Hello all - recently picked up a non-working Bally Campus Queen (1966). It needs plenty of exterior cosmetic work, and the backglass in rough shape, but the PF is nice and the internals are clean. My previous experience was with a late 60's Gottlieb, so I know I'm in for some differences.

Initial testing showed the whole machine dead, left flipper was not turning on the GI. Found a bad solder connection on one of the left flipper switches, fixed that and now when I press the flipper button, I get GI and the Anti-Cheat relay energizes and stays on. Dropping in a coin or manually attempting to add a credit appears to do nothing. Playfield is illuminated, as well as several portions of the head. The Game Over light is on. The "1" above the Player 1 score reel is lit, and there's a "7" lit in the bottom left corner of the backglass. See pic for reference (apologies for the poor quality).

I'm in the process of ordering the schematic, but figured I would ask around on here since you guys were very helpful with my last EM project. I have plenty of pics of the internals, so if anyone would like to see specifics, let me know. Including a pic of the playfield so you can see the general condition for the heck of it, not bad. Looking for some suggestions while I wait for the schematic to arrive. Thanks in advance!

Some additional quick notes:

- The gentleman I bought this from said he was selling it for a brother-in-law that had it in storage for many years. He knew nothing about it aside from the fact that his brother-in-law was going to try and restore it (he had no pinball knowledge)

- The cabinet has been sanded and bondo'd in various places, so it appears he was starting the cosmetic work before putting it in storage

- I found some odd wiring changes centered around the pop bumper closest to the the bottom of the PF. Looks like someone cut the wires to it, taped them off, and wrapped electrical tape around the associated switches to prevent them from working. Seems odd.

- Play count meter is missing and the corresponding wires are hanging there disconnected

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Thanks! Cleaning away while I wait for the schematic to arrive from PBR. Ordered some likely bits and pieces (as well as some stuff for my other EM project), so I should be ready to work on this some more soon. I'll analyze the schematic and post questions as needed.

I still can't believe how smoothly some of these score reels and other units move. Wherever this thing has been for years, it wasn't terribly stored. Still going to check/clean everything, but wow, given what I've gone through with my other EM, this thing feels spotless ha.

While cleaning and making notes, I've identified one definite issue: The second relay bank (the one closest to the rear of the cabinet) has a non-working coil on it. By non-working, I mean the coil plunger and link are completely removed, so energizing the coil for that relay bank will do nothing.

I found the coil plunger and link arm in the bottom of the cabinet, but there's a "pin" missing that would allow me to reattach the link arm to the plunger. The pin to reattach the link arm to the relay bank is still there at least. Also the clips that hold it on are long gone. See attached pics. One shows a "good" coil on the other relay bank, with everything attached. The other two show the parts I found, and the place where the plunger/link should be. You can see the pin to attach it to the relay bank. I don't have the pin for the plunger arm, or the clips (clips are an easy fix... pin not so much).

I sent PBR a note asking if they have replacement parts/pins for this kind of thing. Any suggestions? I could hit the hardware store and rig up something.

CQ_Coil_Plunger_(resized).jpg
CQ_Coil_Missing_Plunger_(resized).jpg

CQ_Good_Coil__(resized).jpg

While tinkering, I manually released all the relays on the first relay bank (Start, Game Over, 1st thru 4th player tilts). I plugged the machine in, and the game reset all the score reels perfectly. Double-checked by manually adding random scores to all the reels, and it definitely resets them and then the motor comes to a stop as expected. At least I know once I get to that part, things should mechanically function correctly.

Hoping schematic arrives this week.

No luck with PBR, though I did find the exact part number in the Bally parts document they directed me towards. I found something that should work on home depot's site (clevis pin). Just have to wait for it to arrive at my local store.

Continuing the cleaning process, finding all sorts of little items and issues as I go, going to form a list for reference. I could use a little guidance on the schematic, as it's definitely different from my Gottlieb one. I'll see if I can sort out a snippet that shows some of the start up sequence and see what you guys think once I post that. Okay so here's a running list of issues and things I've found/fixed thus far:

1) Plugging the game in and pressing the left flipper button turns on the GI and energizes the Anti-Cheat relay. Attempts to coin-up the machine, add credits, and press start do nothing. If I manually disengage the Game Over relay, the Game Over light comes on. I can then press the Start button, which resets the scores, turns off the Game Over Light, but does not initiate a game.

2) I manually advanced the Player Up unit in the head, which seems to initialize the playfield, flippers, and scoring. If I engage the same unit a second time, it will change to another player and allow a game to be played/scored for that Player. So I know that once I get the startup sequence going, I should be relatively okay in terms of playfield functionality, scoring, etc. I know that's getting ahead of myself at this point, but it's good to know.

