I really need some help. I am new to the site and new to pinball repair. I had a nice working Bram Stoker's Dracula until recently when the F104 fuse blew. Now Coils 9-16 are a no go. I did find the violet-orange wire melted to one of the ground brown wires in the circuit so I cut and repaired those but fuse still blows. I am new to electronics but have some tools and I have looked everywhere for someone that had the same problem that could help me out but the closest I could find was from 4 years ago and some questions were not answered for me. I am eager to learn pinball repair as I love the game and want to start growing my collection. Any advice would be most appreciated.

PS. If I remove j107 and J127 I can power on and everything but coils 9-16 seem to work ok. Also, I noticed on power on that the 3 LED D19, D20, D21 seems wrong. I read that 1st D19 should come on for a quick second with d21 and then D19 should go off and D20 should blink. Well D19 never comes on but D20 does blink constantly and D21 remains on ok. Just wanted to mention that as well.

Thanks Dumbass for the quick response. You are right, with j107 and j127 no coils from 1-16 seem to work,, the magnet motor still works and coils up in the 30's like the castle lock, mist gates, and castle diverter in back of playfield do however still function as do the flippers.

When I plug in j107 and leave j127 off then only 9-16 do not work.

Im running out of fuses so I only tried powering on without j107/j127 hooked up and thats when I do not blow a fuse at F104 which is a 250v 3A SB fuse that pops during the first 5 or 6 seconds I'd say when the machine is going through its testing at start up while both j107 and j127 plugged in...

I really don't know what I am doing but I was curious to see what kind of voltage I was getting out of the j107 pins on the board with power on and the second one that normally connects to the violet-orange power wire vs the other pins since I know one of the other pins powers coils 1-8 that work and pin#2 was at 74.9VDC while all the other pins came in at almost nothing <.5v

I do not have any pics of the before or after but I can take some if needed but nothing looks off, at least not to my newbie eyes.

ALSO- I did move all coils to see if any jammed up and they all moved smoothly by hand.

Actually, I am not even sure if all but 9-16 worked with j127 off. I am sorry.. I think if everything plugged in and powered on f104 will blow and then the game plays kinda but no coils from 9-16 work. I am not sure if the fuse will pop if j127 is off and j107 is connected.... I have been reading so many things about coils, and f104, and j127, j107 from other willaims wpc boards I forgot whats what...my bad.... but I figured if I had someone knowledgeable that could help diagnose this I would go step by step and hopefully figure out if there is a short in the wiring, coils, or backboard.

Ok, thank you to both. Im on my lunch break and will try these things when home tonight. I do have a manual that I downloaded. Its about 200+pgs for bram stokers dracula and there are lots of pages that contain pics of the boards and components but I can not tell which transistor, diode, or whatever else is connected to the violet-orange line. I am totally new to electronics as well although I have been cramming as much as I can learn past couple of days...I like to think that I am a fast learner. I went out and bought a multi-meter digital (auto ranging) and a logic probe but still learning to use them...with a bit of help I am also a good listener! I am from RI east coast and will update my profile as well.

Thanks to you both. I look forward to any other help as we move through this procedure.

PS....as far as swapping out party zone board, is there anyway that a wiring/coil problem caused something to burn on my dracula. I would hate to swap boards and end up popping something on that as well!?!?!

ok, I'll check back around 7pm EST. Thanks again.

John-

Im just taking a break from work but had to check these replies. Thanks- While testing ohms on j127 does it matter if the f104 fuse is blown or should I put a new one in to close that part of the circuit?

Also, I do have a soldering iron.

Last, even before machine broke, with or without j107 and j127 connected on power up the machine also fired a few coils from time to time to set up game play if needed. IE) the gates for mist ball would release ball and then ramp would lift up and new ball would be loaded, etc. before entering attract mode.

Now with j107 and J127 unconnected with no balls inside machine on power up the mist motor may turn on and return to right side of playfield, the mist gates open to release balls but none there, and then thats about it since no balls in machine and even if there was the through coil wouldn't fire to load balls to be launched under ramp etc.

*** Also, for testing ohms of each coil after I check j107 / J127 should fuse be good, should j107 and 127 be plugged back in? and since no diodes are on coils but somewhere??? on back board do I check across the lugs on coils or do I need to locate their matching diode?

Thanks All!

Sorry I have not had time to try the above advice. I really appreciate you reaching out to me. As soon as I have time this week I will take a better look at the machine. I ordered the schematics hoping that may help me a little even though I am very new to electronics figured it couldn't hurt having. I will post again once I proceed. Thank you everyone again and I hope you will continue helping once I reach out.