Quoted from Tophervette:

I am no expert, but I have had several problems with my MPF not rising. So it sounds like your motor and gears are not the problem. That leads me to believe that either there is no power going to the motor through the wires from the motor or power board. Or the opto just below the motor is not working. One problem I had was that the switch in the upper left corner of the playfield that detects the glass is installed went bad on me. Once I replaced it, Everything worked. Another time, the plug to the motor of the MPF was not making a connection so that caused a NO CC/CCW error. I have read here, that if the set screw to the wheel attached to the motor gets loose and the wheel is not aligned with the opto, that it will also cause an error. It would help for you to go into test mode and report exactly what the errors are showing.

Quoted from eyeamred2u:

What is the history of the MPU? Original? Repaired? Replaced? Connectors all repinned?
What issues with the kickouts? Random firing on startup? Does the Tardis VUK also fire? If so, may want to dig into some old posts in this thread.

Quoted from eyeamred2u:

Place the game into test mode, then place a ball into the kickout and see if the optos register in test mode. If they register, you need to work the problem upstream. I would start looking for a broken wire, worn female/male pins at the associated connector.

Quoted from pinballinreno:

There is no separate fuse for the motor but the wires and connector are often worn and broken.
And the motors can fail
Its best to remove the unit and check it out on the workbench.
Rebuilding the time expander is a job in itself.

Quoted from pinballinreno:

I always just pull it out for maintenance.
Its so much easier to work on out of the game.
Plus i can look at the wires and connectors easily and trace them to the circuit boards.
Like most owners who have had the game for awhile, pulling out the tome expander is a 10 min job.
Ive pulled it out at least 50 times lol.
Finally i built a brand new one ($500 worth of parts) during restoration, replaced all the connectors and wires with new silicone wire, added cliffys and LEDs.
Its rock solid!
The 10 opto board was replaced with a homepin one and it works really well.

Quoted from pinball_faz:

This really feels like a cold solder joint or a broken wire. Rather than exchanging a ton of messages on Pinside (hours/days apart), I'm game to do a Zoom call to talk through your issues. Might get us quicker to the solution. You're in southern Australia ... right? we can make that work with timezones
PM if you want to connect.
faz

Quoted from pinball_faz:

Jason and I got together yesterday (Awesome conversation btw).
Nothing too simple here. We did a lot of good diagnosti-cating (new word) and it really points to a bi-directional board that's been way abused by a prior owner. Power into the board is solid. Power out is intermittent and really does not make sense. The "intermittent" part suggests there's a cold solder joint in the circuit. One of the pads is completely gone and there's so many bad solder joints on this tiny board that it will be very frustrating to get this going again without replacing all the components as I honestly don't trust any of them. There's some serious scorching on the back too which suggests someone soldered with a blow torch or the board had a major short at one point that took out a component (L1/L2). Another weirdness is power exiting the board at +/- 1v when on. A new board should get the DR time traveling again.
Really enjoyed meeting and good luck getting that replacement board.
faz

Quoted from Tophervette:

1. I ran the full switch test and paid particular attention to those switches in the same row. For example all the other OPTOs in the vertical column of the matrix, then all the parts in the row of the matrix. The only one out was SW71 right most OPTO. Confirmed it by playing a game and touching the mushrooms with a pencil eraser when the MPF was in the second level configuration. Again, only right most mushroom did not work.
2. Have not added any lights.
3. The Opto Carrier is the better Swinks one. The boards are original Bally/Williams.
4. The Swinks Opto Carrier and boards are wrapped in black construction paper and black electrician tape.
5. The credit dot problem sometimes goes away in the middle of the game if the MPF is raised. But comes back later.
I will try the camera trick next once I get the MPF out. As a precaution, I have ordered a set of OPTO boards from Marcos. Do not who made them, yet, if they are even marked.
I am guessing a cold solder joint on the right most Opto or reciever or loose wire, due to the intermittent nature.
I have a spare wired up set of Opto boards from the extra MPF I bought before owning the game. I will try the camera trick with that board as well. Good to have spares.
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

Quoted from ignat:

My MPF on Doctor Who #1 was having all kind of weird issues - odds on if nothing else makes sense its that board.