3) Game Over, Tilt for Players 1 thru 4, and Player 1 thru 4 illumination working when associated relays are manually triggered. Good to know for testing purposes.

Known Issues/Missing Pieces/etc

A) As noted above, missing coil plunger/link assembly for Mushroom Bumper relay (waiting on part to fix)

B) Missing coil for one pop bumper, wiring disconnected and associated pop bumper switches were taped off by previous owner.

C) Wire disconnected from Credit Unit switch: The wire that is disconnected appears to go from one of the two NO switches when credit wheel is set to 0. The wire in question may have been previously connected to the Coil that removes credits, as there is no wire connected to one side of that coil. Reconnecting this wire has not shown any noticeable changes. I'm guessing this was an attempt to make the game free play, but it does not appear correct to me based on what I've read. Thoughts?

D) Shooter lane entry gate appears to have several issues. I believe the switch blades were bent together, causing a constant connection and forcing the alternating scoring for some of the rollover switches to change non-stop. A previous owner, not realizing the blades were the issue, simply cut the wires going to the gate. Bending the blades back and reconnecting the wires should solve this issue.

E) Coin door switches appear to do nothing, regardless of game state. Guessing the analysis of the start up sequence will locate the issue.

Plenty more I could list, but this is a general idea of what I've seen/found so far. Switch contacts have been cleaned, and I'm still working through the various steppers. I'll add some info on the startup when I can in a bit.

Adding a shot of just a small portion of the schematic for reference. As noted above, pressing the left flipper turns on the GI and energizes the Anti-Cheat relay. From there, nothing. Obviously there's a LOT more to the schematic, but I'm starting here for the moment. Let me know if I'm in the wrong place, I'm still getting the hang of reading Bally's version of these things. Thanks!

CQ_Schem_1_(resized).jpg

Made some nice progress today, here's what happened:

I noticed the Player Up Unit in the head was sticking a bit. It wasn't resetting all the way, and it wouldn't advance/move properly during gameplay activity. I took it apart, cleaned it again, and super lubed up the stepper contacts. For the heck of it, I did the same to the 0-9 Match Unit just in case. Both moved a heck of a lot better, so I fired up the game again to see what would happen...

I can now play a complete game on Player 1! Upon powering up and pressing the left flipper, the illumination will come on and Game Over light will be on. If I have at least 1 credit manually on the credit wheel, and then press the start button, score resets, the ball kicks into the shooting lane and the game begins as it should. I can play a complete game, with the Ball in Play properly illuminating and tracking each drain out. Upon the 5th ball draining, the game goes into Game Over state as it should. Scoring works great, not issues there. However...

- Credit wheel remains at whatever credit I manually set it at, never going down when a game is started. This is clearly because of the wire that someone disconnected from the coil that removes the credits.

- Coin slots still do absolutely nothing, but that may be related to the fact that someone tried setting this all up for free play. They probably disengaged something related to the credit circuit... effort required on this.

- I can't seem to get Players 2 thru 4 to begin a game, but I'll work on that next.

That's where I'm at now. My kids and I just spent about 45 minutes taking turns playing, so this is a good sign. Progress is being made!

Mine's a little different I think. There's a Player Up Unit and Player Advance Relay (as well as a Match relay). It seems like the Player Up Unit is dual function: it tracks which player scoring is active, as well as which ball in play each player is currently on. I'm used to seeing a Ball Count stepper unit, but that's not the case on this machine.

I'm currently really frustrated. I was thrilled because I had it working great all yesterday. We had a bunch of people over, and lots played and enjoyed the game. We kept it simple: Player 1 game worked fine, so as long as once the game went into Game Over after 5th ball drain, we simply pressed Start again a new game would start. Now, something is wrong...

Whenever the ball is in the outhole, the Ball Return Relay will cycle on and off repeatedly. The Outhold kicker refuses to fire, so the game gets stuck in an endless loop of Ball Return Relay firing over and over (which also resets the Mushroom Bumper relay, but that's expected on each ball drain). I had this problem initially, but after cleaning the Player Up Unit the issue seemed to resolve. Now... no luck. I've re-cleaned and rechecked everything I can think of, so I'm at hair-pulling-out status. Taking a break for a bit, been at it for hours this morning.

Suggestions/thoughts are welcome. I can post a vid of what's happening if people would like, let me know. /headsmash break time.

Sure thing, here you go. Also including the Ball Return Relay section in case that helps. I was thinking score motor related, so I re-cleaned everything in there... no luck.

