(Topic ID: 11910)
Linked Games
No Good Gofers
Williams, 1997
Topic Gallery
Holly Springs, NC
http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/10-135
Quoted from Mando:how do I get the spring on there?
Remove the coil bracket, and slide out the coil.
Quoted from Squeakman:Do you have the manual?
pages 2-28 and 2-29
manual PDF: http://mirror2.ipdb.org/files/4338/Williams_1997_No_Good_Gofers_Manual.pdf
Not sure the spring is what keeps him up. The spring just returns the coil rod back to the bottom. There is another rod with a coil on it that will get pushed up to make him drop back down.
When you put him back on did you run the bolt through his head as well as to hole in the top of the rod that is in the picture? I had to take one of mine out because the nut on the end of the screw was missing and he kept getting stuck. When I put it back together I didn't get the bolt back in the hole of the rod that goes up throug his middle and had the same issue. Once I put the rod in correctly he strated working again.
I did the same thing...forgot to put the pin through and I think that how it got messed up...its correct now but it still doesn't stay up...if I kinda push that rod up and rig the spring it will work the first time but then the spring will come loose and it will fail. I tried messing with the spring but it just keeps popping off. I hope thats it. Maybe I should just get a pro to take a look.
Quoted from Mando:Maybe I should just get a pro to take a look.
If it is the spring that's the problem, it is about the easiest things to fix on these machines. I would give it a try yourself before paying somebody else to do it.
Haven't worked on mine for a while so can't remember exactly how they work. But if it is the spring it should be cheep and it is easy to change. I do know it doesn't use the coil to keep the gopher up it uses some other mec to do it.
Basically there is a rod..when its up the gopher will click into place...I think the coil will release it for the gopher to go down. I think there is a decent chance its the spring..or the coil..or both...but it could be something else. I am scared I will make the thing worse 
I feel so bad right now I knew I should have just left those gophers alone! I sure hope its something that can be fixed...some of the parts of that Gopher Assembly seem hard to come by? They do look good now though! Too bad one of them can't be seen.
Simple stuff,don't be scared.Mind over matter,good for you trying to fix stuff and make it how you want it in the first place.
Quoted from Mando:I am scared I will make the thing worse I feel so bad right now
Almost all these parts can still be found or fabricated,just get some rest and come back to it when you are in a better frame of mind.These machines really need a pretty fair amount of TLC and tweeking fairly regularly.
Quoted from Mando:I am scared I will make the thing worse I feel so bad right now I knew I should have just left those gophers alone! I sure hope its something that can be fixed...
There is nothing you are doing in there that can't be fixed, I guarantee you this.
You need to get in there and see how the working gopher looks compared to the broken one. You'll be so surprised when you find it because it's probably very simple.
Good Luck.
It's proably not the coil, all the coil does is push the rod up to release the gopher. Rawley is correct, that is how I figured out what was wrong with mine. Pused the working one up to see how he worked and then compared the non-working one.
There are three coils used for these guys, one pushes him up, that engages a locking mec, the other one pushes up a rod sitting right next to the gopher and that releases him so he can fall back down, There is also a real small coil sitting next to a small metal plate on the release rod, this one is used to keep the ramp open once the gopher falls back down. The small coil will pull the plate back in so the ramp can fall.
On mine the tab on the metal plate had broken that holds the spring to keep the ramp up and the spring was missing. It was about 5$ in parts and only took about 10 minutes to fix once I got the parts.
I would take him back off and just make sure you have all of the brackets and plungers put in correct. I will go down and take a look at mine in a few and see if I can tell you exactly how they work.
By the way they do look good, wish mine looked that good, on mine buzz has a bigger mustash then I do.
K, just checked mine to refresh my memory, getting old is teriable 
. I still don't think it is your spring because that would be used to help get him back down, not keep him up.
I can't see exactly how it works but when you push him up by hand he should lock into place when he is up all the way, the main plunger is held up and that spring is compressed, you should not be able to pull him down once he is up. Then you should be able to pull on the smaller coil that is next to the coil he is attached to and release him. My guess is you didn't get the black brackets he is attached to put together quite right inside the mech, and that is causing it not to lock in place.
That thrid smaller coil is on a seperate mec off to one side so that should not even come in to play unless the ramp won't stay up once the gopher falls back down.
When I had mine off, if I remeber correctly, memory issues again, there is some sort of spring or wire inside that black mouting bracket and that is proably used in the locking mech. I doubt you broke anything unless you can see some pieces of black plastic laying around, odds are you just don't have the bracket put together quite right.
What seems to be happening is that smaller plunger needs to be all the way up for him to lock. If I manually push the small plunger up he will lock when I push him up but once I manipulate it to make him unlock it doesn't move back up and he won't lock again. It's the little spring on that that I think is issue because the working gopher that smaller plunger moved back up on its own? Does that make sense? I fell so terrible just or this thing
here i took a video to show the difference. The first one is the broken one.. you will see the rod stays down unless I manually push it up...if I do that he will work the first time but after he goes down once will never work again. The second on is the working gofer as you can see that springs back up after I manually pull it down. What those do is push this little locking rod up and the black plastic under the gofer sits on top of it and is locked until that rod goes down or the gofer is pushed back.
