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Twilight Zone Main Left Flipper - Shooting Left Ramp

DRD

DRD

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1 10 Years
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Oct 26, 2014
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Can I ask TZ owners what shots their main left flipper can make.

With a stationary ball held on the flipper, mine can make the left and right ramps. Is this normal ? Or are yours set so you can only manage the right ramp only from a stationary ball. When the ball is moving down the inlane it also has the power to shoot both ramps

The reason for asking is that I am considering altering the eos switch to slightly weaken my left flipper. It has the correct coil in it

All TZ suffer from shots bouncing out of the lock, a weaker flipper would reduce this. My left flipper shoots the power ball so quickly that it is not always diverted into the gum ball as the top diverter is too slow to react

I have cleaned optos, the diverter mechanism, switched diverter coils etc. but the power ball speed is ruining the game for me. It is hard enough to hit the right loop with the power ball as it is, without needing to hit it more than once. I would estimate that one in three of my power ball loops is too fast to get diverted into the gumball
 
I can make both shots the same as you but never had an issue with the gumball diverter you have described, is the action of the diverter smooth ? Have you cleaned it and checked the plunger/sleeve etc ? It could be the linkages of the diverter are they all gummed up with grease ?
 
Hi. My diverter seems ok. I stripped it down. Cleaned with isopropyl alcohol. Polished the plunger with brasso, then cleaned with isopropyl alcohol, replaced the coil sleeve. All the stuff I do with my flipper assemblies. It makes a very decisive thwack when it is operated by the opto

I even swapped over as much as I could (coil, plunger, links etc) from my addams family ramp diverter as this was always very aggressive and opened with a real thwack. No improvement

It never fails to get the steel balls. But the ceramic seems too fast. So I was wondering about slowing the flipper down. But this will probably cost me the left ramp shot
 
That's strange then, is it set up at the normal pitch ? Ive had my TZ since 2003 and have never seen that happen so im a bit baffled if you are saying the mechs are all moving freely and the optos obviously good as it detects the normal steel balls.

When you unload the balls from the gumball in test mode, and put the powerball 1st in the trough does it miss putting back into the gumball then ?
 
It doesn't miss when sent using the auto fire. But when using the left flipper it really flies round.

My next move is to put some ptfe spray on the plunger. If this fails I will alter the angles of my flippers (a job I absolutely despise doing), but before doing so I just wondered whether it is normal to shoot both ramps from the left flipper

With addams family for instance, according to the papa tutorial, not all games can make the central ramp from the right flipper. I really polished my right flipper mechanism to make this shot consistently on my game
 
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That's very true I cant make the right ramp on my TAF either, I was wondering if its the pivot points on the diverter that are dirty / gummed up not the plunger itself have you checked all of that as well
 
Thanks for your thoughts. Everything is clean. I took the while diverter assembly out and degreased and polished everything.

It annoys me so much that I just let the power all go when ball save is on
 
In fact, as your game hits both ramps, I have just bitten the bullet. I have moved the damned flipper. It is very, very sensitive to position as the right loop is such a wide shot.

Moving the left flipper up by about 3mm at the tip has dramatically slowed this shot down. No probs with the powerball. 3mm is actually too much so I will try intermediate steps as the steel ball now crawls round. but I can see this is the solution.

I will now spend a man year or more trying to get the two flippers level with the correct end shake.

Twilight zone can take a lot of loving sometimes. I can fully understand the enduring appeal of addams family. Addams never messes me about or let's me down. Twilight is a ticking time bomb of problems
 
The left flipper was too low at the tip, moving it up a little towards the backbox dramatically slows the loop shot down

If you want a quick boost to your addams family right flipper - beyond the usual flipper rebuild. A spray of gt85 on the plunger just gives it a bit more oomph. And it evaporates so no grungy residue. Or you could bend the end of stroke so that it only activates deep into the plunger's movement.

After my rebuild it took these two further steps to give my right addams flipper a boost. I am now a whizz on the right flipper and even got to the big bear bonus which us when you get 99 bear kicks.
 
I might give that a go but i don't switch them very often these days too many other activities that my Mrs has involved me in :( I did change the batteries on new years eve though
 
From my experience yesterday, it is all about the flipper location. Flipper too low means a ridiculously fast powerball. Flipper too high means that the steel balls struggle to make it to the diverter. And this difference might just be 5mm at the tip. It is not just the speed they leave the flipper, but also the angle.

On my game altering the flipper angle means that the ball strikes the side of the loop a little way In and this takes pace of it, so both steel and ceramic balls then pass round quite happily. Before I messed yesterday it shot up super cleanly and too fast for the opto and diverter combo to do the job with the powerball

All fixed

I had similar issues with the auto ball shooter. The 2 flaps push it right. If too far right it hits the metal post with a small rubber on it. but the end of the curved raised ramp where the ball falls to the playfield pushes it left. A few shots were spoiling where the lock ejects. But considerable patience and a bit of ramp bending, ball shooter bending etc means it is a clean shot now for me

My clock had overheated in a previous life. So the clock required a full gear rebuild and the insertion of a washer to sort it. It is much quieter now and both hands never fail to pass through the optos on my rottendog led board

It is just tz. Once tuned I suspect I will get 10 years or more before I need to do any of these nasty little jobs again.
 
I know the holes through the playfield are one guide. But on my TZ if you followed this, the flippers would be at different angles as my holes are not drilled symmetrically. I asked a while ago about this and folk said that their flippers were set symmetrically.

I also know that many folk run a straight line down the track that the ball runs as their guide.

My other three games have never given me any trouble like this. I am used to setting flippers, I have an end shake gauge, have fiddled with the eos switches etc. my addams works beautifully and scores the main ramp with the right flipper with ease

But on my tz, it needed a trial and error. And the presence of two balls of different weights made the final adjustment on my machine very sensitive
 
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