Left VUK (or Shire) switch has issues

Noticed a few times the VUK switch was slow, waited for a ball search in multiball to kick out of Shire. Wife played it and complained about it too, she's a better game tester than me. Less forgiving if it goes wrong. Sure enough, I watched her get 3 balls all stacked up in the Left VUK until a ball search.

Switch wasn't sensed at all in the diag switch test, even though I could hear it click. Took apart game to get at switch, which is not fun. You have to drop the VUK mech to get at it. The switch wasn't working on "N.O. and press to close". But it was working on the "N.C. and press to open" side. Strange. After messing with it on a DMM set to buzzer, it started working again as it should. Put it back on the switch matrix and it was fine. Put it all back together and it works. Have ordered "2 x 180-5116-01 Stern Fork Switch VUK" from P4P*. I pay GBP £5.40 a switch in the EU, so double the USD $4 that Pinball Life charges. I need to have a replacement, as this switch will get flaky again at some point.

Tweaked the sword ball lock mod I made on 10 Mar 2010. The 2nd locked ball was resting on the wireform and not rolling down the sword correctly when released.

Drilled another hole about 1" further down from the top of the lock shield for the wireform to go in. The idea is that the wireform sits on the lock shield closer to the right angle turn.
The hole is around 3/16" from the edge, a bit closer than the original mounting holes. This gives the balls more clearance and moves the guide up the sword.
Rounded off the edges on the base at the top. It's still held by the wireform and double sided tape, but now more from the middle. This seems to work as expected. Update: This extra original ball guide was removed on April 5th.   It works fine with one when set up correctly.


Put the correct swords on the figures, and posed them. Noticed that the example slideshow quoted in 11 Mar 2010 has the Merry and Pippin facing the other way.

On my game they have their backs to the inlanes. My wife thinks I'm like the "40 year old Virgin" will the AOME collection action figures!