I was hoping to spend a little more time troubleshooting this further myself, without having to bug you amazing people for additional help, but I'm almost out of time -- I'm hosting a party/tournament this weekend and I need to get this glitch ironed out.
If you're up for a long read, here's the history of bringing this machine back to life: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/1973-gottlieb-pro-football-startup-glitchiness ... The last page may provide some insight for Issues 1 & 2, as it did involve some ball stepper troubleshooting.
Where I'm at now ... everything functions perfectly, except for a three little things:
-- Issue 1: Every so often (approx. 2 in 10 games), after ball 4, the ball stepper advances twice -- momentarily lighting up Ball 5, then advancing to Game Over.
-- Issue 2: Even more rarely (approx. 1 in 20 games), it'll advance twice at the start of the game -- momentarily lighting up Ball 1, then advancing to Ball 2.
---- (Note on Issues 1 & 2: It NEVER skips balls 2, 3, or 4. NEVER.)
--Issue 3: Fairly often (approx. 2 in 5 games), when you start a new game, it automatically launches Ball 1 at the end of the startup cycle, WITHOUT pushing the right flipper button.
---- (Note on Issue 3: It NEVER automatically launches the ball on any other ball.)
Thanks in advance. I have a monstrous list of things to accomplish before the party/tournament, but I'll do my best to squeeze in whatever troubleshooting your recommend as soon as I can, to get results.