A little dive bar/ pizza joint sits about a mile from my hotel. My keen eye sees The Shadow against the back wall with about a dozen cases of empty beer bottles stacked on top and below it. I look for the owner to see if he wants to sell it (it would look great in my hotel room, yes?).

Owner's Son: Yeah, it's been broke about 5 years.
Vid: Want to sell it?
O: HA! Everybody want's to buy it! It's worth a lot of money, everyone knows that.
V: Sure, if it works.
O: I had the guy who does our games (2 crane games, dart board, jukebox) try to fix it. He says it's too old. Another guy, a professional, worked on it and he said it needs some new computer boards and a brain.
V: A brain, eh?
O: New brain, yes.
V: Well, if you don't want to sell it, do you want to pay me to fix it?
O: What can you do if no one else can ?
V: It's what I do.
O: What if you can't?
V: Then you don't have to pay me a penny. What do you have to lose?

I tell him to find the keys, a grounded outlet, extension cord, I only take cash - so have some on hand and I'll be back in 2 days in the afternoon when the bar is not so crowded ....

So when I get back to the bar they have the keys, and extension cord, but no one has cleared off the game.

The ground pin has been cut from the game, so I replace the cord.

None of the nearby outlets show a functioning ground with my little tester plug. I get a GFCI extension cord from my van.

Batteries are dated 2005, starting to leak - I remove them.

I do a quick fuse run through and power up the game.

Game actually comes up. Has a bunch of errors, says balls missing.

One ball is BEHIND the Sanctum target. The target is about 1/2 way down. All of the plastics are broken in this area, so I suspect a chunk is wedged in. No easy luck though, the target falls each time to varying heights, but never completely.

I stuff a rag in both ends of the ball trough to keep the balls from falling out and lift the playfield.

It looks confusing with a bunch of screws and bolts, but only four 1/4" hex screws hold the target assembly in.

1.jpg

After removing the 4 hex screws, there is just the Switch Molex plug and the Solenoid Molex plug to disconnect; then the whole assembly comes out.

Much easier to service this assembly on the table, rather than in a nest of wires at the bottom of the cab.

My second educated guess to the problem was that the Reset Solenoid was bound up, keeping the plunger from falling all the way down. Oftentimes the sleeve will need to be replaced. This guess was also incorrect, the plunger was loose and moved freely.

ASSEMBLY.jpg

Next on the likely list was the Retraction Spring.

This looked good. Evenly sprung, no kinks or gaps in the windings. Tension was good.

The Switch plate was loose, but that was not our problem, as even when I pushed it all the way back, the dropping motion was still hanging up.

Side Note: The Target Depth Adjustment Screw is at the end of the assembly. You adjust this to make sure the top of the drop target is flush with the playfield when the target is retracted.

SPRING.jpg

The target itself looked uncracked, so finally there was noting left to do but take it completely off.

First you remove the spring so it does not flip up in your face.

UNHOOK-SPRING.jpg

Next, using an Awl, remove the E-Clip from the Retention Stud.

E-CLIP.jpg

Next remove the brass washer.

Washers like these are punched from a sheet of brass, leaving one side sharp. The sharp side faces up (faces the E-Clip) upon reassembly.

BRASS-WASHER.jpg

Finally, remove the #2 screw on the Nylon Guide and the target comes free.

The face of the Drop Plunger pin was nice and smooth, so the problem had to be the Nylon Guide.

The Guide was not cracked, but the target was not smoothly running through it.

After checking more closely, I found the problem.

TARGET-GUIDE.jpg

Wedged inside the Nylon Guide was a strand of steel wire.

Don't know where it came from, but it was the last thing I expected, lol.

PROBLEM.jpg

Before reassembly, I gave a coat of Blitz wax to the Bracket, the target and of course the playfield.

The wax won't attract dirt or dust and makes the target slide like a dream.

I don't want any return services calls on this thing.

BRACKET-BODY.jpg

After reassembling the target, adjust the switch plate.

It was totally loose when I pulled it out from under the playfield, so somebody was messing with it at some point (probably the Crane Guy).

Using a #3 Philips screwdriver, tighten the plate down with the Rightmost screw in the picture maybe 1mm further away from the Target than the left.

This will keep the Target from binding on the edge of the switch leaf.

Test the drop action several times by pressing the Drop Plunger with your finger.

Take your time and get it right.

BIND-POINT.jpg

I re-rubbered the game as all the rubbers had turned to chalk and crumbled. The Owner's Son said it was dead for 5 years, but I might guess 10.

I set the outlanes as closed as they would go and put some Super-bands on the flippers to give the players a fighting chance on the hardest game of the 1990s. The only pin in the joint and it's the one with 30 second average ball times, lol.

The Owner's Son was impressed with the game, so he even sprung for a flipper rebuild, new plastics and some LEDs. I will install them in the next week or so.

super bands.jpg

The sanctum opto switch?

Did someone mess with the magnet coil under the playfield? It might be backed out a little too far so it can't "release then throw" the ball.

There is probably also a pre-driver transistor, so I would replace that along with the TIP102 - it was likely stressed too and could be locked on, or ready to fail.

As soon as you power on, see if the drop solenoid locks on - be ready to instantly kill power.

That's nice, lol.

I look around inside and could not even find the old brain.

All the boards and CPU were fine.

There were some optos that needed reflowing, battlefield needed tweaking, bulbs out, but nothing out of the ordinary.

If he wanted to get rid of me, he should have stopped lubing me up with Whiskey Sours all afternoon.

Look at the switch at the bottom of the wall target.

If the game does not think the wall target has fallen, it will not sling the ball upwards.

Could be switch, could be wiring, could be diode.