I would wager that the parts that make up the ball-release kicker are all stock. There is certainly a chance that mine were mounted slightly out of position, but I bet you would see that my kicker tip meets the ball in very nearly the same place that yours does if you were to inspect my game. I'm not going to demount the kicker, fill the holes with glue-slathered dowels, drill new holes, and remount the parts. I'm just going to continue scrubbing power from the coil however I can. No one has commented on my mechanical solution involving a limiter, but that's what I will try next.
Thanks for your ideas.

Thanks for the video.
Your game plays great - as do *you*! Great multiball!

Because I know very little about electronics and that solution was never mentioned when I brought this up earlier.
It sounds more affordable anyway.
How do I choose the right resistor and where do I wire it in?

I just lost all my switches on column 2.
Green-brown, J206-1.
This happened somehow when I was swapping coils.
How do I bring the column back?
Test report doesn't mention a short.

Oh.
Got it.

Does the trough work normally before you reach a multiball? Does the outhole kicker move the balls to the right end of the trough? Does the ball-release kicker push balls up to the playfield where they roll to the shooter lane? I'm assuming the answer is yes if you're able to play your game normally before MB begins. You write that the ball-release kicker clicks but no balls are released. This is confusing because the game requires balls for normal non-MB play, so we know the ball-release kicker works. I would go into single solenoid test and select "ball-release"/repeat. That will make the ball-release kicker fire repeatedly. I would also go into switch edges and depress the far-right switch in the trough to be sure it's actuating normally. Your trough has six switches.
From left to right they are outhole; far-left/left/center/right trough; and a proximity sensor. Test all of them in switch edges. Removing the apron first makes this much easier. The proximity sensor (tiny board with an infrared transmitter) will only open if you lay a ball in end of the trough. You can't actuate it with your finger.

Well, I need to troubleshoot my switch column #2. As I wrote, all of those switches are down and the test report mentions no short. I have scrutinized the wiring/diodes on the involved switches and I see no broken wires and no shorting. I don't know how I injured the MPU. I did some coil swapping but my repairs were (obviously) done with the game off. Will the whole column go down if even a single switch has failed? I do have some replacement micro switches on hand. The only switch on this column that I recently replaced is that of the ball shooter and the game played fine after I changed it. The switch column went down only after I installed a "limiter" in my ball-release kicker in my effort to scrub some of its power. The limiter is a 1/8" medallion cut from a stray plunger laid inside the coil sleeve to effectively shorten the throw of the plunger. Could the limiter be causing a short?

I found the instructions below on Pin-Wiki. Is this my next step or is it wiser to first replace the U20 chip on the MPU?

6.26.4 Switch Matrix Problems
Isolate the problem to the MPU or to the game wiring/diodes/switches

Follow these steps to determine if the switch matrix problem is on the CPU or somewhere in the game wiring.

Remove connectors J206/J207, J208/209 and J212 from the bottom of the CPU (J206 and J207 are electronically the same and J208 and J209 are electronically the same).
Clip one lead of a test jumper to pin one of J207 making sure you don't touch any of the nearby pins on J207.
Power the game on, and enter Switch Edge test (you've left J205 on the CPU so the diagnostics switches still work).
Touch the other end of the jumper to pin one on J209, then pin two and so on. You should see (and hear) the CPU indicate that switches #11, #12, #13, etc. are being "made" as you touch the pins of J209. You should *never* see multiple switches being made.
Move the jumper from J207 pin 1 to pin 2. Re-test to every pin on J209, listening for the machine to read every switch as closed. Continue in a similar manner testing each pin of J207 to every pin in J209.

A diode is not required since the test jumpers directly from a single pin to a single pin. Remember, the purpose of switch diodes is switch isolation. Also, have no fear conducting this test. Unless you connect one end of the wire to high voltage, nothing can be damaged.
C20C7956-2949-4EA4-BC76-746B3F8A462F (resized).jpeg

Electrical.

