Checking the cables that move a tiny bit between up or down of the playfield reveals no issues that would cause the 100 point/ball advance issue. I pushed the cables in all different directions and closed the trough switches and with the playfield up I could never get the points/ball count problem to occur. I looked at all the wires, even removed a bit of lacing so I could look for exposed wire and could not find any exposed wire.

I'm sure I will find what is changing between up and down playfield, but so far can't find anything that is affected by gravity.

The sticking tens relay is still baffling. It is not as if it won't go round and round when playing the game, just won't reset at start of game.

I uploaded pictures of the underside of my Volley playfield in hopes someone with a Volley or similar Gottlieb game might see what is causing the hundred points and ball count problem. If any other picts might help let me know. Also included a photo of the playfield with parts removed, showing what it looks like after a good cleaning. Most of the metal parts in the game are tarnished so who knows what environment it was in, but amazingly none of the wood, paint, plastics, backglass show any evidence of too much moisture. None of the moving operating EM parts: relays, solenoids, switches, etc are tarnished, just the metal frames and things like the screws and light bulb sockets/mounts.

Hope this may help seeing what could cause a problem when the playfield is in the playing position, but not when the playfield is raised. The cables/wires all seem fine.

Thank you.

Playfield after cleaning & mylar installed around pops.png

lower underside of playfield.png

upper entire playfield.png

trough switch pair.png

green targets area.png

flipper area.png

entire lower portion of playfield.png

drop targets relay bank.png

Blue target area.png

back side of green targets.png

A B C D relays.png

Hi, I have a 6 volt test lamp but where do I get a 24V bulb? I have bunches of 12V automotive bulbs. I do have a very good multimeter. I'd love to make a 24v test lamp, but how? I do have a professional 12V automotive tester, the alligator clip at the lead and sharp point at the other end....don't think it would survive 24 volts. Also my house current is 123V, so voltage at my games transformers is always higher than the specs say, thus I never high tap any of the games. Lamp voltage is usually 7.5 and coil voltage averages about 28v.

Let me know what you suggest. I am very eager to cure the ten reel reset problem. Many thanks for sticking with this sticky issue.

BTW, any Pinsider that wants to come over and play pinball, I have 10 working games......11 if the Volley gets fixed, ha ha.
Next project is to clean and reassemble my only modern SS game: Whirlwind. It was working OK, but very dirty and needed some new parts. I hope I don't have to get Pinside help to put it back together......I took lots of pictures 4 months ago. You can see my total game list on Pinside. Three more EMs to restore, but they were working when I got them, just need serious cleaning.

Cheers.

Will in north-west AL.

Ah ha...two 12v automotive lamps in series. I'm going to go make one now and then check the 1A circuit.
Thanks.

OK, I will do having trouble making the 24 v test system, solder heat made the bulbs come apart. I'll get though.

Yes, good idea, but I don't have any of the classic 12v automotive sockets...they are on ebay, but not in my garage. But I fixed the score reel problem using a ohm meter.
Thanks

BINGO. GENIUS. Very good observation. The wire bundle was mushed against the blue target bank (rather poor wiring job) and I removed some lacing and the plastic clip so there was slack so I could look at each wire. None of them were scraped or had exposed wire, but for whatever reason when I loosened up that bundle the link between 100 points and moving the ball count unit stopped. Very hard to comprehend because the drop target cage is firmly screwed in place and that wire bundle was so tightly held in place that it would not budge until I removed lacing and the clamp.

Hooray, problem solved, now the game works with the playfield down. You must have X-Ray vision because there was no way to see what was going on inside the cotton covered wires. I put the wires back inside the plastic clamp, but they are now looser and not strained across the target cage.

If the wiring is identical on other Volleys I wonder if any others had this problem, or maybe the person that assembled this game made this wiring job one-of-a-kind ha ha. I'm going to tell Wayne Neyens about this: he will find it interesting how this mysterious problem was solved.

Thank you thank you to all who contributed especially DaMoib. Multiple thumbs up.

Will

To all participants in this topic and future Pinsiders looking for help with score reels that won't reset back to ZERO. I found the solution with your help and suggestions. Indeed as many have suggested the problem was with the dag nab AX switches. Even though I had cleaned and checked the gap on all the switches in the relay the contacts between the red-green and red-black that go to the ones reel were touching but only enough to let one electrical pulse come from the 1A motor switch, so the reel would only jump 1 digit. The gaps are so tiny in those relays that it is a fine line between too close and then having just enough pressure on the switch blades to make a firm electrical contact. So I carefully filed the points again, made the gap as tiny as possible, made sure the springiness of the stationary leaf was as much as it can be.......and now the tens reel resets to ZERO.

I guess as we all know when working on EMs, its the switches that give the most trouble. Sorry it took so long to figure this out, but the unit stepping one digit was the part that confused me.

Thank you all. Lesson learned. Again. Just because you cleaned a switch and it looks like it is working and the points are touching, does not mean all the electrons are getting to their destination.

Happy weekend to ALL. Perseverance is the key and Perseverance is on Mars. Yea!

Ha ha, me neither. Since the current comes from the 1A switch and it only pulses, how was the tens coil staying energized? A mystery.

Thanks for your help.