool table and that isn’t hapenning.
Now. The keepers, If there is a mod, I am a sucker but try to be reasonable - If the cost to me is a fair price for the effort, I will buy a couple in a year - but lots of mods are so way over priced I ignore them..

TZ - the other love of my life.. I was lucky and got one in good shape. I have a color DMD (PIN2DMD), I changed the slot scoop for the re-inforced one and the stronger clock targets, new clock board. I added LED’s, Car mod and a custom topper... So far that’s it. But in a box I have a Robby the Robot and camera that I bought and added LED’s to myself and a led Matrix that I am going to put in the back Glas in the door that needs an arduino.. The game is crying out for a cleanup when I could add the mods but I am scared to touch it in case something stops working…

The volume on my machines is always low, so I haven’t bothered with any sound upgrades and I haven’t changed the glass.
Oh, the keepers are TZ, STTNG and Whirlwind. “FEEL THE POWER OF THE WIND” - all other games are DMD but man, Whirlwind is awesome. You feel like a GOD if you hit the upper ramp..

-

I preface my remarks by saying this is just my personal opinion, and that I have not installed my LED lighting yet but I have received my order from Comet. I spent a bunch of time researching what to get including may emails with Comet. I did a preliminary order of sample lights and flashers with Comet to see what I preferred.

At the end of the day I decided on Sunlight for everything where possible. I much preferred Sunlight to the other options.

I would not go with all frosted 2smd. My suggestion would be keep original flashers (even Comet suggests this, and I found the LED flashers to be meh), 1smd frosted for the backbox, 2 smd frosted for the GI and 2 smd clear for the controlled lamps under the playfield. You will need some in bayonet and some in wedge, need to count (I don't have the TZ count handy because I ordered for 3 machines at the same time). Don't order non-ghosting if you will be installing the OCD boards.

Hope that helps.

I also put the comet sunlight led in my TZ I’m very pleased with the look

So I have encountered another problem. When I initially plunge the ball a few seconds later the slot scoop coil fires twice from under the playfield. Only twice though. Not every time but the majority of the time. There is no obstructions to be found. Has anyone else encountered this problem or know what would be tied in with that which would cause this issue? Thanks in advance!

Most likely need to adjust the scoop switch. May be too close together and touching when it shouldn't from vibrations.

Fix For Lock-Shot Rejections, Anyone?

The lock on my game will reject clean shots from the lower left flipper. The cleaner the shot is, the higher the odds of a rejection. I had a chance to see the lock-up trough assembly when I shopped the game, so I understand how it works. My question is, what is the optimum angle of that entrance tang? Should it be a low as possible, allowing the ball to barely squeeze through there? I figure the more erect it is, the more it will reflect the ball back into the first half of the elbow and back onto the playfield, but if it's too low, can't the ball strike its edge and reflect back that way, too? I've never owned TZ before and I thought the lock shot looked cool, but given how tight/long the shot is, rejections are *very* frustrating. Ideas/advice?

Thanks.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tz-ball-wont-stay-in-lock-why
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-definitive-twilight-zone-lock-shot-fix-thread

Thanks, Manny!
Hmm. A fix involving a magnet or a fix involving raising the entry end of the trough with spacers. Magnet fix is obviously easier but I find it hard to imagine that would work reliably given how fast the ball is moving when it comes through that elbow. Guess I'm going to have to pull the clock and right ramp to get at the trough and pull it, too, to install some spacers. What makes me nervous about pulling ramps is that I don't like to screw the ramp-flap screws in and out repeatedly. I worry those fragile threads will strip and with ramp flaps there is no stepping to a larger size screw allowed.

YES!! Unscrewing and reapplying the ramp flap screws always terrify me too. It would stink to strip those out

Are talking about those #4 screws that screw thru the blued spring steel into the wood of the playfield?
You can just glue a toothpick in that hole to snug up those screws.

I have had good luck with stripped out holes in wood. Pinball life has wood epoxy. Blow hole out with dusting gas. Mix up a small amount poke in hole with tooth pick or stem of Qtip. Sometimes you may have to do it a second time. Takes about 30 hours to dry. It sets up pretty hard if done right. Bargain $7.

qwep_300x42 (resized).jpg

Safe/Advisable Coil Substitution:

Hi.

