I just picked up a 1972 Williams/United Cape Code shuffle alley from a guy looking to make space. It was an OK deal and included delivery. He said it was his parents and in the basement for years, but it looks to be in rough cosmetic shape. There are city operating approval stickers on it from the 90's so I'm assuming it was in commercial use for some period of time. I've done an quick inspection of the game - no fuse issues, no burnt coils, turns on, resets pins on game start. That's about as far as it goes. The GAME OVER light automatically comes on at Frame 1.

I've checked the manual which indicates that if this is the case, I should check the Lock relay, Lock switches, Tilt, and then the Frame Stepper. I believe the Frame Stepper is not resetting correctly. However, there are a handful of other issues and I'm not sure the order in which I should try to troubleshoot these. Perhaps one issue is causing part of another. Also some require some work which I think would be easier with the unit dismantled so maybe those make sense to do first?

Things I believe I need to fix:

• Frame stepper doesn't appear to reset to the proper location
• #1 Pin hanger is broken so the pin itself won't retract.
• Alley rollovers need contacts clean and some reset. Some stay stuck 'down' when activated. Others in the back row don't trip to indicate it's the next shot.
• Game Select missing button. Manually activating the contact doesn't change the games (but adjusting the Game stepper manually does)

To fix the pin hanger, I think I need to take the alley out to then let me take the pin deck out. Since this means disconnecting the plug connections, so to me I'd do this first before troubleshooting anything electrical? Is there a way to get into the pin mechanisms without taking the whole game apart?

It seems like I'd be in the same situation to clean and fix the rollovers. There isn't enough space under the game and working on my back is less than ideal. So I probably need to adjust all of those with the alley removed and flipped over? Are the contacts the only part that provides the resistance to push the rollover metal wire back up?

I'm going to take the clean the frame stepper according to the steps on http://www.pinrepair.com/em/index2.htm#steps. I feel like this would be the last thing to do?

Once I can get a regulation game to play without errors, then I'll focus on selecting a different game.

Does this all sound right? Located in Metro Detroit.

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I found the directions in the manual for the pin deck access without disassembling. 2 screws in the back box and two under the lower back glass and it slides right out.

Thanks Dr_of_Style. I realized as I started digging into the game a few of the things you mentioned; most notably that everything is tied together. Slowly addressing each item. 2 questions though:

I tightened all the switch stacks and adjusted a few contacts for the rollovers. This seemed to make all of the rollovers work as expected. When you said to take the wires out, are you referencing the metal rollover wire or something else?

Is this each players scoring unit? These are less like steppers. Do these all get cleaned the same way as a step unit?

I cleaned the steppers and things seem to be working much better. However, in a multi-player game the player stepper only resets 1 or 2 players back. The stepper looks to hold in the reset open position to go back to player 1, but the spring doesn't seem to be wound enough to get it back to that spot. What's the right way to adjust that tension?

Also noticing the the game switches on the first pick throw only. It doesn't change after that. I can manually replicate this if I start a new game and hit the back row rollover relay. I see the 1st ball relay close and the score motor spins but the game stepper also increments 1 spot. Any ideas on what might cause that?

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I woke up with some clarity on the required fix. When I cleaned the unit and had the stepper off, I think that I pushed the shaft to hard which allowed the gear to unwind by a revolution. I simply loosed the nut on the wipers, pushed the gear back to get past the reset catch position, and wound the coil spring 1 revolution. Tighten the nut and resets like a champ.

This one was a mystery because there isn't currently a button for the Select game. However, when I opened up the coin box I found a mangled switch for game Select. I did my best to straighten out the leafs and align the contacts. I haven't seen the game switch issue since.