Apologies in advance I am new to EM's and trying to sort out a strange problem. My bally Nip-it will advance bonus properly on step up unit during play and test but will never collect the bonus add to the score and reset. The ball is just kicked back out but the ball counter advances. I have looked at the schematics it seemed outhole switch, ball 2 relay - not sure what even closes this one is this just the swich from ball trough? and score bonus relay to score the bonus are needed. If I manually lift play field and engage those all it seems to score the bonus. Not sure which would reset but I do know that it will reset.

To add to this I found two fuse holders under playfield both seemed to be corroded and I changed both. After this voila! My bonus was scoring just fine last night on each drain and resetting for each upcoming ball. Today go back to my assumed fixed game and I am right back where I started with issue in first paragraph. My question is what are those 2 fuses for and if the fuse holder and fuse are known good why would this have failed again? OR am I totally off base and this is a scoring motor switch thing?

The bonus does reset when the machine is reset. 2nd ball bonus score and 5000 score relays have all been checked and adjusted. All work with no issue when manually engaging the relay. I will check switch on motor 8b

Again apologies at the risk of sounding stupid. I have checked the fuse blocks and fuse for continuity no issues there. Score motor switch 8B seems to be ok they all seem to make contact when the score motor spins. When you are referring to the 2nd ball switch, the bonus score relay and the 5000 score relay switch where physically would I find those? On each relay there are multiple switches, if I push the plastic swiper left manually it engages switches and scores the bonus. I assume the outhole switch is the catalyst for this entire process and should be engaging 2nd ball relay an then bonus score relay. Also once bonus passes 5K I have found that sometimes (but rarely) it will attempt to score but will get caught in a loop. What I notice while it is doing this is the score for the bonus might be 6000 but in watching the scoring it scores 5k then again 5k then again and again until I power off the machine. What I think is going on here is to score 6k the 5000 bonus relay would be used in addition to the bonus score relay switch would be the additional 1k and the bonus score relay is not firing apparently to add that 1k so the score motor is still trying to complete the 6K? My other question is would the bonus reset typically only be tripped once the machine is able to successfully able to count up the bonus properly? Wire coloring is another issue as trying to trace anything given the age of the wires is making it difficult. Again thanks for any help you can provide, I am completely stuck.

Thanks much for the advice I will try this tonight.

Just to make sure im clear when the captive ball releases right then the bonus should score and reset even before the ball hits outhole sensor? Switches in trough are clean and making contact. The springs on those arms do spring back in place but they are definitely what i would call very springy if thats a word.

Understood now so yes the bonus does scoreproperly for captive ball release. It seems only when ball drains. I notice there is a pretty raw piece if wire in the trough between the first and second switch. Is that trough switch what should be engaging the 2nd ball relay? So it seems the issue is like you described. The rotating arms are they supposed to have real resistance to them or just bring the arm back? I have checked on the rollover in trough it doesengage switch but nothing noticeable hsppens.

After changing both switches and verifying the wires make good contact i still have no bonus when ball drains but it does score bonus when captive ball is released. Any thoughts? Just want to comfirm a few things, this is a two ball game only correct not three? There should only be two switches in ball trough? And lastly what engages the 2nd ball relay is it the switch in the trough?

Thanks in advance.

The ball count does change when the ball drains. So the issue then is the 2nd ball relay not triggering when ball in trough. When the ball is in the gator hole i believe it is triggering as that does score the bonus. When ball is in gator hole alone it has 2nd ball relay engaged or when you hit the target to release?

I am finding that by working from under playfield all seems to work properly. So with 2nd ball relay manually tripped on and ball index relay tripped manually bonus scores properly and resets however when ball drains still no scoring happens until beyond 5k also it never resets bonus and at 5k then it never completes gets caught in loop scoring. Im pretty much lost now but ball index relay is tripped on whenever you score points it seems normally. Not sure what this really has to do with bonus score and reset. 2nd ball relay when ball in gator hole does not trip but when outhole and trough switch 1 engage it pulls 2nd ball if i remember the sequence correct.

I have had the apron removed I dont notice any issue with the ball from outhole kicks right up clean, both trough switches are new replaced and making good contact.

I am officially beyond frustrated on this one now. I have made little to no progress on this since starting. I do not believe the issue is in the ball trough, both switches have been replaced and are making good contact. The bonus still does not score at all for a ball drain and it never resets just builds until past 5000K and once that happens bonus scoring gets stuck in a 5K scoring loop which if i manually reset the bonus counter it stops but it is not able to score higher than 5k correctly which is telling me that this is likely the cause of my issue in why it is not scoring at all when below 5k. Tracing from schematic has become incredibly cumbersome and honestly is only showing me the the scoring mech works when relays are enabled manually. If someone can tell me the sequence of events in this game, like ball drains outhole kicks 2nd ball to trough, 2nd ball relay locks, then bonus score relay i am assuming? And if over 5k both bonus score and 5000 bonus relays? A video of this process would really help me as well if anyone can help me with that. I assume the normal process is what i described above or a similar sequence where before the ball release engages the scoring completes and the bonus reset takes the wipe back to zero for the next ball.

With playfield up if i lock on 2nd ball relay at any point it scores bonus and resets, i notice that if i dont push it forcefully it doesnt do reset so maybe bad switch there. So my question is still really how is 2nd ball relay engaged, is it on throughout gameplay and only unlocked when a ball is fed to outlane?