Hello,
although there's a lot of information about these bad boys, I can't seem to figure out whether the flywheel is adjusted properly in relation to the switch stack disks.
I do have a Surf Champ but it's at my dad's place so I can't have a look to compare.

I'm thinking something's off since it just goes through the reset sequence by incrementing the score reels once without Z1 and Z2 sticking to see the full completion.
Below are pictures of the disk at the end of the reset sequence, where the score motor just keeps running.

You can see that in the back the player 5 notch is up, and so is player 1.

Does that look right?

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Yep, i did clean the disk already. Thanks for the tip though!

Not sure what changed, but it does seem like z1 is now sticking to zero out players 1 and 2 but z2 isn't sticking.
Even if i do zero out all reels the motor keeps running since Ax isnt resetting.
I did clean the score reel switches and P5A and P5B.
But again what seems weird to me is that the Ax reset path seems to rely on P5B to be in its normally closed position, but as you can see from the picture, the notch is up so its open.

I'm starting to think that the flywheel position is ok. I did reclean the rivets and that solved the Z2 issue. Now all reels reset. The problem with the score motor running seems to be that both R and U are active, and the circuit for the Ax reset needs to go through either of them through a normally closed switch.
R being the hold relay I'm thinking it's normal that it's active, so maybe U (first ball) is the culprit.

When I got the machine it was totally non-functional and it looked like somebody had tinkered with it so I cant assume that it was in a good position to begin with. I did try all 3 possible positions with the dress at the middle of the slots and I'm now more confident that the position is ok.
Thanks for that tip.

Thanks guys, I do have the schematics, and what Rolf just posted is exactly it.
I did compare with my Card Whiz and I see that the U relay is not active at turn on and upon pressing start, but the Fast Draw is, and I'm thinking this is what prevents Ax from resetting.
I'm in the process of trying to figure out what makes U hold, and I've put a paper in the U self-hold switch, so that just leaves the SL+WH upper path. I did inspect it all and saw nothing wrong so I guess I'll put paper in each of the switches too until I find the right one, and if every single switch is "papered out" I'll have to assume some other short.

Cheers!

I'm trying to figure out #6 - Since the switch that goes through U to allow Ax to reset is normally closed, and U is pulling, then that switch is open thus Ax not resetting.

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Now, when I turn the machine on, U pulls from the get go, but if I look at this it would seem normal

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It looks as though as long as H is not pulling it won't let U relax because of its NC switch.
I went back and had a look at H's path. It only goes through T once Ax is active.

So that only goes back through the Ax switch. I checked that NO BLK-WH switch and it seemed ok, but I stuck a screwdriver to close the contact and H latched, U unlatched and Ax reset and the motor stopped.

Looks like I'm getting close!

Alright, I even got it to try to (very weakly) try to spit out the ball but it doesn't have enough power (shorted the coil to the source to try it and that's not the problem).
Furthermore, it only tries to spit it out once (normally it would try until it gets it, unless I'm mistaken)

Everything is a mess with this machine, I wanted to help a guy out hoping the score reel switches just needed cleaning

Ok I'm back... sorry for the delays, I don't have much continuous time to work on this machine.
So now here's where I'm at - it seems to go through the whole sequence properly, I think the bonus unit is right because it decrements all the way down and if I increment it one step the 1000 bonus lights up (I do find it weird that during the startup sequence it keeps firing the decrement even when it's all the way down).

It will not kick out the ball, but if I close the through switch, it gets in a normal gaming mode where points add up to player one, then it steps through the balls just right.

Now - the part that puzzles me is that the ball feed relay (O) looks like it needs current through a ZERO POS. BONUS UNIT normally closed switch.
Now, if it should be normally closed, wouldn't that imply that the bonus needs to NOT be at zero for the ball to kick out?
That doesn't make much sense to me since the start sequence actually decrements the bonus to zero!

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Alright! Figured that one out... so the NC switch is in fact closed when the Bonus Unit is at 0.
The issue was the AX NC switch which was dirty.

Ball now gets kicked out, but game stays stuck at player 1 game 1.

Man, NOTHING is working ont this stupid machine!

Alright folks, renamed this thread as there is a whole lot of stuff I had to do with this machine.
That previous issue was the ball through switch not making contact.

Almost every single mech was misbehaving but I now have the whole thing working error free except for 2 pesky remaining issues.

1- There is a short on the 0 position switch on the the thousands of the 3rd player score reel. Using a DMM I always get contact whether the switch is opened or closed (I have even removed the screws and spread the switch apart, I still get the beep) - what happens is that it doesn't step it up but then then score motor keeps running until I manually get it to 0.
Now as I'm writing this it doesn't make any sense because if that indeed was the issue, the score motor would also think it's all 0s and stop running - so anyway, something's up over there - I'm not sure where to begin.

