When I hit the "Replay Button" the machine goes through it's normal startup process: lights come on, score motor runs, score reels start to reset however they do not reset back to 0 before the ball kicks out and the game starts. It will pulse 5 times then the Reset Bank engages and the game begins. Z1, Z2 relays are getting pulsed from the "SB" relay.

Apparently something is engaging the "U" relay before the scores go back to 0. So I'll just update this as I work through the issue so someone can avoid some heartache maybe.

FYI: All the score reels will stop at 0 when they get there so the run out switches appear to be in good shape.

Edit: Checked the blades on the "U" relay and everything looks good, but the relay is never pulsed. Not entirely sure what that's all about.

http://www.pinrepair.com/em/index3.htm#reset

#2 4 years ago

JGI

John_I

Space Coast Pinball

19y 179K 9,072

Is this a new problem on a game that was running fine before? Or is this a game that has been in storage and not running?

I realize this problem will be found with the same methodology either way, but on games that I am returning from the dead I do a lot more general inspecting, cleaning and adjusting while I look for problem sources. A look at the schematics should narrow it down pretty quick. All of the score reels stopping at 0 is a good sign.

#3 4 years ago

DAD

perry1670

PMP Amusements

Broadway, VA

4y 55,050 189

Resurrecting games from the dead is all I get to do So yes, it's been in storage and am getting it back to life.

You are right that the there are always switches that need cleaned/adjusted and the like which I've been doing as I go through. My gosh sooo many bent blades on this thing at first. I've got everything else up and running, game scores fine and all the features work so I'm down to this one last issue. As you said, time to break out the schematics which thankfully I have.

#4 4 years ago

JGI

John_I

Space Coast Pinball

19y 179K 9,072

On my Dodge City the reset relays and scoring control relays required a lot of tweaking and had a broken wire or two that was still making contact occasionally. I just remember a lot of messing with the bank of relays to the right of the score reels.

This is a great game by the way. Well worth the effort. Get four players going on there sometime! Lots of point and extra ball stealing.

#5 4 years ago

LJM

DaMoib

Pinside+ Addict

6y 63,150 882

I'd assume there are two sets of runout switches per reel, one that opens at zero to switch off the score reel pulsing (sounds like that is working)... and the second (sometimes called a "reset" switch) that closes when the reel reaches zero. The daisy chain of these second switches is used to advance the reset process when all reels are zero. Sounds like this daisy chain and its switches may have an issue.

#6 4 years ago

RNS

Electrocute

Pinside member

9y 104K 4,873 16

Tough game to find. Don’t think many survived.

#7 4 years ago

DAD

perry1670

PMP Amusements

Broadway, VA

4y 55,050 189

Success!

I went back over the Z1 and Z2 relays and tested continuity between the two coils and didn't like what I saw. I then got some power to the game and jumped from the AA coil down to Z1/Z2 and it only had enough juice to pull in one, which happened to be whichever one I was connected to. So, re flowed solder on both, adjusted the switches and presto!

My assumption - Ultimately it was maladjusted switches. I had adjusted the switches previously by manually depressing the relay, but because of a poor solder connection the coil wouldn't get enough power to fully pull in the switches and thus wasn't making full contact for them.

Sound reasonable enough?

#8 4 years ago

JGI

John_I

Space Coast Pinball

19y 179K 9,072

OP
Quoted from perry1670:
Success!
I went back over the Z1 and Z2 relays and tested continuity between the two coils and didn't like what I saw. I then got some power to the game and jumped from the AA coil down to Z1/Z2 and it only had enough juice to pull in one, which happened to be whichever one I was connected to. So, re flowed solder on both, adjusted the switches and presto!
My assumption - Ultimately it was maladjusted switches. I had adjusted the switches previously by manually depressing the relay, but because of a poor solder connection the coil wouldn't get enough power to fully pull in the switches and thus wasn't making full contact for them.
Sound reasonable enough?

Yeah sounds reasonable. As I mentioned on mine there were a couple of solder connections that were simply loose. Some of those carry current to light bulbs and coils and after fifty years are going bad. That along with cleaning and adjusting can't hurt if you know what you are doing. My Dodge City was mostly working when I swapped in a nicer playfield and still took a lot of tinkering. On my Ship Mates, that thing was a basket case that hadn't powered up for decades most likely. I basically cleaned and adjusted every switch, relay and stepper in the whole game before even trying to fix the remaining issues.

Have fun with that. I tell my friends that Dodge City is basically an early Steve Ritchie fan layout.

#9 4 years ago

GTW

Gotemwill

Pinside+ Frequent

5y 62,300 914 1

I wonder if this could help me have a breakthrough with this unresolved issue:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/dodge-city-reset-during-gameplay

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