Maybe we can help each other got same problem with mine blowing fuse #5. Mine had a wire from the ball launch coil shorting out to the flipper button. fixed wire and put in new coil but still blowing. fuse. If i disconnect ball launch coil and one other coil that has same color wire to it, it does not blow fuse.

This does not have anything hooked to mine either.

Not sure from that picture, of the red and white wrie. Can you take one with playfield up. I believe that wire goes to the ball trough switch.

Mine does not have that red ground wire.

The empty connector in the bottom of the cabinet is probably not used.

Take the fuse out and verify it is the correct type and amperage. There should be a fuse diagram in the manual or even stapled inside the cabinet somewhere.

I would avoid connecting wires if you aren't absolutely sure where they go. If you smoked a coil, you could also cause other damage to the circuit boards. If a wire is off, it won't cause a fuse to blow. It is more likely that this wire was disconnected deliberately because a previous owner could not find the the fault and gave up.

The picture showing the ground wire confuses me. What wire do you see that is not connected and how do you decide it is a ground wire?

Don't start swapping out parts to troubleshoot. Even if the coil you think is for the knocker is the same as the one you think is bad, you will likely just end up damaging more parts. What "plunger" are you referring to?

Any wires left loose in the cabinet have the potential to short against something and wreak havoc. Always cap off loose wires.

^^^^read the above post like 4 times^^^^ exactly was going to be my response.

I want to try and add to you questions: YOU CAN LOOK IN THE MANUAL TO DETERMINE WHERE THAT WIRE GOES. Look for WH/RED or WHITE/RED in the switch matrix chart in your manual. Most pinball manufacturers use two color wire codes... The wire in your picture is white/red (white being the dominant color, red being the "stripe"). The manual should at least give you a hint as to where it should go... However, it may not be a switch wire, it could go to a coil. Like Pafasa said, make sure you know before you connect it or you are gonna blow stuff up.

If you power a pinball on and a coil locks on on power up, it will fry more stuff. One way to get around this is to CUT one of the leads going to that coil. It should allow you to power up the machine not causing further damage by that particular coil. IF THERE ARE TWO WIRES OF THE SAME COLOR GOING TO SAID COIL, IT WILL BE EASIER TO DESOLDER/CUT THE SINGLE WIRE SIDE.

Before you worry about FIXING anything not working you MUST MUST MUST get the display working (or replaced: looks gased out and unfixable in the pic) and then, familiarize yourself with ALL the tests using the coin door switches. Make sure the AUTO/UP switch on a Data East is in the down position in order to enter TESTS.

YOU WILL NEED A WORKING DISPLAY and working coin door switches TO TROUBLESHOOT AND FIX THIS GAME EFFICIENTLY!

DON'T READ THIS UNTIL YOU KNOW HOW TO USE THE DIAGNOSTIC TESTS.
As a side note, if a coil locks on, it happened because something else failed. 90% of the time, it is a transistor on the driver board in the head of the game. You can determine which transistor drives the coil using the manual.

I agree with this, but if you can't turn the machine on without smoking something, you need to get that figured out first. I would leave the old display in until you stop frying things. Then.......Snyper is right about the DMD. I doubt it is repairable. I would take the used DMD that was offered to you in the other thread and start with that. Once you get the game up and running and decide you want to replace the used one with the line missing, offer that used one back up on the site for someone else to use! Pay It Forward is a big plus in the pinball hobby!

Well yeah, that's why I suggested disconnecting the coil. GERN, if you don't have a multimeter, go buy one and learn how to use it! You will also need a soldering iron and solder if you don't own those items already.

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I would find a paper manual.

go here to download the manual and print it off

http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1433

Gern, looking at mine in daylight now. Everything looks the same as mine. except that white and red wire. No where to be found on mine, i would not hook it to that flipper coil. My flipper coil has the blue and yellow and the orange and purple on the the flipper coil. I wire i though was red and white is actually orange and white, looking at in day light and that goes to switch. Which looks like then same as your picture.

Pic

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No I thought it was white and red. It white and orange on switch looks like you have same white and orange on your switch

Check my lethal weapon there is no white and red wire there.it looks like a add on..you should check out my post on lethal weapon mods..you might get some cool ideas..let me know if you get your knoker working ..this is the only issue with my machine

His display went in the mail today, so hopefully he'll have that by this weekend to help in troubleshooting.

That goes over the shooter lane...There is probably a picture of it on IPDB

Yes, there should be another wire connected to that switch. Maybe the loose White/red wire. I don't know for sure though. Maybe Pinij93 could verify this for you?

Based on this pic and the one of yours, looks like the white/red wire should be attached to the tab coming out of the side of the switch. The non-banded side of the diode is also attached there. This makes sense because the diode blocks current coming towards the wire.

Look at the springs for the flipper return on that IPDB pic. I bet it works "OK" but the left flipper probably feels a bit different than the right because of the different angle of pull from the return spring. Can't imagine that is how the manufacturer intended this to be...

just took a couple of pictures from my lw3.
i bought it 4 weeks ago (as my xmas present) and it had a GI failure & light matrix of the playfield was not working.

I solved the GI problem by installing new connector - old one was burnt. the light matrix was a "hard one". I had a weird reading on my dmm - there was a connection problem with the machine ground on the Power board - so I resoldered the complete Power board. This solved the light matrix problem.
Spent about 10 hours cleaning - BBQ cleaner was the only thing that really worked against nicotine residue - be careful apply and rinse off with clear water right after! Tried plastics (not the ones with prints on the back) in the dishwasher first - didnt work - BBQ cleaner made them look like new!

the pin is working fine now - and tons of fun !

if you need more pics - let me know

Good Luck

Mike

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There are probably one or two transistors up the line from that TIP36. Did those test out ok? If something blew out the TIP36, there is a good chance those "pre-drive" transistors got a hit too.

Glad you are making progress. I don't know your DE board specifically, but In my experience, the tip36 is usually switched by a smaller transistor like a tip102 which in turn is usually switched by a smaller transistor yet. They work to insulate the logic circuits from the high current coils driven by the tip36.

Do you have access to Clay's troubleshooting guides? There is a wealth of useful info there for testing transistors.

The guides were up on his site free years ago. AFAIK, they are no longer available there. They were what I would consider comprehensive Pinball Repair guides. Pinwiki.com is slowly building up its resources. You may find good help there.

Do you have a Manual with board schematics and component ID?

I have all those repair guides and could host them in Dropbox if anyone wants them.

btw: did you find out what the purpose of the coil is that is laying on the floor ?
i have the same one...

Mike

Hi, maybe a little off topic.... but lethal weapon owners could know this:

i am looking for a color "code" for the blue color used on our LW3 machines. my machine has a couple of scratches i would like to touch up.

Any ideas?

thanks in advance !

Mike

perfect.. gern any progres to your transistor change yet? i was lucky.. only had the false ground issue on mine.

heads up !!! you are close to gaming!

It is a part of the knocker assembly. Alltough youre missing the brackets
//mima