Anyone have a spare drop target decal? Had to replace one broken target. Was hoping would find the snapped off target in my friends Cabinet but no luck.

Mike

Very limited availability of LW3 blue lamp topper dome on pinside market place.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1026-pinball-haus/10314-lethal-weapon-3-blue-topper-dome

IMG_20240213_090711 (resized).jpg

Hey all!! Thinking about hoping the club.

How hard is it to add chads roms code update? I’m new to this hobby and this will be my 5th pin but first older one.

Any feedback be great

Just swapping rom chips, but you want to be careful as the leg/pins break easy. Watch a bunch of chip videos and/or get an ok chip puller then install the new ones. Slightly bend the legs in and carefully install making sure new legs are in the hole slots

What Northvibe said. I did the swap, and as long as you are comfortable pulling and plugging in new chips it's super easy, just pop the old ones out and the new ones in. Even if you have never swapped a chip before it's pretty easy, you just have to be careful not to bend the legs.

I find the game much more enjoyable with the Chad roms so I definitely recommend the upgrade. It smooths out so many of the rough edges in the original code and balances some of the scoring issues (eg., just hitting the ramp forever for crazy points). In my opinion it takes it from a good game to a great game.

JUST put our lw3 on route... curious how/if people figure out that for the league and tournaments hahaha

Hello Everyone,
I would like to modify my #LW3 using leds
I have checked in the forum : https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/dataeast-leathal-weapon-3-lw3-lamps-flashers-scheme
Unfortunately, the excel file is no more available.
Could someone share it with me please ?
Thanks in advance
Stéphane

https://1drv.ms/x/s!Akdi4S0NV3OQ23_jJrp5Uw408CO4?e=mfKtWv

I would caution against using LED's for the flashers. I have 5SMD flashers in a DE JP and DE R&B and they are very bright and have no fading effect. Will be pulling out the LED flashers and installing incandecents flashers.

Many Many thanks !!!

Fully agree

I agree as well. Keep flashers incandescent. In home use new incandescent flashers should last practically forever.

The Pinsound Motion Control Shaker Kit is supposedly compatible with LW3. Has anyone tried it? I couldn't find any posts on this.

Funny you should ask.

I just put a Pinsound Stand Alone in a DE R&B. I’t does work and if you don’t like the routine they made you can modify it to whatever you want.

The weights are opposed 180 degrees and you can’t alter that. The shaker effect is only adjusted by the intensity knob.

I think I may be the first to have done it on that title.

Recently picked up Lethal Weapon 3. It came with 3.01 CPU and 3.00 Display. I have noticed that some of the scoring is off, IE when loading the UZI and completing shootout, the display will sometimes show 6m, but only 3m is actually scored. I also had the 2.08 chips and swapped those, but the same oddities remain. So along with this, a couple of questions:
1. Is that disconnect related to the upgraded ROM's?
2. I found a list of what is changed in 3.01, but no luck in finding the same for 2.08, anyone know where I could find that?
3. Curious if anyone that has upgraded still has the original stock ROM chips laying around and willing to part with, I would love to outline all the changes from stock to upgrades in once place.

Finishing a friends LW3. Need to replace the vuk coil. I'm sure Ill regret asking but how does the plastic kicker part remove from the plunger shaft? It looks like it could unscrew but dont want to break it. I see a 3/32 pi a little ways down the shaft I guess I could punch that out and see if that is whats holding it on. Anyone have to replace this coil?

IMG_1258 (resized).jpeg

The rings will slide off. There are three. There is a pin that will slide out, carefull don't drop it.

Not sure I follow the black claws at the top?

got it!

Thx!

Not sure if you already did the upgrade or not, but for the building LEDs I highly recommend the Comet "retro" colored bulbs. If you go back a page you can see my pictures about them. They look so much better than the standard color LEDs with the white bulbs!

Hello just joined the club with a bit of a project.

Unfortunately the lamp wiring (Inside Backbox) is hacked and portions missing.

Hoping someone doesn't mind posting a few detailed photos, I could not find any for this area ? Thank you.

I just fixed a bunch of hacked-up wiring in my backbox where the GI connectors burned up - J5 on the PBB and CN8 on the Power Board. I replaced both headers on the boards and replaced the burned up connectors with new ones, and now the GI and all backbox lights are working. A common hack for these connectors burning up was to solder the wires directly to the back of the board, so check for that. I can post some pictures when I get home.

