I love them, kinda drawn to them in a wierd way, I seem to always look for them as well, have three now, I think I have owned 4-5...

My fav is Stargate, rules and theme are awesome, some real innovative stuff on sys 3 games as well, not to mention they have the best board system in all of pinball as far as durability.., looking for a gladiators and a wipe out right now.. I never understood the bad rap, but I suppose its what you have mentioned above... your Big Hurt looks nice..

For 800 get it, its worth it, and its worth more than that when cleaned up, and working properly, just finished mine...! (I too have a Gladiators

I own a nos factory sollder sample playfield for Gladiators , the factory flipper mechs have no grommets, agree with Force flow, those are put there likely as a matter of normal maintenance by a tech at some point..

Also, that bulb is a 67 bulb flasher, incandescent, you can use 89 flashers if you have leds, but it is a 12v bulb, I am currently working on a cbw and have it apart, that flasher on mine was burnt out, so may just change those while you have them apart.

Here are the diagrams, appears to me that 67 bulb is Sol 19, hence suspect the mosfet at q20 or the diode at D20

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There is a return switch when the rail moves to the right, find that switch loosen the set screw just a bit, then i put in coil test, on the motor and let it travel back and forth , until it hits the switch on the travel to the right each time .

Hard to tell, with Gottliebs you can do some damage if you short coil voltage to the switch matrix, also the lamp matrix and switch matrix share a strobe line, so you can do damage there too. Start with looking at your circuit boards, make sure the lights are blinking, and see if you can get the game into test mode, you will know more then.

Remember, system 3 games really want to see all the balls to start. the game will start and flash zeros for a while, and look for the balls, but not very hard like a WPC would, some games only fire a coil or two. Make sure your trough switches are working properly in test. In your instance above, it could fully be mechanical as you suspect, that gate has to work right.... davebart has it figured out..

If you decide to put a color dmd or a pin2dmd led display in your gottlieb (stargate:freddie, etc), I made a video on removing the red gel paint from the display. Credit to pinsider nerbflong

GI relays in the bottom of the game, one for playfield and one for backbox, start there is the fuse is good. I have had a few system 3s where those are very dirty or need adjusting... check the plastic armature to make sure the blades are opening and closing well..

They are controlled lamps in the lamp matrix, they do not fail often. Could be a cold solder joint as mentioned, also could be a broken wire on another lamp in the same column for row, this happens frequently with GYB system3 games..

Nice job Hans, these kick ass!! I suggest you Gottlieb lovers grab one, nice to have as a spare too..

Vegas is fun, man that one saw some sunlight.. not sure I've seen them faded before. I'm guessing one side is pink? 400 for any working game is a great deal, love the rules on vegas.

Not normal...

I may have a spare board like this ,of you still need it pm me and I can check and see.

Gottlieb System 3s had a lot of organic Flux in the solder, I was told awhile back that is is more prone to causing cracked solder joints, not sure if that is correct.

However, the Gottlieb opto boards will often have solder point issues, wires broken off etc, when shopping or fixing these, I always reheat optos. Namely because the way they fastened these to ramps and lanes, sometimes to plastics with those f@ng plastic rivets, I don't want to have to redo them!!!

Sounds like the switch is not working properly. Verify it's operation, adjust it first