Hello, I am new to fixing EM pinball machines but I am very close to getting my Gottlieb Jack in the Box working fully. The machine works almost perfectly once I have got the game to start, the problem is that the game will not start without some help. When I press the start button all the score reels reset to zero (I have manually set all reels to 1 to watch if they do reset to 0, and they all do). But, the score motor keeps spinning indefinitely. If I press the "U" reset relay, the game starts successfully and runs through the game normally, but never reaches a game over state. I don't think the game not ending correctly relates to the game not starting. What could be causing the score motor to keep spinning?

So currently I need to press "U" and the machine finishes the startup sequence, so the machine gets stuck at step 5. The thing is that all the reels do reset to zero, so that should mean it is making it to at least where the player unit is supposed to step up to zero position? Where should I start to look based on what I said?

Thank you for all the help! P5A was the problem, using the alligator clips the game started right up! Clean the switch contact and now it starts correctly!

I also have an issue still with the game not ending, should I make another topic on the forum or continue here?

Thank you I will look at this. To be more specific, once last ball is over the player motor steps up again until there is no ball indication lit up, and still kicks the ball out. Furthermore any scoring does not give any player any points at this point. I also have never seen the "match" lights light up before on this machine.

I followed the path and one of the issues I noticed is that the ZB relay stays closed throughout the whole game. It seems the ZB relay should be open by the start of the 5th round? When should this relay open?

Also, I closed the last ball relay XB and the game ended successfully , so now I am trying to figure out why it isn’t closing, and I think it has to do with ZB.

Okay thank you for the clarification. This seems to be at least one of the issues, I will try to find the issue with the First Ball relay ZB

So I have been trying to debug this First Ball relay. I can manually open it, but when a 10 or 100 is scored, the first ball ZB re-latches every time. You said it should have the opposite effect right? It should release on a 10 or 100?