After playing for couple month on my hew Pre, I decided to replace the stock balls with high polish balls from Titan. They seem extremely faster. The tree ramp shot, if not directly hit, causes the ball to run right upand off the edge of the ramp onto the playfield, and the release from control room runs sdtm! Anyone else see these issues?

I inadvertently scratched my art blade at some point. I thought it was only fitting to add a raptor claw fossil to tell the full story!

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If you want to tighten up the Nedry outlane drain, do NOT try to ‘tap’ that post out, like some above have suggested. It’s threaded and yes, it’s a little tight to get to, but doable. You don’t need to disassemble the entire helicopter plastic to do it, just enough so you create enough slack to get your deep socket onto the post.

I removed the nut securing the right habit trail over the right in-lane and a screw (secures a switch) about midway up that habit trail. And then I loosened (or removed) three more nuts/screw securing the helicopter plastic.

Now, before you go cranking on it, remove the nut/washer underneath the playfield which secures the post from the bottom! With a deep socket, that post threads out quite easily from the top.

I changed out my flat helicopter plastic for a matchbox helicopter today. It was way more work than I expected. The matchbox is a little too tall, so it required me to put the helipad plastic under the flipper bushing that is used for the helicopter blades and I had to sand a little off the bottom of the flipper bushing. Also, the ramp switch is a tight squeeze. Nevertheless, I think it looks better than the flat plastic that was there.

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Can anyone that has bought multiple new games from Stern shed any light on how their announcement of Teenage Mutant Turtles could affect production of backlogged orders of JP, etc?

I've had a JP Premium on order for over a month now but the line has been closed due to Covid. Should I be concerned they are going to reopen and now prioritize new orders of TMT from their "loyalty" program customers over existing orders from first timers like me?

Thinking about picking up an PREM now that it seems that Stern is going to start up the lines again. Other than the T-Rex, what other problems or issues have there been concerning build and quality? Has the pooling under posts been resolved? Any other problems that NIB machines I should be concerned with?

You can't buy an LE. There were only 500 made and they sold out long ago. Premium imwould be your best NIB choice.

Brain fart. Yes, it would be a premium. Same questions would still apply.

Nothing major now that the risk of playfield clearcoat issues seem to be behind us. Happy to help you out once you snag one if things need to be tweaked. I'd suggest ordering some new coil stops as the Stern ones don't seem to last long but that's a problem across the board and not specific to the premium

T-Rex Issues Resolved and Preventative Measures

So I read through the posts after my initial post regarding the problem with the T-Rex not starting events properly, namely would not release the ball during T-Rex Multiball. Since that time I opened a ticket with Stern and spent a LOT of time trouble shooting. I have taken that poor dino apart more time than I would care to admit, and I learned a lot about how it works. I thought I would pass along the biggest lessons in case anyone else is having similar issues or you want to do some preventative measures to keep this from happening.

Cause of the problem:

Jaw Optos not registering. You can check in switch test by sticking your finger in the T-Rex Mouth - if you don't see it register things will get more intimate between you and your Rex, FYI.

For me, this problem was caused by two things. And those, in my opinion were a result of fatigue caused by the movement of the T-Rex during play.

1. There was a broken solder point on the lower jaw opto positive that broke due to fatigue. Stern had sent me new optos to try and I actually missed this break during that swap. It wasn't until I went back through my photos I noticed it.

2.The ground wire for the top opto had a break in it. The wires for both optos are shrink tubed, run down the "neck," and are zip tied in place. Once I had replaced and repined that wire into the molex connector everything worked and the optos registered on the switch test.

Preventative Measures:

1. For the ground wire I added a double layer of heat shrink to that whole bundle of wires running down the neck. I also did not zip tie then down as tightly as they can go to keep them from pinching the wires and breaking one of them again. Tight enough to keep them in place, just not torqued down.

2. I added two zip ties and shrink tube to the lower opto wires to help create a flex point in the wire itself and not on the solder points of the opto board. This will probably be controversial as one of them runs under the opto board itself, but I think this will be a huge improvement.

3. The two connectors for the optos that come up from under the playfield are shorter than the other wires - the ones that connect power to the motors). I added about 8 inches of wires for each of these to give a little more slack to the movement. This should prevent causing a fatigue malfunction under the playfield now that I have prevented them in the T-Rex itself - the fatigue malfunctions may have been a result of these being too short in the first place. This one requires more shrink tube, soldering, and repining all the wires to the connectors.

I hope this is helpful. I love this title and it was a bummer not having the T-Rex working. My wife and I just put a couple hours on it yesterday and everything seemed to be working great!

Great post - thanks for sharing your experience and fix. There's been a few people post about there T-Rex not releasing the ball, so this is really good know.