I know what they're trying to accomplish with this test, yes. I just asked if I might throw a new chip in U20 rather than do the jumper dance between J207 and J209. If the column is still out with a new chip, *then* I will do the test. If the column returns with the new chip, I'll know it was the chip and I'll have spared myself the putzy chore of the jumper dance. Besides, the jumper test requires considerable precision because my jumper jaws aren't small enough to grab a single pin and not short to a neighboring pin.

Thanks for your input.

As a matter of fact, no, I do *not* have any pad there. There's no hole there to accept a grommet. Is the pad just a square of 1/8" rubber? I have no reference.
Thanks.

Got it.
Thanks.

It's central.

I replaced the U20 IC chip on the MPU and my switch column has returned.

Big thanks to LTG for supplying me with a replacement chip.

I still need to deal with excessive power of the ball-release coil, but at least I have my switches back. I'm going to try a dual-wind coil like this one. 322 Ohms in the secondary position sounds high enough to give this coil a small fraction of the stock coil's power. I have one in there now that has 69 Ohms of resistance and it's much too powerful. How much power do I lose to the additional 250 Ohms of resistance? What percent? Can it be calculated?
dual.wind.coil (resized).jpg

The ball-release coil is described as "low-power" in the manual's solenoid table. What is the voltage of such solenoids? Is there any chance my power driver board is supplying high power to this particular solenoid rather than low? I mean, why on earth does my coil blast the ball out of the trough like a Stern machine when other TZ owners describe their ball releases as "leisurely"?

Thank you. It sounds like I'm scrubbing more than 75% of the coil's power by going to 322 Ohms. That will be helpful. I will try the coil.

Ball-release coil voltage, anyone?

As some of you have read, my ball-release kicker punts the ball clear over the diverter and into the shooter lane.

I wondered if my voltage to the coil is screwy so I metered it and the reading is 77VDC. This I believe is standard Bally "high power" voltage not under load. The manual lists this coil as "low power," however. What is standard Bally voltage for a low power coil? And if you don't know, can you tell me where this number might be listed in the service manual? Do I see "50V" in the schematic? If so, why do I meter 77VDC at the coil?

Thanks!
1DC5FAAB-C735-4150-BC99-C4B34EA9DF46 (resized).jpeg97CFCF99-6800-4815-9DBB-8F3918C061FD (resized).jpeg

Wiring a "Load" Coil in Series: Please Help

In my effort to tame my ball-release coil, it was suggested to me by Steve at The Pinball Resource that I wire a second ("load") coil in series with the game's coil to add resistance and thereby figure out how much resistance will be necessary to attenuate the game's coil sufficiently. This information would help me choose a single coil to replace the stock coil. His method is as follows:

1. Desolder the power lead to the game coil.
2. Use a jumper to jump from that hanging lead to the identical lug on the "load" coil.
3. Use a second jumper to jump from the remaining lug on the load coil to the power lug on the game coil.
4. Lay the load coil on a folded rag laid in the bottom of the cabinet where the coin box ordinarily sits.
5. Power up the game and test the kicker strength.
6. Repeat with other donor coils as necessary until the optimum resistance combination is found. (I have a range of coils of various resistances.)

If I'm careful to avoid shorting the power lead to any part of the game other than the load coil, will this wiring scenario keep me out of trouble? Will it accomplish what I hope it will?

Thanks.

Oh. That's different. You used the term "trough" to describe the lock. That put us on the wrong trail. You need to troubleshoot your lock.

Take the glass off and go into tests/switch edges. Push three balls, one at a time, into the lock. The display should show each of the lower, center, and upper optos open as each ball comes to rest inside the lock.

Next test the solenoid that expels the balls from the lock. Find it in tests/single solenoid/lock release. When testing solenoids, you must choose "stopped," "running," or "repeat." Choose repeat and then okay until all three balls are expelled, then press okay once more to return to the "stopped" phase.

