hi tom what no responces yet. the first pic of the shooter a bridge rectifier was added to change the coil to dc operation in hopes to make it stronger. the 2nd pic of the free play switch added is usually added and wired to the 2nd switch of the stack. when some people add this switch they cut wires to the solenoids or open the bottom switch on the stack to prevent credits to be added.

Absolutely. You could wire this switch up to do that, which it may already do. I'm surprised it disables the knocker. Are you sure you are not at the max credits or something?

Hi Tom,

I've got a playball and the ball kicker is never quite strong enough to really get the ball in play. I think I'd like to make the same mod someone made to your machine. Can you tell me what coil was used for the modified kicker?

Thx
Allen

Try to change the coil sleeve, it helped me.

That actually might be the problem. Many games only go to 5 credits.

a better side view of the replay unit would help.

yea, whataya bet that the pin on the replay unit is in the position that only allows 5 credits...

op... there is a pin on the gear that will block it from advancing any higher... look at the unit, and see what happens if you manually actuate the coil that advances the unit...

before modifying the ball kicker:

- rebuild it with a new sleeve and clean it well...
- then try it...
- if still no love, then check to make sure that the unit is adjusted to kick the ball "straight" (e.g. the ball sits "squarely" on the kicking mech).... you may have to remove the apron to do this...

it is not completely uncommon for gtb games to sometimes struggle to kick the ball into the shooter lane (and this carries over to the "shoot the ball from the trough" games)... usually one of the above 2 things will get it to a more acceptable state... i had to both rebuild the unit and adjust it a bit to get the one in my pro-football to be "good"...

Thanks ccotng - I've tried adjusting, will take a look at the sleeve. When I bought the machine the previous owner had messed with the kick lever, probably in an effort to get the ball out more reliably. Seems to be a consistent problem with these gottlieb early ball feeds.

yea, it can be a bit of a pita...

it's worth taking out of the machine, disassembling the whole thing, and cleaning it... it doesn't take very long, and may help...

after making every effort to make it work better, and it doesn't, you could always make the coil a bit "hotter" by unwinding a layer or two... commonly done to make pop bumpers "snappier"...

but i would make every effort to make it better before messing with the coil itself...