Hello all,
I am new to pins.. and 1979 Williams Gorgar is my first.. Pics are posted in the "All Pinball" section if interested here:
http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/hello-all-first-pinball-gorgar

Now to my problems, after replacing a couple of fuses on my machine.. I have the machine almost working.. but the problem I am having now is with the Solenoids..

After looking at the fuses.. I noticed that there is a 2.5A fuse for the Solenoids.. it "Looked" OK.. but I ran a continuity tester on it, and it was blown! .. answering why the Solenoids are not working.. now, I replaced the fuse, not once, but twice with a 3A fuse.. and it still blew just after being turned on for a couple of seconds.

So, now the question is.. Why is it still blowing? is there something like a faulty bridge that is causing this? Please help! What do I need to do to get this working?

I will see about checking the coils.. I know that it has a "coin knocker" coil.. and who knows what else.. I know it has that Large Magnet at the top of the playfield.
I have the wiring diagrams and the operators manual now, those should help.
There are a couple of resistors that look "Burnt" and other questionable things.. I will try to check them and all of the wiring for past repairs.. which there might be some.

The 40 Pin Interconnect? that is the connection between the CPU and the Driver board?
Anyone know where I can get a replacement?

OK.. just an update..
I was able to OHM out the solenoids.. and all checked out except for the credit knocker.. came out at like 1 ohm.. so I think it is pretty nasty.. You can see in the pic..

Then I went ahead and replaced the solenoid fuse with the 2.5a slow blow fuse.. and then unplugged the solenoids and then powered it up.. and nothing blew.. So.. it has to do with the solenoid(s)..
So, I just clipped the wires to the credit knocker, and will plug everything in and see what happens.. I will let you guys know.

DSC09359.JPG

Good News Everyone!
Well, after clipping off the credit knocker coil (see pic above) and plugging in all of the connectors (I think).. I powered it up, and it did NOT pop a breaker.. which means that it was that nasty coil to make it flip out. I thought that it looked quite susspect.. but now I know for sure.
So.. Once I am able to get this bad boy all cleaned up and replace that coil.. will cross my fingers that it all works.. I did have some of the things on the right side of the playfield not "respond" during my testing.. but it looked like everything else worked, including the pop-bumpers and the drop targets reset.. etc. Which is great to have.
The ONE thing that I am really having a hard time with is with the "ball" switch when the ball is "out of play" at the bottom of the playfield.. HOW am I to get this to hit the switch and notify the CPU the ball is there?? It is soo sensitive, and I do not know how that little guy us to be wired.. if anyone could give me a pic or anything, it would be appreciated.
I will continue to keep everyone up to date on Gorgar's status.

I was cleaning Gorgar tonight.. and I looked at the "isles" and how they were triggered.. well, I figured it out.. somehow the "trigger" to engage the outhole was on the outside instead of inside.. once I positioned the "arm" to be closest to the underside of the playing field.. then pulling down to enable the switch.. That made sense.. just still learning these pinball things I tell ya..
Thanks for the offer for help!

On a positive note, I was able to clean up the legs.. and they look almost BRAND NEW!

Well, the thing is.. I think that this happened well before I got it.
So, good or bad, it did not look like it damaged anything around..

I will get a replacement coil soon.
Also, right about there on the machine (towards the coin door), it would appear that someone had a coke on the machine, and it spilled out onto the coin door area, and around that coil.. it looks REALLY NASTY.. I have cleaned almost all from above.. but this probably only happened about 14 years ago.. so it will be fun to deal with..
I wonder how many other pins people have acquired over the years have nasty stuff spilled on it??

I do not know.. but it wouldn't surprise me.. no tellin on a lot of this stuff..
I will have to look around and see if there are any loose wires or anthing that are hanging out.

I just put the ball there to keep it out of the way.. perfect for it I think.. shame it shouldn't be there.. in fact, whomever was "playing" with the pin before I got it took the smaller pinball and tried to have it to be used on the playfield.. go figure.
Anyhow, I may just run without it.. unless I "NEED" it.

Do you guys know if anyone sells that?
I have only been through a couple of sites with parts..
While I am at it, does anyone know what the part # is for the coil (credit knocker) and or the part # for the pendulum tilt?

OK. Time to revive an older thread..

Short version.. Gorgar is still not working properly.. and it is frustrating the #### out of me.

You see what the original problem was.. Solenoids.. thought that the credit knocker being shot was causing all of the problems.. well.. same thing.
All of the solenoids in the machine do not work.. other than the flipeprs.
Every time I replace the fuse for solenoids, it pops the fuse when I turn it on.
Oh yeah, and the sound has started to mess up also.