2- When the ball count steps up, let's say on a one player game, as it goes over players 2, 3 and 4, the 100's will increment once most of the time. So from P1B1 to P1B2, players 2, 3 and 4 will end up with 100 point each as it goes over their reels.
The M relay for the 100 points is firing once for each player as it goes over - it's not stuck, it really pulls down over each of the players.

That's where I stopped today - haven't had the time to look into both of these much but if you guys have tips before the next session I'll take them!

Cheers!

Ok so I solved the non-resetting thousands reel. It was after all one of the two switches that indicate the 0 and 9 positions.
As for the other issue, I've narrowed it down but still haven't been able to correct it.
What happens is that when drop targets get reset, they activate the J relay (500 points and add bonus) on the way up.
This is why I'm seeing 100 added to each user. It adds 5x 100 points while the player unit is cycling.
The 1c normally closed switch looks properly adjusted, so I'm wondering if there's not some timing issue with the score motor.

Thanks Rolf. I did check that switch - I tested that it gets no continuity when it's open and I stick a piece of cardboard in there and it doesn't solve the issue.
I did the same with the 2b switch and I can see J pulling but not latching, since it has a self latching switch that goes through 2b. I feel like it shouldn't pull at all in the first place though.

I'll triple check the 1c switch, it truly would be the most logical one to have something wrong.

Thank you Rolf.
Yes I am positive it is the drop downs on their way up. I tried it with different individual ones, and I get the issue all the time. If I reset the target with my finger before the end of ball, so that it will not trigger on its way up, I don't get the issue.
For the double light 24V test tool, I didn't have the time to go to the hardware store - what I did try was to hook up the DMM on continuity from here to here (in blue):
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As I spin the score motor with my hand I hear the continuity going on and off - so this looks like it works right.

However, if I hook it up to the other side, I'm getting continuity on the yellow-blacks everywhere:

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I guess I'll have to go over every switch in that part of the schematic and make sure they're not shorted...

Ok,
I think I was getting continuity through the coils - I need to check the resistance too. It's very low when there is direct continuity and >16 Ohm when through the coils.
I'm really starting to think I have a motor timing issue - I noticed that there were two notches in each of the parts that push against the motor, and the metal tab that actually makes contact with the wheel can be slid in either.
When I was checking motor 1C I actually unscrewed it and might have put it together wrong.

I'll try sliding it in the other notch later this week, and maybe I'll have to figure out how to read those sequence diagrams.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/help-understanding-gottlieb-schematics-covergirl

This thread explains pretty well how "switch dogs" should be adjusted.

Yep.
Double checked it and it's looking good.
I guess I'll build that 24V lamp tool because I'm stumped...

Ok, so I did the light tool thing. Very useful. I used 4 x 44s instead of the 2 x 12Vs (4 x 6v) and it works right.
The light definitely goes on and off as it should, but I'm thinking something could be off with the timing. I can now see and hear everything so I'll try to figure out the synchronization between the drop bank reset and the moment when the light's on.
I had to stop before getting to the bottom of it tonight but I think I'm on to something.

In the meantime,here's a pic of the score motor. The tab that activates the drop bank reset is at the D level at the top left of the picture - is this what it's supposed to look like?

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Yes, for sure! Somebody used contact cleaner in there too so the score reels are smoke stained...
Certainly a challenge, but that's where the fun is!

Alright! Finally got it.
So I was on the wrong track looking for a short.

If you look a this, you can see that a normally open switch a 2D needs to be lifted up so that it closes for the drop targets to reset (1).
And the J relay (which is off the picture, sorry) depends on a normally closed at 1C to stay closed for the J relay to engage (2)
What's a little weird looking is that 1C is open when its inside the hole in the wheel and 2D is open when it's lifted by the little rod.

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What that means is that if 2D gets lifted while 1C is down, J will engage as the drop targets get reset.

If you look at this:

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You can see that indeed when 2D is lifted, 1C should be down.

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So the issue was indeed that the metal push bar at 2D was broken off and had been bent so that it would push up against the rod, but too early for 1C to go up.
I made a new one using a switch blade and it now works fine.
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Always something new to learn with these EMs!

Now I just have a slight issue with the left drop bank not doing the reset that just leaves the middle drop thing and this thing will be back to life.

Thank you Rolf!
I fixed the issue with the drop target resets - not sure what was the actual root cause but I just bent the metal bars that push against the targets up a tad and that dit the trick.

Machine is now 100%, learned some new stuff along the way.