I'm new to EM pinball machines.. I adopted a Cleopatra machine that has been sitting for a long time. It sat in my garage for about 10 months and before that in a basement for 30+ years.. I've already learned a few lessons, first and most important being dont touch things without knowing what they are, what they do or how they work..

When I first plugged the machine in and turned it on, playfield lights came on.. No backbox lighting at all. I triggered the coin mech and it took a credit. Things were clicking, cams were turning. I started pushing playfied switches and targets and they seemed to be responding. No scores recorded and the wheels didn't turn. I shut the game off and unplugged the game. I started looking closely at things, and noticed a few diode legs broken on some of the coils, so I resoldered these. Then, I started playing with the steppers.. I think this is where I really screwed up something. I started turning the cam on the credit stepper unit and I may have either over wound it, or somehow messed it up. It does seem to ratchet properly by pushing on the coils. It counts up to 4 then releases. After playing with that one, I want over to the main stepper control and started turning that a bit. I then went to the back box and started playing around in there, basically the same thing with the player unit.. On the bottom of the playfield, I was looking at the bonus stepper unit and on one set of horseshoes, the wire had broken off, so I soldered that back on. The other set of horseshoes doesn't have any wire connecting, but it does appear that there was something soldered there at one point.

After all that, I pulled out the wire harness connectors and wire brushed the pins.

After a few hours of cleaning, poking around and playing with things I shouldn't have touched, I plugged the machine back in. Playfield lights up again, still no backbox lighting. I tried to coin up and now I get nothing. I've checked all the fuses I can find and they all appear to be good. I have no idea on how to check voltage on this machine or what the voltage should be. I'm going to start off ordering a manual. I didn't dismantle any of the steppers. I don't want to just start pushing relays or turning any of these steppers when the power is on..

I have no idea what the sequence of events is on this machine.. I am at a complete loss on where to start.

Wow.. thanks for the quick replies.. I was watching Steve Fury's animations and explanations.. I finished the first page.... going to continue watching later.. I figured out a chunk of my issues already.. Apparently when I was cleaning the pins and sockets, I plugged main stepper into the wrong socket.. Going through my testing of switches, I started getting player 1 score reels to move. Think I'll spend some more time cleaning the connections while I'm waiting on paperwork..

Maybe a capacitor to quench the arc? These are on the kickers, flippers and pop bumpers..

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Thanks for the help and sorry for the confusion... Yes, there is a bridge rectifier on the bottom of the playfield... I did read somewhere about some coils being DC.. I figured the diodes were supposed to be there. I'm going to order the manual for the machine and go from there.. I was able to get the steppers working again and some of the player 1 score reels started moving.. Cleaning up the connections definitely helped.. I must be missing a fuse somewhere as I haven't seen one yet marked for the backbox or found one that was blown.. Going to dig deeper.

Thanks for the offer. I will probably take you up on it as I get into this.. I'm fairly new to pins and extremely new to EM's.. I was into arcades for a bunch of years, but recently got rid of those. I was recently put in touch with a very nice Atari Middle Earth that I believe was a home use only machine.. After a good cleaning and a few minor fixes that one is up and running well. I figured I'd give this thing a shot.. I've had it for about 10 months and its a sentimental machine..

I've been playing around with this machine a bit more. I'm starting from scratch and cleaning all the contact points first.. Back box is done with the exception of the score reels.. I'm working on the playfield now.. On the bonus unit, there are 2 sets of shoes. One set has a jumper between the pair, but the other set does not. It looks like there was something there at one time.. Not sure if it fell off or was removed deliberately. The other jumper was broken off one shoe, so I soldered that back on.

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So I'm continuing my contact cleaning project and I noticed the coils for the 1st ball relay and game over relay are over heated and blackened. I'm going to replace these coils. Is this a common issue with these relays or should I be looking deeper before powering it back up.

OK.. Thanks. I'll check the resistance, but as I was removing the relays to clean the contacts, I heard some plastic crunching when I was holding it. Didn't look like it they actually cracked but definitely toasty..

OK.. So I'm making some progress. Cleaned up the switches on the relays, changed the 2 coils and fired it up tonight. Machine coins up, BG shows player 1 ball 1. I hit a bunch of switches, score reels all move properly and actually pretty good. Problem I encountered is when I hit the ball drain, nothing happens. It doesn't advance to ball 2 until I trigger the trough switch ( the switch in the trough for loading the ball). I can repeat for 5 balls. after the 5th ball, the game doesn't trigger game over. If I manually release the game over relay, it stays out. I'm not sure of the terminology.. What is the ball drain switch called? Is it supposed to advance the ball? Am I correct on what I'm calling the trough switch?