I will explain what we have done:
- Replaced that nasty Credit knocker coil with a brand new one
- Replaced the Main and driver boards with a Rotten Dog MPU/Driver combo board.. now we no longer have to worry about the 40 pin interconnect!!
- Repinned 160+ pins on the connectors.. fearing that the connections/connectors were at fault
- Just replaced the power supply with a Rotten dog Power supply.. again, fearing problems with the power supply..
- I went through, and checked the Ohm readings on the solenoids.. but they all test out at 0 ohms
- I tried following every wire on the machine.. looking for a short or something else. But other than 2 wires with some wire exposed.. (which I covered with electrical tape to not touch anything)..

- In the mean time I have rebuilt the flippers and the wife has cleaned up and waxed the playfield, and we have put 80% of the things back on the playfield.. but since it is not working and we want to replace all of the lamps with LED's the machine is waiting until all of the electronics are working again.

I am soo lost. I cannot see what is wrong.. I am soo close, and am tired it replaciing all the boards to still have the same issue..

Please help!!

Thanks..
Looks like I was measuring wrong.. Here is an update..

So, I checked the solenoids..(correct setting on the DMM this time).. and all checked out fine except the credit knocker again. I snipped the return wire.. and then it checked out at 4.0 ohms.. So I know it is not the new coil.. but it does have to do with the return path back possibly. So, I may have fried something on the new board.. ??? Gotta keep working on that, try to figure out what I ruined, and then check the bridge rectifiers.. and then see about that sound board..

Also..
I read some good repair guide PDF's.. and after reading those.. one of the "mistakes" was made.. which was, the connectors from the backbox to the cabinet/playfield were swapped.. black connector to whilte and vice versa.. and then the machine was powered on..
According to this guide:
"If these connectors are cross-connected, the solenoid voltage
(28 volts) will be applied to the +5 volt logic. This will instantly fry numerous chips on the CPU and driver boards, and even the sound board."
Uhm.. that happened on mine.. so the question is going to be, what did I fry? and can I "undo" the damage.

OOPS.. Soo I will check stuff out and then see where I am.. More work than I wanted. =(

There is a Local person named "Pinsmith" in the area who is pretty reputable. I may just cut to the chase and get him out here to look at it.

Thanks for the support.. and yeah, it does suck.. don't know how those plugs got swapped.. it is what it is.. will see about gettin someone in soon enough to look at it.. as I want my FIRST pinball machine purchased well over a year ago.. to be workin and enjoyable!.

Good news everyone that posted to help out... Gorgar Speaks again and all of his Solenoids are working again.

I decided to bite the bullet (which I should have done before) and had a local guy named "Even Smith" Aka Pinsmith, come out and look at Gorgar.. and he got it working after spending close to 3 hours on it.
I cannot go through everything.. but here are the highlights..

1. Something had failed as far as a wire to a coil somewhere that was causing it to "flip out", I think it was one of the slingshots.. cable looked OK, but there was a wire strand that was causing a problem, re-soldered that to help. Also part on the MPU needed to be replaced regarding the Credit knocker.
2. The replacement coil I put in place was wired backwards (I didn't look at the resistor and look for the stripe.. + is on the side with the stripe). Hooked it up again properly.
3. Rotten Dog power supply I had gotten did not fit the factory location (or so I thought).. so I moved brackets. Bad idea (Don't do that).. orientation of the board with the old brackets that I moved caused a short! Moved the brackets back to the original location and then turned the power supply board 90 degrees to one side, and 4 holes magically lined up! What a concept. and nothing bad touched.
4. Sound was not working properly, (so much wrong here)..
thought that was because I swapped black and white connectors going to the cabinet.. well,
A.) The sound and additional sound cards were only secured in place with 1 screw (as was stated before, maybe I can find a pic) Anyhow, the way that the bracket (which looked like it was for a system 4 sound card and not a System 6 and voice sound card) was making contact with something it should not have. and B.) When I re-pinned the sound card, I missed a pin. pin#6 was unused, moved it to #7, then created stand off with hollow tubes to raise it up.

There was probably other things.. but after all of that, I did not have to replace and sound or anything. Sheeeeesh. What a day. But Gorgar is working again.

I was going to LED out the GI, but decided that #47's look too nice, and it will never be on long enough to cause an issue, and #47's are cheap enough. But I will place colored Frosted LED's under the playfield, where I think makes the biggest difference, especially for any inserts that appear "faded" like Red ones around Gorgar on the Playfield.

I will try to post pics soon.. but Mystery Solved!