I recently purchased an X-Men Pro with the captive ball mod in place of the Wolverine bash toy. I was able to use the original Wolverine and modify it to fit the captive ball mod so I have the best of both worlds; the improved play with the mod and the original toy. The left winglet on his mask barely touches the glass when installed. It is reversible to either the bash toy or the captive ball mod if desired. I do have add'l pics of how I did the changeover if interested.

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Here are the steps I took to add the original Wolverine toy to the captive ball mod:

1) Take out the two screws on the back of the Wolverine toy and remove the original hardware.

2) If your captive ball mod is installed, remove the top cover and the four posts. Leave the bash-ball installed along with the base and the switch under the playfield. If you are installing the mod, just install the base and switch under the playfield and the bash-ball.

3) On the bottom side of the toy, place a mark at the center of the belt buckle and another at the center of the back (the groove where you removed the hardware). This is the centerline of the captive ball travel and will center the bash-ball under the belt buckle.

4) Using the top of the mod as a template, mark its centerline and then mark the locations for the four corner holes to be drilled in the bottom of the toy. Note that they are marked as far back as possible on the toy to allow it to clear the pop bumper behind it once mounted. Use a 1/8" drill bit to drill the holes.

5) From the inside of the toy, install four 2 1/2 inch #6 machine screws. You'll need to use a needle-nose pliers to do the job. Install a #6 washer on each one before insertion. One of them is too tight of a fit to use the washer (I can't remember which one).

6) Once the screws are sticking out of the toy, place a washer and nut on each one. Tighten them very snugly, then add a 3/4 inch #6 coupler and tighten it against the nut. I purchased the couplers from Ace Hardware. They are round and are a perfect size for the rubber posts to be installed. Cut four pieces of post rubber to 3/4 inch and place them over the couplers.

7) It is necessary to remove a little material from underneath each side of the toy to allow it to clear balls during game play. I did that with a sanding drum on a dremmel tool. I painted it black when done. You might have to mount the toy (step 9) a few times to get the right amount removed.

Put the captive ball in the ball grove.

9) Now mount the toy on the playfield. I placed three #6 washers on each of the front holes (near the bash-ball) and two washers on each of the rear holes. That gave me the necessary fit for the toy over the bash-ball and leaned it back slightly so it barely cleared the playfield glass. You'll have to experiment a little to get the exact fit.

10) Mount the toy. Note that the #6 screws will go through the base installed underneath the playfield since its holes are threaded, #8 holes. No modification is necessary. Place a washer and a nylok nut on each of the screws. Done!

NOTE: The pictures aren't in order. Sorry!

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I was checking out the backbox speakers on my X-Men Pro and was a little surprised to see that there are two 4", 8 ohm speakers wired in series for a total impedance of 16 ohms. Is that right?

The speakers are definitely wired in series (8 ohms + 8 ohms = 16 ohms) with a non-polarized capacitor wired in-line that acts as a filter. I believe the cap clips the low sounds so you only get mid-range and high sounds through the backbox speakers. To get the full range of sound from them, remove or short the capacitor. I don't know if that will help balance your sound or not.

I replaced the backbox speakers with 4" coax speakers (4 ohms each) wired in series and I left out the filter capacitor. I replaced the cabinet speaker with an 8" woofer wired with a 120 Hz low-pass crossover (the crossover clips the high and mid sounds and only lets through the wumpa-wumpa sounds). The sound is much better and the machine rumbles with bass; actually a little too much. I now need to install an L-pad to adjust the bass so that it is more in balance and doesn't rattle the china.

Here is a post regarding bypassing the filter cap in the backbox:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-speaker-upgrade-diy-question#post-1827873

You could use a wire and two alligator clips to short the cap temporarily to see if you like the sound better with full range rather than having the low sounds clipped. ChoppaCade just twisted the cap to accomplish the same thing.

Are the Flipper Fidelity backbox speakers 4 ohm or 8 ohm? Do they recommend wiring them in series or in parallel?