Video -
locking rod -
it looks like its binding up inside the coil or some alignement might be off regarding that coil? the arm is binding up obviously. is there a coil sleeve dirty or maybe i'm just chiming in late? lol. it seems to need an adjustment? sorry, that's all i got out of the video. it's hanging up.
edit;
seems that maybe the gopher up top is not aligned? it seem that the plunger is having a tough time with the alignment from under the playfield and above it? watched it 2 times, and i think its either your coil sleeve or an alignment problem with the gopher. just rambling here. let us know what you come up with.
i'd pull out the coil from the mount, then pull out the plastic sleeve inside the coil which the plunger runs against. i'd probably just order 2 (1 for each gopher coil) replacements (they're cheap). some sleeves can be cleaned with soap/water and q tips, and this can resolve the problem for now. like i said coil sleeves are cheap.
if it isn't the coil sleeve inside the coil, then you have an alignement issue somewhere, maybe you forgot or misplaced a nut or screw? best thing to do is just check your work and retrace your steps. at least you have the other to compare it to, that def helps. seeing one that works vs one that isn't so you can compare them.
I have it a par it is kinda dirty I will clean it..but still think that spring helps get it back up as well. I wonder if I could find some sort of a spring elsewhere that would work temporarily just to test my theory?
I agree it does look like it is binding. If that is the spring you are having issues with it could also cause the proglem. From your vary first picture I thought you were talking about the spring on the main coil that the gopher is attached to.
The spring in the video does need to be correct because that is what returns the coil plunger back to it's correct position.
You could alwasy take the spring off the good one and try it on the bad one, other than that any spring close to the same size would work, but they aren't vary strong as you can probably tell.
You also may want to take a pair of pliers and see if you can re-adjust that spring, try to close the top of it back down some.
Yea I thought about taking to good spring off but I don't want to risk messing up the one tag works lol! I am going to clean the sleeve and I just picked up a boat load of various springs at home depot. If ican find one thats close I will test with that. If it works I will disable the gopher and wait to install the proper one. Unless this could be a big no no to use a diff spring?
Quoted from Mando:I just picked up a boat load of various springs at home depot. If ican find one thats close I will test with that
um i would not use any of these springs..even if they are the same size (so you think). springs have different compression ratings. you get a softer or stronger spring and then you'll get more problems than you started with. the springs are probably 1-5$ on marco parts, you're better off getting the 'exact' spring replacement. sounds silly, but it really matters. you could get by on a home depot spring, but days, weeks, or months later you'll be back at the gophers again..
I found the spring at Marco.
http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/10-135
It will proably cost you more to have it shipped than the spring costs so you may want to pick up some sleeves and other stuff as well.
Just saw this was already posted up above sorry.
Quoted from mpatricksp:It will proably cost you more to have it shipped than the spring costs so you may want to pick up some sleeves and other stuff as well
ya, just order 2 springs, 2 coil sleeve replacements and hopefully that 'rebuild' on your gophers should do the trick, i don't know why it wouldn't. that will benefit you're shipping costs.
OK guys here are is what I found! I didn't read the above post and used a spring from home depot(mainly just to prove my theory not permanent). But alas they work! Sorta....... eventually the gopher won't go back down..but this spring is a bit to strong, I made it weaker and it works better but again eventually I am guessing the coil isn't strong enough to compress it. So even though I want to keep whacking Buz I guess I will have to disable him until I get the proper spring. I will def order some extra springs, sleeves maybe a coil in case this one is weak. Any other stuff that breaks a lot I should order? I am impatient so I will probably spring for 2 day shipping LOL! Lets keep our fingers crossed I can get them working 100% when I get this stuff but I feel better about my chances. I am guessing that spring was getting kinda week all along I may have just accelerated the process messing with the gofers. Here is a video of them working..but only for a short time.
P.S. Thanks everyone for all your help, you guys are awesome!! Everyone here is so friendly and helpful, and special thanks to mpatrick you really made a huge effort to help me looking at yours and all. Im still a little nervous about things but I guess this is part for the course with pinball.
Not a problem, I probably wouldn't mess with the coil, usualy either they work or they don't, the sleeves are what need to be changed to keep them working best. As for other stuff breaking that is part of the problem, or fun depending on how you look at it. You never know what is going to stop working next.
Also just an fyi, if you do change the coil make sure you wire it correct. I haven't work much on williams coils so not sure if they have dioeds on them or not. If they do and you hook it up wrong you will start blowing transitors on your boards.
That was my first big mistake when I started working on my machines.
