Berlin, WI
Hi Folks,
I read the rules and I believe I'm in the right place. If not, I'm sorry. It's my first post here for tech help and I've been working on it a bit with the help of a buddy via Facebook chat and he told me posting here would be a good idea.
As per newbie posting rules:
- This is the first EM game I owned. It was working when I bought it on Sunday. We moved it in, played it and it worked. This happened last night (Monday) in the middle of a game.
- I have the schematics, but I'm still learning to read them.
- I have a DMM, as I work on cars and home electric stuff, but I've not used one here.
- I have a soldering gun and can solder functionally well as needed.
- The machine looks original in terms of wiring with no notable rewires etc. or bad cuts (I'm judging based on what I saw in redoing my 1968 Mustang, where half-@$$ mechanic work is easy to spot)
- I am willing to try anything you tell me to try, but I'm sure I'm not anywhere close to fluent in the lingo, so abbreviations etc. are likely to go over my head for a while, but I'm totally willing to learn.
So here's the short version: I wanted to buy a 1960s Kickoff machine from a reputable pin guy. My kid thought the Lunar Shot looked amazing (she's right) even though it came from a rando on Craigslist. I played the Lunar Shot at his house for about a half hour and it worked fine (minor buzz from inside the machine, but nothing that impeded play that I could tell.)
Brought it home Sunday. Played it all night with no problem. Played it Monday night up until the the machine just started buzzing louder and louder and then the flippers wouldn't work, the start button wouldn't work and none of the bumpers or anything like that would respond to the ball. Outhole also wouldn't respond. The lights are all still on, both in the head and on the playing field.
Opened up the machine and got in touch with my buddy, Jason, who has rebuilt squillions of these things. After some trial and error, he noted that the coin relay was locked on. We walked through the various switches from the coin door and credit button to no avail. The schematic showed him that the coin relay took a path through the ball counter, so I manipulated the counter up and down and that didn't impact the situation. At that point, he suggested I take a video of it and show what it is doing, which I have done and posted here:
Any suggestions or help would be EXTREMELY appreciated. My great hope is that I'll learn enough over time to really enjoy these beasts and get good enough to pay it forward.
Thanks,
Vince (Doc4421)
UPDATE: Jason told me, "I was wondering when you said the machine kind of felt like it slowed down. Has the Scoring Motor moved at all during all the time you've been messing with this?" Nope. "Can you manually move it?" Nope. It feel locked like the motors on old record players I've worked on etc. When I do manage to wiggle it, however, it does alter the buzzing based on my movements. (As a total guess, I'm wondering if they're related...) Scoring Motor does get warm and eventually quite warm when I leave it on while putzing with the other switches.
On those old clock and record player motors, I used some Liquid Ball Bearings to eat through the grease and crud that led to the lock up. Obviously this is different, so I'm wondering if a similar thing will work or not. Also, wondering if I'm totally screwed. Thanks...
