Quoted from Skober:I’m fairly new to pinball but am quite intelligent when it comes to repairs...
Here’s my issue:
I own a Gottlieb Gladiators and Gottlieb wipeout.... ON BOTH MACHINES .... the left kicker doesn’t work but switches are scoring...( yes on both machines) I checked the fuses and replaced the coils. Anyone Have any insight?
By left kicker, do you mean the sling shots?
do you have the manuals? for gottliebs they are hard to find online so owning the physical manual is a good idea.
Being a system 3, there should be a menu system via opening the coin door and using the buttons on the "tournament" board. You should be able to find test 4 which is coils. also you'll have to pull out the white button that the coin door pushes when closed. That button disabled the high voltage when you open the coin door so you dont touch things wrong.
See if the coil fires in test, vs in game. If it does not, you can test the diode at the coil but you'll have to cut/unsolder 1 leg. You can test coil resistance to see if the coil is still good. Then you can test continuity from the coil lug back to the plug at the board.
If all that checks out, you then need to check the transistor that drives that coil.
if that is good then you have to work backward more at the chips/resistors and logic that drive the coil. That is really when a logic probe comes in handy too.
These will be a great resources
https://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Gottlieb_System_3
http://www.pinrepair.com/sys3/