I'm not sure what's going on here. The ball release all of a sudden went weak about a month ago, but I haven't had time to address until today. The mech was cleaned and rebuilt when I got the machine, and moves perfectly. In test mode, the ball release fires balls out hard, as it should, real hard, but in game, it just sort of leaks out, but most of the time doesn't have enough umph to get out, takes 2-10 tries before it fully pops out. I guess in thinking about it, it always sort of was weak, but at least it got out everytime. I thought the rest of the coils felt weak as well, but I'm not sure about that.

I have replaced previously Br1-4, and C5 and C11. I know br3 is the solenoid bridge. Since this issue I have now reflowed the headers for the solenoids, fuse clips, C8 (solenoid cap), and reseated all power connectors over to the CPU (I know this has not 50v, not sure why I mentioned this). I reseated the cables from the transformer, but I'm now at a loss on where to go.

The other coils on the same daisy chain are the bumpers and slings, and they seem really good. Where do I go from here?

bump

It's not weak though in test. I fires very hard in test. I rebuilt this thing, and cleaned everything, it moves great. In game, can't hardly get the ball out, in test, fires it out like nothing. It seems like a voltage issue. All wires in the daisy chain are solid, no other coils in the chain/circuit are acting like this.

I'm thinking about swapping driver's next, at least that will tell me if it's board related. I wonder if a driver transistor is on it's way out, but I have only seen these go open or lock on.

I hear ya, but I'm of the school that I don't like heating up traces and pads any more than needed. I'll try swapping the board first, if it's board related, and not affecting any other coil, then it's really just the driver, pre-driver or controlling IC that could be the issue.

Again though, with something weak, I haven't heard of this being a bad component though, as it's usually just one of the two extremes.

Yeah, a bunch, ample driver's to choose from.

I'm wondering more about C8 the solenoid cap, but again I would expect very weak solenoids elsewhere, and sometimes I think they are weaker, but I don't think so. I cleaned the PF yesterday, and it was playing lightning fast, so I think the problem is just isolated to this coil. If it doesn't turn out to be board related, I may run a jumper from each lug to see if it is a wire issue. The solder joints look solid.

I don't like when the pinball gods start f'ing with my TAF or TZ.

I swap driver boards, and no change. I don't know what else to check... mech fires super hard in test, works fine there, mech moves completely freely by hand, I had completely took this apart for cleaned everything on it about 1.5 years ago (for no reason, was just shopping), and again it fires good in test anyway, so it can't be the mech... driver board swap changes nothing. Solder lugs are good, I haven't noticed any other issues with other coils, especially those in the same solenoid circuit, man what gives...?

It's almost like something is draining the current in this circuit when the game is in play...

I've checked the other coils on the same circuit and nothing else is having the same problem, and no other coils activating when they shouldn't. It plays great other than this issue.

I just don't know where else to look.

bump - anyone?

Ok, thanks for your input, that is somewhat helpful, as both of these coils are on the same daisy chain solenoid circuit.

Can you check your ball release in test and in game for me, and let me know if you notice a noticeable difference in power from one to the other? I'll do the same for my lock release. This will at least confirm if this problem is related in the circuit.

This issue is killing me, and not playing TZ is making me grumpy!

I haven't because again it clearly fires like a cannon in test, so I assumed it was good. I know I know, assume assume, but I thought that was a good assumption. I should I guess measure this in play though, and in test, and see if for some reason there is a drop.

So, I finally figured this out, well sort of. Again, I had previously rebuilt the entire mech and cleaned it completely a couple years ago, maybe less. It still moved insanely easy and freely, so I never looked at it again. Again, it fired balls out with vengeance in the solenoid test, so assumed it was elsewhere.

I had some time to look at this again yesterday, so I examined with the PF pulled forward. I noticed that the old style ball release half circular plunger arm has to somewhat travel up towards the PF (away from the front of the machine so to speak), as there is a switch for the 1st trough spot right there. Still, it appeared that maybe this arm over time from hitting the balls, had bent slightly towards the PF, and was striking the ball to release it quite a bit behind the ball. I bent this slightly more in so it was straight, but not too much, as I didn't want to have it rubbing against the switch. This was enough to send it out as good as any other game now.

So, just posting this in case anyone else has a similar issue. I'm still surprised this was not electronic in nature, as the power it came out in test was almost too powerful, but I'm guessing as someone else noted with the coil timings being different for gameplay as opposed with test fires, this is why - at least I hope

But I now have my TZ back to fully working, which is a big deal.