I picked up a cheap Gottlieb Genesis this weekend. Cosmetically it is in good shape. This is my first project machine so I am looking for some help. Been reading the System 80 wiki which has been very informative (and a bit overwhelming).

So here is what I have so far. I turn the game on, I hear a tone, lights come on. Displays are not lighting up. I get sound and if it sits for awhile, attract mode will come on. I cannot start up a game (balls in trough, tried dropping quarters through mechs). Owner said it was working a few months back (this was his father's machine who passed away recently).

The MPU still has the original battery in it. So I am guessing one of the first things i need to do is get that battery off the board, clean up any corrosion, and repair the damage (or pay someone to repair it). Sound board blinks when machine is powered up. I believe that is normal behavior.

I opened up the display and it looks like most of the caps up top are burned. Displays have dark marks in the corners (is that normal?). Found the fuses at the power supply and will check them when my multimeter comes in tomorrow. I noticed the solenoid that kicks the balls out of the trough looks like it's toast. So I am assuming I will have to replace it. After going through the wiki, it looks like I am going to have to do a few ground mods and possibly repin connectors.

At this point I guess I am just looking for a plan. What should I start with first? I ordered some tools (solder iron, multimeter, supplies to clean playfield after teardown) but I know I need a bunch more stuff. Any help is greatly appreciated. Lots of pics to follow.

Thanks,
Bill

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Thanks Chris! I'm going to start this weekend. Will hit you up if I have any questions.

Lots of great info. Thanks everyone. Quick question...what do I need to repin the connectors? I'm not familiar with doing this.

Yup that is my plan. My supplies come in today so that battery will be coming off tonight!

To follow up on my repinning question. Should I reuse the old connectors and just replace the pins or should I go with new connectors?

Thanks guys. Looks like GPE is out of that connector. Hopefully it will come back in stock or is there another place I can get them?

Another quick question since my supplies are not coming until tomorrow now. I noticed two disconnected wires in the cab with the ends wrapped in masking tape. See pics below. I am assuming these wires are for the ball roll tilt. There is no ball in there. Is it fine for now or will that also trigger any weird behavior?

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I put together a quick spreadsheet with the planned repairs in the rough order of when I am going to do them. Let me know if I am missing anything.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XuO7LwIwpnggD8aUkKnuJyWSLb-CX_W-FUWgMGWlcxQ/edit?usp=sharing

I pulled out the power supply this morning and replaced the 500 ohm pot as well as reflowed the pins on both sides. Will attach a couple of pics of my work...hopefully it is acceptable (order is backwards from my work). I made sure to clean up all the traces and the pins.

I just got my multimeter but I have never really used one before. I am going to watch a couple tutorials. But could anyone detail me the process outlined by the wiki for testing the power supply?:

"When measuring the +5VDC provided by the power supply, first disconnect J2 on the power supply. Measure power at the J2 male headers first. Once within an acceptable range, turn power off and reconnect J2. Measure power across C1, the 100uf/10V capacitor that is next to J1 (power connector) on the MPU. The MPU may drag the +5VDC supply down a bit. If you find this to be the case, adjust the trim pot on the power supply until a steady +5VDC is seen at the MPU. Poor connections between the +5VDC power supply and the MPU board may also reduce the voltage measured at the MPU. "

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Today I tackled removing the battery and other components for the reset generator mod. Here are a few photos. Unfortunately there was quite a bit of battery leakage so some traces were pulled up (marked in yellow). I still need to remove the components marked in red. Do you think this board is too beyond my scope to repair?

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Well I need to order some components so I can continue to repair this board. in the meantime, I did the ground mod in the cabinet. By the way, what is the best way to get rid of funky odors inside a cabinet...save from pulling everything out and repainting it?

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Good idea. I may just bite the bullet and repaint the inside. I am actually sticking with repairing the board for now I've seen some people clean up the transformer as well. Mine is really rusty. Anyone know the process of cleaning it up?

Can anyone point me to where I could find these brackets that hold the ball guides in place? There are a few that are broken and I'd like to replace them.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4vgu7WXeRF7NTRRWXVjX0xzOTg/view?usp=sharing

I think I need 3 but I would take 6 if you have them. Yes mine have a lower "hook" punched out but just the top hook would suffice. Sending you a message.

Have two questions if anyone can help out. I just finished doing a full tear down and I'm putting things back together. There are some shorter hex screws and wasn't 100% positive where they are used. I'm guessing they are for mounting the ball guides. I also noticed in my bag of plastic posts that 2 are taller than the rest. Can't figure out which ones these are based on the pics I took. I'm sure I can find out but might as well ask. Pic attached of both pieces.