My Slot Machine coil/plunger lobs the ball all the way to down to about the foot of the right sling. Not helpful! I have a replacement Mantis scoop. I can't really adjust the trajectory of the toss. I spoke to Mr. Mantis and he had no suggestions. So, it's down to the coil strength and/or plunger length.
The stock coil is an AL-23-800. Its specs are 4.2 Ohm, 23-800.
I happen to have a Stern 090-5044-ND coil in my kit left over from another project. Its specs are 10.3 Ohm, 26-1200.
Both coils are no-diode and have the same external dimensions. One is has more windings but with a lighter-gauge wire. One has much lower resistance.
My hope is to scrub about half the power of the kicker if I can.
Can I safely substitute the Stern coil? I assume it's higher resistance will mean less power, but I could be overlooking the gauge/winding factor.
Thanks for reading my post.

** Update **

I put the Stern coil in. Anemic kickout but still better than the rainbow "J" that was sure to abuse the playfield.

Yes. If the Stern coil has a diode on it remove it.

23 or 26 is the wire gauge. 800 or 1200 is the number of turns. Less turns stronger coil, more turns weaker coil.

LTG : )

Thanks for the info, LTG.

"CLOCK IS BROKEN"

My test report on startup reads, clock is broken, despite the fact that the clock appears to work fine and tests fine.
Moreover, occasionally the credit dot will disappear after a game or two, but then reappear when the game is rebooted.
I have a new'ish Casper clock board.
Has anyone else experienced this?
If so, what was your solution?
Buy another clock board?
Buy another DC Motor Control Assembly board?
Thanks.

Won't help.

Check if clock hands are warped and not always doing a good job.

Borrow my brand new spare one. If it works, buy it.

LTG : )

Go into Clock Test, run the test for a while and see if it misses an optos.

Sounds very familiar........

LMK if sw 34 is your clock issue.

Thanks for the suggestion. I've been in there, testing, many times. Backwards, forwards. Backwards, forwards. No missed optos.

Trough Woes:

All my trough switches test fine and my eject armature/coil seem fine. Despite that, I still get the occasional "follower." By that I mean a ball will be served to the shooter lane at the wrong time, sometimes seconds after a ball has been plunged. LTG suggested my kicker arm was snagging/actuating the last switch in the trough. It's true that this switch lies perhaps 1mm away from the kicker arm, but there is no snagging going on when I move the arm back and forth. LTG has bent the arm on his own game to "tame" the strength of the kickout. My kickout, as vigorous as it is, is fine to me and I would rather not bend this arm. In this photo I have backlit the trough so you can see the proximity of the arm to switch. Is this normal clearance for these two parts?
Thanks.

5EA41512-5380-43CA-B8A1-27CF6ACF9C35 (resized).jpeg

In my experience, too close.

LTG : )

You have to be quick.
Go to switch test, not clock test.
Look at row 4.
Is 34 closed when it should be open?
Is sw 24 open when it should be closed? Is sw 24 flashing?

Interesting.
I guess I hadn't thought about the fact that the four optos in the clock board should have their own places on the matrix. Of course, I can't really close the opto in Switch Edges test as the opto is hidden inside the clock!
Still, I will check those switch numbers as you suggest and report back.
Thanks!

Peek-a-boo! I see you!

I'm discovering that TZ is a very scoop- and subway-heavy layout. The ball spends a lot of time in scoops or in subways. It seems like the ball is emerging from the Slot Machine every ten seconds or so, since so many scoops lead, via subway, back to that kicker. I s'pose that's why people criticize it as a "stop-and-go" layout. I don't like the time I spend waiting for the ball to reappear. Pat Lawlor I'm sure thought all that disappear/reappear action was whimsical and fun. I'm not sure I agree. I like the ball on the playfield or on a ramp. I guess I'm an impatient player.

Since it is "occasional", you would need to test it during that ONE TIME that it's not okay, to see what's up. Could be that one of the switch arms is preventing a ball from rolling down completely, or one of the arms is getting caught.
You can pull the arm away some - but I'd loosen the screws some and rotate the whole assy a millimeter or so, then retighten screws.

