I just got a BIBLE several days ago. Great game, but I'm having a fairly annoying issue with the 5 bank AC/DC standups.

I put about a dozen games on it and realized when the cannon loads, the 5-bank doesn't pop up to allow a shot at the lightning bolt center drop target, for example. Sure enough, the next time I powered it on I got a service warning about that switch.

I manually hit all drops in test mode and the (A) and Bolt drops would never show as closed. When I placed the playfield in service mode, not all the way up, they would all register fine...getting interesting.

I powered down, removed the two opto boards from the bank (there's a 3 opto board and a 2 opto board), cleaned the optos, cleaned the interrupters on the drops, put everything back together, powered on and retested.

This time I noticed if I wiggled the wires on the opto board plugs I could get one of the switches to register as not closed even though the target was dropped, interrupting the opto. I could get this to happen on either board with the other unplugged, puzzling me. On the 3 opto board it was usually the Bolt switch and on the 2 opto board it was the C switch.

I inspected the wires and how well they were seated in each plug, they look/feel fine. I did notice both plugs fit kind of loosely, particularly the 3 opto board plug.

It doesn't seem like a power/ground issue, as only 1 switch on each board is affected at a time. Both boards share the same strobe wire (green/brn). The 2 opto board is the end of line for that strobe wire, it's daisy chained from the 3 opto plug.

What should I do next? I'm stuck.

--
Jerimy

Taking your advice, I revisited my earlier comment about the plugs being a bit loose. I pulled them out very slightly, to the point where the receiving end on the board causes them to be very snug, but not totally seated. With this being the state, I'm unable to reproduce the switch issues.

Thanks for the tip, though I'm a bit dubious it's this simple (but still hopeful), so don't want to close the issue just yet.

What is the advice for generally creating a tighter fit with these plugs?

I've honestly never seen a game with quite so much grease. Maybe the banks are the cause...

I wish my issue was to simply clean here

The good news is since I wedged the connectors in such a way as they now make solid connection to the pins on the boards, 6 games without issues.

Wow, I'm glad you mentioned this. I would definitely not have had the foresight to do this.

Thanks!

Interesting. I take it the one piece small splints are what's needed for the three lower pf targets?

Are you referring to the connectors I was describing? Or another connector?

The white connectors with 4-6 wires each, two of them on the ac/dc 5 bank, yes? Those ones?

If so, we're talking about the same thing

Are yours pretty loose in general? If you touch them do they move a bit on the male posts?

Mine do this. How can they be made tighter in general I wonder? Do we have to replace the plug? Maybe use a shim on the male end to make it tighter? Perhaps some solder?

Such a crazy problem for an $8.5k usd machine. Stern are cheap asses.

Hmmm. A small bend on some of those pins would do the trick if done properly/carefully. Thanks for the confirmation and tip

Cheers!