For whatever reason, my brain glazes over when trying learn more about EM support. I bought a game awhile back because the lure of the chimes and the challenge to learn more about EM pinball repair. The chimes still work their magic, but my game has never seemed to need serious repair. Absent of a needed problem to fix, I tried to learn about EMs in general and have only mustered apathy. For example, I devoured the This Old Pinball videos on solid state, but fell asleep during three separate attempts to view an EM one. It's like trying to teach a baseball fan cricket. Despite a mostly honest effort, I've remained an EM noob.
My C37 receives the least play of my collection and maybe that's why I did not notice the lighting issue was so pronounced. I was recently watching an online game play video and noticed that the insert lights alternate on every hit. It's not just rollovers, but the pops too that cause the change. Mine does not seem to work that way.
This expertly captured video shows how the lights function on my game:
When I turn my game on the lights will switch and after a few games they will flicker on the rollovers, but not the constant swapping that it seems they are supposed to do. My match number also does not automatically change at the end of each game.
From what I've read in the other threads about this issue, it seems like this part in the image below is the culprit, but I'm not sure if I am right or what is wrong with the part. I partially disassembled it and cleaned everything that looked like a contact. I think the only change is that the light flicker more frequently now on a rollover.
As I mentioned, the lights do swap when I start a game, so it's capable of working at least partially.
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It looks like their might be a broken piece of plastic on the assembly for the gears. Could that be the issue? If so, where would I even get that part?
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Any suggestions on how to perform this kind of basic EM repair or point me in the right direction would be much appreciated.