CQ_Outhole_Kicker_(resized).jpg

CQ_Ball_Return_Relay_(resized).jpg

Yes, the ball return relay is firing. However, the problem is that whenever the ball is in the outhole, the Ball Return Relay just fires over and over and over, non-stop. The score motor will also rotate non-stop. If you check MechaGregor_'s Campus Queen post, he's got the same exact issue, and posted a video here (NOTE: this is NOT my video, it's his, but we have the same exact issue it seems) Skip to around 3:30 in the video if you just want to see what happens when the ball is in the outhole:

I've checked and cleaned the ball return relay a bunch of times, I'll do the same with the match relay again and report back. As for the score motor 8C... I'm having a little difficultly identifying which is which with the cams, etc since I'm inexperienced, so I cleaned them all again haha.

We have a winner! Thanks fred. Good call on the continuity testing. I had cleaned everything, but failed by not noticing something on the Ball Return Relay: The middle blade of the make/break switch was actually missing most of the actual contact. I found a small scrap of the contact in the bottom of the cabinet. Looks like the contact simply wore out and snapped off from the "pin" portion that goes in the switch blade hole... So the contact face fell off. One side still had continuity, but when the relay triggers, it's not completing the other side of the make/break cycle.

For now, I simply adjusted the other side of the make/break switch so that it's closer. Now the center blade itself touches the contact on the far side of the make/break. While not a proper fix, it does complete the circuit. Outhole kicker working again, and so is the Game Over function, etc.

Question: What's the best "fix" for this situation? Buy a whole new relay? Solder in a new contact? Hack-y ideas come to mind (little dab of solder). I just want to do it "right" if possible, so I'm open to suggestions.

So I'm back to where I was, game fully functional for 1-player gaming. None of the credit features seem to work, I'm just in perpetual single-player free game mode.

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Interesting. Mine Player Up Unit steps like this: Player 1 Ball 1 , Player 2 Ball 1, Player 3 Ball 1, Player 4 Ball 1, Player 1 Ball 2, ... etc.

So since I seem to be in Single-player mode, it will click 4 clicks forward each time a ball drains into the outhole. Once the 5th ball drains, Game Over light comes on and the game ends normally. Pressing Start again will reset everything (including the Player Up Unit) and a new game begins.

Here's a stupid question: When you want to play multiple players at once, how would you set that up? Just press Start several times in a row, correct? I'm wondering if the issue is related to the fact that my credit and coin related stuff seems disabled. If the credits never add or subtract, no matter what I do (unless I add them by hand in the head on the credit wheel), then how would the game even know it has enough credits to allow multiple players to start a game? Hmmm. I think what I'll do first (in the morning when people in the house are awake) is manually trigger the relay that adds additional players, just to see if it works properly.

I'll take a closer look in the a.m. and report back.

Good idea. So I went to the Coin Unit and noted that throughout the entire process of pressing start thru the end of a game, it never once moves. Dropping in coins does nothing either. So it basically just sits there. After starting a game, I did as you suggested and manually advanced the Coin Unit. As soon as I did that, Player 2 lit up and I was able to play a 2 Player game. I did the same thing again, advancing the Coin Unit, and 3rd Player lit up and could play, etc.

First thing I notices was that I need to clean the Coin Unit, it's a little sticky in its rotation. However, since it's not even trying to move, that's not my primary issue. Here's a pic, not great, of the Unit section

Edit: Note, earlier I posted the Coin Chute and general coin section, in Post #10 of this thread.

CQ_Coin_Unit_(resized).jpg

I cleaned and super-lubed the contacts on the Coin Unit, moves much smoother when manually triggered now. If I can figure out how to make it function properly, it should turn well.

Using a jumper, I reconnected the wire a previous owner had removed between the Replay Unit switch (credit wheel in the head) and the coil that removes credits. This disconnected wire was how a previous owner set it to free play I guess. With that jumper in place, the game properly removes credits when the Start button is pressed. Since I cannot add credits by inserting coins yet, it doesn't do me much good, so I took the jumper back off for now. At least now I know if I can restore the ability to credit up the machine with coins, I could always reconnect that wire to get "normal" credit removal functionality back.

I did some continuity testing on the coin chute switches, they seem to be good, so I know when a coin is dropped into the slot and hits the switch, the signal at least gets to the jones connector pin. So my issue is somewhere between that, and whatever process adds a credit to the machine and allows me to add additional players, etc. For reference on the Coin Chute and related section, see my schema image on post #10 of this thread.

Thoughts?

Coin chute switches seem to be good. I just started a game, then manually triggered the "Multi-Play" relay. It advanced the Coin Unit I just finished cleaning (yay) and added the 2nd Player to the game. I triggered the Multi-Play relay again, and it added the 3rd Player, etc. So I know if I can get the Multi-Play to trigger properly, it will add players to the game.

