First time posting. Recently got my first pin - a Wizard - and I'm loving it. But, I'm new to a lot of things about pinball, in particular reading and using schematics to solve issues, so I appreciate the patience! I will eventually come up to speed but I'm not there yet.

I have an issue with being awarded an extra ball. It had been working properly as of a week or so ago but now I'm having a problem. When the bonus maxes out, the extra ball light does go on in the left lane going up top as expected. However, rolling over that lane/light does not trigger the extra ball as it should. The contacts under the rollover appear to be making solid connections. But, the 'shoot again' light in the bottom of the playfield does not light up when the rollover takes place in the extra ball lane. Nor is an extra ball awarded. The machine just moves on to the next 'scheduled' ball.

I have looked at and cleaned the contacts on the extra ball switch in the cabinet and they at least appear to be fine. Further, if I manually engage the extra ball switch after the extra ball light comes on, it stays closed/energized and all seems to operate as expected - shoot again light comes on and extra ball is awarded after the current ball drains. After the extra ball is played, it progresses to the next counted ball.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance!

Chris

Thank you HowardR , I really appreciate it. The links were very useful. I think I'm slowly coming around. I've worked a lot with model trains so the concepts are very familiar but reading the schematics will be a learning curve for me.

Anyway, I jumped the circuit and the Extra Ball Relay did indeed energize and hold. I then moved to the Left Lane Rollover switch and jumped from both sides of that. When jumped from the BR-Y side to the Extra Ball Relay, it also energized and held. Then I ran from the G-W contact point on the Left Lane Rollover and it too energized and held the Extra Ball Relay, assuming I activate the Left Lane Rollover on the playfield.

Does this imply that the issue lies in between the Left Lane Rollover and the Extra Ball Relay or is there a parallel circuit that is now the concern?

Again, thank you so much.

Thanks again. My apologies as I probably didn't explain it well. I can confirm that the rollover switch does work. If I jump from the relay wire side of the switch to the actual extra ball relay, and then rollover the switch, then the extra ball relay locks.

So, and please excuse the crude drawing on the attached schematic, I jumped the following way (in green) and then closed the switch (also in green) and the extra ball relay did indeed close. Without this jump, it doesn't close when the rollover is activated. Prior jump was from the #19 post on the bonus unit to the extra ball relay. That too energized and locked it.

InkedExtra Ball Relay_LI (resized).jpg

I will focus on that and let you know how I make out.

I can’t thank you enough.

Fixed! Loose jones plug. You guys were spot on and I want to thank you for helping out someone new to this. Not only was the problem solved but I also learned a few things.

Thanks again HowardR and woz for your time and patience!!!

(This has been very gratifying.)