King of Diamonds
Gottlieb, 1967When I first turn the machine on for the day there is no buzzing. After an hour you hear buzzing from the transformer (LOUD). The game will play for hours and hour with a buzzing transformer but it is annoying after awhile. A friend said to tighten the bolts that anchor down the transformer and I did that. Still buzzes. What should I try next? The cord is old and has the old style two prong. Would a total cord replacement remedy the situation?
-Dan
dan the cord should be changed just because but will not stop the buzz.
tighten the mounting bolts won't help either
"Is it melted with wax all over the bottom of the
cabinet?" IF "No". it's fine
This has worked for me a few times
Turn the machine off, unplug it from the wall and
"Whack the top of the transformer with a hammer".
this not a joke try it.
Not really a fix, but I am curious.
Measure all the transformer voltages right after you first turn it on. Then after a couple hours when it has started to get noisy, measure them again. I'm curious to see if there is a change. That could be attributed to heat and resistance. If it hums while the game is idle, I would clean any jones plugs related to lamp circuits and also clean the coin door lockout mechanism. I dont think there is anything else active while the game is idle.
Quoted from boilerman:the buzz is inside the transformer. hitting it with a hammer will de-magnetize the core
How hard? Does it have to be metal on metal? Forgive my ignorance.
i give a swift hit, plug it in and see if it stopped. if not give it a harder hit.
all transformers slight buzz but hitting it should quite it down quite a bit
i know i had more williams transformers with the buzz than gottliebs but every time the wack a transformer made them better
Quoted from Pafasa:How hard? Does it have to be metal on metal? Forgive my ignorance.
Rubber mallet should suffice AFAIK. I'd probably be afraid to hit it too hard with a hardened hammer.. 
Sharp impact jolts the atoms enough to knock their electrons out of alignment. This is why when you drop a permanent magnet on a hard surface (like say an oldschool bar-type magnet we saw in school.) that it can lose it's magnetism. Make sure you brace the underside of the cabinet or (preferably) take out the transformer and set it on something...don't want ya to bust the underside whacking that thing around..
Quoted from Frax:Rubber mallet should suffice AFAIK. I'd probably be afraid to hit it too hard with a hardened hammer.. Sharp impact jolts the atoms enough to knock their electrons out of alignment. This is why when you drop a permanent magnet on a hard surface (like say an oldschool bar-type magnet we saw in school.) that it can lose it's magnetism. Make sure you brace the underside of the cabinet or (preferably) take out the transformer and set it on something...don't want ya to bust the underside whacking that thing around..
Good thing you said that. I could have seen myself going to one of my transformers, whacking it and hearing the sound of wood splitting.....
Okay after whacking the crap out of it out of frustration about 20 times it finally stopped the loud buzzing. Now there is about 20% of the buzz left but only half the time. When the Green 10 point kicker light is on the left side it buzzes about 20-25% of the loudness that it was. The green 10 point kicker light on the right side and there is ZERO buzz. Total quietness. Should I keep whacking the transformer with a hammer?
Quoted from Frax:Rubber mallet should suffice AFAIK. I'd probably be afraid to hit it too hard with a hardened hammer.. Sharp impact jolts the atoms enough to knock their electrons out of alignment. This is why when you drop a permanent magnet on a hard surface (like say an oldschool bar-type magnet we saw in school.) that it can lose it's magnetism. Make sure you brace the underside of the cabinet or (preferably) take out the transformer and set it on something...don't want ya to bust the underside whacking that thing around..
that is the idea. the the transformer core is magnetized you want to knock the electrons off.
if you hit it hard enough to break the bottom you are hitting it far to hard. i have pulled the bottom board out to make it easy to get a good square hit, but it can be done in place
Quoted from Rat_Tomago:Okay after whacking the crap out of it out of frustration about 20 times it finally stopped the loud buzzing. Now there is about 20% of the buzz left but only half the time. When the Green 10 point kicker light is on the left side it buzzes about 20-25% of the loudness that it was. The green 10 point kicker light on the right side and there is ZERO buzz. Total quietness. Should I keep whacking the transformer with a hammer?
the transformer doesn't know whats on or not it just lowers voltage. if it is quite then it is fixed
if the buzz is louder when something is lit check that relay, it isn't the transformer anymore
Quoted from Rat_Tomago:Okay after whacking the crap out of it out of frustration about 20 times it finally stopped the loud buzzing.
LOL!!!! 
Quoted from Rat_Tomago:Should I keep whacking the transformer with a hammer?
Absolutely. Mostly for exercise or to relieve frustration. I wouldn't expect a reduction in noise though.
As far as correcting the buzz goes, if this is still an issue for you, I would suggest checking out your "A" relay. This has a flip/flop switch that is NC and in it's off position, it energizes the right kicking rubber light. In the on state, it energizes the left kicking rubber light. This seems consistent with your symptoms. To reduce buzz in a relay, you need to reduce the load on the relay armature. You might try reducing the tension in the active blades or putting a lower force return spring on the armature. Also, your coil or something may be loose in the relay, causing the buzz. Another thing is that the coil may be tired and not able to put out the force it could in the past. Usually coils are either good or bad, but sometimes they get a little heat distressed and some of the windings get shorted. If the coil looks good, it probably is though.
If all of the above fails, try waiving a dead chicken over it.....or just live with it.
Did you tighten the screws that hold the transformer "together" or only the ones that hold it down on the wood. Sometimes tightening the horizontal screws can tighten up the laminations and reduce buzz.
The Green lit/ not lit thing was obviously the Buzz you were hearing from the Alternator Relay on the underside of the playfield.
newmantjn: I will have to look into your suggestions further. This buzz only comes around after about an hour to two hours. I will most likely just wave a dead chicken over it.
CactusJack: I have yet to tighten the horizontal screws. Good idea!
Quoted from Pafasa:I have rendered many things silent by whacking the crap out of them with a hammer!
I mean.....wait......no I haven't!!!
Spilling my beer on the keyboard laughing...beautiful...
Quoted from way2wyrd:Giving Dan a hammer to whack the inside of his machine just scares me....
Especially this one... 
Thor.JPGThought I would read this thread, always interested In resolutions for thing like hum.
Bang it with a hammer 20 times, got it, LOL.
Quoted from Chrisbee:Thought I would read this thread, always interested In resolutions for thing like hum.
Bang it with a hammer 20 times, got it, LOL.
We get pretty creative here in America!
Quoted from Chrisbee:Thought I would read this thread, always interested In resolutions for thing like hum.
Bang it with a hammer 20 times, got it, LOL.
Same principle works with scratches on glass.
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/king-of-diamonds-transformer-buzzing-loudly and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.
Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.
Plano, TX
