Just brought home my first Gottlieb EM - a 1963 Flying Chariots. I've got 3 other EMs, 2 Williams and 1 Bally so I'm familiar with them, but have a few questions on the Gottliebs.

1. Are the hold type relays typically mounted with the coil lug plate end where the coil is screwed to the bracket? I have one relay in particular that is buzzing loudly and it looks to be the only one mounted with the lugs to the inside. At first I thought it was merely misassembled but no, it's made that way. It is, however, a replacement coil so perhaps it's made wrong?

2. How do Gottlieb EOS switches work on the pop bumpers? On this machine they are dual-blade, as usual, but have only a single wire attached to one of the blades.

3. Are there any adjustments to control how far the digits move on these so-called "Rat Trap" score reels? I have one where, when it resets, the 1's position zero is about half a digit too low in the window. All the other reels are good. I'm just wondering if it's worn out or if I can tweak its position.

4. How are the old dome style, non-active bumper caps typically held on? Mine seem to have a cotter pin stuck through the back edge and into the bumper body but that's it. Is that normal?

5. The backglass has no lift channels. Is the mechanism panel intended to pivot out from the back of the box?

6. Back to the relays - are these usually mounted with rubber or cork washers? I have some that are and some that aren't and some that look like they once may have been Is it variable based on the coil?

Thanks in advance for any guidance on these. I'm sure I'll have more questions as I move along. The game mostly plays, but something is getting stuck on during play, appearing to be associated with the red and purple bumpers, that I need to track down. It's hard to localize the sound but I think it might be coming from the reset coil bank. Time for some schematic reading now...

Awesome! Thanks a ton for that.

Surprisingly, I have never run into a buzzy relay on any of the other EMs I have - lucky I suppose. Any thoughts or advice on locating them and quieting them down?

Dave

Thanks guys! Fortunately I have only one score reel where the digit positioning is a little sloppy, and it's on Player 2 so it's not a high priority item. Biggest issue now is that buzzing relay. I think I've isolated it to the relay bank, so that's my next big job - going through that thing while I wait on some PBR parts. I discovered I am missing a bell unit completely and my match unit needs a coil stop and a coil sleeve. No wonder some of the playfield features weren't cycling!

A couple more questions while I wait for my parts catalog to arrive, also from PBR.

Anyone know what this is, or is it just an ugly hack?

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Also, what's this strap for on the tilt board? Seems an odd place for a handle but there's nothing apparently associated with it. Of course, the bob tilt is also completely disconnected.

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Interesting - so was there originally no tilt bob assembly? Having both seems redundant.

Sadly, it actually does go all the way through the bottom. It seems like they may have had some sort of hanging coin sack beneath the game or something. There's a bar across the underside of the game at the back edge of the belly and it has a bit of a hooked edge to it. I could imagine that a bag or pan could have been hung there. You can see the plate on the cab floor under my screw driver in that photo. It looks like some sort of locking tab may have stuck up through there to secure it. All that's just a guess though - who really knows. With the 20 Fr coin slot, maybe it's a Euro thing

OK, another question.

I think I have traced my humming coil down to somewhere in the reset bank. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to make sense to me. Am I correct in assuming that once a coil in the reset bank is latched, it stays latched until the bank is reset? Can they be reset individually somehow?

My first guess at identifying the humming relay was something around the Alternating relay, as the hum gets louder when the Red/Purple static bumpers are lit than when the Green/Yellow ones are. Listening closely though doesn't indicate that it's the source. It definitely sounds like it's coming from the reset bank, but I'm not seeing how anything there would alternate in that way.

Outside of that noise issue, the game seems to be playing correctly. I had to jack it up on wood blocks because even with the 31" inch legs in back, the playfield is too flat with the 28.5" legs up front. I have a feeling this old girl may have used 27" or 28" in the front originally and the 28.5" is just too high, so new legs will apparently be necessary.

Thanks!

OK, so it looks like my primary hummer is indeed the A alternating relay. I've tried lightening the spring a little to no effect; might even be a little worse. I also tried filing the plate down where the coil contacts had dug into it, also to no effect. I assume I can get the coil from PBR. Are new armature plates available from them or anywhere for that matter?

In the meantime I may try a temporary fix I read about, which involved a small piece of mylar on the plate. The plate also has a rivet on it, for what purpose I do not know. Without that rivet head, I would have tried reversing the plate, but I'm guessing that's a bad idea with it there?

On the plus side, I got the knocker working and tomorrow's job is replacing the broken off EOS switch on the yellow pop bumper.

Thanks!

Thanks DF. I dashed an email off to PBR to ask about the armatures and replacement coils. There are at least 3 that are buzzy to varying degrees so I'll likely just swap them all out if I can.

I got the new pop bumper EOS switch in today. The PBR part is made differently but metering both switches allowed me to identify the right lugs and that all works fine. The bumper is now much more sensitive and energetic. I also located a broken off switch blade on one of the pop relays so cut and installed a new blade for that. I hadn't noticed anything wrong so I need to look that up and see what it does Got the new PBR target faces on too, so that looks better and put in the part pinhead52 sent me.

She's playing quite well now. Outside of the buzzy coils, I need to do some diagnostics on the ball elevator, as it often comes up empty but will lift the ball the second time. Feels like the ball is rolling backward off the lift arm, which is a bit worn. Then I've got the one lazy score reel to tune up, where the units digit overruns its position and ends up about half a space low in the window. Hopefully it's just one of the stops on the rat trap, but I've also asked PBR about spares for the parts on the reel. The last big project will be rebuilding the 4 pop bumpers, which are all pretty nasty.

Finally broke 1000 points today, so the day ended on a good note.

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New target faces. The original painted ones were worn clean across the middle. Note the mylar someone placed over the dirty playfield around the bumpers. Grrrrr. I'm tempted to try and remove it but I'm worried about screwing it up even more. This playfield may end up being my first restoration by one of the pros. The chrome center rail on the left was off to fix a shotgun scoring issue on that long rubber.

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Thanks to pinhead52, I now have a proper red post here instead of a drywall screw!

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Looks like new armature plates from Marco's and some fresh rubber grommets on all of the hold-style relays is going to quiet this thing down nicely. It's playing well now and I have only a few more things to do - replace some really bad lamp sockets, clean up or replace the rusty coin door and entrance plate, tune up one of the score reels and make a back door.