I've been trying to track down a problem with my Whirlwind. Fuse 4 is blowing in the Aux Power board. A/C relay C side is stuck on when I do the switch test. I noticed that R3 on the interconnect board came desoldered. Can anyone tell me if these things might all be related? Hoping maybe if I re-solder R3 that might fix my problems but I don't know. Been trying to trace things out on the drawings but they are confusing me.

-Thomas

When I replace the fuse and turn the machine on, the coil for the locked balls fires and stays on. That much I do know. I'm not sure about any others. I've checked it to see if it's bound up but it does move freely with power off. I've also checked the other coils and they seem to move freely just fine. I can't really see the lugs and wires for the lock lane coil since it is covered up. So I'm guessing I should take the black plastic cover off to get to it so I can visually inspect it. Is that true? I did inspect all three of the switches that are in the lock lane and I don't see anything visually concerning (loose wire, bad joint, etc.,).

I do have a DMM which helped me find the bad fuse. I'm not entirely sure on how to check a transistor or coil with DMM but maybe you can point me somewhere I can learn.

On power up I also hear the AC relay clicking on and off over and over.

Ok, I visually inspected the lock lane shooter coil and didn't see any loose wires there.

As a side note, if I start a game once fuse 4 has blown, the ball ejector doesn't give me a ball.

Great. Thanks, Chris. I'll give it a look and see what I come up with. Thanks so much.

Ah! Ok. So I should see a large resistance if transistor is good and short if bad. I'll try this because my cheapo DMM doesn't have a diode test which is what I need to see the voltage drop across the collector and emmitor I'm assuming.

I will take a look tonight and see what happens. Thanks, Chris!!!

Tonight I tested Q24 by putting my meter in continuity test. I placed the positive lead on the metal tab and the negative lead to ground (I tried several spots for ground just to make sure I had a good spot). I would get a numerical reading of like 850-1300 but no beep. I made sure my meter was working by touching the leads together. I went ahead and tested all the transistors that were right there together just to see if any of them read any differently. They all read the same and no beep. I'm not sure if I'm relieved or more frustrated. Does this definitely mean Q24 is ok or do I need to test the legs for the voltage drop to be sure? What do you think my next step should be?

Ok rigorous test complete. I got .6 and .5 on the outer legs and zero in the middle.

Nope. Been thinking about picking one up. I think I saw one at Radio Shack the other day. Would that help with the next step?

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Well, looky here. What's this wire doing?? I just lifted up my play field to start looking again for more loose connections and I saw this laying in the bottom of my cabinet under the play field. Looks like a ground wire that is running along the very back of the cabinet. Maybe just maybe this is my problem?? Chris, do you have any idea where this is supposed to go? I can take more pictures if needed.

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Well maybe I just answered my own question. It's got to go on this ground terminal, right?? If that's true, how do I reattach it? And ultimately do you think this might be my whole problem?

So I guess should I reattach that, put a new fuse in and see what happens? Or continue looking for other problems first? You mentioned a logic probe. Should that be my next investment?

Thanks so much for the help. This is all new to me so I just want to make sure I don't do anything ridiculously dumb. I really appreciate the advise.

Looks like I've got some reading to do. Thanks, Chris. Hopefully I can figure this out, but I may end up having to call in some backup.

I read somewhere that Q8 on the aux power board is in charge of the coils. I tested the legs on that transistor and i read something like .2-.3. It does not short to ground but I thought all transistors are suppose to read .5-.6. Is this a possible problem?

Hmm. Ok. Well if I do a switch test after the fuse has blown it says ac relay c side is stuck on and I can hear the ac relay cycling on and off. In fact as soon as i turn the game on with a good fuse i hear the ac relay cycling on and off. So I'm not sure what that means. I guess that's why I thought maybe the problems were related. Sounds like maybe I have more than one problem going on.

I noticed in the manual that Solenoid 13, 14,18, and 20 all go to fuse 4. So is it possible that one of these could be the culprit for blowing the fuse? Maybe one of those is stuck on at the start of the game? Those solenoids go to the ramp diverter, cellar kickback, left and right kicker (slingshot). I haven't noticed those firing at startup but then again I probably wouldn't since they wouldn't be blatantly obvious. Anyways, just wanted to see what you think. I'm not sure how I would check these at startup but maybe I can look and see if they have any shorted transistors or diodes.

Ok I'll have to try and see if I can see anything happening. Going to be out of town for a bit so I'll report back soon.

Ok, I replaced the fuse, turned on the game and just watched as close as possible. The two things I saw was the lock lane kicker immediately fired and then acted like it was still trying to fire over and over again even though it was already out. And the other thing I saw was that the AC relay is clicking on and off. The fuse blew after the lock lane kicker fired a few times, then it sounded like it fired one last time and stayed on then bam. The fuse was toast.

Is the AC relay soldered to the board or can you just unplug it and plug a new one in? I can't tell without taking the board out. I'm assuming it's soldered.

Yay for me. Well I still don't really know if the relay is the problem I just thought if it was in a socket it'd be super easy to replace, but alas. So stumped on this thing since I can't find a bad transistor, can't find any loose wires, the coil measures 4ohms or more and the only thing I see happening is the lock lane kicker firing over and over and the AC relay clicking over and over. Ugh.

Well I finally got someone to come help me out on this thing. It was the relay. It was firing but not making good contact. So it was sticking on. We fixed that and the problem seems to have been eliminated. Thanks again for all the help!!!