There are a couple things that need to happen for the ball to kick out.

First, the Ball Return switch needs to close when the ball lands in the outhole. If all the other switches in series with it are closed, this should turn on the O (Ball Return) Relay. The highlighted switch below marked "O" is a lock-in switch that keeps the O relay energized until the Motor 2B switch opens late in the score motor cycle.

ED O relay (resized).JPG

Now that the O relay is energized, one of the switches on the O relay closes and starts the score motor turning:

ED score motor (resized).JPG

In this circuit that fires the Ball Return Coil, the switch marked O should be closed since the O relay is energized. The score motor is turning, so when the Motor 4D switch closes, the Ball Return Coil should fire.

ED Ball return relay (resized).JPG

If the Ball Return Coil isn't firing, first I would make sure the O relay is firing when the ball drains. If not, you need to check each of those switches in series with the O relay in the first snippet and make sure that they're closed.

If the O relay IS firing, then you need to check the O switch, the Motor 4D switch or the Ball Return Coil itself in the last snippet.

The O relay should pull in when you close the outhole (Ball Return) switch - you shouldn't have to pull it in manually. So one of those switches in the first snippet that are in series with the O relay (G, Motor 1C, Motor 2B, or A) isn't closed as it should be. The O coil itself could be bad, as well.

A jumper wire would be the easiest way to identify which switch isn't behaving as it should. Do you know how to do that?

Using a jumper wire to narrow down where the problem is, is just shorting a switch or switches with the jumper to bypass them. If the circuit works after you've bypassed one switch, then that's the problem switch.

Check some posts from HowardR - he often has links to how to troubleshoot with jumpers.

Here's an example:

Let's say you connect a jumper wire between the two arrows in the schematic below. What you've done is effectively shorted out both the switches between the 2 ends of the jumper wire - the Motor 2B and the A switch. You're not changing the circuit any - those 2 switches are supposed to be closed (shorted) anyway. If you then close the Ball Return switch and O fires, you know that one of those 2 switches isn't closed and is the problem switch.

If the O relay still doesn't fire, then you know the problem switch is one of the ones not jumpered. You can move the jumper wire around to eliminate individual switches or groups of switches until you've narrowed down which switch is the problem.

ED O relay jumper (resized).jpg

Yeah, that can be tricky - those wire colors can fade over time. And there's the whole Gottlieb "+" and "-" thing with colors. MarkG has a good thread about Gottlieb wire colors: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/gottlieb-wire-color-trivia

Sometimes I've taken a flash photo of wires and blown them up on a computer screen - between the white balance of the flash photo and the increased size, sometimes that helps me make them out.

Be careful using a multi-meter on EM's. Alot of times there are parallel paths that influence the readings. It's best to remove one of the connections to the lugs, disconnecting the coil from the circuit. Then you'll get a more accurate reading.

With a jumper a quick way to check it would be to connect one side of the jumper to the RED-GR wire (right side of the A switch), just like in the picture in post #7, and then connect the other side of the jumper to the side of the O relay coil with a MAR wire soldered to it (the NON-black wire side). You're just bypassing all the switches and running 28V straight through the coil. If the coil's good, it should energize.

But breaks are good! Especially if you're frustrated.

Are your score reels resetting to zero at start up?

When you say "good for continuity", do you mean a short (which would be bad), or a reading with some resistance?

Your O relay coil is an A-9735, which I think should read around 15 ohms or so.

Do you have any scoring on ball 1?

I'd look over those switches on the Ball Count Unit closely. Particularly one that has RED+WH and RED-GR wires. Make sure it's closed during Ball 1.

You never have the bottom left flipper? If that's the case, I'd examine the solder connections on the lower left flipper coil. If the upper left flipper is working, then the flipper button switch is good since it runs both flippers. Gotta be some sort of break in the wiring between the switch and the flipper coil. The coil itself could be bad too, but I think that's less likely.

For that reset problem - here's the circuit that makes the score reels reset to zero:

ED reset circuit colored (resized).JPG

When you start a game, the S relay fires, which switches the m/b S switch on the right side. A switch on the S relay starts the score motor, so when the Motor 2C switch in green closes, the A relay fires (via the green path), which closes all the green A switches above. S de-energizes at the end of the score motor cycle, so the m/b S switch is then as drawn on the schematic. A is mechanically latched on, so it doesn't need to be powered after it latches.

