Hey all!

I just started getting interested in pinball machine's and have bought 2 pinball EM's.
I bought a Bally - Big Valley (1970) EM that worked for 2 games, but suddenly stopped working.
The problem is when I press the start button, it looks like the machine is checking everything, but goes straight into game over. The Ball doesn't come out either. (See video)
http://giphy.com/gifs/3o72Fdv8zxjAtkjOQo

I'm a total noob here so no experience at all :/

Thanks for all help in advance!

Best Regards
Jørgen

giphy_(resized).png

Okey, I have manually pressed the ball count unit and it looks like everythings fine there. I can press it six times and then resett it.
About cleaning the contact points, what should I use, Flexstone? I have just ordered a Flexstone so I'll have it in about 2 weeks I think

And actually right now, all the lights in the back box have stopped working, no light at all...

Okey. I will try that and hope some of my problemes will be fixed

Aaaand now did I order fuses for the machine.... Thanks alot Wizardblom! xD

UPDATE!

I have now tested a few things on the Big Valley and found out 1 new thing (Not sure if it will help tho)

I found the Ball count Unit and when I manually push the wheel (NOT the coil, but the wheel itself) and press start, the game starts at ball 1.
But when the ball drains I get a new ball and I'm still on ball 1. And it stays like this forever..... So not sure if it is the ball count unit that is rusty or something?

When I push start, the ball count unit barley move, it don't advance to the next hop. Even if I manually try to advance the ball count with the solenoids it doesn't advance. I HAVE to move the wheel itself, not with solenoids. So I'm thinking I need to put some grease or something like that somewhere?

Okey. Thanks so far.
I will come back to you when I have done that

Okey, I have now (atleast I think so) cleaned the gearwheel and greased it with light oil....
The problem is still there
The gear won't move what so ever when I put it back in. It's almost like the gearwheel is 1 size to big or something :/
Anyone got some tips for what I should do?

Hey Rolf,

Lots of good information

About the Ball Count Unit (As I think that's the problem ), I can manually press the coil to move it 5 times, but when I press the Total-Reset coil, the gear don't move at all.... It never resets, so I have to move the gear itself to get it back to start because it's kind of stuck...

If you want I can record it tomorrow so you can watch if you want to?

And yeah, I alwayus unplug the power

Thanks for helping so far Rolf

Best Regards,
Jørgen

Hi Rolf!

Yeah, it's like that on the Bally EM.
It's true that the plunger un-hooks from the gear, and I have the spring that's connected to the wheel. I tried to tightened it really hard this morning, but it didn't help (Maybe I didn't tightened it hard enough?) After I tried to tightened the spring I took the wheel of again and it spinned like crazy( but that was after I took the wheel of the unit!!!)..... I think at max I took the spring 2 turns around!

If you have no other tricks I can take a fast trip to the EM and record what's happening if you want to?

Best Regards,
Jørgen

Okey Rolf.
As the pinball machine is at my work and the clock is 00:10 midnight time here in Norway I will check the Player- and the Coin Unit tomorrow and have some feedback
And again thank you so far for helping me Rolf!

Best Regards,
Jørgen

Hey Rolf

I have now checked the Player- and Coin Unit and they do what you say... I can manually press the coil to advance 1 step at a time then press the "Total-Reset-Coil" for the "Wraaam" and back to zero. It's not like this at the Ball Count Unit. The Ball Count unit doesn't move at all when I press the "Total-Reset-Coil" :/

Regards,
Jørgen

UPDATE!

The Ball Count Unit is now working manually Rolf
But it doesn't move when the power is on.....

Regards,
Jørgen

Hey Rolf!

I have now tested to see if the Player- and Coin Unit reset's after I set them to 2,3 or 4 and YES they do
The Ball Count Unit does also reset's itself when I start a new game! But it won't advance when I drain a ball, BUT if I tilt the machine then the Ball Count Unit advance to the next level...

Regards,
Jørgen

Well... I can't really say that I'm good at testing, just random beginner luck maybe? xD

But yeah, I have now tested what happend's when I score points.
The Ball Index Relay pulls everytime I get point's, except when I score the 1000 point's on the outlane's (Maybe normal?).
The 3rd-Ball-Relay does NOT pull at all when it's supposed to go to the next player / ball :/

Regards,
Jørgen

Hey Rolf

Not quite sure where to look to be honest :/
The Ball-Index-Switch is closing everytime I score point, but it doesn't stay pulled, it just go in and straight out again.

And the Self-Hold-Switch? Not sure what you mean by that :/ I can see that there is a small wire that goes from the Ball-Index-Switch to the Out-Hole-Switch and that goes on to 3rd-Ball-Switch which go over to Tilt-Switch.
So the wire goes Ball-Index -> Out-Hole -> 3rd Ball -> Tilt and stops there.

Regards,
Jørgen

Hello Rolf

I have noe located the wires

And yes, I have both the White-Brown wire that goes from the Coil to the switch and the Orange-Green that goes from the switch into oblivion with many other wires

I don't see any other loose wires or anything like that.

I haven't cleaned the switch yet, but as I said in an earlier post I have ordered a Flexstone that I'm waiting to get

And still when I score the relay gets activated /lock's in for 0.2 seconds or something like that. It does NOT stay locked in permanent.

Regards,
Jørgen

Hey Rolf

I don't have a bare wire atm, but can get it later.
And take it easy, I have a Bow and Arrow pinball machine I'm having fun with while fixing Big Valley

So you got any clue's on what to do next in the troubleshooting?

Regards,
Jørgen

Hey Rolf

A co-worker of mine helped me with a jumper-wire.
Not sure if we did it right, but now when we start a game it start at ball 1, BUT jump's straight over to ball 2.
When we now drain the ball it goes over to ball 3 and then over to GAME OVER as normal.
So I can play now, but it start's at ball 2.

Regards,
Jørgen

Hey Rolf

We have made progress.
We used a jumper-wire to connect 2 wire's from the Ball Index to each other and now the ball's count correctly.
The wire's we connected was Yellow-Black to Red-Green (Atleast we think that's the colours)
And as you said we don't get the save ball when we don't score point's

Regards,
Jørgen

I think I'm going to resolve this for now and maybe open a new 1 if I want to fix the problem.

Anyway, thank you so much for all your help Rolf!!!
Much appriciated

Best Regards,
Jørgen