When it stops working do you mean it it lighting the game over mode on the backglass? When you say you leave it sitting for a while are you hitting the credit button on the door to get it to start? Any details you can provide can help in the diagnosis. Congrats on the pick up!

you might want to get a moderator to move this to the em subforum for you, as "boomerang" is an em, not a solid state...

Agreed with ccotenj, ask a moderator to move this to Tech EM forum. But to get you going, I am going to wager a guess that your Bally Game Over relay may be dirty or mis-adjusted given that the flippers quit working.

Take a look at Clay's pinrepair.com guides, particularly #3 at http://www.pinrepair.com/em/index3.htm which show pictures of the Bally game over relay and how that can be problematic. It is possible that it is not holding properly and kicking off or partially kicking off. If you aren't familiar with working inside an electro-mechanical machine, start with his page #1 at http://www.pinrepair.com/em/index1.htm.

Thread moved to EM Tech, you will get more help there.
Chris

Do you happen to have some more score and instruction cards?
I have just updated my website with a set for Boomerang.
I love to add some more cards...

Peter
Www.inkochnito.nl

Which lights on the right side of the playfield go out? Can you describe or take a picture of them on or off?

I took a rather poor quality video for you of my Flicker, which is the two player version of Boomerang. Please check the contacts on the Game Over relay. It is the only thing short of the actual A, B, C, D relays I can think of that is causing the lights to go off. You mention that the flippers quit working so it really sounds like game over or partial game over issue.

Hmmm, I am not sure why you would get 10,000 when actuating the Game Over relay. I usually review switches visually for needed adjustments when I get a new pin. Stick a work light in the machine with it powered off and look at the switches on the relays. Basically they will close or open and if you manually actuate them by hand you can see this visually. If a switch is already closed when the direction of travel it is going in logically should make it closed it is probably out of adjustment. Same goes for the opposite, if it is traveling in a direction when it should close but never makes contact with its mate, it is likely out of adjustment.

Some folks including me like to unhook the bottom board of their EM and take it out of the machine entirely to work on switch review on a bench and in a more ergonomic position. To do this you would have to likely remove the head or partially remove the head to get your line power cord out and then remove a couple of jones plugs that run to the play field and take out a few bolts and possibly a couple screws that keep the bottom board in place. This makes it tons easier to see the switches, especially the ones in the far back of the cabinet. But this isn't always necessary to fix some problems. You may want to do this though to really investigate.

Pinwiki has a good set of explanations of switches and switch adjustments, take a look here.

http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=EM_Repair#Switches

Sounds like a cold solder joint somewhere_ I'm not too familiar with the game, so when you do the once over, check all the solder to see if it's looking a little rough or if it may not be connected.

I'm not sure how familiar you are with soldering, but, over time, the solder can get cracked or otherwise keep wires from making connections. Usually it's the opposite problem where warming it up makes a better connection, but the point may still apply.

http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/25478/why-does-a-cold-solder-joint-appear-grainy-or-dull

Replace the fuseholders, almost every Bally of that period has really bad fuseholders.
Is a real "first to do" on these games, the game plays intermittent or the lights on the backbox and playfield seem to have a own life.
Replace all four of them, will make life a lot easier!

Hi braincramp,

Welcome! If you haven't done so already, be sure to read all the info at pinrepair.com as linked above. It really is the Bible for this hobby.

With respect to your Boomerang situation, I'm not sure we have all the info we need. Let's go through more slowly:

- You plug the machine in. There are credits on it. You press the start button. All score reels reset to zero, and the game serves a ball into the shooter lane. All correct so far?

- You play some number of balls (5-15?) before it "quits." So to me that means, you can play a complete 5-ball game, including Game Over, and then you press the start button to start a new game. Is that correct? Or is the game serving you balls continuously without ever reaching Game Over?

- When it "quits," is it in the middle of a game? Does it always happen when the ball hits something specific on the playfield? Is it possible that it quits when the game reaches a certain score? Or is it always when the ball drains?

- You said that once it quits, nothing short of unplugging it and walking away for a day will give you any results. What happens if you unplug it and then plug it in again right away, and try to press the start button? Are the playfield lights still out? Any other action? Any other sound?

- You said that you hear a sound when you press the start button after it "quits," as though it wants to start but can't. Can you be more specific? Is this a buzzing sound, or a clicking, or what? Is the score motor running?

- Did you inspect or replace the fuseholders, as wizardblom rightly suggested?

- Also, take a look at the coils for the Game Over relay, and the Lock or Hold relay (not sure what it will be called on this game). Are there any coils that have toasty brown wrappers? It could be a sign of a burned and weak coil.

(Digression: I have a Bally game that used to shut down completely at 3000 points. I couldn't figure it out, until I realized that the free game award was set at 3000, which sent a pulse to the knocker. The knocker coil was fried, and drew so much power that it caused the Hold relay (also fried) to let go, which shut the whole thing off. So instead of happy hooray free game, the machine would go black. Good times.)

If you can answer some or all of the above, maybe we can get your ugly friend back up and boomeranging again.

I'm still stumped. Maybe someone with lots more experience than me can jump in on this one - there are some true wizards around here. Following up on your answers:

The left flipper should activate the lights but should not reset the scores or start a game (someone correct me if I'm wrong). But maybe someone wired yours to start a game with the left flipper button.

Can you be more specific about the sounds? Is there a buzz? Are there clicks? From where? Is the score motor running, and if so does it stop running? Do the score reels reset?

The cooldown time (letting it sit overnight) suggests that something is heating up and either expanding to break electrical contact, or increasing resistance (as in a coil) to the point where current is interrupted. It sounds like there could be several possible culprits in either case. It would be hard to know without looking at it, testing continuity in lots of places, testing resistance on the toasty coils, etc.

This seems like a good thing to investigate. With the machine off, can these be actuated manually with ease? Do they stay locked in position when they're actuated manually?

Wild guess, but maybe this is part of the reset sequence -- trying to zero out the score reels. Will it continue incrementing 1000 points indefinitely, or only till it gets back to zero?

Last thing: it might be very helpful to see a picture of the game over relays at rest -- even better a video showing them being activated manually (with the machine off).

Agreed, left flipper should turn on G I lighting only. Coin door button (if set on free play) should reset and increment player unit.

Maybe a long shot: are the jones plugs of the door and the flippers at the right place?

Sounds like they are not at the right socket or right place.

Those are the male plugs, one coming from the door sitting on the left/front side.
Beside it sits the other one for the flippers, you can clean them with sandpaper.
Before you do so, unplug the machine!

Sounds problematic! That'll probably need to be fixed, and might eliminate your problem.

About the jones plugs, see here: http://www.pinrepair.com/em/index2.htm#connect

I guess it depends on why it's not locking in. You'll have look closely at it, and actuate both parts back and forth (with machine off) to see what's preventing it from locking. If there's a broken nylon or something, it might be shot and just easier to replace. HOWEVER, my gut feeling is that it's just out of adjustment or needs some small modification so it will lock in, and stay locked in, instead of going to game over.

If there's any way you can take a picture and post it here, that would help. Video would be even better. Most phones can do both of these things. Any chance you or some young up-and-comer in your vicinity could create some digital media?

I shot another video for you showing the Bally game over relay and it's states. Hoping it will help and as textrivers says if you could do the same that would be great.

If you are ever looking for a boomerang schematic you can find one here in post #4.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/bally-boomerang-1974-will-not-add-bonus-to-total-score-upon-drain