I am having a couple issues with my Gottlieb King Pin. I am novice when it comes to repair but hoping it might be an issue with relays needing to be cleaned or something.

When game starts up, everything is fine, reels go to zero, ball kicks over to plunger, etc. to start play. Only issue is everything (flippers, etc.) is frozen. So I have to shoot the ball and let it drain. After that everything is normal stays at Ball 1 and plays fine.

Issue #2. The ball in play "number" on the backglass sometimes takes a while to go to the next ball. Sometimes it's instantaneous as it should be, other times it takes 10-15 seconds, and other times it takes a minute or seemingly not at all. If the ball drains before it switches over (from 2 to 3 for example), I end up getting an extra ball out of it.

Any ideas? I do have manual/schematics. Thanks in advance, sorry for any newbie questions. =)

#2 3 years ago

ACE

paulace

Pinside+ Frequent

Charlottesville, VA

6y 72,300 1,400 8

Your second issue sounds like the player unit in the head is sluggish. A brown circular board with some spring-loaded "snowshoe" contacts on that player unit should rotate one position in one direction each time the solenoid fires, and it should move quickly. Sounds like yours is taking some time to get to the next position. You may have to clean/lube that player unit until it's moving crisply.

#3 3 years ago

TIM

TimMe

Vintage Coin-Op Repair

Seattle, WA

9y 62,900 897

I think paulace is correct, although a Gottlieb single-player has a ball count unit in the head, not a player unit. A player unit is only used in multi-player games.

Both of these units do essentially the same job, but they do have different names, so you'll want to be looking for a ball count unit in the head of your particular game.

And, I will add that a sluggish ball count unit might be causing your other problem, too. The electric power to the playfield is turned on when the ball count unit moves to position 1 (ball 1). If the ball count unit is not moving properly to the ball 1 position when your first ball kicks out, that could prevent the playfield from getting power.

- TimMe

#4 3 years ago

JHD

jaydee49

Inactive member

Foster City, CA

8y 13,900 23 3

Thanks everyone, I'll take a look this weekend.

#5 3 years ago

ACE

paulace

Pinside+ Frequent

Charlottesville, VA

6y 72,300 1,400 8

Thanks for the correction TimMe - forgot that machine was single-player.

#6 3 years ago

JHD

jaydee49

Inactive member

Foster City, CA

8y 13,900 23 3

You guys were right on, it's the ball count unit in the head. I am a novice when it comes to repair so I didn't take the unit apart, I'll have a tech do it. Tried to do a little cleaning with q-tip and while the startup issue remains with it not getting to ball 1, after that it seems to be getting to the next ball all the way through to the end of the game fine now. So one out of two isn't bad. Thanks everyone for the help.

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