I bought an 8 Ball Deluxe, 1981 version I think, a few months ago. Photo included for identification. I'll list current issues first.

1. One odd thing the machine does every time I turn it on is it says "Eight Ball Deluxe, 3 Ball". Why does it say 3 ball? That can't be normal, can it? There is no issue with my 3 ball that I can tell.

2. Sometimes when starting a game, player 1 will get 30 points before launching the ball. I am thinking this is a switch that is very sensitive, but what has a value that low? Or is this something else?

3. When the ball hits the bumpers fast, I get dimming of the lights on the board. Is that normal? Do people upgrade the power supply to eliminate that? If so, what do you use?

4. I've had a couple times when the machine has been running a long time that the voice stops. No fuses blown, I just shut it off and on, and it's good again. Is it Just a standard heat issue, or should I be careful of a larger problem looming?

5. One thing not an issue, does anyone know if this pinball normally has any magnets under the play field? I don't see any, but some areas are a bit buried. My playfield is not perfectly flat, so the ball moves strange at times anyway.

I think that covers the issues I still have, anyone that wants to learn from my limited knowledge of this machine so far, read on.

I had issues with the audio failing,(and some other things failed to work) and tracked it to a blown fuse. I replaced it with the same size fuse, and it happened a few times after that. Rookie mistake, I should have looked in the manual for the correct fuse size, as the fuse in there was actually too small. It was F5, and they had a 10amp fuse, and it is supposed to be a 20 amp. Been good since.

I had trouble with the upper left rollover not triggering all the time, especially if the ball was traveling fast. I first bent the contacts so the switch was more sensitive, but then it would trigger randomly when the ball hit something hard, or you bumped the cabinet. I found that my aftermarket playfield had a bump just before the rollover, so I had to literally beat it down and then readjusted the switch so it wasn't so sensitive. Good now.

The left Slingshot was triggering several times most of the time when the ball would hit it. At first I thought it might be a bad diode, but found that it was actually that one of the two switches was too sensitive. It was almost completely closed in it's static state. I opened it up a bit, and it's good now.

I had the left flipper fail, replaced the solenoid, no biggie.

I've had a couple wires come loose that just had to be resoldered, wires loose in a connector, standard for something of this age. I am debating on replacing all the connectors next winter when life slows down a bit.

My game is set for a free game at 600,000, and 1,100,000. The card on the front says 1,000,000 and 2,000,000. What is the standard? I know, it really doesn't matter too much.

I am assuming you can only get one free ball per ball. One time I played I got a ball after the 3rd ball, and it actually said ball 4 in the display, how does this happen? It hasn't happened since.

I love the game, and enjoy seeing the level of technology they had back in 1980. The simplicity of the tilt sensor plumb bob is awesome. Hopefully I can add to the community in the future, for now I have a 99.9% working machine, and I am happy with it. Brings back childhood memories!!!

Hopefully somebody can answer my questions, or at least send me in the right direction. Thanks for any help!

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Thank you everyone very much!!!

Sorry I didn't get back sooner, family over for the holiday.

Thanks, I should have read the manual before asking this one. I have it set to a 3 ball game, not a 5 ball game. I had my mind stuck on pool, not thinking about it being a 3 ball pinball game.

I checked those switches, and they have good gaps. I gave them a little tweak, and not sure why, but I still get that 30 points once in a while. Not a big issue, haven't had a game won by that small of a spread, yet.

Good, I didn't think so, I guess my after market playfield is just not the best. When the ball rolls slow, it makes some strange moves.

That is correct. All other audio works.

I have 121vac before firing up the machine. 120vac after it is on, and 119vac at the transformer input. My machine is wired for 115vac, not sure why that is, should I rewire it for 120vac? Of all the electronics I have dealt with, I've never seen anything but 120vac, and 240vac, with a huge range for each. Seems odd that this would be that picky. I would love to switch to LED's, that seems like something that will take some time, so might be a winter project.

On this note, I checked the temp of the ceramic resistor on the power module and I know they are designed to get hot, but mine was at 225 degrees! The transformer was about 150 degrees.

Tried that, will see what happens. The board is not original, so not extremely old.

Thanks again everyone, I look forward to spending a lot of time getting to know this pinball machine much better over the years. It really brings back childhood memories, and now it fulfills my joy of tinkering.

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I just had the audio go out on me. The machine had been on for a few hours. This time turning it off and on did not help. Come to think of it, that might have only worked once.

F5 was blown. Could this be blowing because of the same issue that my resistor on the power module is getting so hot? I have now read a temp of 260 degrees on that ceramic resistor.

I have included a photo of the Squawk and talk board.

I will try to get some video of the lights on the playfield dimming when the bumpers are hitting.

Thanks again everyone.
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OK, done! That was fun since I forgot to bring a pin pusher home from work.

Image attached with voltages. I tried to place it in the text and they removed the spaces even though they were there in the preview.

I haven't run it much since the change, but it seems fine.
I have blown F5 twice in the last few days prior to this change.

My 11.9VDC is still a bit high, 6.5VAC is a bit low, everything else looks fine to me.
I don't know how picky this machine is, so please let me know what you think.

Thanks again for all the help!
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Did they look all that bad before?

I will get some hours on it and see how it does.

Thanks.

I'll check that, thanks.

Since changing the jumpers for 120v vs 115v, I have noticed the bumpers don't hit as hard. Not real happy about that, although I guess I wouldn't have known if it would have been that way to start.

I did it kind of like this guy did. I used the longest widest staples I could find.

Correct.

I'll see how it does, but I haven't blown any fuses since the change. When I have friends over it can be on for a good 5-6 hours. We are having a big party in a couple weeks, it will be on longer than that, so we will see how it does.

I might just do some of those upgrades, just not till winter.

Thanks.