Thanks for looking......

Gtb Jacks Open. Hasn't been played for a while and I had a few games the other day only to find that the drops were struggling to drop fully and reset. Pulled them apart and cleaned everything up, they were a bit grotty and due for a clean. Now for the life of me, I can't get the targets to reset if they are all down. Adjusted contacts so there absolutely minimum resistance from them to raise the drops, played around with adjusting the coils to try to get as much plunger in the coil as possible whilst allowing full range of movement. It just seems that when the playfield is down, there is not enough strength in the reset coil/s to fire the drops up far enough for them to clip in place. The machine tries to do it repeatedly but the drops aren't lifting up far enough to reset.

The only thing I haven't done is put new coil sleeves in the drop reset coils.

The machine plays fine until it gets to a point where all drops are down. It follows the sequences fine, scores 99% of the time (I need to clean contacts as well). If one or two drops are up, the rest will reset no worries at all. It seems the added weight or resistance of the internal reset bar is just too much for it. If the playfield is up, they will more than likely reset, put the playfield down so gravity comes in to play as well and no joy.

As far as I am aware, coils are either good or bad. Both tested OK as far as Ohms go. There is no physical resistance to the plunger, they both move and slide freely in and out of the coil/s. The royal flush drop sequence works as it should.

Has anyone else encountered this and if so, what ended up solving the problem? As mentioned, the only thing I haven't done as I am thinking as I type are the coil sleeves. Other than that, I am about at my wits end.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I had a quick look at a few things mentioned in the posts above.

Coil Fuses - all tested OK.

In response to a few questions.

The drops try to reset when the machine is turned on if they are all down. Not enough punch to get them reset though.
The drops don't reset when the machine is turned on if only some of them are down.
The drops reset perfectly reset on game start if only some of them are down. If they are all down they try to reset but can't do it.

Now my experience with pinball machines is 99% DMD machines. I know enough about EM machines to keep them clean and not to play around with relays when I don't know what I am doing.

I have taken pics of the relays and what I believe is the switch at motor 2C. I have cleaned the contacts on this switch but no change in the problem. Could anyone confirm this is the correct switch please?

I have also taken pics of the relays to show how they are sitting at the moment. Can anyone see anything untoward in these?

Motor 2C switch (resized).jpg

20201209_074741 (resized).jpg

20201209_074814 (resized).jpg

20201209_074943 (resized).jpg

20201209_074955 (resized).jpg

I am still having trouble getting this beast to reset the drop targets if they are all down. I would really appreciate any help to try to sort this old girl out.

So.....golden rule No. 1 when checking fuses - taking the fuse out of the holder. Dead fuse on one coil was the cause of the drops not resetting fully.

I then had a few issues with mis-adjusted switches but after some trial and error the machine is back to playing 100%.

Thanks to everyone that posted advice.

As a matter of interest, it was the left hand coil fuse that was dead on mine. When I swapped the right hand coil fuse to the left hand coil fuse it was able to reset all the drops without the right coil being in use.

For now it is working and I am reluctant to keep on fiddling in case I stuff something else up.