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Thanks Steve. Just need to figure out what the 2 taller plastic posts go.

Thanks guys. One more favor Does anyone have photos with plastics off? I bought a rubber kit but there are a couple of areas I am unsure about. For example, by the 3 drop bank, there is a 2 inch rubber that goes around those two taller posts. But it feels a little on the loose side. Not sure if it is supposed to go around another neighboring post. Unfortunately most of the rubber was snapped on this before I tore it down so my pics are not going to help.

It's hard to tell but do you have your 3drop bank rubber stretched over these posts?

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Or like this?

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Thanks for the pics guys. Definitely answered the questions I had.

I'm looking to replace the knocker assembly coil but a little confused. The cool I purchased does not have the correct sleeve. Is there a way I can pull the sleeve off the old cool?

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Thats what I was wondering. Thanks. Now I just need to buy a new sleeve, right? Manual is saying sleeve number 5142 which would be this
http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/03-7067-1

Ok time for a quick recap.

When I originally brought the machine home, I fired it up. GI lighting turned on, heard the single tone and robot motor spun around. Displays did not turn on. Sound would come on during attract more.

Since then I have done the following things:

Replaced all fuses
Replaced 500 ohm pot on power supply
Did the in cabinet ground mods
Cleaned edge connectors on most boards
Replaced knocker and trough kick solenoid
Sent mpu and driver board to Chris for repair.

Driver board...
the transistors that drive the knocker and the outhole kicker were toast. Be sure to check those coils before powering on the game.

MPU Board...
I abated all of the alkaline corrosion and cleaned the rest of the board up.
I also removed, resoldered, and installed the daughter card, added slam tilt mod, ground mod, and a SuperCap to retain memory.

So I fired up the machine this morning and it's in the same state except I don't get the audible tone or attract mode or sound at all. light is not blinking on sound board. It stays on or when I tried to fire it up another time it looked off.

I know I need to start rep inning the connectors as everyone says they're flakey. I also still need to finish the ground mods for each board. I just realized I never checked for 5v coming out of the power supply after I re flowed the pins so I will do that tonight. Besides what I listed above is there anything else I should check?

Also I am concerned about the displays not powering up. I checked the front side of the display board and there are two components that look fried. (See photo) I have replacement parts for these. And I plan to check the back side in case a trace is busted. But I figure that is last on my list.

As always, any advice is appreciated.

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Ok. What would be the cause of the displays not powering up besides being completely shot?

BTW...i meant the caps on the top right side of the display board...not the actual display glass.

Tested the power supply this morning. Getting 4.99 from each pin. First time using a multimeter so want to make sure I'm doing it right. I pulled the j2 connector off the power supply and then powered the machine on. Turned dial to V setting with straight/dashed line (DC). Connected black probe to com port. Connected red probe to right side port (hz/v/ohms). Pushed black probe into exposed ground braid on back box. Pushed red probe into j2 pins (individually)

I noticed that the alphanumeric display was blinking a number 1 every 10 seconds or so. Not sure if it was doing this before as it's easy to miss.

So since I am getting 5v my next step is from wiki:

Once within an acceptable range, turn power off and reconnect J2. Measure power across C1, the 100uf/10V capacitor that is next to J1 (power connector) on the MPU. The MPU may drag the +5VDC supply down a bit. If you find this to be the case, adjust the trim pot on the power supply until a steady +5VDC is seen at the MPU. Poor connections between the +5VDC power supply and the MPU board may also reduce the voltage measured at the MPU.

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Understood. Think the ROMs are okay. I have yet to re-pin any connectors so it could be a flaky connection as well. I'll just keep plugging along.

I am enjoying it in bits. Moreso now that I don't have too much more money I need to sink into it. Mostly just time and effort (I think). The hardest part is figuring out the order in which I should be doing things. I really need to bite the bullet and just repin all the connectors to rule them out along with the rest of the ground mods for each board. One step at a time

What is the issue you are having with your Raven?

Yes Chris repaired and tested in his robo war.

I was going to start repining my connectors. I have the tool to remove the pins but I don't think I have the proper crimper. Can anyone suggest a crimper to get for .156" 22-26 AWG crimp contacts?

