I have been restoring a DE Time Machine for the last couple of weeks, and have run into a strange issue with he Left / Right select relay. For lack of a better description, it seems that the relay is slow. In regular game play, if the game is trying to fire the up kicker, I hear one of the chimes sound at the same time the up kicker fires. (Both the chime and the up kicker share the same transistor, and the proper selection is supposed to be controlled by the L/R relay. The same thing happens when the game tries to fire the lock release solenoid. In that case, a different chime sounds every time the lock release is activated. Again, the lock release and the 2nd chime share the same drive transistor. This issue does not happen in test mode though (all coils and flash lamps fire correctly). The one difference I can think of is that in test mode, the game waits longer after it sets the L/R relay before actually firing the coil. I already tried replacing the L/R relay , because the old relay contacts were severely pitted and burned, but the new relay did not help. In fact, I imagine the L/R relay is not designed to switch when current is present on its contacts. If things are working correctly, the L/R relay should be set before and of the coil drive transistors are turned on. I should also mention that I do hear the L/R relay activate in regular game play appropriately, as I said before it just seems like it is doing a little late...
Has anyone ever run into his before? I am at a loss as to what to try since things work as expected in test mode.
Any thought would be greatly appreciated!