Thank you.. Mine has been a project and a half, the head was purchased separately. I've got it all together now and playing well.. just have not fixed the backbox lighting wiring yet. Really appreciate the photos, thank you!

Hopefully these are what you wanted to see!

I also made a video walking through my repair of some badly burnt GI connectors if anybody is interested:

IMG_8172 (resized).JPEG

IMG_8173 (resized).JPEG

IMG_8174 (resized).JPEG

IMG_8175 (resized).JPEG

IMG_8176 (resized).JPEG

Thank you for these photos. Perfect.. Probably the only part of the game not already photographed and made available!

As far as I can tell lamps 7 (Fire Uzi) and 27 (2x Hot Pursuit) are actually flashers. In the Flash Lamp and Coil diagram on p. 28 of the manual they appear to be labeled 16, 3R and 8R. However, there is only a partial table corresponding to this figure.

Can someone sort this out for me?

Thanks.

Just wanted to follow up on my old post. I ordered some diodes, ready to dig into my LW3 and get the flipper diode replaced.

Well, when I got in, the diode had broken off (the plastic corner where the coil wire came through, and the diode was soldered to, was broken off, which probably led to the failure over time). I glued the plastic, added a jumper, resoldered the diode, and all is well again!

Now I have a bag of 150 diodes I don't even need one of. =)

I have a LW3 I'm finishing up. I had a great board guy repair the MPU and PBB. I had 2-3 coils that either would not fire or locked on. All fixed now. Even played 10 games or 10 so. Went deliver it. Turned it on and after a few minutes smelled smoke. Culprit was the vuk coil. This usually happens when your a selling a pin

Replaced coil. And pulled Pbb. Put a new 36c tip on Q2. Moment of truth. Game on and it locks on. Turn game off did visual and sent both boards back. Repair guy feels terrible. He had even sent video of game working 100 percent.

Long story short. I’m hoping something obvious and an easy fix. In the mean time he said to just double check under pf wiring, coil lugs etc.

Is there anything that could cause a coil to fire that is not board related? Data East known for coil issues? I’ve already replaced 3. Thx for any help and I’ll update once I hear back.

I recently purchased LW3, everything works great, I've changed a few bulbs and plastic, just tinkering and getting to know the machine. The blue light on top does not work when wired to the machine, it does work when connected to an outlet, would anyone know where to start looking into the issue?

By the blue light, do you mean the blue topper beacon? It only engages at certain points in the game (lethal weapon holes briefly, multiball, ball save etc.), but if you go to diagnostics, (buttons in the coin door), you should be able to advance to coil tests, and it is one of these.. can't recall the name off hand. This is the best way to test the beacon.

Thanks for the info, I'll have to dig into it a little more and maybe trace the wires

Now I did a big oops and blew something on a circuit board. I plugged 2 wires together that should not have been, and I knew better, but too late. I can turn it on and the lights come on like a light test which is what mode it was in when I fried something, the start button does not light up and neither diagnostic buttons work, also the screen does not come on but flickers when I shut it off. I connected a yellow w/ purple stripe to a gray w/ white stripe. Again, I know that was stupid, but too late. The PIA and +5V lights are on and the blank light is off. I will probably take the circuit board to get fixed or just replace it, any thoughts. Also, none of the fuses were blown.

If no fuses are blown you probably blew a transistor, cap, or worst case one of the ICs. If you are not skilled with troubleshooting circuit board repairs, you will probably have to get somebody else to fix it. Thankfully there are lots of people who repair Data East boards.

Has anybody replaced the Playfield Glass Rear Plastic Channel on this or another Data East? I can find ones for Bally/Williams/Stern on some sites, but not sure if they are compatible.

Add the O.E.M. locations for the #545 wedge blinker lamps.
It is very hard to get that documented.

Have you recapped the power supply +5 volts circuitry.

I brought it to a shop , they're about 2-3 weeks out. I know absolutely nothing about circuit boards, so I'd rather just have someone fix it rather than screwing it up worse. Thanks for the input.

Does anybody know where I can currently purchase the airball protector? (Prevention)

Or any other solution?

Thanks!

BobC

There are a few posts in this thread about it, pg 41 has a template you can recreate. See my post below. The deflector you make doesn’t have to be exactly like the template but it helps the game greatly.

0029028F-8E4E-4DFA-B84D-77909E00A1BF (resized).jpeg

1F771837-06C5-4834-9681-30B08AC210EB (resized).jpeg

Cool! Thanks!

I’ll give it a try.

BobC