I repinned a bunch of connectors and I now have a game that boots with displays working...woohoo! However, there are quite a few things not working:

Both flippers
Both kicking targets
Vari-target
Top right pop bumper

So I am not out of the woods quite yet. Going to have to visit the wiki again to see how to troubleshoot all of this.

I changed them all originally. But I am going to double check. I'm also going to pull each fuse and check the fuse holders for corrosion. This machine was pulled from a cellar of an old house so there were and still are parts that have some corrosion.

So today I checked the fuses. Everything looked good. I went back to the wiki to see how I could get the flippers working and decided to check out the game over and tilt relays. I am guessing these were the ones located underneath and and to the back of the machine. I adjusted the switches thinking they need to be gapped, fired the machine up and still no flippers but also no pop bumpers and slings. Ugh. Feels like every time I go one step forward, I take two steps back. What did I do wrong? Still do not know why the vari target and kick back targets are not working.

I fixed the game over relay switch and I am back to where I was before.

So all fuses are ok. Flipper switches look ok except one has a broken EOS switch. I filed down the flipper cabinet contacts. I am getting continuity when the button is pressed but no flipper action.

What can I do to figure out the problem? I'd like to start with the flippers and then work on the other pieces.

How do I do that?

Thanks guys. crlush, I will check that tonight. This morning I decided to try bypassing the cabinet buttons and just touching the leads. Because it was early morning, I turned down the volume. Should have done this before. Heard a hum. Attached leads back to each cab button and tried button. Same thing. So those switches work. When I hold down the button, I can get the flipper to move by give it a small push. The action of the flipper is very "gummy". When I release the flipper button, it will come back but slowly. Does this mean I need to rebuild the flippers?

How do I remove the pin from the flipper linkage? Do I need a special tool?

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Ok so I got both flippers rebuilt and they are working great! Here is what I have left to fix:

Top right pop bumper
Both kicking targets
Vari-target

I do much better when I just focus on one problem at a time so next up is fixing the pop bumper. What would be my first steps in diagnosing a problem? I am guessing I should be making sure the correct voltage is going to the coil.

Great idea. Thanks!

One question...could I swap pop bumper board connectors with a working one to see if it is indeed a problem with the board before I snip wires at the coil?

Bad board. I actually ordered a spare with some other parts so it was an easy swap. Will probably repair the old one later.

Ok so I have a quick question about the flippers. I rebuilt the left and it's working great. I rebuilt the right but haven't installed yet. The wiring looks different from the left one. Here is a photo ofnit before I took it apart, does this look normal? Does the right flipper have any other use that would need it to be wired differently?

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Ah good call. That is probably what it is.

Ok...all I have left are the 2 kicking targets and the vari-target. Nothing registers when any of them are activated. No score, no kickback...nothing. Where do I start? I originally checked the fuses and they all seem to be fine although I think I might go back to check again as a few of the fuse holders were mildly corroded.

I am a bit stumped on where to begin. If anyone has suggestions, please let me know. Thanks!

Kick back targets are now functioning. Varitarget works now as well but I need to adjust the switches to get it working right. I do have a problem with it returning back to its start position though. I pulled it, cleaned everything and still sluggish (sometimes not even returning). Do you think I need to wind the spring a few more times to make it stronger?

I'm an idiot. I was testing it while the play field was up. Everything is working now! Will post some pics later tonight.

Been awhile since I've updated this thread. I've been able to put a bunch of games on the machine and I only have one issue.
Sometimes when I turn it on, I will have no sound. I'll start playing and eventually I will get sound effects while playing. Once that happens and then the ball drains, I will get music back. I reseated all of the connectors on the sound board but that did not fix the problem.
The game over switch is currently closed all the time since I need to replace the solenoid. Would that cause the problem? Also, I can't seem to locate a replacement solenoid.

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I just moved my pins to the basement so I'll be taking a look at the Genesis problems this week. I have no sound now so first thing I'm going to take a look at pinwiki tonight to see steps for troubleshooting. Also going to run the solenoid test to see what's up with the game over coil. I'll try to take a pic...its tucked in tight

Pic of game over relay attached. I ran the relay test and I don't hear anything for relay 0 (game over relay). My temp fix was to pinch the switch closed so i can play but I would like to fix it.

I haven't looked too far into the no sound problem. When I power the machine on I usually get a beep and the led is flashing as it should. Pressing the test buttons plays the audible beeps. I ordered a logic probe to measure signals. For awhile the sound would kick on after playing for a bit but now it's not working at all. So perhaps it is a cold solder joint? Or maybe one of the roms or the DAC failed? Should I just replace them first?

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