Yea I like to tinker and fix..but it does suck when your pin is broken Especially if you only have one LOL! Buzz usually works about 3 times or so now then he gets stuck...if I go in and mess with the spring he will work for a short time again and then stop going down. So I will order the sleeve and spring and hopefully we should be good to go? Buz is disable for now...its just not as fun when you can't bash Buz but you can still play and if you hit the ramp all the way you get a hit and a lock so it easier haha. Oh...also when he doesn't go down..if I whack him good with the pinball he will fall down so as that doesn't use the coil the gopher gets compressed and unlatches. I now know a lot more about this stupid Gofer assembly then I ever cared too! LOL.
Quoted from mpatricksp:Also just an fyi, if you do change the coil make sure you wire it correct. I haven't work much on williams coils so not sure if they have dioeds on them or not. If they do and you hook it up wrong you will start blowing transitors on your boards.
That was my first big mistake when I started working on my machines.
Yea I most likely won't be changing that it seems to work since he will go down on his own sometimes until the spring gets stuck..from what I can tell two wires go to it..so would just need to make sure I don't reverse them? Lets hope its not needed!
P.S. How does a coil work? I assume the electric current causes it to retract.
Yes, when the coil energizes it creates a magnetic filed that pulls the plunger in.
As for the wires on the coil, it is not so much about not reversing them as it is about the dioed on the coil. It has a banded side and a non-banded side. The hot wire always goes on the banded side of the diode and the common goes on the non-banded side.
What got me was the new coil had the diode reveresed from the original and so when I hooked up the coil the same way it was they were on backwards. Bad things happen real fast once the coil is fired.
I also had a new coil where the diode was not soldered on the lug but just wrapped around it. It worked for a few times then blew the transitor, so I always double check them now before I start hooking them up.
What I have found works best is look at the old coil and make a note of what wires are attached to the lug with the banned side on it, then just make sure when you hook up the new one those same wires go to the lug with the banded side on the new one. I still cringe every time I hook up another coil the first time I turn the game on but since that first lesson I seem to get it right now.
Quoted from Mando:Hopefully just the spring and sleeve for good measure what do you think, we got it?
I really doubt the actual coil is bad. It looks like the new spring and new coil sleeve will do the trick. Good luck. Hope the parts get there soon.
Yea I don't think so...it will go down on its own until the rigged spring gets messed up...I am going to pay for faster shipping...I work from home on Wednesdays so that will be the perfect day! I can change it in about 2 minutes now I am an expert on that gofer assembly LOL!
P.S. Since I am springing(pun intended) for the shipping any parts that commonly go bad I should stock up on? I am guessing its a crap shot but worth asking
Kamloops, BC
If you don't have any spare parts I'd get:
Flipper rebuild kit
Spare flipper rubber/sling rubber/other rubbers
New balls (by at least 2 sets)
tools? leaf adjuster, fuse puller, etc
Novus 2
common microswitches
bulbs/flashers 44,555,89,906 etc
sling fender washers to protect sling plastics
pingulp drink holder (best pinadd on ever)
I'm sure there's more, but I'm busy at work so that's at start....I always order spare stuff as you are going to need it eventually, especially when you get more pins down the road hahah...If you need 1 spring, buy 3...etc
OK...here is what I bought thuse far
Some spare pinball rubbers
the microswitch used for the inlanes as I did have one acting up that seems fine now
fuse kit for NGG(figure I may need one at some point)
various springs
various parts for the gofer assembly just in case 
already have novas and some new pinballs
I did get the coil just in case? Not sure if I need to pretty sure its working and its $10 but maybe better safe than sorry
I didn't see the fuse puller or leaf adjuster on Marco? Links anyone?
I normally buy from Pinballlife first, Terry is the bomb. You don't really need a fuse puller, as you could get that from any electrical shop, or automotive shop or just use a jewelers screwdriver...
http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=1518&parent=96
http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=425&parent=96
http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=catalog&parent=96&pg=1
Coils rarely go bad, as it's just a bunch of wire essentially..
Yea I think its fine, once i get that spring in there should be good to go. I did order it just in case. Next time I will order from them and get some of those various tools, I did see those via a google search but already built up my cart at Marco
I am happy to report its working now! I replaced the spring and coil sleeve...Buzz was still having an issue going down but now he is fine think the spring just needed to shift into the right place Played a few games and all was fine. I think Bud is going to need the same treatment soon his spring looks ragged..but he is working so I will leave him be for now...although on rare occasion he seems to think he got hit when he pops up after "raising the gofer".
Wow... So Bud was acting strange he would think he got hit when ibwould raise him before I even had a chance to hit him. Well I decided to give him the same update I gave Buzz. He thn would not go down after he sprung up. Long story short I had to make some adjustments to him and the spring. Then I noticed somehow in the process a soldered wire had come loose, I ran to home depot and got a soldering iron which I haven't done in 15 years. I got the wire back on and he is working exactly as he should now. Played a couple games... Hope it stays that way not sure how log the wire was off causing the issue. All that just to paint the stupid gofer. I was going to do led inserts but I think I may wait a little lol!!
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