You wrote that you're hearing a "clicking" in the lock but the balls aren't emerging. That release kicker is tiny and its plunger is small. It's mounted on a bracket that has some adjustability. It's possible that that the plunger is out of position and not kicking the balls properly, despite firing on command.

Nice work!
Looks dope!

Thanks for posting your project. Very interesting. My clock gears make a racket, too, but I believe they all do. I've read here about lubing the gears. Cool that you are tackling it! What's your final assessment? Worth the effort? Now whisper quiet or more or less the same?

I learned early on that original TZ's are more often really nice than raggedy. It's unique in pinball, as though the operators were so exasperated with the game's complexity that they didn't bother to rout them and instead just stored them, selling them years later for peanuts to other ops or to collectors. The collectors who bought them lavished much love on them, although so many of the games had many fewer hours of use than, say, TAF's had, and that meant their restorations required a bit less work. The result is that I'm always running into examples of TZ that are super clean. I never see roached examples, and I do *not* think that's because they're all restored. It's because an unusually high fraction of them saw little use!

Oh, and your TZ is straight dreamy!
Awesome!
Congrats!

Ooh! Double sweet! You've got yourself a "Kruzman"!

Look at you go! Nice work! Now you can truly shop a game!

The *whole* thread? Gosh. That would take me hours!

You funny, bruh'. Lots of very knowledgeable people on this thread - like, perhaps the most impressive bunch you will come across on any owners thread! (Which should surprise no one give how complex TZ is!) Heck, I will try to return the favor and help you myself if I can, but that would be one rook' to another. Maybe not so clever!

Go for it! It's a dope, streamlining mod and the extra effort to fit it is worth it.

Those should all be great. I have the flasher-endowed lamp board coming, too. Not sure how long it will take to ship from Budapest. Probably a solid month. That TV mod is super fly, but also spendy! I don't think I'll be adding that one!

That game was recovered from a flood, then stored as-is for a decade.
I don't think I would dare undertake to shop this one. Probably too far gone. I would like to pick it over though and see if I could possibly recover sone salvageable parts.

Taming an Overly Energetic Ball-release Coil:

You may remember I've been trying to scrub some power there by installing coils of progressively higher resistance.  Right now I have a 29-2000 installed (stock is 26-1200) and it's still too powerful.  I bought a 30-3000 Bally coil from The Pinball Resource just this past week and even that is too powerful.

I metered the voltage at the coil (77VDC) and then metered the voltage at the coil on a friend's TZ (73VDC), so I know I'm not getting a screwy amount of voltage at my coil.  Then I did the load-coil-in-series test proposed by Steve at The Pinball Resource.  I desoldered the power lead to the coil, jumped from the lead to a second ("load") coil at the same lug, then jumped from the load coil's opposite lug back to the game coil's power lug.  I laid the load coil on a folded rag in the bottom of the cabinet where the coin box usually sits.  I have the following low-power coils to work with for this test:

23-800
24-900
26-1200
30-3000

None of the first three coils above, wired in series, had any scrubbing effect, even when I combined them.  The 30-3000, however, finally tamed the game's coil - only so much so that the game coil couldn't even push the ball out.  So, I don't have the coils I need to figure out precisely how much resistance I actually need, but I can guess.

The 29-2000 is 33 Ohms and the 30-3000 is 69 Ohms.

69 is too little. The two combined (100) is too much.  So, I'm guessing I need about 85, but there is no coil that I can find on any chart that has that kind of resistance.  At the very least this test has taught me that a dual-wind coil would have too much resistance and would be useless to me.

Do you have any suggestions? Again, this is a serious problem because the kicker will punt the ball clear over the diverter and into the shooter lane. This mucks things up often, especially during multiballs and at the conclusion of LITZ, when the game is trying to reset and must reload the Gumball Machine.

Thanks for reading my post!

Addendum:

I did find this dual-wind Stern coil which apparently has 83 Ohms resistance:

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/090-5013-00

It's a "flipper" coil, so it's external dimensions may be wrong for my purposes.