I’m working on my Wizard bonus stepper unit which has been having problems with a proper countdown.

I’m putting in a new clock spring and was wondering the correct amount of turns to put on it. Also, the original issue I’ve been having is it always adds an extra thousand at the end of the countdown and it’s been inconsistent during countdown. Sometimes skipping too fast and other times hanging up a little but mostly skipping so I’m guessing I’ve got something too tight like the clock spring.

I’m going to be working on it today and will check to see if the zero switch is opening when it should. I’m posting a video of what it looks like on countdown from the top of the playfield. I can also post a video of the unit itself during countdown later if that helps. Thanks for any help. Danny

Thanks, Yeah I messed up by not counting the turns when I removed the old one but it advances fine. It sometimes hangs then skips when counting down and always adds an extra thousand.

It almost seems like the countdown coil plunger is getting hung up a little. Getting ready to check some things now.

Thanks, I’ll check that out and let you know what I find. I’ll post a video too.

Here’s a video of the unit in countdown from 19,000. The pawl seems to be riding a little high on countdown? I’ll post another with it counting up, which hasn’t been too much of an issue.

Also for reference the first time I did a video of the countdown from 19,000 with the playfield up, the unit stopped stepping down at all halfway through.

I think it is a little bit. This machine was pretty beat up and you can see where the bonus unit frame is scarred up and that pin is bent at the bottom.

My newest problem is that it now will just stop in the middle of a countdown and not sure why. The zero switch is clean and making good contact when closed and I checked and cleaned the switches on the Bonus Zero relay but it’s not helped.

Not sure what I could have done. All I did was prop the playfield up. After I took that video, it won’t finish counting down by itself. No electrical impulse once it stops in the middle of counting down.

I think you nailed it. The pin is pressed in. That explains a lot. As far as the other issues, it’s fully counting down now instead of stopping halfway through. I had the zero switch not making enough contact.

The ball does eject after countdown and the
Bonus score relay stops. I think the sloppiness issue was exactly related to what you pointed out. It does actually countdown the total correctly now except for it still giving an extra thousand on every ball and I think that is somewhat due to the sloppiness in the pawl-gear. If I try to adjust the zero switch so it opens a hair earlier then it puts too much tension to where the gear stop can’t open it up.

I guess I’ll have to live with it for now. Thanks @baldtwit, it’s a little better now and I know now what I need to get.

Thanks a bunch. That’s an incredible bunch of knowledge to decipher and I’m looking forward to getting after this tomorrow.

Really appreciate your help.

Great advice on the quarter turn tightening of the spring. It took a little back and forth adjusting on the zero switch but the unit is now counting down properly.

Still some slop because of that pin being loose so I’ll keep an eye on it and let you know if I need to look for a plate. Thanks again @baldtwit.