Gladiators
Gottlieb, 1993I have a strange issue with my Gottlieb Gladiators (System 3). It ejects a second ball at start, sometimes after a second. I checked the switch under shooter lane and that one measures fine.
Also, maybe related, when I get multi-ball, it kicks out the locked ball immediately from the top, kick-up hole after providing the second ball in the shooter lane.
What should I look at to figure out this issue?
My guess is either a bad trough switch (don't know if they're mechanical or optical - if optical, clean both sides) or a busted wire on one of the trough switches.
Past that, there's a write-up on here, probably one I did a while back, on Genesis regarding this same issue. There's a wire form before the kick-out solenoid that sometimes gets bent out of whack or is on wrong. Check that out also.
Someone I know had a similar issue. Check all trough switches in switch test and the shooter lane, but their's ended up being an extra ball was in the game. Pulled that out and it worked. I find it so weird that it worked for months with an extra ball in the game....
Quoted from northvibe:Someone I know had a similar issue. Check all trough switches in switch test and the shooter lane, but their's ended up being an extra ball was in the game. Pulled that out and it worked. I find it so weird that it worked for months with an extra ball in the game....
Ha, that was the issue 
Thanks!!!! I did not know it needed 4 balls instead of 5.
I can explain why it worked before, a ball can be stuck and obscured at the pop-bumbers area. The code handles that extra ball quite elegantly when it appears and disappears from the game (when it gets stuck again).
Just got it, it was barely working and it is my first time working on a solid state Gottlieb so I was looking for all the wrong causes. Still have to find the manual of this game in PDF so I can read it on my PC and tablet.
Quoted from Bumper:Ha, that was the issue Thanks!!!! I did not know it needed 4 balls instead of 5.
I can explain why it worked before, a ball can be stuck and obscured at the pop-bumbers area. The code handles that extra ball quite elegantly when it appears and disappears from the game (when it gets stuck again).
Just got it, it was barely working and it is my first time working on a solid state Gottlieb so I was looking for all the wrong causes. Still have to find the manual of this game in PDF so I can read it on my PC and tablet.
Hahah, omg, glad I had the issue so I could pass it on! I also cannot explain why I would have 5 balls in the game and sold it. You’re right, the code and the way the game plays make it take forever to run into the issue
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Carquefou
Anchorage, AK