Hye everyone, I have a really strange issue that I'm hoping someone can see if they can replicate. I was having issues with my Trex and it turned out there was a loose wire. Long story short when the Trex was put back together node 9 wouldn't work with all the plugs reconnected. The node works fine when the 2 pin connector below is disconnected which makes me think there is a fault.

The strange thing is, with the 2 pin disconnected, everything appears to be playing normally and I can't figure out what it does. Everything in the Trex functions correctly as far as I can tell; horizontal and vertical motors, jaw coil, magnet coil, jaw opto.

Can anyone tell me what this 2 pin is for?

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Those 2 wires are still shorting out. We had the same issue, the wires were worn through and touching the metal in TRexs head.

I am fairly sure they are for the opto is the T Rex's mouth.

Having a load of issues with this T-Rex! Posted in the other JP group, but figured Prem/LE owners might be able to help out.

Took some slow-mo vids of me taking shots at the T-Rex.

I've also noticed I've been getting a surprising amount of failed shots to the ramp when the T-Rex head it out of the way. Seems to either rattle at the opening, and not make it all the way up and roll back down for a guaranteed SDTM.

I have my game set at 6.5 degrees, and I've also replaced my coil stops. I also have the ramp opto fix from Stern installed.

Not sure what else to do here.

From the video it looks like the head is not centered on the ramp. The ball seems to strike the right side of the head and rattle, loosing momentum or jumping up and hitting the roof of the mouth. The head also seems loose as it moves a lot when the ball strikes it. As for the ramp entrance rattle, those seem to be just missed ramp shots.

Not a huge deal and I know page 5 of the manual recommends 6.5°, but consensus is the optimum gameplay pitch is ideal at 7°. Just an FYI.

You guys cranking legs all the way up to get 7? I've got the levellers more than half way put to get 6.5.

My front legs are almost all the way down, so pretty much all my pitch is from jacking the rear levelers up.

My front legs are down completely, and the rear is 60% up and it's at 6.5-6.6.

Jacked up in the rear to 7.0, butter shots everywhere and every lane

I saw this tonight. Hmmm. I love toppers, but $600?? Ouch.
Sounds like an unlocked special mode only for topper owners. Haven’t heard of this before. That’s NOT gonna go over well with the pinball crowd.

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Absolutely not! Worse than selling ST without UV KIT... What’s this? We got an LE and need to pay MORE money to get an extra mode?? Unbelievable! Maybe trying to make up for the lack of appeal on the topper!

I think people are more mad about the unlocked mode in the code. Anyone can build a topper.

In the other JP thread this was mentioned and likely why pinbrowser has been blocked.

Exactly. Stern is clearly planning on going all in on DLC. Imagine if the TMNT topper unlocks the original series theme song that so many people are complaining about. Locking out Pinball Browser is also locking out the potential ability to enable DLC features.

This is a terrible trend and I hope nobody buys one of these toppers.

What is the source for your information that they are "clearly planning on going all in on DLC"?

Except the JJP LE toppers are terrible. At LEAST they are included with the pin

I’m very lucky I got a limited edition Tilt Topper which looks awesome.
I agree that all LE’s should have come with it. But if not, at least make the “full” code available some how to us without the topper?

It looks like you still have the black spacers in under the ramp cover, i noticed less rejects on my game once i took them out

I’m in!

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JP2 has been on the line this week.

In the lowest vertical position should the head of the T-Rex sort of sit between the sides of the ramp so that it cannot freely move left and right without hitting the ramp?

Also, should the assembly in the back rock back and forth this much?

One more issue to tackle as well. The truck doesn't spin unless it's a perfectly placed shot to the button of the stationary ball.

I remember I used to get it spinning from upper flipper shots, but now they barely budge it.

Anyone have this happen and know of a fix?

Really?? I was struggling to believe Stern would sell a single unit, but you've proved me wrong. Hope it puts a smile on your face.

Stern can suck my nut for $600 on a topper.

Another $tern cash grab..

Ok, JP Tilt Toppers sold out. Not remaking it.

edit/nevermind

Yeah, that's rough. 20 bucks says the additional downloaded software is a special multi ball...nothing flattering.....

You light letters as you capture dinos, progress carries over between games. Spell out Jurassic Park and you get a goat frenzy mode.

Exact same issue with mine. Wrote detailed fix on my blog here ...
BTW, easy 30 minute fix once you know what the issue is

https://thepinballloft.com/2020/03/27/the-park-is-closed/

Nice write-up. Should be a ‘key post.’

Greatings JP owners!

Need and advice, planning to buy a JP but can't decide between premium or LE.
Can't find the differences and don't know if it worth the extra cash for a LE.

Will appreciate any feedback!! Thank you