I'm working on a Captain Fantastic. Often when a drop target goes down, the score motor turns but there isn't a change in the scoring. No chimes, no change of score... the motor just turns. So the drop targets are being recognized as down so the switches on the bank are being recognized as closing, but that's it.

Its not always the same drop target(s) that has this issue, it seems totally random.

That all said, once in a while, a drop may go down and not even the score motor turns.

When all 5 are down, the bank does reset 100% of the time.

Any ideas why the downed target doesn't score? TIA!

The issue seems to be mechanical...

The spring tension seems too great. If I manually slowly drop the target, the 500 point relay holds in long enough to score as expected. In normal game play as originally described, the drop goes down so fast the 500 point relay doesn't hold in long enough to register points.

pinballdaveh baldtwit Thank you very much for the responses, I appreciate it. I've cleaned / gapped all the switches identified by your posts but I still see the same behavior. I must have missed something, or did something wrong, and will revisit it again.

I may have two problems:

1. At times, when the drop target drops quickly, the 500 point relay activates for only a fraction of a second. It does pull in, but its for a time period like a blink of an eye - it doesn't hold at all relative to the score motor turning.

2. If I manually drop the target by hand slowly, sometimes it registers and scores. However, often it does not. In this case, the 500 point relay is powered for a few seconds and only opens again with score motor switch 10B opening. The hold circuit seems to be working in this case and this seems like the normal operation. However, in this "normal 500 point relay operation" no score occurs. The drop target switch closes, the 500 point relay holds in, the score motor rotates - but no scoring occurs on the score reels.

I also noticed, with scenario (2), the leaf switch behind the 5 drop targets on the playfield does not score either. In fact, almost none of the playfield switch score any points - its like the scoring stopped all together. Pop bumper switches seem to still score in this case. The "A" and "B" rollover switches in the upper ball lanes activate the score motor but again no scoring on the score reels. Not sure if this is a clue or completely unrelated but wanted to mention it. When the drop target scores starts working (as well as all playfield switch scoring) again (by chance) as it should, this leaf switch behind the drop targets starts to score correctly again.

Yes, the game will behave the same during a multiplayer game.

It will go from the game working to the odd behavior I describe in (2) in post #7 all in the same game. Its like the game is almost working but something is causing it to behave erratically.

I'm still hunting this one....

I managed to find a couple of cold solder joints along the red wire, but fixing these didn't solve the issue.

What I have noticed is that when the issue occurs, it affects all 100 point scoring. So this is not isolated to drop target behavior, it also is linked to all 100 point scoring.

So:

1. When a drop target falls, it does activate the score motor, but 500 points are not added to the score reel
2. In addition, all targets and switches associated with 100 point scoring all do not score on the score reel either

Again, when this occurs, its very random - and can correct itself.... and then occur again. Its not a constant behavior.

I'm trying to chase through the schematic regarding what would energize the 100 point scoring relay in the backbox, and hoping I'll find a loose wire connection along the way.

The problem doesn't affect 10 point scoring which always works fine.

100 point relay (resized).png

baldtwit - I think you just solved my problem with your last post.

When the 100 point scoring issue occurred again, I noticed that the 100 point relay in the backbox was being held on. So I would get some 100 point scoring initially, then the "problem" occurs and the 100 point score would stop. But that's because the 100 point relay was stuck on.

I cleaned the 100 point relay's contacts and slightly bent the switches on it to make better contact. With this done, the problem seems to have gone away.

I can't believe how simple of a fix it was in the end.

Thank you (and everyone) for adding to this thread and helping me out. I really appreciate it.