Help please; Snake kickout problem on Metallica Premium

[Den - aka Wolfgang]

Good day to you all...
So I finally bagged myself a Met Prem
It has a few issues though, the biggest being the kickout from the snake, which when it kicks out/ejects, the ball is catching slight on thr hammer, resulting in either a weak left flipper hit (rather than a nice clean hit with a bounce), a hammer to SDTM, or a weak hit to the right flipper - bloody annoying!
The fact the ball is making contact with the hammer suggests the ball is being launched in to the air, however I haven't managed to find out how to remedy this?
On pinside I've seen posts about adjusting the jaw and stuff, but nothing relating to my problem?
The jaw seems low enough when down; receives balls well (oooh err...) and when up, the jaw switch is registering. Does its job during add-a-ball and stopps more balls getting in.
I'll post a vid so it can be slowed down when I get the chance, but any ideas?

I'm also having an issue where the coffin magnet doesn't seem to grab balls unless they are floating over it, but I have a few things to try there (haven't checked which magnet board I have yet, but likely a rev D, as machine was made in 2016 with metal grill/backbox)

 

[Andydn]

I’d try adjusting the angle that the solenoid strikes the ball from. Slight adjustment can make quite a difference (I had a similar issue when I had AFM and fixed it this way)
Also check the hammer is sitting at the correct height (just incase it’s a little low )

 

[Pooman2084]

That snake is a real bugger to adjust. IIRC I put shims under some of the snake mounting screws to get it to reliably return to the left flipper.

The hammer magnet isn’t 100% but it should pretty much always lock when you hit the metal box dead on. I had a cliffy round mine and it would make the ball leave the playfield when it got worn. Only a few mil but enough for the magnet not to take. Make sure it is nice and level against the playfield.

 

[Itch]

Does the hammer look a bit low?

 

[Den - aka Wolfgang]

Does the hammer look a bit low?

Nah, I don't think so - looks like it's the furthest up it can go, but will look in to further when I get the chance. I think the snake is juat launching the ball too high.

Side note; checked which coffin magnet board I have and it's the rev C, so might order a Rev D. Magnet looks pretty level with the PF.

 

[Itch]

Nah, I don't think so - looks like it's the furthest up it can go, but will look in to further when I get the chance. I think the snake is juat launching the ball too high.

Side note; checked which coffin magnet board I have and it's the rev C, so might order a Rev D. Magnet looks pretty level with the PF.

Can you change the amount of power going to the magnet in the menu,

 

[Pooman2084]

Can you change the amount of power going to the magnet in the menu,

I don’t think so.

Adjusting the snake’s mouth will sort the odd rejects. It’s a lot of trial and error but the manual shows which bits to turn.

 

[Pick Holder]

I wouldnt go ordering different boards - they are unlikely to be much difference.

Also on Stern machines I would start with a factory reset. Change coil sleeves too.

 

[Pick Holder]

Is the code up to date?

 

[Den - aka Wolfgang]

When it arrived it was on older code (suggesting it hadn't really been played in dome years) and so I updated to 1.80, installed colour dmd and also updated that to latest colour rom.
Did a factory reset too.

Re; Snake I think I'll download the manual when I'm back to see what I can adjust.

Away in Amsterdam at the mo' - first Metallica night was great; they started with Orion! ; wasn't expecting that. Also, I predicted correctly that they'd play King Nothing on King's day

 

[Den - aka Wolfgang]

So...back from Amsterdam; had a blast (so much so that during the 2nd Met gig I was falling asleep in my seat... annoying..- had been drinking Grolsch and playing pool all day)

Going to hopefully have time tonight to clean/wax the PF and level the game properly tonight - wondering (perhaps Naively - steeper/less steeper would mean ball rolling over the magnet faster/slower after a captive/block hit- more likely to grab ball?) if the leveling might help with both the Coffin Magnet and *Snake eject issues (game is currently setup a hair over 6.5 degrees I think).
In test, ball is grabbed by the magnet if not rolled over too fast.
I note in the 1.80 code there are some settings related to that magnet; one being I believe how many switch hits after the captive shot are allowed before the magnet disables (default is 1, to allow a grab following a glanced snake hit - this is when the magnet does grab most of the time). There's also a setting to do will milliseconds or something, so wondering if that's how long the magnet stays activated following a captive/block hit? (this increasing this setting might increase the chances of a ball grab?)
Back when I had a PRO, shots to the left orbit would bounce off of the pop-up post and roll back down most of the time unless I had the levelled nicely, which is what I'm also experiencing now, so that'll make me happy once that's resolved (don't think I need to replace with the metal post or anything - that'd be drastic)

*Snake eject; as a bit of a test, I put a bit of tape on the top inside part of the Snake's mouth; this seemed to help in keeping the ball down and not hitting the Hammer- might be a temporary fix with some more experimenting, but ultimately will need to pull the mech and try and adjust the angle the ball is being hit to launch out.

Have to say though, despite the issues I currently have, I can still have great games on the machine - will be that much better of course once issues are sorted (snake being the main game affecting issue)

 

[Andydn]

‘shots to the left orbit would bounce off of the pop-up post and roll back down most of the time unless I had the levelled nicely, which is what I'm also experiencing now, so that'll make me happy once that's resolved (don't think I need to replace with the metal post or anything - that'd be drastic)’

No drastic at all - it’s the permanent fix for that issue, takes 5 mins to change and never bounces back, not once

 

[Den - aka Wolfgang]

‘shots to the left orbit would bounce off of the pop-up post and roll back down most of the time unless I had the levelled nicely, which is what I'm also experiencing now, so that'll make me happy once that's resolved (don't think I need to replace with the metal post or anything - that'd be drastic)’

No drastic at all - it’s the permanent fix for that issue, takes 5 mins to change and never bounces back, not once

Thanks mate - I'll prob look it up and order a post - just want to see if leveling sorts it out first as it did with my Pro.