Well gents, BIG progress, we are ALMOST there...

First off, thanks to all of you, and doubly so to Steve, for all the great guidance and for pushing me WELL beyond my comfort zone. I never thought I'd be able to do as much of this on my own as I have. Thanks for that. BT, awesome schematic, thanks for adding it!

So, the other night I removed the switches, brake, and then the entire pitching mech. I removed the cam, cleaned all of the old hardened original grease that had been left on there (as well as the new grease that I mistakenly added), I found one hinge that was frozen with old grease (see pic, red arrow) which is clean and smooth now. Everything came out great and it looks fantastic. Before and After Pics below for Pinside posterity.

I reassembled the Mech, and put everything back together, re-tensioned the spring, added the balls... and LO and BEHOLD! It pitched!! BUT... after pitching 4 or 5 balls... it started sticking. If I move the cam, it will unstick and complete the pitch, and will pitch again one more time before sticking again.

So, tonight I'm going to pull it apart again and try to figure out what is causing it to stick, but in the meantime if anyone has suggestions, please feel free. With any luck, I'll figure out what it is and I'll start swingin for the bleachers!! So close...

VIDEO of motor sticking: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Bd9WA1MnGoPh1fU87

Cam Before (resized).jpg

cam after (resized).jpg

spring before (resized).jpg

spring after (resized).jpg

stuck1 (resized).png

assembeled 1 (resized).jpg

assembeled 2 (resized).jpg

Great guidance as always Steve! I'll give it another go through this weekend and see what I can find. For some reason, it's smooth on the first half turn, and then jams up on the second. Feeling much better about being able to take it apart and put it back together now.

Oh.. dog spring... I had one that was popping off too easily. That'll be the first thing I check.

Also, I wanted to use the higher tension setting, but I wasn't sure which end was the tighter hook, so I went middle just to avoid the softer tension!

So, that spring did pop off and I fixed it, seems on there pretty good now. Put it all back and it pitched 4 or 5 times consecutively, but then it gets sticky and starts jamming again, and I can't seem to figure out what is slowing it up but I can feel something slightly grinding when I move it by hand. I can tell that when the Cam hole is on the right (position 1), it sticks. When the Cam hole is in Position 2, it pitches easy, but then sticks again back in position 1. If I give it a little push, the motor kicks on and it pitches, will pitch again in #2, then stuck again at #1.

I'm away for the next week, but when I come back, I'll take it apart again, I'll do a better job cleaning the stop dog posts and hinges and see if I can't move the spring to the 3rd position too. Hopefully that should set me free! Was cool to see it pitch a few times in a row though. Almost there.

Positions (resized).png

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I finally got a chance to rebuild the pitch mech again and really went through it this time. I found a patch of old grease that I'd missed on one of the stop dogs, then I reset the pitching arm and cam and made sure it was spinning smoothly. I put it all back together again and BAM! It's now pitching and batting perfectly!!

Any day now, my new BG Resto Backglass will be delivered, and after a couple of cosmetic tweaks, and a 2nd waxing, I'll install the new playfield glass. Thanks again for every body's help. If you'd like to see it working, here's a video link.

VIDEO: https://photos.app.goo.gl/UwqLC41m9BhpP9Pw9

I DO still have a couple of minor tweaks that still needs tweaking.

Q: When you reset the High Score, what score is it supposed to start from? Mine isn't set right and it's not counting up when the score is exceeded.

Sure plays great though!