Greetings all, The last few weeks I have been restoring this recent purchace and now have a semi functioning game. All the play surface mechanical elements have been rebuilt. All score reels, steppers have been de-greased, contacts polished and re-assembled. All the coil plungers cleaned and polished. All switches inspected and cleaned.
In first player mode the game works very well. Game start, ball counter, alternating bonus and bonus counter, score reels and game over. So much fun.

Initiating the second player causes a stepper in the back box to twitch for lack of a better word, it will move forward and backwards over a single contact at a high rate of speed until the power is cut to the machine. Upon restoration of the power, all is quiet again. I believe this was a pre-existing condition before I got my meat hooks into the cadaver. I am saving this issue for later. My wife I worried I am done and will need another machine to amuse myself sooner than later.

In the pictures you can see my backglass is not of the greatest quality. I like to consider it done in the zombie apocalypse motif. <sigh>

I have no experience of this vintage of game other than a Gottlieb Quintette which have never plugged in. There are basically no labels in the machine and the only schematic is from the Quintette. I will order a schematic for the Marathon sooner than later as I decimated my Quintette parts bin.

Question; On the backglass there are the words TWO PLAYER, between the letters are the numbers 1 thru 9. These numbers will light up as there are corresponding bulbs behind them. I cannot make them light up. What do they represent?

Also on the backglass in the name banner it says 2 PLAYER MARATHON. But only the MARATHON is back lit. The 2 PLAYER is translucent but there are no bulb sockets behind them. Is this normal for Gottlieb to do this in this style of game?

In my picture of the coils, If anyone has any idea could you tell me what these two burnt coils do and what size they are?

Seems I forgot the pictures

backlite1 (resized).jpg

backlite2 (resized).jpg

backlite3 (resized).jpg

unfortunately the labels are gone on both relays, nothing left but a little square of dirt. maybe motor start and hold relays, I dunno.

Match lights could be, as the flyer says;

All New Double Number Match Feature:
A Greater Earning Attraction than the Fabulous Jumbo Match and the Jubilee Diamond Match
Both Players Matching Number at the Same Time scores BIG Super Special
Regular Single Number Match Scores Single Special

seems I have my work cut out here to figure this out...

Great idea, I've narrowed it down a bit, I've crossed me and the fella I bought it off the list

tengle93 I found the two prong jones plug on the main board, cleaned and tightened, now showing match numbers on the backglass. Still need to work on the second player issue, I am going to start with switching the wires attached to the coil and then if that doesn't work change the coil and stop from the hundred point reel to the single point reel. It seems the single point coil is getting a electrical pluse but does not move the plunger, the plunger acts as if it is trying to go towards the stop instead of away...polarity issue?

Nope not the coil on the single point second player, with the coil wires removed same condition exists. If I open the NC second player EOS switch the stuck condition ends and 10 point reel moves forward one position....

The twitch issue was a result of a improper long spring in the single player reel, correct length and diameter but wire too thick. Swapped it with the hundreds point reel spring.
Now both single and tens reels move together, the 10 reels is kinda like a echo of the single.

Set the game for 2 players lined up both players scores to match ended the game and BAM! blew the main fuse for the 6v light circuit

tengle93 Does the game only match the single point reels?

fun wow!

Back again, I had to rotate back to the real world of work and family for a few days

The issue of the two reels moving together was totally my own fault I adjusted the switch on the single point reel to ride along the wrong cam. Once I compared the two players single point reels it was easy to see and fix.
The short happens when one of the rotating snowshoe contacts in the continuous stepper touches the top center contact rivet. This rivet seems to not be associated a lighted number (1-9) so therefore i assume the zero light is left of the T in the banner. I covered the rivet with a small piece of electrical tape. No fuse trip. But no power to the zero bulb either and this doesn't really fix anything. Btw I'm using a re-setable 5 amp breaker with a old glass tube fuse soldered to it so i'm not blowing all my fuses.
My process was, I set the game to game over and then manually operated the match point continuous stepper plunger noting which light lit on the backglass. In this scenario when the zero contact was touched the fuse tripped. When this contact rivet was crossed during the gameplay the fuse did not blow. Therefore my fault must be somewhere between the zero bulb socket and the game over relay. tengle93 Could that be the QB relay? None labeled in my machine could you tell me where is yours located?

Well I found it the short was being caused by the zero bulb holder having a wee bit of solder stuck on it. Removed tape covering rivet, no short woohoo. The spring was replaced in hundreds player reel.
Play field in place, back box secured, glass cleaned and inserted. selected two player, played multiple games wow everything works!
Selected one player game played ball, drained ball nothing happened....whaaaaat?
Single player worked fine before...arrgh