So everything was working fine. Now when I turn it on, coin it up, hit the start button, I hear a click, click, click, and it doesn't try to shoot a ball out. It will do this over and over every 3 seconds. If I manually hit the targets they are working and the score is working but I cant get a ball to kick out. Also I notice that the 4 targets on the right side of the upper middle playfield will drop down when I push them, but once they are all down they will not pop back up. This is only the right side, the left side works great.

I get the feeling that when I push the on/off button on the bottom of the cabinet, that there may be something wrong with the switch because the game doesn't always start properly and sometimes the sound doesn't come on in the game, you have to go to the back, unplug the sound harness put it back on and then the sound will turn on.

Where do I start?

Is there anyone out there that goes through Caveman pcb's?

Is there any links out there on Caveman restorations or maintenance?

Please any help will be appreciated!

Thanks,

Steve

#2 9 years ago

SWM

Stevemoerke

Pinside+ Frequent

North Mankato, MN

10y 58,650 156 15 43

Nobody has any information on trouble shooting caveman problems?

#3 9 years ago

SWM

Stevemoerke

Pinside+ Frequent

North Mankato, MN

10y 58,650 156 15 43

Somebody has to know what I should look at first to check out this Caveman?

#4 9 years ago

CPC

CraigC

Pinside member

Elmhurst, IL

11y 63,600 1,442 31

have you done all of the gottlieb ground mods? have you gone through and checked all the connectors?

-c

#5 9 years ago

DJP

Chitownpinball

Pinside member

Aurora, IL

11y 102K 7,312 5

I have a caveman out for restore for some one, cant wait to get it back. Good luck with your issues, free bump.

#6 9 years ago

ARS

thedefog

Pinside member

10y 93,350 5,673 72

Does the coil actuate when you are hearing the clicking? Also on the drop target return coil, do you hear any sound, or is it just dead?

First thing you want to check on the drop target return coil is that it has a diode on it and that the diode is good. You'll need a DMM. Do this with the machine off. You can also check ohms across the coil to see if it is burnt out. You should see roughly 3ohms or more. If you do not see that, or you get 0 ohms or INF, the coil may be bad.

If the coil tests out good along with the diode, then it could be the driver transistor for that coil.

As for the ball eject, you are going to have to visually inspect that assembly and see where it is getting hung up. More than likely the ball is not feeding into the trough properly or the eject assembly is so worn down that it cannot kick the ball out all the way. Sometimes they can be adjusted or you just have a bad coil return spring on the assembly. Manually move the assembly and see if you notice anything odd. You should be able to drop a ball into the trough and manually see it hit the ball to knock it into the shooter lane. It may also just need to be cleaned and have a new coil sleeve installed.

#7 9 years ago

LBJ

Pinside member

Middletown, NY

11y 36,300 361 21

I have a Caveman issue as well. Whenever you exit the video mode, the ball won't kick out and the screen freezes. No idea where to even start diagnosing this issue. I'm thinking maybe one of the video cards has a problem but I'm really not sure. Anyone have any ideas or experienced this issue before?

#8 9 years ago

ARS

thedefog

Pinside member

10y 93,350 5,673 72

Quoted from LBJ:
I have a Caveman issue as well. Whenever you exit the video mode, the ball won't kick out and the screen freezes. No idea where to even start diagnosing this issue. I'm thinking maybe one of the video cards has a problem but I'm really not sure. Anyone have any ideas or experienced this issue before?

Isn't the video supposed to freeze and the ball then ejects? If it isn't, then the code is crashing at that point. It still could be related to a physical issue, like the code has to see that the coil has fired/switch is activated. It probably is not a video card issue, but an issue with the eject coil and/or associated components, particularly the switch that senses the ball in place to be ejected. I could be as simple as cleaning the switch contacts with a business card.

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