http://www.pinrepair.com/6803/

In the photos I can find online, there's no Red/Black wire in the flipper circuit. I will check my Party Animal when I get home tonight.

Have you tested Q7?

I always have trouble making sense of the schematic on 6803 games, but if I'm interpreting it correctly, it looks like you could try unplugging J6 on the mpu board, that's the ground path for all the red-wire coils (though the schematic references a "solenoid expander" close by that appears to connect to that red-wire 43v circuit when the expander is activated...not sure where the expander is located or how it works exactly)

It's not uncommon for a shorted transistor on the mpu to lock on a coil and blow the fuse. Hopefully by disconnecting J6 and replacing the fuse, you'll find the fuse doesn't blow. If the fuse doesn't blow, you'll need to figure out which of the coils leading to J6 is locking on due to a bad transistor/chip/diode/shorted coil or wiring etc.

Schematic is a little blurry when i zoom in on my phone, but here's the area of the schematic i was looking at, from section 2-18:

Screenshot_20190304_113811_com.google.android.apps.docs(1).jpg

And note what's NOT on there... the flipper circuit.

That said, there is a wire from the flipper circuit on the J6. J6-9 (grey/white) is on that connector. I'd start there looking for a short. Check the solders on the back of the board, etc.

That red/black wire passes near, but is not part of the flipper wiring on my party animal.

A52E22C7-78CD-45EE-B808-BAE0E8DB5BDE (resized).jpegC853C8F0-3A6A-4E4E-9776-283D12E82DCB (resized).jpeg

I’m curious about the melted spring. Can you post pics of the flipper bracket and mechanism from all angles? Seems like we should be able to spot the short.

I must say, I see no obvious short there.