Harlem Globetrotters On Tour
Bally, 1979I purchased Harlem Globetrotters a little over a year ago and everything has worked great until recently when the double left flippers went completely dead. This was my first pin and I have no experience at all working on these, is this something that i could diagnose and potentially fix or do I just need to call a professional? Thanks!
Quoted from jjbeck12:I purchased Harlem Globetrotters a little over a year ago and everything has worked great until recently when the double left flippers went completely dead. This was my first pin and I have no experience at all working on these, is this something that i could diagnose and potentially fix or do I just need to call a professional? Thanks!
Hi! Prop up the playfield and observe the cabinet switches. Make sure that when you press that left flipper button that both switches are closing simultaneously. If not, you will need to bend them at the base of the switch with pliers to adjust. If this isn’t it, let me know!
Do you know how to use a multimeter? Did you look at the wiring to the flippers to make sure all the wires are connected? Did you look at the circuit boards in the head in case a wire broke off from a connector on the solenoid driver board?
During powering up, hold the flipper buttons in. Did the flippers activate?
Do you have schematics and can you read them?
Thanks for the replies! I confirmed that the cabinet switches are touching when I press the left flipper button. I did a quick check of the wiring and didn't see any broken wires but will do a closer check tomorrow. I held both flipper buttons in during power up and the left flippers did nothing while the right flipper fired twice. I've never used a multimeter and don't have the schematics and don't know if I would be able to read them if I had them. I feel like I may be completely useless in getting this fixed, hahaha!
OK - since the left flippers did not move during power up, that narrows down the problem to either no voltage to the flippers or no signal from the SDB to the left flippers. Again, look closely at the wires going to the left flipper coils before going further.
With the playfield up, measure voltages on the left flipper coils - you should read about 43 volts DC between the coil leads. If no power, you will need to search for a broken wire. Using a multimeter, you do that with power off. With the meter on Ohms, touch both leads together and verify the meter reads zero or close to it. Then, hook one lead to a wire on the coil, and the other lead to the SDB, connector J1, pin 8. You should read about zero ohms - if not, try the other side of the coil - one of these should read near zero. Next is to check the other wire - connect to it, and the other lead to the rectifier board, connector A2J1 pin 6.
Report back. Others will need to chime in - we all have our own way of troubleshooting - some prefer to check with power on, but since you're "new" to this, its safer to check as much as you can with power off. In fact, its probably better for you to do the power off checks first before trying to verify power to the coils.
Let us know.
Thanks for the help! I took a much closer look today and found one wire that broke off from where it connects to the lower flipper coil. It turns out that the metal bracket that connects the flipper coil to the play field only had two screws (instead of 4) and the two screws were coming loose. So I imagine that the whole mech there was shaking like crazy each time the flipper engaged which eventually broke the wire. I was able to reconnect the wire (my first time soldering), and found the two missing screws and reattached the bracket and it's working again! Thanks again for the help, it feels really good to have fixed it on my own!
So the left flippers were working great for a few days and now the upper left flipper has started acting up. When I hold the left flipper button the upper left flipper rapidly fires continuously while the lower left flipper remains in the normal up position.
Any ideas on what’s causing this? This doesn’t always happen, it periodic. Would it be the way I reattached the broken wire? Maybe it’s touching something it shouldn’t at times?
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