Hey Everyone,
I have a 1964 Williams River Boat that I've brought back to life. Everything was working perfectly and I decided to loan it to my local pinball club. So the machine is now getting more use than it has in probably 30 years or more. I just found out that we are now having some issues. The machine is simply turning off mid game. It's not all the time, it'll play a few games fine, or sometimes it'll happen a bunch in a row. It seems to happen when the ball drains, but is also happening when the ball is just on the playfield somewhere. So no real pattern I could figure out.
The game just goes dead (everything off including lights). What's weird is you can just hit the left flipper button right away and it comes back on and it'll start a new game right away. So it's definitely not a fuse or anything as I saw this happen over and over.
My best guess is that there is some switch somewhere that is adjusted a little too close together and now that it's getting more use that switch is bouncing around more than ever and tripping something. Maybe something in the kickoff or the lock relay? I'm not really sure. What switches in a machine would cause immediate turn off?
As I mentioned it's on location, so I'm hoping to compile a list (with your help) of things to check when I go over there to give it a look. I'm hoping my Pinside friends will have several ideas of what it could be so that I can find the culprit at my next visit.
It's funny, whenever I think I'm getting pretty good with EMs, something new crops up and I feel like a newbie again! That keeps things fun! I greatly appreciate any suggestions, as always.