How could my faithful El Dorado fail me during this stay-at-home madness!?

I was playing along happily when the ball got stuck behind one of the top drop targets. I powered down, slid the glass down a few inches and freed the ball. But when I went to turn the power on again, the machine didn't want to complete the reset. The "spinny-thing" on the floor of the unit (picture below) just goes around and around -- never stopping.

I counted something like 4.3 zillion wires and 3.1 gigaswitches on the spinny-thing - so I sensed immediately that I was in trouble. I took a quick look at the scoring reels as I read here that sometimes they don't completely zero and the machine might continue to attempt the reset. Nothing seemed obviously wrong. I powered down/up a couple of times, but as soon as power is applied the spinny-thing starts rotating.

It seems like a strange coincidence that the stuck ball might have caused this.

Question One: What is the correct name for the spinny-thing?

Question Two: Any ideas where I would start to solve this problem?

I'm a mechanical engineer by training and have replaced flipper coils and other simple stuff...

TIA

Harry

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Thank you currieddog!! It looks like the last scoring reel has got a problem. It's stuck on "4" with a fixed "0' afterwards. Interesting, I found a loose wire on reel #3 (picture below). I alligator clipped that to the terminal I assume it belongs to, but the scoring wheel continues to turn. I hear a clicking in the mechanism of the last reel with each rotation of the scoring wheel.

And thanks for pointing me to the detailed repair instructions!! What a wealth of information!

You mentioned that the problem might be a target switch which is not properly positioned. As I mentioned in my original post, all of this fun started when the ball got stuck behind one of the top targets. I looked there first but couldn't see how to easily get to any switch that might be associated with a given target. With the playfield down and the decorative panel removed, there doesn't seem to be access from the top. Access from the underside looks imposing as the targets are far into the underside. What does one do to service these -- do you have to remove the entire playfield?

Regardless, thanks for your input as I have two very creditable solutions on line!

Harry

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Upon closer inspection, I see that the lowest number reel has a different solenoid. The picture to the left is the solenoid found on the other 3 reels - presumably the factory version. The problem reel has a smaller solenoid pin diameter and, instead of gripping the plastic slider with a fork-like connection, it looks like someone epoxied the solenoid to the plastic slider. I'm amazed that this metal-to-plastic connection held up so long.

The bottom line is that the slider has very little travel (compared to the other reels). So you can no longer move to the next number of the reel.

I need to find a Gottieb 15259 solenoid and perhaps a new plastic slider element! Hope I can find them!!

Thanks again for all the help here and I hope this thread will be of value to another member.

Harry

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