A switch on the A relay turns on the score motor, so the score motor is spinning and the Motor 1A switch in red is opening and closing 5 times for every 1/3 turn of the score motor. The 4 runout switches (1 on each score reel) are closed EXCEPT at zero. The green A switches are closed now, so each of the Motor 1A pulses can go through the A and runout switches on each score reel to make them turn. When they reach zero, 2 switches on the score reels change state - the runout switches open (which stops further pulses from getting through and making them turn), and the red Reset switches on the bottom line of this snippet close. So the Reset and Runout switches are now as shown on the schematic.

Now that the reset switches are all closed, when Motor 2B closes (late in the score motor cycle), the AR (Reset Completed Relay) fires (via the red path). The A and AR relays are interlock relays - on the same housing - which means that when one latches, the other releases. So when the AR relay fires, the A relay relaxes, which opens all those green A switches and stops the score motor from turning after it completes its last cycle.

A relaxing also closes that n/c A switch in your O relay circuit (top snippet of post #2), so the O relay can fire as well and your first ball gets kicked out.

So if your score reels aren't making it all the way to zero, it could be that your A relay is relaxing too soon due to the AR firing early - possibly because of misadjusted Reset switches that are closing early....or possibly the Runout switches on the score reels aren't adjusted correctly and are opening early.

You might have some score reel switch cleaning/adjusting in your near future. Luckily, you only have 4 score reels!

Man, I do go on sometimes, don't I? Hope that last post was more useful than confusing.

You know, thinking about it a little more, I don't think the Runout switches opening early would cause that problem. If they opened early, the machine wouldn't finish reset - the score motor would just keep running. So look at those Reset switches.

Unless someone out there can see another possible cause.

I guess you could also have a mechanical issue where the A relay armature slips out the latched position early, stopping the reset procedure.

You can try cleaning the sleeves, linkages and contacts of the flipper mechanisms to see if you get more power that way. I worked on a Target Alpha down here and wound up using those "Orange Dot" flipper coils that Steve Young sells at PBR. They are the medium strength coils and they worked great for getting the ball all the way to those top drop targets with the table at the angle that I wanted it to be.

I don't know how many score motor cycles are necessary for a reset - it would depend on what the score reels are when your last game ended. But if your score motor stops turning before your score reels are zeroed out, you have a problem obviously.

Up in post #2, the middle snippet - all those switches in parallel make the score motor run when they close. The Motor 1C switch is the one that makes sure the score motor turns until it gets to the home position each time it starts to rotate. The others are on relays. Since the A relay is involved so heavily in the reset procedure, I would think that A switch is opening early and stopping the reset process. Look closely at the A/AR interlock relay to see how it works, then see if the A relay is relaxing (or unlatching) early when the game doesn't complete reset. If so, you have to figure out why that's happening.

If all the other rollover switches score 500 pts, then it should be something having to do with that switch in particular. Look under the pf at that rollover switch, make sure the contacts are clean and gapped correctly, that the wires are all connected as they should be.

I like to adjust the flippers so that the top surface is parallel to the wire guides the ball rolls down before it gets to the flippers....it's just a smooth roll onto the flippers then. But I've seen people who like something different....whatever makes you happy.

Here's what's involved in scoring 500 pts from the rollovers.

The top part of this snippet is where the rollover switches activate the D (500 pt) Relay - the red circuit. The green circuit is just the lock-in circuit for the D relay so that it stays pullled in long enough to score the 500 pts....Motor 2B unlocks the D relay when it opens at the end of the score motor cycle.

The bottom part of the snippet is how the D relay actually scores 500 pts. The D relay has a switch that starts the score motor turning, the D switch here is now closed, so since the motor is turning, the Motor 1A switch opens and closes 5 times, which gives 5 pulses that get through the now-closed D switch and the closed side of the E m/b switch, to fire the M relay 5 times, giving you 500 pts.

ED 500 pts (resized).jpg

So, first you need to see if all the other rollover switches are scoring 500 pts....(except for the lit one, which should score 5000 pts).

Good...glad you found it.