Thanks.. I will check my schematics for the ball return switch. I'm doing all of this testing without a ball right now and the playfield propped up. I manually closed the ball return switch contacts from under the playfield and nothing happened. The kicker solenoid doesn't fire either. I'll take a look at the ball return relay tonight. I did play with the BX relay and believe I have that adjusted and working properly.

One other thing I read somewhere is to change the tap on the transformer from the normal post to the high post to get a better voltage through the game. I'm hesitant on doing this since this game hasn't been powered up for probably 10-12 years.. Is it safe to change the tap on the transformer or should I leave it on normal?

For the transformer, the coil voltage can be set to "high" output. I read somewhere that by changing the tap from normal to high it would give a stronger output to the coils. My concern is that by doing that it may overload the coils. I didn't measure the voltage out, but if the coils and rectifier are rated for a specific voltage I don't want to overload and burn up stuff.

Looking at the wiring diagram, it looks like I need to look closer at the bonus unit or the AX relay. I know the trough switch works, so that means that 1C and 2B must be good?

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OK.. I'm getting somewhere. I have the ball return switch working. The Make/Break switch needed some more pressure. I also adjusted the contact connection disk to make the shoes hit more in the center of the pins. Now I can cycle through all 5 balls and get a game over. My next issue is the kicker does not fire to move the ball into the shooting lane. I think I'm starting to get the hang of the diagram a bit..

I got the kicker to work after the 1st ball drains and subsequent drains until game over. Sometimes it double fires, but I'll worry about that later. I still can't get the kicker to fire to load the 1st ball into the lane. I think I'm done for tonight.

The original problem was the ball return switch. Now thats working. The kicker wasn't working either. Now that works on balls 2-5. I still don't have the kicker to load ball 1.

Kicker is now working on ball 1. Adjusted the contacts on the Ball return relay and that took care of it. Spent the day cleaning the playfield and getting new rubber on. Still have to take the flippers apart and replace the bats, change the rest of the playfield lights, and then get back into the backbox to clean and change lights, but I played the first game on this machine in about 15 years.

Thanks... its definitely been a frustrating but ultimately a rewarding experience. Still a long ways off, but now that its working my motivation has kicked into a higher gear. I'm already thinking about a next one..

Played a bunch of games tonight.. still have some bugs to work out, but playing this tonight brought back a lot of memories.. It also gave me a real test of the game to see what else needs attention. This is my first time playing pinball in many many years.. Not sure of a few things..

There is a connector in the backbox between the score reels with a few single pin jumpers.. There is a pin with no home.. I can't figure out what this connector is or where this pin should go.. It was just kinda tucked in the wires..

2 issues to tackle -

I have no bonus scoring. The bonus counts down, but the score reels don't move. Not sure where to start with that one. Any tips? Not sure of sequence.. Bonus unit appears to be adjusted properly.

The match doesn't work at the end of the game. The numbers don't light up and the knocker doesn't fire.

Would these be related?

Questions -

Does the 5000 point light turn on/off of or is it supposed to be lit once the drop targets are done?

When I coin up the game, the credit meter shows 3 credits per coin. If I put 2 coins in, 6 credits is displayed. If I hit the player button, 1 player is activated and all credits are gone. If I coin in and hit player button, 1 player registers. If I add another coin and hit player button, it adds a player. Is that normal? I see something in the manual about coin shoot 1 and 2, but I don't understand it..

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Thanks Darcy.. I did see the label, but didn't know which set of pins it went to..

Great info.. Thanks.. It helps to see things in action. I've cleaned and adjusted the 10th position switches on the bonus unit. I also aligned the contacts with the rivets. Looking at your video, I have exactly what is shown. The arrows move up the playfield and can hear the countdown, but the score reels don't move.

For the match, I've cleaned the contacts on the disc, but haven't really done much else. I'll have a look at that during the operation.

It looks like for these next few issues I need to observe in game action..

Thanks for the pictures and the info.. I'll post my findings tonight.

Made some progress tonight..

Bonus unit is now recording.. It was a contact on the 10th position that wasn't closed. Nice quick fix..

Got the match feature working sort of.. found the jumper had the match feature turned off. I switched it to on and now it lights up at the end of the game. Seems like it rotates once per game. I did have the match display match the score and the knocker didn't fire and I didn't get a free game or ball. Still an issue here.. I haven't looked at the schematic yet..

I found the label for the jumper pic I posted. It looks like my extra ball is at 50K and 80K.. I didn't get an extra ball at either score. Again, haven't looked at the schematics yet. There is a jumper in the back box for credit or extra ball. Mine is set on extra ball.

I'm having some trouble with the score reels.. the 10th reel is having a hard time turning from "9" - "0". Sometimes it gets hung up in the middle. It happens on all 4 players. Not all the time either. I pulled all the reels apart for player 1 and cleaned them. When I move them by hand using the plastic slide, it feels tight at that spot. I didn't lube anything other than the contact board.. Could this be a relay not firing long enough since it happens on all the reels intermittently?