To really test the trough, put it in Gumball Test, "Continuous Test" and watch the screen. Let it cycle for a while, and learn the pattern and what to expect and when something sticks out.

They do. They're Row 9. Not visible in the three standard Switch Tests, but visible in the Clock Test.

IMDN = TZ 2.0

I owned an IMDN two years ago. At that time I'd never owned a B/W game. I had no idea what could have been the inspiration behind the layout of IMDN. Now I do.
I thought IMDN's layout was fresh/innovative, the creation of the uber-talented Keith Elwin. Nah! IMDN is TZ with improvements.
I mean, it's easy to imagine Elwin, when he was fishing for inspiration before embarking on his first white wood, asking himself: What is the most memorable layout in pinball? And for him the answer was TZ. And his next question was: Okay, how do I *improve* on TZ? Well, his answer to that was to put a ramp entrance at the back of the pops rather than a lane to a scoop. Another was to put a ramp entrance in place of the Slot Machine scoop. Another was to make the Piano shot into a loop that returned to the upper-left flipper. Another was to make the Camera shot into a loop that returned the ball to the upper-right flipper. Another was to replace the Gumball Machine with a Sarcophagus mech that provided the same ball-locking theater. The right orbit on IMDN that feeds the upper-left flipper is just like the right Spiral orbit on TZ. Elwin doesn't like scoops. I s'pose, as much as he could, he was trying to reclaim some flow for his layout by minimizing subway- and scoop time. Ironically, Elwin did include a single scoop on IMDN Premium/LE, but certainly not subways. In AIQ, he used a long'ish, clunky subway to ferry balls to the lower-right flipper lane. A surprise for Elwin, I thought.
I'm not criticizing Elwin or IMDN. I'm just remarking on how clear - to me at least - it is that TZ is the antecedent of IMDN. I often wonder how obvious this is to Lawlor. Has he even tried IMDN? If he has, I bet he was some flattered!

Thanks, Coyote.
I did in fact loosen, pivot, re-tighten the armature assembly, but there was too little travel to make a difference. I will remove the switch arm (two screws) and attempt to bend the arm just a little to afford the kicker arm some more room.
I will also try the Gumball Test and let it cycle, although I'm not sure what abnormalities I'm looking for.

Magnet-safe Pinballs: Are They Necessary in TZ?

I have just got my TZ online enough to begin playing it a little. I have "Super Shiny" balls from Titan right now. They are chromium steel, not carbon, and are thus not technically magnet-safe. I have been having the occasional trough misfire. Could I have magnetized balls after a few dozen plays?
Do you seasoned TZ owners insist on carbon-steel pinballs? If so, what is a good source for truly shiny carbon-steel balls?

Thanks.

Replacement Magnet Coils for Mini-PF: Do They Invigorate the Magna-Flip Action?

My mini-PF's magna-flip action is a bit weak. I was thinking about replacing the magnet coils. The manual lists A-16749 as the appropriate part number, but Marco's has no such thing, nor has Pinball Life or Planetary.
Marco does have this though:
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/20-10197
Is it a safe substitute?

magnet.coil (resized).jpg

I have put my very nice original TZ on marketplace.

With shiny balls, yes. Put a paper clip near it and see.

LTG : )

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/20-10197 doesn't list them as compatible with TZ (there a compatibility tab below the pictures), so I would guess these wouldn't be suitable

Drat.
How am I going to invigorate my Magna-flipping? It's rare that I defeat the Power!

Practice.

Double tap when activating the magnet buttons...works better for me

I lightly smack my flippers buttons really fast rather than pressing them with my fingers. It seems to yield really good results on my TZ

I wait until the ball hits the lower rubber bank(s) and then activate the coils. This way it throws the ball up towards the top. I usually (most of the time) defeat the power, but not always! Ha ha ha ha

It's always fun when you can quickly defeat the Power!

I always see if I can better my power score ...

For sure, but I value beating the Power and getting a door panel more. The scoring is nice, but strangely for me, since I play mostly for points… in this case it’s secondary.