So this game has finally been playing well. Still have some intermittent issues to work out.. Now, I get one or both of the drop target banks not resetting after a ball drain. The solenoid does fire quickly but not long enough to reset the banks. I made an adjustment to the reset coil mounting bracket to give a bit more travel. That helped but it still happens once in awhile. Looking at the schematic, it looks like these reset coils are before the transformer? What triggers the reset then after each ball?

PXL_20210323_205044473~2 (resized).jpg

Thanks.. I'll check the P and motor 2C. It looks like the reset is happening too fast. The targets start to move and don't always pop back up. I did pull both drop target banks apart and gave them a good cleaning. Someone though it was a good idea to spray everything with a spray grease. I'll check the long switches but I think they are set up pretty well.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll get back into it this weekend. I have no trouble resetting on a new game. The issue has always happened during ball advance. Its hard to follow relays as it only happens 1 out of maybe 10 games - and it may happen for 2 balls, then back to full reset without issue. The ABC does reset fine after each ball so P does appear to be in long enough. I do have an intermittent scoring issue with 1 drop target on the left bank, so I was thinking about TimMe post #6 making sense, but doesn't seem to apply here. Looks like I'll start at the score motor. I went through all when I first got the machine running. I also put a towel down over the bottom relays whenever I'm doing work on the playfield so I don't drop anything into a relay. Sometimes the towel gets caught and may have bumped a contact.

So I cleaned and checked the P relay as well as the score motor 2 contacts. Nothing seemed out of wack. I put it back together and started to play a game. I got into the 2nd ball, it hit the kickout hole and the power went out. The timing couldn't have been much better as the ball stopped in the hole. When it came back on, I played another few games. The same issue happened. This time, at the reset for a new game they did not reset. I cycled the power and they reset for a new game. Thats when I stopped for the night. I'm going to check motor 4 contacts again. I may put a dab of grease on the back of the switches of this bank and see if that helps.

All targets that are down, fail to reset. I don't think the arm is completing its travel. It seems to happen on the end of ball 2 and 3 more often, but does happen on others. I've really only been playing 1 player at this point. When it happens, it does affect both banks. The crazy part is that I can play 5 games and it works fine. I put new sleeves on both coils. As for shavings, its possible, but hard to tell. Both banks were filthy, but then again, the entire game was filthy. Someone along the way did spray some grey lube on the whole assembly, so this may have been a long time problem. Tomorrow I'm going to try to make it happen and see if I can see something. While I was cleaning and looking at the motor 2 switches, there is one heavy duty contact that my flexstone didn't touch.. I'm going to use a file as the contacts are blackened.

I went through the motor switches and everything looks good. I played around with the target banks a bit and didn't see a whole lot I don't think. A few questions about the target banks..

1. What is the proper way to adjust the reset bank coil bracket? The 4 mounting screws are slotted. By moving the coil further away, in my mind was allowing the reset arm to travel further. Thats what I did originally when the issue started. Today, I moved the bracket closer, which allows the plunger to be further into the coil when its energized.

2. Do the switches for the lights need to be touching the cam when its reset or as long as it trips the switch as the target is dropping is that good enough? Right now the lower switch arm is always in contact with the cam. The targets drop fine and I would think the reset coil would be strong enough to overcome a bit of pressure from the switch.

I had the machine apart today and tested it a whole bunch of times, tripping the targets and watching them reset. This with the playfield up, triggering the ball drain, trough switch and then random target. At the game over, I was able to trip the trough switch and actuate the drop targets and reset loop.. When I was confident it was working, I put it all back together and played 4 games without issue. The 5th game, it happened again. For 2 balls, it wouldn't reset. On the start of a new game, it still didn't reset. I played ball 1 and advancing to ball 2, it reset fine.

drop target (resized).jpg

There is a slight wear on the cam arm, but didn't feel like enough to cause a drag. I did notice that when I was adjusting the coil stroke, if I had the mount twisted slightly, it would drag. I was able to align so it moved with little effort and no friction. I did change the coil sleeve, but not the plunger. I'm going to take a look at that again. I'm also going to tighten up on the motor contact gaps a bit..

I will definitely win. I have to as I just picked up a Target Alpha as my next project and my wheels are already spinning on that one I'll go through the Jones plugs again as well. Thats one area I did an OK job on, but lost some patience while working on it.

As for adjusting the reset coil, I may have been using the bar and not the plunger. I'll play with that again tonight as well. By using the arm, I was looking for travel and friction on the arm, not thinking about the play in the linkage.

I think I've got it. I readjusted the reset coil, by quite a bit. There is a lot of slop in the linkage. Probably should change the connector piece at some point. When I actuated the arm where I had it set, it would reset if I pushed the arm, but not the plunger. I had to extend it quite a bit to get it to reset all targets. The one opposite the reset coil gave me the most trouble to get consistent. I just played 5 games and didn't hiccup. I'm not calling it done yet though. I think this game will loosen up after its played. I don't think its been played in a very long time and wasn't stored well.

I think its good.. Played probably 20 or so games and didn't skip a beat.. Thanks for everyone's help. Here is a pic of what I just brought back from the dead. Game play is great. Cosmetically, its rough.. I did throw a Thrillhouse Beehive pinball playshield protector on it and it plays nice and smooth.

jq (resized).jpg