I brought home an AFM (original) this week, and a credit dot has popped because the right gate is staying closed. I've searched the forum and found several threads pointing to one of the left switches leading up to the gate, but that unfortunately doesn't appear to be the answer because the right gate doesn't fire in solenoid test mode.

I've replaced the fuse at F118 (though it tested fine), I've resoldered the lugs on the coil, I've reseated the cables at J119 and J120--so far nothing has seemed to work.

I also took the assembly off the underside of the playfield to see if it was trying to fire and the springs were bad, but I saw no movement at all.

Should I be replacing the relay coil? ... I feel like that's never the answer ... so before I order one, what else should I be testing/checking?

Thanks!

EDIT: Solved--the issue was the wire connection between the right gate coil and the left gate coil had broken off the left gate coil.

Thanks—Windings look ok. But the transistor readings are way low compared to the rest. Replace the transistor? Coil too?

I’ll try grounding the transistor—does that entail just stretching a jumper from the tab to a ground braid?

The springs on the actuator seem fine, and the coil is getting voltage with readings similar to the left gate coil.

Thanks!

Grounding it gave no result.

Thanks--I've gone ahead and ordered a new coil to be safe. It's a $12 part and I had some other stuff I needed so it's not exactly breaking the bank. I'll check for continuity in the wiring between the board and the coil too (that'll be a tricker fix).

Solved! And it looks like I'm going to have some spare parts on hand. Culprit was a broken solder joint on the LEFT gate coil.

I was checking continuity between the coil lugs and the board on the right gate coil. Yellow-Violet checked out OK, but my probe came up dark on Red-Violet. (Ugh--am I going to have to restring a wire?) I got lucky though and found a gnarled Red-Violet dangling not too far away from the left coil. I checked the manual and saw Red-Violet also is supposed to make its way through the left coil on its way to the board. So apparently this loose end broke off the left coil. I clipped it on, and everything tested OK for the first time.

Now it's soldered on, tests came out great, and after a few rounds (where I finally got to a mode where the right gate is supposed to be open), the credit dot is cleared!

No clue why the transistor was wonky. I'm not super comfortable with boards yet. And I'll gladly pay for the transistor and coil to have on hand as spares if it means I don't need to pull the board and fix!

Thanks for the help everyone!