This one is for sale isn't it Dirt? Looks like fun for newbie or veteran...

Along the same lines. I was surprised at the simplicity of the internals on Drop-A-Card when I had it. That would also be a good one for a first timer, aside from the 2" flippers that not everyone is a fan of.

This is true about any 70's era Williams or Bally single player. There are many (not me) that think it is easier to work on a Bally or Williams game due to their simpler relay and score reel designs. So, when starting out, it may be a bit easier to begin with one of them as opposed to a Gottlieb. Just like you stated about the King Pin, the backglasses are often flaking, they often get no love among other collectors (certainly not any of the Gottlieb snobs LOL), but are still fun to play. Many of the later years are even DC and really kick A$$. And, unlike a Gottlieb single player, are usually adjustable from Add-A-Ball to replay or both without having to own a different game.

Certainly, as you pointed out, it is probably a good idea NOT to start to learn your EM repair skills on a Multiplayer machine if you can help it.

Any EM one-player Gottlieb or Williams is a great game to start with. Simple games, easy to work on.

I'd avoid late 60s Ballys as they have bizarre logic and even worse "clutch" assemblies on their score motors.

My all time fav as a teener from the 70's! I have the AAB Pin Up, which soon enough there will be a repro BG.

I second this! Any wedgie is an amazing game to learn on. And they are a blast to play. And when you run into problems, there is a great community here to help you out (like they helped me out, and I'm sure countless others that caught the EM bug).

There are probably more people familiar with Gottlieb EM's that can give help and advice here. Who collects Bally/Williams EM's anyway?

I love mine.

question. my drops dont always reset. ive cleaned the mech and adjusted the coil throw.
im about to replace all the springs. am I missing something obvious

--Jeff

Your 2 bank reset coils need to be "balanced" when they fire since each provides 50% of the power to reset all the drops at once. These are 110V with separate fuses. I usually clean or replace the coil sleeves, coil stop, etc., so those are good and check the rest of the mechanism. Unsolder your leads to the coils and check them with a meter to make sure they're good. Also, the contacts on the score motor that fire the coils are important too to make sure they're clean and adjusted properly. You'll just have to look at the circuit at the bottom of the schematic where the 110V is and trace it to the right to see what else it goes through too. There's also a spring which attaches to the rod at the end of the bank - check that too. There's a few things you can check.

A clean drop target bank with new springs would be nice too!

King Pin is a great game and dirt is right - it's one of the easier ones to work on.

That's a big target bank. I know on Gold Strike there are two coils to reset the large bank and each has their own fuse. I'm not sure if that is the case with King Pin but with one blown fuse I think you would have this issue.

Edit: Better said by Hoov...

I don’t know how King Pin’s bank reset is controlled, but as Hoov mentioned above I had a problem with a couple of small banks not fully resting on a High Hand that turned out to be the bank reset switches on the score motor needing a good cleaning/adjusting.

On a side note, my limited experience has been all Gottlieb and I just started working on my first Williams game…it’s a pitch and bat…but I must admit that I like the Williams horizontal switch stacks better than Gottlieb vertical ones. Much easier to see, clean, and adjust in my opinion.

both coils on mine are firing and balanced. new sleeves and plungers clean

score motor switch cleaned and gapped

spring will go in this weekend and ill update

I messed with this set of drops too (way2wyrd's king pin)- it was a little perplexing. One question I had is how to adjust them properly. There is obviously more than one position to mount the coils and I can't say we tried every combination.

Exactly what I was looking for. I think I even checked the parts manual for a factory adjustment method.

That's good to know.......

Does your drop target bank still have those little black bumpers at the end of the slots for the target lift finger? If so, they harden with age and make it impossible for the unit to reset all the targets properly, especially on the large count target banks. You have 3 choices: Remove them (Gottlieb eliminated them in later model games), use a needle file to file some of the bumper away to increase the stop distance of the lift finger, see if Steve at Pinball Resource sells replacments.

If you do remove them, then make sure you follow the instructions posted above for proper reset coil placement. You don't want the targets being rammed up so high as to break off the tabs on their bottoms.

Ok went and dounle checked

fueses -- Checked with dmm and snug and clean
no rubber bumpers
score motor switch cleaned again

im going to do the adjustment and then we will see where were at

--Jeff

OK adjustment done and we're better. The bank resets most of the time and there are a couple of drops that dont quite make it. I can work on that. I think some of teh switches need to be degreased like dirt said

This is much better than it trying to reset over and over with no drops catching

Thanks

--Jeff

Just a shame that Gottlieb Schematics are not available on IPDB. When you get a newbie issue its so much more fun when you got the schematic to help with.

I'm just thankful they are all available. If I owned the rights to them I wouldn't give them away either. Parts manuals though I think I would post...

Fair enough, but I think it is a dbl edged sword.

See, With communities like Pinside keeping more machines alive with the aid of Techs all over the world working together, there are more machines needing parts. More parts means happy retailer.

And I’m not about to buy 500 schematic so I can help!!!

Bally, Williams and others manufactures schematic are freely available, does not seem to have been any issue there.

The last time a purchased a Gottlieb schematic (CE3K), it came on a ½ size sheet, near on useless.

EDIT - Having said this, If you own the machine, then i would recommend getting a full size schematic, $20 well spent.
PS i just looked at my CE3k schematic , think its only 1/4 size, Useless