I recently purchased (and am a complete newbie) a 1975 Bally Hi-Deal pinball. At first setup, it turned on and everything seemed great - until you started a new game. Once a game was started, a loud buzzing noise was heard from the top right corner area of the backbox. Once the last ball fell and the game was over, the noise would go away. Until the next game was started.

Of course, this didn't stop my young boys from playing the game. About 2 hours of game play later over the course of that evening and the next morning, the game would no longer work when turned on. The coin door lights will come on, but nothing else will light up. Game will not start.

Taking a look inside, I discovered there's a fuse that has blown. I replaced the fuse, turned machine on, and fuse immediately blew again. It's the third fuse in a bank of four.

I'm assuming (and I'm probably wrong since I don't know anything about this stuff) that whatever was making the loud noise was a relay that was stuck. Possibly this burned out finally and is the cause of the fuse blowing? Not sure what to do first, any help appreciated.

Also, I found that the tilt mechanism is completely gone, there's no hanging wire and weight/bob.

Nunjo - thanks for the link I have been reading that document and some others as I am trying to digest info as much as I can.

This is the part I thought might be making the noise, but I didn't have the back open while noise was being made (only had back off while machine was unplugged) so I can't say for certain. At this point, I can't get that far since it won't turn on.

http://i.imgur.com/xQdKhJ9.png

It could have been one of the score reels as Alex suggested? But they were acting normally recording score while playing.

I have a full schematic - found it and some other materials inside the machine. I'm going to look up the fuse voltages and get them all replaced, just in case some are not the proper voltage by prior owner. I don't know how to read one of these yet, so I'm learning as I go on this too.

What do you mean by clipping a lead to the knocker? How do I do that?

Two shots from inside my machine.

The missing fuse is the one that blew.

I'm heading to the store to hopefully find some fuses.

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IMG_6284.JPG

So when they're black like that, they've basically burnt out. Like really burnt out.

I have to say as well, thanks for all the help with this. Really awesome that I can sign up as a complete newbie to this place and get this much attention and help.

I de-soldered one lead to the knocker, replaced the fuse, and bam it's up and running again!

IMG_6286 (Medium).JPG

Pretty hard to play while holding the iphone in one hand...

Big thanks guys, now I'll check the schematic and try to figure out what burnt the knocker out, and buy a new one. Where is best place to buy one?

I saw inside the thing has 39,000+ games played. Holy smokes!

Sorry for the delay on responding. I have the original schematic at home and will try and post a pic tonight of the proper section.

Mine looks a bit different, and it unfortunately isn't the fancy color version, but it's probably the same answer.
knocker_BallyHiDeal.JPG