The match does now seem to be more random.. I greased up the discs and the ratchet seems to be working fine now that its getting some exercise. For some reason the match feature was turned off and the game has been sitting for 15+ years so its probably been a lot longer that relay hasn't moved.

For the score reels, I did take them half way apart.. I didn't take the ratchet assembly off the coil and clean under that. I only removed the wheel from the assembly, cleaned that up and cleaned the switches and checked for adjustment. I'll pull it back out and check on the switches to see if there is too much pressure. Its strange it only hangs on the last number and it happens on the same reel for all 4 players and not every time. Wasn't sure if there was another switch that maybe isn't holding long enough to have the reel move enough. There was a lot of black "soot" or fine powder next to the end of the coils. I cleaned it up with some alcohol.. Maybe the coil shafts and sleeves are shot?

Another issue I noticed, the outholes are still energized at the end of the game. Every other switch on the playfield seems to be dead when game over lights up, but the outholes are still live.

I've been playing this game a bit the last few days.. It seems like the more its getting played, the more some of the little issues I have start working.

Got it.. Kickout holes is what I meant.. Thanks for clarifying and for the explanation..

Discovered another issue tonight. In the bonus scoring at the end of the ball - when it gets to the 2 blue row, it counts it out, but it doesn't add the score. All the other rows add the score. Its driving me crazy. Looking at the schematic, it goes through a contact on the KS relay. When the playfield is up, the KS relay never fires or rotates. I've activated all the switches on the playfield, making sure the trough switch is first, then the top rollover switches. Why would only 1 row not adjust the score? When trying to find something in the schematic, what would be the first place to start? At the score reel?

For coin up process, I'm a bit confused as well. What does the 2nd chute setting do? Which is the 2nd chute or would that be 2nd coin? Right now, when I put in a quarter, it registers as 3 credits. A 2nd quarter displays 6 credits. When you hit the add player button, it adds 1 player and resets the credit meter to 0, no matter how many credits were displayed. When I pass my free play bonus score, it doesn't add credits either.

I figured out my bonus scoring issue finally.. There was a switch on the green drop target that had too big of a gap causing it to touch another switch on top of it when the bank was reset. Apparently that must have been messing with scoring somehow. Fixing that fixed a few issues. I"ve now got the game working about 95%. I'm pretty excited since the game wasn't doing anything when I started and I've never touched an EM game before. I've got 2 more minor issues to work out and It should be 100%.. Unfortunately, I think I've caught the EM bug and am now sorta looking for another one.

The only major issue with this game left is the playfield is shot. Its kinda funny to watch the ball swerve down the middle of the playfield between the plastic lights. This game has a lot of sentimental value to me and a good friend of mine. I'm sure this idea is taboo here, but I was toying with the idea of stripping the playfield down and just clear coating it to try to make it flat. The paint it worn in more spots than its not, the wood has started to almost delaminate. I like the aging look of the playfield. I can handle stripping the top of the playfield, but I'm not really sure how to attempt the bottom. All the lighting is stapled down and I don't see how to be able to staple the lighting back down when its completed.

I have a few different staple guns.. I don't see how the staple gun will fit in between all the coils and relays.. All the wiring seems to be loomed together, so I don't think the lighting can go on without the rest of the playfield parts.

Thanks.. It was definitely a challenge.. I started loosing confidence when I was dealing with the bonus scoring issue. I kept going back and checking the same things that all looked good. I do have a much better understanding of how these games are supposed to work and more importantly, how to start working on one. I probably caused a few of the issues I had to fix by not being careful and touching things that didn't need to be touched.

The playfield doesn't appear to be warped, although I haven't put a straight edge on it. The paint is checked pretty bad, its worn off around the kick out holes, the area that is unpainted at the top has black lines which I assume is dirt stuck into the finish and the insert lights are cupped pretty bad. I did scrub the playfield with a magic eraser and rubbing alcohol and it cleaned it up quite a bit. I don't think there is a painted spot on the playfield that doesn't have some sort of damage or discoloration. I've been around this game since the mid 80's and know it never once was cleaned or waxed or taken care of in any way. I probably took off the playfield rubber that was on the game 30 years ago. It sat in a finished basement for 25 years, then moved to an unfinished basement for another 5+ years, then to my garage for a year. I'll take a look into fixing the inserts. That would make a big difference. One of them is cupped enough that a slow moving ball got caught up on it a few times.

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Thanks for the link.. I'll take a good look through it. I've seen a few different restore threads and the full job is not for me. For now, its just going to get played. I was more thinking some time down the road. I wasn't planning on a full repaint. I am very mechanical and pretty good with electric, but have zero artistic ability. I can't even draw stick figures.