I recently acquired an Eight Ball Deluxe LE for the low low price of free. It's been in a barn for the past four years but is in surprisingly great shape and largely free of issues save for a few here and there.

One of those issues is regarding the game start/crediting. The game will boot, play sound, reset drops, and go into attract mode but will not credit or start a game. A few points of order:

1. The test button does nothing. It appears to be soldered correctly and the wires follow into the harness as near as I can tell.
2. The displays do not currently light up.
3. The 3/16 fuse on the solenoid driver board is blown, awaiting replacement.
4. All other fuses are in working order.
5. The volume control on the coin door works, suggesting that the coin door is properly connected therefore defeating my leading theory that it was borked, technical term.
6. The MPU boots correctly, as in the LED flashes the proper 7 times to suggest good working order.
7. I've clicked the credit wire multiple times to coin up the game to no change.

What am I missing here? I feel as though there's something glaringly obvious that I'm simply overlooking. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Awesome, thank you both. I'll take a look at that J3 connector this evening and report back my findings. I'll also check the tilt mech BigAl56 as I didn't think to check that as I only associate tilt with being in game.

Alrighty, after some poking around last night I found some various things that I have complied into one big video. I thought this would be easier than attempting to digest all the various things.

I've also attached some images of the J3 connection referenced in the video. Of course I didn't notice standing in front of the damn thing just how corroded those pins are until I saw the photo, rather until my buddy fatcake pointed it out. So step 1 this evening is going to be to clean those off, and the more I think about it the more I'm guessing that's the issue.

Take a look at the video if you've got some time to spare, I'd appreciate it greatly. Of note in the video is the coil test, is there a coil that's not firing in between the slings and pops, after watching the video today I feel like it's a longer delay between those tests. Thanks.

IMG_6806 (resized).JPG

IMG_6807 (resized).JPG

IMG_6809 (resized).JPG

IMG_6808 (resized).JPG

Forgot one image of the underside of the playfield. I can't find a place to lock the prop bar into and keep it in the elevated position. This has been a huge pain when trying to work within the cab.

IMG_6812 (resized).JPG

Thank you both, sincerely! I've got some work to do. Be in touch soon with I'm sure more updates, poorly lit photos (I'm an art director for a living, the lighting kills me too, promise), and hopefully a working and/or talking EBD LE.

For a quick update, new flipper bats, rubbers, HV fuse, NVRam battery replacement, and all sorts of other fun stuff is inbound from Marco, Pinball Life, and elsewhere.

Hey BigAl56 could you help me out in locating the speech pot on the S&T board? I've located the 28 pin dip via the schematics in U8, is this what you're referring to? Thanks.

Hey everyone, well it's been a minute since I last updated so I thought I'd share some progress.

That maniacal laugh I think says it all, ha! Still have a few things to figure out/repair, the roll over isn't working, the drop targets are slow and dirty, top left pop doesn't always activate, the sound hum is in full effect despite the hopeful fix of pulling it from the metal bracket a bit, and the knocker is still not connected. But it works, it actually works! The sound sometimes has some hiccups but I think recapping the whole S&T will solve those issues and the hum.

Thanks for all of your help, couldn't have got here without you. After working on my Grand Prix for nearly a year and still troubleshooting this was an extremely rewarding project. Whoever said, "hey James, buy a project EM for your first game you'll learn a lot" is dead to me.

Be back soon with a clean game, new rubbers, and all sorts of fun stuff. See you at Texas, maybe.

Hahaha jdoz2 once it's in the basement you can come put GC on it. Promise.

I'm going through and fixing all of the little nagging issues like the 4 ball drop target not registering consistently and the top rollover not working but one issue is larger than the rest. For some reason that I'm not sure why both of the left flippers are not working. The flipper mechanics appear to be in good working order, spring tension is set, and they'll move freely and return when moved by hand. I've included a number of pictures below as I'm honestly at a bit of a loss here.

There are a few "obvious" culprits in the photos:

1. The EOS switch is wonky af, that's a technical term.
2. The solder job at every point is just awful, but multimeter tells me that they're somehow working.
3. There's a few capped ends, could be normal, but I've included here, red cap and electrical tape.
4. Flipper button appears okay and making good contact but with nothing firing you never know if this is it.

Take a look through the photos if you have some time, if it were just one of the flippers this would be significantly less difficult to diagnose but every time I crack it open I'm a bit overwhelmed at all of the potential failure points.

IMG_6878 (resized).JPG

IMG_6879 (resized).JPG

IMG_6877 (resized).JPG

IMG_6876 (resized).JPG

IMG_6875 (resized).JPG

IMG_6874 (resized).JPG

IMG_6873 (resized).JPG

IMG_6880 (resized).JPG

Excellent, thank you both. Diagnosing hacky fixes is definitely where my knowledge starts to break down.