EDIT: Possibly important note... I have no play count meter, it appears to have been removed. There is a wire just hanging there, doing nothing, where it used to be. I would think two wires would be hanging there, but I only see one. Not sure if this matters? I'll post a pic.

I'm probably not testing this the way you're suggesting, so I apologize, but here's what I found. This is true for all 3 switches, but let's just focus on Coin Switch #1:

- Continuity exists between one side of the coin switch and its respective relay. There are four switches on the 1st Coin Chute Relay. The White-Blue (52) wire from the first coin switch corresponds to the Grey Wire (90) on the relay in terms of continuity. The other side of the coin switch corresponds to the matching opposite blade in the relay (Brown).

- With power on, and the coin switch NOT pressed, I get 48.6V when testing each side of the coin switch. When I press the switch, the voltage drops to zero. Measuring the corresponding blades in the Coin Chute Relay, I find the same 48.6V when I test on the two relay switch blades (while they are still open).

- Manually triggering 1st Coin Chute Relay seems to start a new game for some reason.

Here's the color code chart, should have included that sorry. Also some pics of the coin switch, associated connector, and Chute Relay(s).

CQ_Color_Code_(resized).jpg

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Just so I'm clear, you're saying I should *not* be getting continuity from the White-Blue wire to the Gray wire on the coil (and switch) of the 1st Chute Relay?

As it stands now, because the game is in "free play" mode, when I plug it in and press the left flipper, I get GI. Then I press Start, which resets the game and starts a single-player game. If I drop a coin in any chute, at any time, nothing happens. Same if I trigger the coin switches manually. One thing I tested was switch function to the Jones plug. For example, if I put test leads on the White-Blue and Red connections on the jones plug (which go to the blue-white and brown wires on 1st coin switch), I get continuity when the switch is triggered. So that tells me I'm good from the coin switch to the jones plug, right?

There's an adjustable setting that's labeled "2nd and 3rd Coin Chute". It has 6 positions and 1 movable plug to use. It's currently in position 2 (where it was when I got the game). I'm not sure what that setting controls exactly. On the schematic, there's a reference to "1st Coin Chute Adjustment" but there's no such setting area that I've found thus far. Since there's no mention of the 2nd and 3rd Coin Chute adjustment, I find this odd.

You're in fire sir. Bingo again, this was it. I was struggling to find a "coin bounce switch" anywhere because I was looking in the wrong place. Attached is an image of it. What you can't see from this image is that someone in the past put a screw into the bottom of the cabinet, propping the switch and preventing it from doing anything "bouncing" at all. The same is true of the coin door slam (anti-cheat) switch.

Anyway, the switch blades were not quite touching on the Coin Bounce switch, so after a quick cleaning and readjustment, Coil Slot 1 works! This also fixed my 1 thru 4 player issue. So now when I press Start repeatedly (or drop 4 straight coins in), I can add all 4 players to the game!

Big thanks to Fred on this, I knew I was missing something simple, and you nailed it again. Going to go play a few games and figure out what needs fixing next. I'll report back with progress/issues.

Edit: side thank you to polyacanthus - he also suggested I check that coin bounce switch. You both nailed it. I had assumed it was the one on the coin door until fred pointed out the wire colors.

CQ_Coin_Bounce_(resized).jpg

Yea... I have no idea what to do on the backglass haha. This poor thing is rough. I'd actually like to restore the cabinet some. A former owner already stripped/sanded it and did some bondo-body work it seems. So I'm mostly in for painting/stenciling. Since the design is so basic, I'm thinking I could make a stencil at home and try and replicate the "triangle" theme. Maybe I can get MechaGregor to send me some images of his, it looked to be in okay shape.

I also need a few parts (missing pop bumper solenoid, etc). More to come though, thanks again!

Stripped, cleaned and waxed the playfield, looks pretty nice. Changed the rubber rings out as well. I think long term I will probably pick up replacement white posts, since it seems impossible to restore the slightly yellowed with age ones. I cleaned them, but they'll never be pristine white again, and replacements are cheap. For now they're fine though, so I'm not concerned.

To Do List (parts incoming from PBR):
- Replace a few more bulbs
- Replace pop bumper coil
- Fix rebound bumper (mounting bracket was missing when I got it)

Longer Term (nicer weather):
- Re-Paint/Re-Stencil cabinet
- Find replacement backglass (and save what's left of mine in the mean time)

No, haven't tried the peroxide method. I saw vague references to it, but no one was really jumping up and down about it. Honestly, the slightly yellowed look doesn't bother me too much. I think it's just against the stark white of the new rubber, it looks odd haha.

Haha, this is exactly what I did when I reassembled the playfield.